The VirtualStudio.TV Blog

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  Owning & Marketing a Small Business is bloody hard work!

  1st May 2012 by Rachel Willis Be the first to comment

  Owning your own business is bloody hard work, but starting a business and taking it through its first two years is REALLY bloody hard! Those who say it isn’t are liars!!!
  
  I was recently asked what my one piece of advice would be to someone starting a business and I was stumped. Not because I don’t have any, but because it’s hard to condense all of the learnings into just one piece of advice. In the end I said ‘cash flow’. To me cash flow is king, without cash you don’t have a business, you have a hobby (incidentally that’s what the forth business turned out to be!).
  
  So while I’ve been thinking about what I should blog about this month, this seems like a good way to start. This is the first in a series of blogs I intent to write which focuses on what I’ve learnt about starting and owning a business.
  
  I’m going to start with cash flow, because as I’ve said, it is King!

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  6 Ways to use video to market your business

  24th January 2012 by Sean Malone 2 comments

  During the 1960’s, pretty much the only company in Britain practicing any form of integrated marketing was the Hoover Company. Their vacuum cleaner salesmen would start their day by reciting the company’s marketing mantra: “He who wishes down the well about the goods he has to sell, will never make as many dollars, as he who stands on top and hollers!”
  
  A modern take on that 60’s classic would be: “Stop wasting time working on endless planning; get out there and make some noise.” And the easiest, most cost effective way of making some marketing noise, is to make a video.
  
  Today, video is the attractive, persuasive and affordable medium of marketing communication. Make a professional quality HD video from around £650, post it on YouTube and within seconds you can be reaching-out to an audience of millions – that’s what I call making a noise, at an incredibly low cost.

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  Could more emphasis on computers and creativity help to reduce youth unemployment in the UK?

  17th October 2011 by Amanda Binge 3 comments

  With the Euro still struggling to stay afloat and proposed financial ‘cut back’ policies coming left, right and centre from our coalition government, I am sure in one way or another we are all starting to feel the pinch and backlash of the way our economy is suffering.
  
  I’m certainly not one to pretend that I fully understand everything that happens in our political world. I will admit to the naivety that I have when it comes to looking in depth at the problems we’re currently experiencing and actually how serious a problem this may be for our future.
  
  I class myself as part of the younger generation and after reading an article in the Independent today, I would certainly class myself as one of the lucky ones.
  
  Statistics have been released recently that show that unemployment in the UK is at its highest level for 17 years. The numbers currently claiming jobseeker’s allowance has increased for the seventh month in a row to 1.6 million people. Out of that figure, 991,000 of those claiming are the younger generation (16-24 year olds) who are currently out of work.

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  Amazon Kindle Fire vs Apple ipad : Comparing Product Specifications & Features

  30th September 2011 by Amanda Binge 10 comments

  With the new and improved iPad 2 released in March of this year, as of June 2011, 28.73 million units have been sold. With these quite extraordinary facts and figures, and taking into account that Apple has sold more than any other PC related tablet products, it is difficult to imagine that any other company could compete with Apple and the iPad in the tablet market…until this week when Amazon unveiled the new Kindle Fire.
  
  After Amazon’s success with the Kindle in the e-reader market, they clearly see a potential to transfer their Kindle users to more advanced tablet products which will give them a more colourful way of reading books, listening to music and watching movies. Amazon aren’t just planning to release one new model, they intend to release four new models with one version with 3G connectivity. These include the Kindle Classic, Kindle Touch, Kindle Touch 3G and the Kindle Fire...

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  The use of Internal Communications videos set to rise in the UK

  27th June 2011 by Sean Malone Be the first to comment

  We run Leadership Communication Workshops all over the world, and last week, delegates attending our Workshop in Seattle from one of the world’s biggest IT companies told me that they are routinely producing short videos for internal communication bulletins, training programmes and marketing case studies. The scale of their video production is jaw dropping. Five years ago external production companies were producing 5 videos a year for them, today they are producing 5 videos a day for themselves!
  
  The big question is why has this growth been so explosive and is it set to continue? The answers are threefold:-

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  Why Facebook can’t be worth over $50bn when it is sold on the stock market

  9th June 2011 by Simon Malone 6 comments

  Some very optimistic blogs and news articles have recently reported that Facebook revenues could have increased to as much as $2billion a year. Even at those incredibly optimistic figures, Goldman Sachs investment values the business at more than 25 times higher than the current value of the shares.
  
  Based on those numbers, according the Forbes.Com “Top 200”, Facebook is worth more than British American Tobacco, Sony, Nissan and Tesco. All these companies have decades of growth, profits and global sales behind them, but have seemingly been overtaken in value by Facebook in less than 7 years.

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  Are mobile phones set to replace computers?

  23rd February 2011 by Simon Malone Be the first to comment

  We all know that most people have a mobile phone these days but it less clear as to how they will use these devices in the future. Will people use them as a replacement for their computers in terms of work and play? Will applications put an end to some high street outlets as people choose to do their shopping and banking via their phones? And from our company’s perspective, will organisations and individuals choose to send and receive video content via mobile phones instead of conventional outlets?
  

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  Why I love flying British Airways!

  21st February 2011 by Sean Malone 5 comments

  British Airways have been in the media spotlight a lot over the last couple of years. I have heard a lot about lost baggage, cancelled flights and possible strike action from staff members. Last week I flew with British Airways for the first time in almost 20 years and I have to say, I’ve just fallen hopelessly in love with them! The love affair started last Saturday when I arrived at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 intending to travel on a flight to Seattle for a business meeting. I checked in my bags and was issued with my boarding pass for a World Traveller Plus seat (which is basically a variant of cattle class, but with a bit more leg room).

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  The world's first 3D mobile phone makes me feel old!

  18th February 2011 by Simon Malone 7 comments

  There are certain times in your life when you begin to notice the years running away from you. A few weeks ago I stepped out of my house and found a few of the local kids playing in my garden. One of the boys asked “is it OK if we play in your garden Mr?” I think I was more shocked by the “Mr” reference than I was finding a group of 8 year old children hiding in various locations in my garden. Being called “Mr” at the age of 24 felt pretty depressing as it makes me sound a lot older than I feel and it does not seem that long ago that I was being shouted at by my parents’ neighbours for jumping in their gardens and retrieving wayward footballs!

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  Predictions for the Video Production Industry in 2011

  4th January 2011 by Sean Malone 2 comments

  The explosive growth of video will continue unabated. Every day 2 billion videos are viewed on YouTube. Every day, 4 years of new video timeline is posted to YouTube. Every day in 2011 the usage of video will grow. Take a look at the latest YouTube statistics.
  
  Video will become mainstream in Corporate Communication departments. it will no longer be seen as a luxury item. In 2011 many companies will try making their own corporate videos in-house and posting them on YouTube. I predict that they will become disillusioned with the results and look to agencies to provide high quality, low costs solutions. A new breed of corporate video will emerge – shorter, punchier and web-enabled.
  
  Client budgets will continue to shrink throughout 2011. Tough economic conditions, the popularity of on-line bidding and the growth of professional Procurement Departments will drive down budgets. 10 years ago the average budget for a 10 minute corporate video was £15,000; In 2011 I predict it will be nearer £7,500.

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