The Production Company - Looking Further Down The Line

Since things started taking off with Spinward Fringe last year, I've been falling back on my business education and experience to start formulating a long term plan. A large part of what I make still goes to survival and saving so I have something for emergencies, but it won't be long before I will have a little extra to branch out.

It comes down to what a mentor of mine said years ago; "For every minute you spend planning for the worst, make sure you spend one on planning for success." His main point was that, if you plan ahead for when you get ahead, you can turn that momentary advantage into a longer lasting, more significant gain. The mentor I'm speaking about didn't refer to money much, he was far more opportunity oriented, and that made him all the more helpful.

Right now I'm hellbent on getting Broadcast 7 done as fast as I can, then editing it as well as possible and finally handing it over for proof reading. I want it all done before spring, which is coming faster than I'd like. After that, there's a lot more writing to do - which is what I love doing - but that doesn't mean I can't spend a few hours a week building skills, doing legal ground work, and laying the foundations for a small production company. I need an excuse to get out of the house, after all.

This production company would be a ground up operation. One of the starting factors - believe it or not - is the store, which will be up and running in February. Unless I personally run into massive financial difficulty, all the proceeds from the store will go towards the production company. The store will also double as a prop purchaser and storage house. The first gains in the store will go towards legal costs, which are low, but unavoidable.

While that's happening, I have a lot to learn about the fields I'm looking to tap into. The store is easy, I've trained retail people before, owned three businesses (two of which were successful enough to close in the black), and managed a retail computer store / technician centre. The Spinward Fringe store is the easiest part.

When I say the production company will give me a reason to get out of the house I'm not kidding. This summer I plan on engaging in a little guerilla film making and other inexpensive, no-budget hobby work in my spare time so I can pick up a few extra skills and see if I have an eye for that kind of thing. It'll probably be a lot of Ed Wood meets Blair Witch if I'm lucky. I won't have much time to do this stuff, mostly weekends, because I write during the week.

There is a road map for the production company that leads from February 1, 2011 all the way to February 1, 2015. As the stepping stones are laid down, and I can talk about my part time secondary passion more, I'll reveal more about the production company. That includes the name, which hasn't been nailed down just yet.

RL

[The camera in the picture is more of a pipe-dream at this point, but we'll see...]