Last night we conducted an Interview with a local Entrepreneur who has started his own event production company. Here it is:
What’s the nature of your business? I provide a range of services in the events, music and video industries. Anything from full event production, equipment hire, studio music production and television/film production.
Do you have any other business? No
Do you have any business qualifications? I do not
How did you take your first step? It was a gradual progress that I guess started when I got my first job as a technician in the events industry. I immediately took to job and you have to continuously learn new skills to keep up. I had a keen interest in music and video production previously began building a stock of my own equipment and eventually began starting doing paid work for people in my spare time. I also worked my way up to being the technical manager at venue and from this learned the skills to run events as well as managing a team and a business.
Did you use a business plan? I let the business grow naturally by making contacts threw working shows and gradually getting in larger and larger projects. It’s very much who you know in this business. Reputation is important, so by in a way our business plan has been to always provide and excellent service and continue to make new contacts in the industry.
How did you market your business? We are a new and exciting company with a real passion with what we do. We stock only the best equipment and provide only the best service for customers in order to maintain a great reputation and gain new business.
How much of a risk did you take to start the business? What started as a hobby naturally grew into a business over a period of 4 years. For this reason risk was always minimal as I had a steady income threw out, continuing to work employed with other companies and building up savings until I was getting enough business to safely commit all my time and invest more money. I was fortunate to get free second hand office furniture and made use of anything free I could get my hands on.
What did you have to sacrifice? Working long hours meant I had to scarifies in my social life but that’s it really. I had to sell my car and to invest in a pair of used vans but they are small sacrifices really.
What were your main aims and goals how did these goals come about? Well our main goal it to continue growing until we can provide enough equipment for entire tours and festivals. We have a team of technicians now and we all want to be working on the biggest and best shows in the world. Ambitious, but achievable as far as we are concerned.
Were you realistic about your ambitions and goals at the start of the project-give examples? We’ll the business has grown better than expected each year. This year we got deals to run our first festivals and tours, albeit relatively small and local ones. But it is experience that we build on each year, so as long as we continue to progress as we have and keep on getting bigger and bigger shows we will continue to reach our ambitions.
Do you employ anyone? Yes, I have always employed self employed technicians to work on our events, but this year i have taken on our first 2 regular members of staff working 3 days a week in the office, as well as working on site whenever we do events.
Did you find it hard to create a team that you could trust? No. From working in the business for a few years you meet lots of technicians and get to see how they work in high pressure environments. I met all of my team doing the work I now employ them for, so I chose them knowing they were up to the task. I employ a very open management role, where I am always honest with my employees under the condition that they are honest with me.
How do you encourage and convince others to commit? I think a very open and honest working environment is key. I only want people working for me that are committed to a career in the events industry and that appreciate that working hard for my company is perhaps their best shot at getting to where they want to be.
Have you made any unpopular decisions along the way? It’s sometimes hard to keep a group of competitive individuals happy when I cannot give them all work on some events. Sometimes I have to give work to more suitable individuals over employees that have been working for me for longer because they are more suitable. This is sometimes unpopular with other employees but is accepted.
What are the main advantages and disadvantages to running your own business? I enjoy getting to make they key decisions. But the main advantages in a business like this is that I have a lot of equipment that I can use for my own use, and can lend to friends and relatives if I wish. Having a big PA system means i throw an awesome party.
Has it changed you as a person? I certainly got into it quite young which made me grow up pretty fast. It’s made me a more confident person and Im a lot happier getting to do something a enjoy for a living.
How does running the business affect your social or personal life? It certainly takes up most of my time. I don’t get to socialise as much as i used to and my circle of close friends that i don’t work with is perhaps smaller than before. But the amount of free time i have varies depending on the amount of shows I do in a week. some weeks I will have evenings and weekends free, whilst others i could be working for a week non stop at a festival or tour.
Do you have a system for time management? Just to be honest with my staff and employ a reliable and honest team. I give credit where credit is due and provide only constructive criticism. I’ll also always look to offer employees with new training for new skills to better them and the company.
Do you have any other goals or ambitions for the business? It would be nice for it to eventually grow to be large enough for me to employ someone to manage it full time and give me the option to eventually sell and retire.
Has the recession affect your business? It has but with a kind of neutral effect. There has been a small decline in events happening, whereas there has been a increase in larger events. But the recession has made people shop around for better prices instead of sticking with their regular suppliers which has worked in our favour, as we have got a lot of work from people who could no longer afford to go to stage electrics.
Since start the business what has been the highpoint? This year has seen a couple, I think our first Festival providing full event production successfully was a particular highlight.
Since starting the business what has been your low point? There was one show over a weekend where we went completely over budget so I had to convince the staff to work at a reduced pay to reduce the loss.
Would you changed any decision that you made along the way? Probably not, any mistakes I have made have been small, and its all been a learning curve, as long as you learn from your mistakes its still progress.
Here is the first complete track to be unearthed in studio quality from hot new super group Them Crooked Vultures. “New Fang” comes from the as yet untitled debut album, though if rumours are true its will be named “Deserve the Future”. The album will be released next month in the US & Canada but a release date for the UK and Europe has not yet been announced. More when I know more…
More good stuff is emerging from the Exeter music scene. Rat Attack are a young hardcore band that have grown up in the Exeter punk scene over the years in various bands. After recently signing to Lockjaw records, you can find their latest record “This Is Art” at HMV, Play.Com and Amazon.
Friend of Living Live Carl Shanahan has just directed and produced a fantastic video for their single “The Southern Lights” filmed in Exeter’s Cavern Club. The Horror theme is just in time for Halloween. Enjoy.
You know we love music video’s here at living live, and if there’s something we love even more it’s music videos that are done in one take. So we love this fan video made buy the students of Quebec University in Montreal for this one shot one take epic video for Black Eyed Pea’s track “I gotta feeling”. This is going to be massive.
