Funding Opportunities

At the moment we think about starting a company and we need an extra financial help to finally open its doors to the public, we need to start looking for the right organization that can help us. Today, I want to share with you valuable information about two entities that can help on this.

The first one is the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA).  This department takes care of the economic development.  For the past 50 years, they have been developing different programs for job creation. They give grants for people interested in open their own business or that already have one. The application for this funding opportunity is located at grants.gov. If you are interested in this you can apply now because they are going to work with you since you apply until the day of the final decision.

Also, EDA has webinars and blogs about entrepreneurship. They give you the opportunity to stay connected with them. They are always giving information about grants and funding on social media, blogs, news and press releases that you can find in their website.

The second one is National Community Investment Fund (NCIF). This nonprofit investment fund invests on the banking industry to facilitate business opportunities. NCIF wants to change the financial situation of different communities and small businesses. They offer the opportunity to people who want to invest in this program to increase the help fund.

In their website, you can find different information about how they have been dividing funds between banks. They also have a huge database of the different U.S. banks that make part of this organization and are receiving funds to help small business. They have leader conferences to see other ways to increase access to financial opportunities.

As you can see, these two organizations develop different programs to help increase job opportunities by the creation of new businesses. If you were lost and didn’t know how to start looking for financial help, here are two opportunities. However, they are not the only institutions that can help you with this. You need to know that they always want to see if you are innovating and creating new jobs.

Being an Entrepreneur

There are lots of people that are example of successful entrepreneur.  In this opportunity, I want to share my thoughts about 2 of them. They are Carlos Slim and Carl Schramm.

Carlos Slim, born in Mexico City, Mexico, is the forth-richest man in the world. He owns stock in more than 200 companies. His wealth comes mainly from Telmex that is the biggest telecommunication company in Mexico. He said once “If you’re in business, you need to understand the environment. You need to have a vision of the future, and you need to know the past.” This has to be the principal of any business plan.

Before we start dealing with our own business, we need to analyze everything about it first. We need to research what have been happening in the area we are planning to have a new beginning. If we know the past, we can plan a realistic future. Being an employee is different than being an entrepreneur. Employees are not the final decision makers. They are managing another’s person asset. As an entrepreneur every decision I make is going to affect me directly.

Carl Schramm is the former president of the Kauffman Foundation. He is a clear example of leadership in the industry. He knows well what it takes to be an entrepreneur and how to get there. He mentioned on a Wall Street Journal Interview.

“I think we were in full tide of entrepreneurial capitalism and now there's an introspection, where the vocabulary is all about regulation and the importance of the government to restart the economy," he says. While Mr. Schramm believes that the government has a role to play, he argues, "Historically through the last seven recessions it's been entrepreneurs who essentially restarted the economy.”

(Schaefer, 2009)

The future of any country is not is the hands of the government. It is in the hands of the entrepreneurs who end up changing the financial situation of the country. We have a huge power in our hands if we know how to use it. We need to be able to visualize the future that our company is going to bring to the world and our life.

Digital Landscape "Music Industry"

Once I heard Kanye West saying that the Internet destroyed the music industry. As time passed by, this comment became reality. Artists who want to make money in the industry need to go on tour and sale lots of merchandise to get something. Some of them start doing public appearances, TV shows, or designing clothing lines because they need to make money one way or the other.

New artists use to dream about getting a record deal. If they got this, they would need to focus only on writing and composing new music. The record label would take care of marketing, live performance, album sales, retail, and merchandise. Everything was supposed to be taking care off. Digital distribution has changed this dream. Any artist without a record deal can survive in the industry. They can distribute all their music digitally and promote themselves thru social media.

Digital landscape is changing all the music industry, and this one needs to adapt to this new vision of the present and future. CDs are going to be gone soon, and what is next? Digital distribution is the new way. Fans want to interact more with their idols. They want to have all information in their hands any moment they want to see an update. They need apps, on demand streaming, and social media. They want to be connected, and have the ability to interact with them all the time. This is only possible with the new digital era.

There are different trends that we see the digital world is located right now.

• Mobile Apps: Fans want to have all the available info in their hands 24/7.
• Digital Streaming: Companies like iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, and Yahoo are taking over this industry.
•       Social media: Facebook and Twitter are the kings of interaction between billions of parties.
• Platforms: Websites and live streaming are the base of information.
• Ads: Major sales are happening here as you can see in the image below.

We need to see where we are located in all of these changes. Are we all about digital? Or are we still living in the old music industry ways?

Self-Publishing

There are lots of creative people around the world. They demonstrate their talent when they are inspired and reveal their creations. What are they good at is the ideal of a better future. Too many of this people consider that noting is better than start opening their way into the media industry. How they do that? They start self-publishing their creative media.

There are lots of agents that are taking care of different areas or genres. The problem is that most of them don’t want to take new clients. They already have their list fit, or they don’t want to take the risk with another project. Who will believe more on the client’s project than the client? No one. This is the reason they prefer to self-publishing.

