Thursday, March 22, 2012

Another Quick Update

Hello readers.  I apologize for not posting in awhile, but I've been extremely busy!  I promise I'll make it up to you in the next few days though.  I thougt I'd take a second here and bring you all up to speed and give you a little preview of what to expect!

First thing's first, the Luke Robbins DVD and CD are available on Amazon.com now!  I've posted links to each one so you can see for yourself!

DVD:  http://www.amazon.com/Luke-Robbins-Real-Wear-Vests/dp/B007EDWG3K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332423078&sr=8-1

CD: http://www.amazon.com/Luke-Robbins-Real-Wear-Vests/dp/B007EE4CMM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1332423078&sr=8-2

Also, we've finished up the first video for IndyFeral Inc.  Enjoy it below!


Now, last but not least, I've already come up with some blog topics for you to look forward to, but the next one slated is going to be The Hunger Games vs Battle Royale.  I know that Hunger Games will be the next HUGE sensation in the U.S., but I hardly think it will be nearly as good as they say.  I feel like they have a really good opportunity to tell a great story, but based on what I've read up on it they ruin the whole thing.  I'm talking about the books as well as the movies too so I don't want to hear any of this "read the book it's better crap".  Now to be fair, I will obtain a copy of Hunger Games and read that sucker, I'm also finishing up re-reading Battle Royale so everything will be fresh in my mind. 

Now!  A list of topics you have to look forward to:

Hunger Games vs Battle Royale
Rurouni Kenshin:  The Movie!?
The Big Bang Theory and the Evolution of Television
Apple vs PC: The Paradox
The Butterfly Effect: Chaos Theory for Your Everyday Life
Brokeback Mountain:  A Tale of Sin (But Not The One You Think).
The Wonder Years Problem:  Copyright Law vs The Consumer
AMD vs  Intel:  The Never-Ending Battle
To Upgrade or Buy New?
There's Only One "One Tree Hill"

There will be more added of course and the order will vary, but these are some of the topics you have to look forward to.  As always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

5 DO'S and DON'TS When Dealing With a Small Business

It's very likely that at some point in your life (whether you knew it or not) you've worked with a small business.  On the surface, we may not seem all that different from the big guys.  We may have employees, most of us take credit cards and we may have a big facility.  The similarities end there.  Most people have no idea just how hard it is to keep a business up and running.  A small business owner generally puts in about 80 hours a week and wears many different hats.  Here are just a couple of pieces of advice when dealing with a small business.

DO:  Deal with a small business over a large corporation.
While it is true that some small business are more expensive than their corporate giant counterparts, the fact is that most of the time small business are less expensive.  Really we have to be to stay alive.  It doesn't make sense for us to have less advertising power, a small territory and higher prices.  Even if the initial price is higher, often you'll find that the long term investment will save you money in the long run.  For exampe, I recently had to purchase a new DVD writer for my computer.  I did comparison pricing at both Best Buy and a little computer store.  The little computer store was a little more expensive, so I bought from Best Buy.  Turns out, the DVD writer from the big guy was missing a very important power cable.  I checked with the little guys and they told me that not only did they include the power cable (for free) but they offered a serpate warranty in addition to the manufacturer's.  So basically I could've have spent $5 more and ended up with a single trip, an extended (2 more years!) warranty and helped out my local economy.  I go to the small guys now.  Not to mention, I had to do all the work myself at Best Buy.  I told the clerk what I needed from my writer and I may as well have been speaking Greek to the guy. 

DON'T:  Try To Haggle With Us!
Believe me when I say that we price our products/services the way we do for a reason.  We're not trying to screw you over.  We're trying to cover our cost, overhead and make a little profit.  If you don't like the price, check somewhere else.  Most of the time you'll be coming right back.  We do everything we can to be competitive and if a small business isn't competitive, they will close.  Rest assured, we understand competition brings life to the economy and business.  One more thing.  Stop asking us to wipe the sales tax for you.  Taxes are one of the most expensive parts of running a business.  Sales tax is only one of the many taxes we have to pay, so help us out and pay it like you're supposed to.  If you have a problem with sales tax, talk to your Congressman, don't bother use by being cheap.

