Kids entertainers are very popular and you want to make sure that you pick the correct one, after all your son / daughter’s birthday is only once a year and you don’t want it to be a disaster. Here are ten of my top tips to guide you through the process.1. Who are they?Many entertainers work for large organisations and they all go under the same name such as “Magic Sam the Magic Man” for example. When you locate someone who you think is suitable, see that you will be getting that person and that you haven’t landed on a company based website.2. Is their show suitable for your child’s age?Just because someone advertises as a children’s entertainer doesn’t mean that they cater for children of all ages. Make sure that the little ones will not miss out on the fun because the entertainer only caters for the older children.3. What exactly do they do?It may look like a flashy website and they call themselves a children’s entertainer but you need to know what you are getting for your money. Is it just a magic show or will they be doing the games too. All this should be clearly shown on their website, usually where they tell you the prices of various packages that they offer. If it doesn’t clearly explain on the website then go elsewhere.4. Do they give suitable prizes?If they provide prizes what are they?. You don’t want and shouldn’t expect cheap plastic rubbish that will fall apart as soon as the child gets home. If unsure just ask, you want to know what you are going to get for your money.5. How long do they stay?.If they advertise a 2 hour show for example, does this include the setting up time and what do they do when the children are having their tea? A good entertainer will arrive early, set up and be ready to begin. This time, and the packing away time, will not be included in their 2 hour show. Also, a good children’s entertainer will keep the kids entertained whilst they are having their party food.6. Are they CRB checked?It is essential that you make sure that your children’s entertainer is CRB checked, if not keep well away!.7. Are they insured?All entertainers should have public liability insurance in case anything unexpected happens. Again, if they are not keep well away. Why take the risk?8. Are they experienced?.Find out how long have they been in the business as you want an entertainer who is experienced in entertaining children.9. How will I know you will turn up?A good entertainer will always phone you a couple of days before the show to make sure that everything is still fine. This will help you to know that they haven’t forgotten about you.10. Ask!!!Never be afraid to ask the entertainer about any concerns or questions you may have. It’s your money and you want to make sure that the person you are booking is the right one for your youngster.
Small Business Loans – Easier Source for Financing a Project
As business person, you are always looking for business opportunities and many of them require you to spend smaller money. For instance there is a book store for sale around your vicinity and you want to buy it. It requires small financial help as you would be investing rest of the money from own pocket. So, small business loans come handy and are meant to serve such a business situation.Small business loans sound as if they are provided very easily but that is not the case always. If the borrower has offered a property like home, equipment or any valuable property as collateral, small business loans are easier to avail as risks for the lender are reduced. The loan amount approved usually is up to a certain percentage of value of collateral. But that is not all. More than collateral, lender would see if you have sufficient experience in the business or not. Lenders see risks in a new business. This means that lenders would like to look into the type of business. Repaying capacity of the borrower also is of prime concern to the lenders in approving small business loans. Lenders like to invest their money as small business loan preferably in a business that is earning enough or has potential to earn, so that the borrower returns back the loan in regular manner. for very smaller loan, unsecured business loan can be availed at higher interest rate. Unsecured smaller business loan is usually offered to the business people having excellent credit history and is offered without collateral.Before you approach a small business loan provider, make sure that you have relevant documents ready. But prior to showing the documents you must be ready with a sound business plan that is capable of projecting the purpose of the loan or where shall it be invested. Lenders would like to have a deep look into your repaying capacity through different documents. Take cash flow projections of your business for concrete financial data. The lender would like to have a list of your personal assets and debts and in case of established business, business tax returns may be required for showing about financial health of the business.Also note that many financial institutions especially banks require you as small business loan applicant to invest a percentage of total monetary requirement of a project from own pocket. So be prepared to make a down payment for the business when asking for a small business loan.If a business person has bad credit, it is advisable that he should first make efforts to improve credit score. For instance he can pay off some easy debts for enhancing credit score. This way it would be easier for lender to consider bad credit borrower for small business loan.There are many small business loan providers on internet. Compare there interest rates and terms-conditions for a better loan deal. Preferably apply to an online lender as he can process the loan faster.No doubt small business loans are most useful for smaller financial needs. Make sure that you pay off small business loan installments regularly so that you escape any debt trap. Your credit scored also gets improved with clearing of each installment.
