something down the investing route for me but more in the world of startups/angel investing etc.

I love the idea of finding people with a great idea but no money to get it off the ground and giving them a shot. It’s how I got my business started and it would be nice to do the same for some other people.

I’d definitely still work as I love my business but I can think of a few clients to whom the phone would never be answered again!!!!

Thanks for the 3g tip Danny79.

Half my staff have no service and the other half are claiming not to to have a quiet couple of days!!

I shall now instruct them all to turn 3G off and then route my most tiresome customers to those I suspect have been bluffing.

that sucks, I’ll keep an eye out round Saltaire.

Just thought it worth a mention, that several riders I know round this area have mentioned being followed by a scooter/MX bike as they’ve ridden home. Last time it happened to me, I reported it to the police and they’ve said that they’ll look into it but just keep your eyes peeled people. He followed me all they way down into our car park area and only left when he saw me take the bike into the apartments.

We have one guy at work who repeatedly uses “there’s a duck in the hedge” to mean that something isn’t quite right. Fortunately, I’m the boss so I can tell him what to do with the duck. I’m not even sure I know what the problem with a duck in a hedge is so as to result in the phrase meaning something is wrong

kaesae: I trust you understand that you have a responsibility to turn up with the longest tandem you can find if they only move it out the length of a standard bike, or at very least, a bike with a trailer.

done and all of my staff have been told that they should sign it too

Born in Fife, Brought up in Edinburgh. Went to Salford for uni, insisting that I’d move back to edinburgh as soon as I’d finished uni. Met the now Mrs at uni. She had been born and brought up in the algarve and was not up for moving further North.

Moved to Bradford for a job and then out to Oxenhope because Bradford Sucks. Now living the compromise in Saltaire as Oxenhope was a bit rubbish (although pretty) for my wife who can’t drive.

Hey, first off, let me explain my background as it may explain some of my comments….

I own and run a live event and video production company. I am in no way a graphic designer and cannot give masses of feedback on the website but please don’t underestimate the importance of content within a good design.

Find out what you are good at and showcase it. Your website suggests that you aren’t really serious about any particular area, you just fancy making some money. Whilst there is nothing wrong with that as a motivation, people like a specialist.

I’ve watched the 2 videos on your site and my thoughts are that you’ve clearly put a lot more time into the MTB vid. It comes across as though the gym advert was thrown together. This may not be the case but first impression is everything. Again, don’t be afraid to specialise. If what you want to do is produce sports videos, go for that.

Think about your site from the customers point of view. If the customer is a business client, what do they want to see? I suspect, they want to know that you have experience, they want to see professionalism and they want to know that you are capable of representing their product well. Their presumption (correctly or incorrectly) is that the way you represent your own product is the pinnacle of your work.
If the customer is a private client, they want something that instills a sense of trust, they want to see an idea of the cost and they want to see an example of what you will provide. With regards to the cost element, theres nothing wrong with offerring a custom option but if that is all you offer, I have no idea whether you’re a 200 quid per video spare time cameraman or a 10 grand a day film producer. I’m more likely to look at the custom option from someone who is clearly in the ballpark of my budget.

I could go on about the business side but you did ask about the site so I’ll leave it at these points in summary:

1- Anyone can shoot video these days, People pay for expertise, speciality and peace of mind. Work out how to achieve and communicate these.

2- Anyone can build a website these days. Pay someone to build you a marketing tool. There is no point in spending a large amount of your time trying to build something if its not where your strength and passion lie. Marketing (including websites) done correctly is an investment which will produce a return

3- Separate the photography and video sides of the business. Again, there is massive benefit in perceived speciality. If i’m hiring someone to do a job for me either for business or privately, I want an expert. So do most people.

4- Look into copyright law. I suspect if the record label for the music you have used on the gym advert knew it was being used to promote a product and generate income, you’d be getting a bill. Regardless of anything else, if you want to appeal to businesses and organisations, you need to show that you have an in depth knowledge of the industry you’re working in. Copyright law is a major element of what you need to know if you are producing videos.

Hope this all helps somehow. If you want to talk more about the business side of what you are doing, feel free to email me

OK, looks like its just me being tight!!!!