It’s necessary to consider different aggregators to start developing this process.  There are lots of Print-On-Demand (POD) sites. First, what they want the client to do in exchange of their services? If they want you to give the rights of your creative media, are you willing to do that? Are you going to allow them to be the only company responsible for your media?

There are different things you need to consider before making a decision on what to do. One of the biggest things is trust. There are well-know companies and other companies. The client need to make sure in which hands his/her work is going to be in. You just need to keep your eyes wide open because your work is your future.

Some of the publishers make the client sign an agreement to hold the publisher harmless in case of any infringement or violation of the creative media. This is very important because the publisher can actually infringe in the material before it’s published. They won’t be responsible for anything because the client gave them the green light under an agreement previously signed.

Just remember, your eyes must be wide open.

Industry Liabilities

There are many different problems that surround the media industry. We really need to be careful at the moment we want to start our own company or use material that already exist. I’m going to share with you my thoughts about 3 different lawsuits.

The first one is Sony vs. Susan Dukow and Yvonne Yaconelli. These two ladies were seeking reinstitution for the harm caused by having their social security numbers, medical, and financial records breached. They were production managers on different films. One of them is “Spider-man.” This happened when the movie “The Interview” was coming out. Sony was hacked because of the content of the movie, and one of the main characters North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un. When a company starts getting involved with complicated topics, they are risking the company and employees. This problem affected former employees as well.

The second case is The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences vs. GoDaddy Inc. They are suing GoDaddy for allowing users to create domains with the Oscars trademark and running adds on their websites. When we trademark something, it’s because we want to be know by it and to be the only ones using it. Most of the people do this to obtain more visits in their sites and promote their stuff. None body has the right to use trademark from others. GoDaddy as a huge company shouldn’t allow the Oscars trademark as a domain of anybody. Not only the Oscars but also anything that is already registered to avoid situations like this one.

The third case in this post is about music. Dr. Luke is getting sued because he used copyright material on Jessie J song “Price Tag.” The breakbeat of the 1975 composition “Zimba Ku” that have been used in several songs was part of this Jessie J song. It seems that the music industry is changing because of this. In some cases, breakbeats are similar and that doesn’t mean someone is infringing on copyright material. We really need to put ourselves in the other person shoes to understand each part of the claim. This is a very complicated situation.

Deal-Making

I want to share an inside of the producer audio engineer Casey Lampke. He is the CEO and founder of the company L8 Productions. This recording studio provides beats, mix tapes, movie scores, and television licensing. They manage to have different deals for any original music you may need.

Casey Lampke is from Williamsville, New York. When he was 13 years old, he started to get into music. Therefore, when he graduated from high school, he decided music was what he wanted to do for living. At that moment he started to get involved with the media industry, and he has been on it for more than ten years.

Now a day, he is a producer audio engineer, and singer songwriter. He already recorded 2 rap albums. You can check them out on iTunes, Amazon or Spotify. This kind of relationship with the media industry requires some negotiation techniques. He is sharing with us some of them, so we can be prepare for our deal making opportunities.

Casey is always looking for the mutual benefit in a negotiation. He considers it is important to have the other party happy for a long lasting relationship. He wants to see his beats, scores, and music being used in different projects. This is why he is interested in a mutual agreement.

All deals he makes are based on the industry standard and his experience in the media. Objective criteria are sometimes the base of his position in different negotiation. Depending on who the other party is and what is he/she bringing to the table. Sometimes, this helps to deal with negative emotions.

He thinks that his or his company’s interest is what defines his position on any negotiation. He always analyzes different options that can help him get better results on a negotiation. Sometimes it’s difficult to get what he wants, but if there is a benefit on that deal. He is ready for it.

Hope you have learned some tips from this producer audio engineer. We always have something new to learn, and today is one of those days. You can follow Casey on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, and YouTube.

Original Film

Realism is one of the faces of motion picture. The budget to produce a movie can make a huge difference in its content.

One of the producer’s businesses is motion picture. Everything is around the producer. He/she is responsible to recruit the team, organize all the documentation, look for the budget, check schedules, and rights. Each film has a different process than the other. The audience is the number one on this process. Everything is worked around them.

It’s important that the relationship producer-actor is established from the very beginning in companion with agents and agencies. This will make the film more personal for the talent. In that way he/she can add to the character.

Neal H. Moritz is a film producer who has work with Sony, Universal, and Columbia. He has produce more than 70 films with worldwide revenue of more than seven billion dollars. He is known for his work on the franchise of “Fast and Furious” from 1 until the upcoming 8 on 2017. Neil is the third generation dedicated to the film industry after his father and grand father who were in the media as well.

This producer knows what it takes to take an idea from a piece of paper and place it in motion picture as a moneymaker. He has been in the media industry for more than 20 years. “I Am Legend” (2007) was a total success in the box office as well as “Furious 7” (2015). Those 2 movies are on the list of Neal producer’s business. Actually, he is working on the pre-production of “23 Jump Street” and “Furious 8” in addition to other motion picture projects.

There are different kinds of producer, but this one in particular can generate numbers. Also, the passion and dedication he has for what he does makes him been able to handle a lot of projects at the same time. This is taking him to the next level.  I can see this is a no stopping business.