The Research Blog

Information on Starting a Company Forms of Entrepreneurship: 1. New Business Idea 2. Existing Business Idea 3. Buying a business 4. Franchisee 5. Part Time 6. Stockholder 7. Team Entrepreneurship 8. Sole trader There are many factors that influence the form of entrepreneurship, some of the key ones are: Number of founders Continuity of operations (time in business) Need for capital and its availability Attitude of investors Responsibilities and decision making Profit sharing Taxation A sole trader can be a family wedded spouse. In a partnership there are no shares and the partners own 100% of the business. When it is general or limited you own the percentage of the amount invested.  Business Idea: Your business idea needs to be able to successfully answer the following questions: What?  For whom?  How?  What products or services?  What issues are you solving?  What are the measurable benefits? Who a...

How a door to door sales “boiler room” type company is run: These types of companies are based on a foundation of the creation of value. There are a lot of people in the world who have no aspirations in life and the power of becoming a salesperson can be very inspiring to them. The sales company usually tend to focus on the development of these individuals in order to create wealth for the company and for the individual. Stage 1 Learning the basics Cycle of development: Office Routine Law of Averages 5 Steps Stop Sign Theory Impulse Factors 8 Steps Impulse Curve Rehash 3 R’s 3 F’s Office Pride Retraining new sales people: Repetition is a key component to become a great salesman. For this reason retraining is a key ingredient for success. Retraining is the backbone of the business and helps develop people, this is fundamental in order to achieve growth, stability and opportunity. Step 1: Morning: The morning rituals are the mo...

Leadership, what does it take to be a true leader: Impeccable winning attitude: JUICE: Join Us In Creating Enthusiasm. Always talk positives, this rubs off. If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem. Willingness to understand that sacrifice is part of success. Time and work ethics, responsibility and focus. The need for persistence to push through tough times. I don’t care what you did yesterday, what are you going to do today? I don’t care what you did today, what are you going to do tomorrow? Love what you do. And if not learn to love it. Enjoying what you are doing, to the point where you want to be here and can’t wait to get here. Success is the journey that gets you there. You can’t have your cake and eat it too, you have to learn to pay the price. Put your pride aside. Become a problem solver. Focus on finding solutions to problems. Know how to honestly overcome negatives in everything you do and how to adapt to the situations. Learn how to de...

How to create a successful crowdfunding campaign: The number one thing to keep in mind is that the success of your campaign is based on prep. A lot of campaigns are unsuccessful and the number one reason is that they were not prepared. Campaigns are composed by a series of elements that are pretty much indispensable. Primary elements: Video, the video is the most important element to your crowdfunding campaign, This is where the audience will get to know you and your project. It is important to connect with the audience and in order to do this, you should tell a story. The first 30 seconds of the video are the most important, if you are unable to hook somebody within these first 30 seconds of the video you will have probably lost them. The most efficient way to structure the video is: Hook: First 30 seconds Story: From 30 seconds to about 2:30 Passion: This is where you express why you want to achieve the project. 2:30 to 3:30 Ask: Then you would ask for p...

AUDIOVISUAL FINLAND from the Powow Animation Conference Series: As of 2017 the Finnish Government is legislating to insert an audiovisual incentive fund that will offer a 25% cash rebate to audiovisual productions. This is not a tax incentive but a cash rebate. The system will be an open application submission process with no deadlines. The idea is for Tekes to administer. In order to qualify there must be a distribution deal in place. The projects will run through a cultural test to prove its worthiness. With this, the rebate excludes: Commercials, Soap Operas and reality shows. In order to qualify an EU Language must be used in the content. There are also minimum expenditures in Finland in order to qualify. For Feature films the minimum is €150K, for Documentaries €50K and for Fiction or Animation Series €250K. The eligible costs will most likely be local services, salaries and goods, however the list is still in the making. There is also a minimum budget for the project, so i...

GIGGLEBUG CASE STUDY From the Animation Powow Conference Series: Gigglebug is a positive IP brand for kids, its core concept is that laughter is contagious. It started out as an ipad and then expanded into a 360° brand having anywhere from music albums, books, apps and a TV show. The key to building intellectual brands like these is to always develop the core idea first, make sure it is solid and scalable, then expand. In the case of gigglebug they had spent around €200K up to the launch of the app and the pilot season on TV for Yle composed of 10 Episodes of 5 Minutes. With regards to software, they use TV Paint for the animation and then export as image sequences for the app and as adobe after effects files for composing for the TV show.

TV BIBLE: A bible is the blueprint for a TV series. It is important to distinguish between a proper paper format bible, a writer’s guide bible and a sale bible: Paper format bible consists of all elements needed to create the TV series, including production timelines, set decorations, budgets, etc. You can advance it as much as possible, the key is that the most advance it is the easier it will be for the crew to successfully create the show. Paper format bibles are confidential and to be used internally. Paper formats are an asset and could be sold as is to a production company to develop. The writer’s guide bible only includes elements relevant to the screenwriters. So basically character bios, theme, storylines, synopsis, etc. The sale bible is a reduced version of the paper format bible which you use to sell the TV show. It is kind of like the pitch deck of the show. It should have enough to give a feel for what the show will be like but not too much. The bibles ar...

THEATRICAL DISTRIBUTION IN HONG KONG The standard minimum guarantee ranges in Hong Kong are: For independent films: $5.000 to $20.000 For films with a-list actors: $20.000 to $50.000 Deals with the film theaters are usually structured like this: Week 1: Distributor 45% - Theater 55%, except for special shows which are day shows which will range between 40% to 45% for the distributor. Week 2: Distributor 40% - Theater 60% Week 3: Distributor 35% - Theater 65% Week 4: Distributor 30% - Theater 70% Independent films will get stuck in the 2 to 3 shows per day which means the P&A expenditure has to be higher and the chances of making money are less. Studios get deals that range to the 6, 7 or 8 daily shows and get 50% to 60% of the ticket sales. An average independent film that does well will pull in about $750.000 in the box office.