DO:  Tell Your Friends and Family.
That's right, we want you to tell everyone you know.  Heck, tell people you don't know all about us.  This includes the good, the bad and the ugly.  A good business owner understands that word of mouth is the most important and effective method of advertising out there, and we rely on it.  If a small business has done you wrong, tell people about it!  If they're smart they'll remedy the situation and make sure you leave happy and satisfied.  If they don't then they shouldn't be in business.  The consumer is the driving force in our economy.  If someone is doing bad business, then they should close.  Simple as that.  If someone is doing good business, then the whole world should know.  Take time to recommend a good business.

DON'T:  Act Like You're Our Only Customer.
We understand you want your stuff now.  The problem is, so does everyone else.  As a small business we have to keep all of our customers happy.  This means that we try to take care of everyone as quickly and efficiently as possible.  Please, make it easier on everyone and wait your turn like your mother taught you.  Nothing is more annoying than a customer acting like a child because THEY WANT IT NOW!!!  Belive me, it says a whole lot more about you than it does about us.  Sometimes things go wrong.  Every small business is well acquainted with Murphey's Law.  You have a right to be upset and/or frustrated, but please treat us with respect.  We never want to purposefully make you wait.  If you're polite and respectful about your complaint, we will usually find a way to make it up to you.  If for some reason we don't make it up to you, see the previous DO.

DO: Ask Us What Form of Payment WE Prefer.
This is one of the more important facts that the public is generally unaware of when it comes to dealing with a small business.  There was a time when everyone preferred cash, but sometimes it's not the case anymore.  Some businesses prefer to have a paper trail rather than save on card fees.  Some businesses refuse to take personal checks anymore and if they do it still makes them nervous.  One thing is for certain, if you're paying with a debit card, ask us if we prefer to run it as debit or credit.  We know you want your points, but let's be honest.  This little transaction won't get you that many and it will cost us quite a bit of money.  Card processing rates are usually much lower to run a debit card than a credit card.  Mine for example is 6% on a credit card and about 60 cents for a debit.  So if I run a $100 transaction as credit, it costs me $6.00.  If I ran the same transaction as a debit, it costs me $0.60.  See the difference?  Run your credit card to get your points at the big, corporate guys who can afford it (and often get a lower fee from the card processsing companies!)

DON'T: Come in Just To Talk To Us Or Our Employees.
Humans are social animals, but there's a time and place.  Think about it, you can't generally just go into a big store and cut up with their employees for two hours, so why would you do it with ours?  Productivity is so important to a small business owner because if the employees don't get around to it, guess who gets to do it after hours?  If you have a question for us, we're more than willing to help you out.  Heck, a little chit-chat never hurt anyone either.  However, there's a differnence between small-talk while being productive and coming into the shop and telling us everyone you've done from 1968 onward.  Time is money, so please respect that.

DO: Ask Us Questions About What We Do.
A good small business owner doesn't start a business for their health.  We do it because we are passionate and we feel like we can better serve our community as leaders rather than as an employee.  We love what we do and we love to talk about it.  That being said, ask us ANY questions you have.  We also love having happy and informed customers.  Asking questions before you buy a product or service doesn't make you look stupid.  Actually it does the opposite.  We know that you, like us, work hard for your money and we want you to be happy with your purchase.

DON'T:  Call Us Honey, Son, Boy, Gal, You Get The Idea...
This particularly applies to younger business owners.  If a person is in their 20's and starting a business it means they've accomplished something that a vast majority of the public (any age) will never do.  We are living the American dream and we don't need condescending comments like this.  We don't ask for special treatment, but do recognize that we do deserve respect.  These names aren't all that offensive to the average person, but kids don't start profitable businesses and it's unprofessional at best.  So show us the same respect we show you.  We have names, and if you don't know them Sir or Miss will suffice.