Video Marketing For Lawyers – 9 Things You Must Ask Your Video Producer
Here are the 9 most important things you need to ask any video production company:
1. How long will my video shoot be?
2. How many actual video clips will I get for that length of video shoot?
3. How long will each video clip be?
4. Will you upload my video clip(s) to my website and blog?
5. Do you upload my videos to the video sharing sites?
6. Do you blog about my videos?
7. Do you put my videos on your own website and blog about the newest video you created?
8. Do you use your social networks to tell the world about my new video?
9. How much will you charge me to create another series of video clips?
If the video company you’re choosing doesn’t do all of those things with an all-in-one, turn-key system, ask them “Why Not?”
AM I TOO EXPENSIVE?
You’ve decided to produce videos to market your law practice. You’re now looking for a video production company. Here are 3 reasons why you won’t hire me:
1. I’m too expensive
2. I’m an attorney with years of experience creating and producing educational videos
3. You don’t want the commitment of creating video over 6 or 12 months
There. I’ve said it. These are the main reasons why you will not hire me. Now, I’m going to address each one and by the end of this article, you decide who you need to hire.
Most video production companies charge anywhere from $500-$35,000 to create attorney video. At the low end of the spectrum, you can get the cookie-cutter video where they use a fixed template that you cannot change and get only one video clip for your money. At the other end of the spectrum, you get a custom video channel with 3 or 4 video clips.
In the Lawyers’ Video Studio I shoot one hour of video. From that one hour I am able to get about 4-5 usable video clips lasting 2-3 minutes each! I do not recommend having video clips less than one minute; that’s a waste of your time and money. That will not give you enough time to explain to your viewers the information that they need to know.
Most video studios only offer an a-la-carte menu, where you pick and choose your options. That’s not the way we work in the Lawyers’ Video Studio. Contrary to most video production studios, we create a turn-key system where all you have to do is show up and start talking. You do not need to know anything about how the video is created, edited, compressed, uploaded or distributed. It’s totally done for you.
WHO IS YOUR VIDEO PRODUCER?
Ask any of the video companies you are considering whether their video producers are practicing trial lawyers. Why is that important? It’s only important if you want someone to create video that online viewers want to watch. If you just want to create a video to ‘get your name out there’ and give the world a verbal resume of who you are, then you don’t need a producer who is also an attorney. That would be a waste of your time and money. There are plenty of good video producers out there who can create that type of video for you.
A video producer must have experience creating LAWYER video. Not wedding video. Not commercials. Not verbal resumes that do not help a viewer understand how you can solve THEIR legal problem. They may have won awards for work they did in TV or film, but you must ask any video producer these 3 IMPORTANT questions:
1. Do you know what a [fill in your specialty] lawyer (immigration, workers comp, DUI, personal injury, business transactions, etc.) does?
2. Do you know who my ideal client is?
3. Do you know what an online viewer looks for when searching for a lawyer in my specialty?
A producer who is a practicing attorney will know the answers to these questions. Other producers will likely not know the answers.
YOU DON’T WANT TO CREATE 24 to 60 VIDEO CLIPS THAT WILL GET VIEWERS TO CALL YOU
Ok, I understand. You’d rather stick with your very expensive (and useless) yellow pages ad that does not distinguish you from any other lawyer. Maybe you want to try some display ads in the newspaper again. Maybe you’ll try TV commercials or direct mail. Maybe even dabble in radio spots. That’s fine. One year from now I’d like you to come back to this article and objectively look at your stats to see how many calls you received from your other advertising; how many turned into actual clients; how much revenue you generated from that advertising and what your actual return on investment is.
One year from now, you will have lost the opportunity to create 6 months worth of videos. You might even have lost the opportunity to create 12 months of videos. Just think about how many viewers come to YouTube alone: Over 100 million people EACH MONTH! The goal of creating video is to greatly improve the likelihood that an online viewer will call you instead of your competitor. Anything you do to increase those chances will place you ahead and distinguish you from all of your colleagues.
By creating new video every month for six months, you create 4-5 video clips PER MONTH. That gives you 24 to 30 actual videos that will be online. For attorneys who realize how incredible that value is and the tremendous savings you receive, they will eagerly take advantage of the 12 month video incentive program and create 48 to 60 videos by the end of one year. That’s a huge number of videos.
Creating video is the best thing to have happened to me in my law practice. I receive calls from people across the country every day thanking me for educating them and asking me for legal help. Obviously not all callers have valid cases, but just think…if they hadn’t seen my videos, they would have never called.
So, are you willing to create useful video that will get viewers to raise their hands for more information and seek your counsel, or do you want to wait and let every other attorney get the opportunities you’re passing up? The choice, as always, is up to you. My goal is to make you an informed attorney and let you make an educated decision about which path you want to travel.