Christmas... DONE! (nearly)

It's Monday morning - two days of work left before my Christmas break begins. I'm feeling smug because I've hit my sales target 10 days early, so can take a couple of weeks off for Christmas without feeling guilty! (Although this has only been achieved by working 12-hour days for most of this month!).

This also means my turnover has been exactly the same as last year - not bad for a year strongly hit by a recession!

Last week I finished work on my new DVD title - "Club Candy TV" - at long last! I'm still waiting on stock to arrive from the duplicators, but the initial response I've had has been fantastic. I've already got ideas for a second volume, so I hope it sells well!

Over Christmas I'm planning on writing a couple of articles for my blog/website. The first will be a guide to marketing for Nightclubs and Bars. The second will be a guide to setting up a small business for individuals - I thought it would be nice to 'give something back' and share some of what I've learned during my 10 years of self-employment!

Anyway, better get some work done - still a few loose ends to tie up before Christmas.

I have no idea how many (if any!) people read my blog, but best wishes for Christmas and the New Year to any of you out there!

Phil

Introducing Club Candy TV!

I've nearly finished work on my latest product, Club Candy TV.

I've put together a website with some video samples, and plan to release it at the beginning of December.

For full info, check out the website here: http://www.clubcandytv.com

It's been two (very intensive!) months in production which has put a bit of a strain on my resources, so apologies to all my clients for my being a bit slower than usual, and thank you for being so patient!

Teaser video...

Here's a short teaser video for my latest DVD product which is due to be released sometime in November. Watch this space for more info!

Busy busy busy!

September and October have been incredibly busy for me which is great from a business point of view, but pretty stressful on a personal level! I've got 18 jobs queued up at the moment, and the work just keeps coming in!

Last Wednesday I had a 'no phone or email' day, which was a great help in getting through the backlog of work. It's amazing how much time you lose to admin and communication as a one-man business.

I also added a page to my club & bar website giving information on turnaround times. I've always prided myself on fast turnaround, but that's only possible when the work is coming in at t the same rate as it's being completed. Something which I mentioned on the page was the old design mantra which states "You can have any TWO of the following: Quality, Speed, Low Cost - but not all three" - this is so true!

I think the high volume of work is a combination of the usual seasonal peak as we head towards christmas along with a lot of clubs/bars upping their marketing spend as the recession eases off.

Anyway, better get back to it!

My First Shoot... a success!

Well the big shoot took place this week - I spent Monday setting up the studio, and Tuesday was a solid day of filming.

The studio was perfect for the job, and being just down the road from me, it was very convenient!

The big day went very smoothly with all of the dancers doing a great job, providing some fantastic footage.

There are a few things that I would do differently if I did it again, but it wasn't bad for a first effort!

I've spent this evening keying the footage which has been surprisingly easy, despite being filmed on an AVCHD camera. I'm glad I did my homework on getting the lighting right!

Here's a short bit of video I've put together - this is a very rough composition of some of the footage so isn't representative of what the finished DVD will be like!

"It gets earlier every year!"

You know you're getting older when you start saying "Christmas gets earlier every year..."!

I'm working on my first Christmas-related job of the year today. The funny thing is, my bar & club clients always get their christmas marketing going nice and early, but the majority of them don't seem to think about other events until a week before which is nowhere near enough time to promote an event!

I'm currently writing an article for my website giving some basic advice on marketing. It's very apparent to me that many clubs and bars don't have an understanding of some of the basic principles of marketing and advertising, which are essential in the current economic climate.

Whilst I wouldn't claim to be an expert, I've been working in the industry for 10 years, and promoted a successful club night for 6 years, as well as animating adverts and branding for clubs and bars for 5 years, so I think I'm well positioned to give advice from both an outsider and insider's perspective!

Watch this space...

Lights... camera... action!

I've been neglecting my blog a bit recently, so thought I ought to make another entry!

The last month has been very busy work-wise, plus I had a family wedding which I was heavily involved in so spare time has been a bit sparse this month.

I'm currently preparing for a day of filming for a new product I'm working on.

It involves some dancers, and I had an overwhelming response from an advert that I put on a pro dancers website. I've now selected all of the talent for it - Simon Cowell eat your heart out! I'm really chuffed with the people I've selected - they're going to look great on camera.

I've also found a great little studio just down the road from me which is perfect for the job.

Now I've just got to plan the shoot and bring everything together on the day. I'll post a 'behind the scenes' video on here once it's been done.

There's lots of 'firsts' for me on this project, so it's quite daunting, but I'm really excited about it - I have a feeling this is going to be my most successful product to date!

Anyway... back to it - watch this space for more info!