DO:  Participate In Social Media With Us.
There has been a great and rapid change in the way businesses advertise.  Wesites have become the norm, but sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and so many other social media sites are becoming cornerstones of online marketing.  Small businesses love them because the initial services are free, the advertising is cheap and we reach a potentially infinite number of potential customers.  Simply Liking a Page or writing a review, or even saying something positive on a social media site is a very powerful action that takes you mere seconds.  So please take a break from posting funny cat pictures and help out a small business that's done right by you. 

DON'T:  Assume That We're In It For The Money.
Don't get be wrong.  Everyone works for money, but if all we wanted was money we'd just go get a J-O-B.  Most small business owners had a J-Word and it's become so taboo for them they just created their own.  We start businesses because we love what we do and we want to be THE person to do it.  Small businesses have to fight to survive when they first open and rarely become profitable within the first 5 years.  We put in 80+ hours a week starting out because we can't afford to pay other people to help us.  Start-up costs are staggering for even the smallest business.  Believe me, we would love to run our business for free because we love it so much.  There are just these little problems called food, shelter, taxes, transportation, overhead, cost, materials, labor, supplies, insurance and all sorts of troublesome things we have to pay for.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Quick Update

Hello everyone!  I thought I'd just post a quick update and bring everyone up to speed.  First off, the Luke Robbins web teaser is finally done!  You can watch it here, but please direct your friends to our You Tube channel as we can get more ad revenue that way.

We're finally pending iTunes approval and just playing the waiting game.  Amazon sales will be coming soon, but now we still have Ebay and the Vision Video online store. 

Speaking of Vision Video, our website will be up and fucntioning within the next few months.  Check back often because we'll be adding a lot of cool services for everyone over the next year (even some free ones!)

Probably the largest update is we have the first script finalized for our web series.  We have our head writer and most of the casting done.  We have the first 6 episodes planned out and we're getting the scripts started.  I have to say, the show's going to be better than I thought.  We have so many creative and talented people involved, it's gonna be great.

Lastly, I got another piece of good news the other day.  They've finally set a release date for Green Lantern: The Animated Series along with the return of everyone's favorite DC Universe animated shows.  I'll be updating later so be sure to check back!

Sunday, January 29, 2012

The Apple, Fall From Grace and The Return to Paradise

Oh Apple, what a double edged sword you are. On the one hand, you provide a stellar product that is unmatched by anything else on the market. On the other hand, your tech support, customer service and compatibility leave much to be desired.

Months ago, I moved into a new apartment. After a few days we finally got around to getting AT&T to our new place to get our Uverse back online. The tech was very quick and efficient, and after getting all of our Ethernet ports back online, he tested all the computers to make sure they connected to the Internet. Everything checked out fine and he went on his way. I immediately jumped on the Mac to get some work done, except that the website wouldn't load.

As it turns out, my homepage had been cached, so it loaded with no connection. However, when I typed in a new URL, there was no connection so I got the disheartening error. Here's where the trouble really started. On a Windows machine, there are about 100 different ways to solve various connection problems. Macs are a little more tricky. First I figured my ethernet port was fried, but I wasn't sure how to disable it on a Mac, so I decided to go wireless. Finding a wireless adapter that that was Mac compatible proved difficult. The first one I bought said it was compatible with apple OSX, but the package proved otherwise. Luckily the second one I bought was actually a universal that worked on both PC and Apple. The software was installed, but the thing still wouldn't connect.

I turned to the aid of the Internet. As it turns out, Apple's support forum was useless. All they ever said was how to fix Airport. I wasn't using Airport so that wasn't helpful at all. I tird everything. I tried creating a new location, renewing the DHCP lease, using a static IP, I even tried converting to an IPv6 connection. Nothing worked at all. WhenI had almost given up, I found a random blog article that fixed my entire problem.