Pook – unfortunately, the cost of visiting clients is seen as a cost we as a business have to absorb for the sake of getting a fat cheque off the client at a later date. Also, the first part of the trip (the bit at earls court) is for an expo rather than a client meet (although we have got several meetings lined up)

Looks like I need to just MTFU and pay some London prices.

Sorry, yes some more details would help!!!!!!!

I’ll be driving 2 of us down from Leeds. Return train fares are just a bit ridiculous especially if we want to get there at a sensible time. Also we have to call in at a client’s rehearsal space on the way back up so train wont really work.

they’re asking 26.50 for the day. Maybe its just my Scottish blood thats making me think its a rip off

well, it turns out the decision has kind of been made. I woke up this morning to an email from a production company saying that they’d heard we had some and could they take them off our hands for X pounds (about 80% of original outlay). Figure I’d be stupid not to.

Sorry to all those who were after one but obviously, its better for me to shift the whole batch than the odd one or two here and there.

Thanks for all the input and who knows, maybe theres some ideas in this for someone else.

andyl – they are worth more than that but at the same time, we hire out cameras worth 10’s of thousands currently and have only had one problem. We do however have insurance which would cover such an instance and a good enough network of contacts that if someone did decide to nick one, they’d struggle to hire anything camera related in the UK again.

We have had an instance of “oops, it went missing” from a client but they returned it a week later when they found that every other hire company they tried to hire from had their details on file. Not a foolproof method but we have found in the past that if the deposit is too high, no-one hires.

Good to hear meehaja. What do you reckon to the pricing?

Current thought is £50 per week plus £100 deposit. This would work on the basis of camera with case 32GB card (could be purchased or returned dependant on client needs), LCD BacPac, Battery BacPac and cables etc.

theflatboy – Not sure as yet. Reality is we’d probably look to shift them as a batch to another production company, but if we go down the sales route, I’ll see what we could work out

idave- Up in the Bradford/Leeds area

Woody – I reckon we’d probably be looking at £50/week plus £100 deposit. Too much?

Project – not quite!!!! We were on tour with a band at the end of last year and they were hidden all over stage/the venue/ attached to the end of guitars etc. Aim is to provide it all as extras on an upcoming DVD/Video download

theres one just off the coast of Italy that I’m sure she could have. Its a bit of a fixer-upper but probably cheaper than a new one even with the work. Only issue is that it seems the captain may be unavailable for a period of time.

Mac or PC based?

If mac based, MPEG streamclip is good

If wikipedia is to be believed, My birthday was the day that Relax by Frankie goes to hollywood hit number 1!!

the blackout buzz: That moment when the show caller gives the go and I blackout the venue, the crowd goes mental and we hit the first cue.

Makes me feel incredibly privileged as its not something everyone gets to do and the feeling of creating that level of anticipation in a crowded venue is pretty special. Then we get to the de-rig and the truck pack and the feeling of special fast disappears!

I was originally going to buy the ring first but chickened out of picking one. When we went shopping for the ring together, she (knowing the budget) picked an antique one that was about a tenth of what I was going to spend. She absolutely loves the ring and we got a great honeymoon out of the saving.

Glad I waited and got her to choose it as it turns out, my choice would have been a bad one.

pour a bottle of red wine into a slow cooker and add the venison. Go to work and come home to the most amazing meat ever.

Rules for the wine are simple: If you wouldn’t drink it, don’t cook with it

I sold the car and went bike only earlier this year and TBH I don’t miss it. Like you mentioned, the car was only used when feeling lazy or for longer trips. I now hire a car for some of the longer trips or use the train and commute by bike.

net result is approx £160 better off each month, a further 2 stone lost in weight and I now find sitting in a car in traffic the most annoying thing ever.

My wife, the comic book geek that she is recommends Planetary by Warren Ellis

If you’re in the world of 1 computer for work and home, Set up 2 logins. I found that until I did this, It was too easy to be checking work emails all the time or ‘just finishing this piece of work’.

Reality for me was that it was less a problem of my home life getting in the way of doing work, and more the other way round. Its all about boundary’s between work and home

Stay away from O2 in my experience. We were with them for a year (mobile phone customer for 8 years too) and we constantly had problems with them. My experience was that they were sweetness and light whilst they tried to sell you the package but then the customer service went out the window as soon as you’d signed up.