Apparently, when AT&T renewed our connection, they renewed our router information. Nothing actually changed, but the Mac saw it as a new connection. The answer was so simple, I almost couldn't believe it. It turns out that Apple computers tend to be a little less adaptive than a PC. When they changed the router information, the Mac's information was outdated. For some reason when the new connection showed up, the Mac retained its old information. All I had to do was to boot into safe mode and delete the Internet connection file. Once the computer ebooted it created a new one with the current connection information.

So now I have my Mac back online just in time for school to start. Hopefully I won't have anymore problems. If you're having problems connecting your Mac to the Internet, feel free to comment and I'll try to help out. Lord knows there isn't enough information out there to help the average user.

Monday, December 26, 2011

New Year's Resolutions

As we are all enjoying the holidays with our family and friends, the prospects of the new year loom over us all. No matter what, I think we all have resolutions for the new year. Some of us are better than others about doing them, but we all have goals and ambitions. Vision Video wishes everyone luck in all their endevours. As for the company, we have some goals of our own for 2012.

1. Get our new web series up and running. We will announce when the series will premiere and keep you updated throughout production. We already have the first script going with more on the way.

2. Get our name into major retailers. The wheels are already turning on this one but we want it to happen in 2012.

3. Get an informative website in addition to the online store up and running. This is priority number 1 right now.

4. Get the office updated. New equipment, furniture, the works. This will probably take the whole year, but we'll get it done.

5. Add at least one "visionary" to steady payroll. I decided after starting to read Dave Ramsey's "EntreLeadership" that I don't really like employees either. Subway has their newish artists and we will have our visionaries.

6. We want to get three more projects out on DVD by December 2012. So if you have anything to distribute please contact us! Music, movies, series, whatever!

Well that's all I could come up with for today. Wish us luck and we'll keep updating. Thanks for reading!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

The CD is Out!

Well ladies and gentlemen, sorry to keep you waiting but one of the big announcements has finally come to pass.  The Luke Robbins: Real Men Wear Vests CD is now available on www.visionvideollc.com!

Monday, December 12, 2011

In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm super excited about the upcoming Green Lantern animated series. They recently aired an hour-long sneak peek of the series and I must say, I was impressed.

At first I was hesitant because it's going to be completely done in CGI. To make matters worse it's being done by the same animators who did the Star Wars Clone Wars series. Now, while the animation was great, the character design left a lot to be desired in my opinion. Also, I'm a huge fan of DC's 2-D animation department. Even since 1992 when Batman The Animated Series came out they've been pioneering animation. Some of their other great series were Batman Beyond, Justice League, Superman The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited (my personal favorite). Their feature length animation films have been even better. Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths has some of the best animation I've had the pleasure of viewing. Warner Premiere (their feature length animation studio) also came out with two stellar Green Lantern movies, First Flight and Emerald Knights. First Flight in particular is very, very good. I honestly believe that if they had gone with the storyline from First Flight instead of the Parralax angle in the live action movie with Ryan Renolds, it would have been met with better reviews and box office revenues. But to my point. Why, if they hav had such succes with 2-D animation in the past, would they choose the more expensive and risky route of computer animation? Well, the answer lies in the backdrop. The new Green Lantern series will be taking place primarily in space and on alien worlds (a top cmomplaint of the live action movie). By using CG they can actually re-use the same designs and tweak them a little bit instead of fresh drawings every single time.

Anyway, my doubts were unfounded. The series was excellent and it goes ahead and makes the primary antagonists the Red Lanterns which makes the story interesting, engaging and takes away the need for an origin story! Case and point, If you're a fan of Green Lantern, animation, or both you will enjoy this series immensely. Even if you're a fan of sci-fi shows you'll probably enjoy this incarnation of the Green Lantern saga.