Broadband kept dropping out, Direct debits kept being taken on random dates. Final straw was when we moved house and, having given them 3 weeks notice, they proceeded to tell us that it would take 1 month to get the broadband up and running at the new place. After 2 days off work with no shows from the engineer, he eventually came out, said he didn’t have the right things with him to do it and we’d need another appointment, when we called to make this appointment we were told that it would be a further 35 days until someone was available.

We phoned BT who set us up within 1 week of the call and it hasn’t dropped out since (10 months so far)

Not that I’m bitter about it or anything

Schmiken – According to the box, SPD-SL.

Pardon my complete ignorance, but whats the difference?

EDIT- I have applied the use of google, it would appear that SPD-SL’s are stiffer because of the 3 bolt system (correct?)

I’m thinking a sunday afternoon of general tinkering and faffing looks likely. Thanks for the suggestions, I’ll give them all a try. Nice to know its a ‘try it until you find something that works’ situation.

Now….. How to convince the wife that a good use of our wedding anniversary is me faffing with the bike???

Thanks for all the responses.

I’ll try moving the cleat. Thing is, for the first 45 mins, they feel really comfy so I don’t want to move it too much.

Is there a guide to setting them up properly somewhere online? I’ve kind of made it up so far

shoes are shimano RO77. I kind of figured that if it was the shoe itself I’d be getting the issue with both but I guess I might be wrong, its happenned before!

5 in this morning and there will be another 5 home tonight

IMO If you can’t have a good website, don’t have one. If you can have a good website its a useful tool. When someone hands me a business card, I’m going to want to do a bit of research before I agree to a meeting in which they are going to try and sell me something.

Once your new venture is in any way established, a potential client googleing you (other search engines are available apparently)will find info on your business. It might as well be info you have put there for them to find and it needs to explain your company both in what’s said and in the quality/attention to detail etc.

A company with a crap website will not get a meeting to pitch their goods/services, a company with no website might.

In 2001 I was part of a TV crew that shot a documentary on freemasonary. My initial thoughts on it were that the rituals and the secrecy were just there to make the members feel important.

After 4 weeks filming, during the editing process, we suddenly get solicitors letters from the lodge we were dealing with (who had been very cooperative throughout), withdrawing all consent on the footage being broadcast and threatening legal action if we showed anyone any of the footage. The original agreement was that they would have a private viewing once the edit was complete and that they would have opportunity to raise any concerns at that point.

Either – They are a bunch of blanks who are so far up their own blanks that they thought behaving like blanks would make them look important. If this is the case then they can add wasting tens of thousands of pounds worth of a production companies money to their charitable activities.

or – They genuinely have something to hide.

Bottom line is, if its just an enjoyment of the exclusivity then why hide behind rumours and cryptic responses to questions. Most people who enjoy doing something exclusive or niche enjoy telling you all about it.

All probably incorrect or not researched enough but that’s my experience.

p.s. I re-watched that footage so many times during the few weeks after the letter trying to work out what they were trying to hide.

email sent bol

29er looks interesting. Presumably the gearing is still very MTB. Does the extra 3 inches make a massive difference to cruising speed? (just re-read that but can’t be bothered changing it!!!)

I have been thinking about 2nd hand and have no issues with it except for the fact my height means I need a country gate of a frame and there seem to be very few out there. currently riding a 21 inch frame and I’m pretty much maxing out my seat tube. ANyone know anywhere good to find 2nd hand cyclocross???

Kitchen – Me
Bathrooms – Her
Hoovering – Me
Food shop – Her (although online so not exactly a chore)
cooking – whoever’s home first
Dishes – whoever didn’t cook (this works out better for me as Mrs uses virtually nothing and I use virtually everything)
Rubbish and recycling – Me
Bill paying – Her

Pretty even split really

The guy in the office next to me who feels that even though he can see that I’m in a meeting will wander in to my office, without even a courtesy knock at the door, under the guise of asking what I’m doing for lunch just because he doesn’t want to feel left out of what we’re discussing.

The same bloke will volunteer to take on projects and then spend the duration of the project and several weeks after it finishes complaining about the fact he had to do it.

I could go on but basically the bloke in the office next to mine annoys me

The lazy duck at Nethy Bridge still ranks top of my list.
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Born in Fife, brought up in Edinburgh and now living in Saltaire

I met [/url]Frank a while back. Possibly the most entertaining drunk story in a while