This Business and Moment...

[ChrisD.]

Cheers all.

Nice job! Tough o'l exam, did you head to VMworld?

Thanks, no sadly not. Employees don’t really get the chance to go unless we are presenting or helping out in some way. I also had a customer this week.

 

[dowie]

Thanks! I would love to go back and see some of the place, that whole coast is amazingly beautiful. Might take the family and make it more than a day this time...

I was insanely jealous of the people who worked there full time, they'd knock off at 4:30pm and just go to the beach...

Music wise I use: www.musicbed.com which covers any music I want, but it's a paid subscription.

Tried with pure free stuff but it can still be a minefield with copyright.

Ah, that's interesting.

I'm not a content provider or anything but was curious about how it worked - one thing that always struck me as unfair/imbalanced was that with lots of copyrighted music the rights holder for the music can essentially just stick ads on the video and get 100% of the revenue - would be better to have some sort of revenue split option via youtube where they can allow content providers to use tracks etc.. after all in some cases they could be getting plenty of views etc..

How does that service work - do you have to pay for it perpetually on a monthly basis so long as you have the videos up that make use of the music? Or does it just apply to uploads... so say you stop making new content you can scrap the subscription and the already uploaded videos have been checked/approved?

 

[randomshenans]

I thought the very same @dowie! I'd be more than happy to slap a justin beiber song on my vid and share x% of all ad rev with him for it, but it doesn't exist... I was just thinking the very same thing the other day.

I pay a small monthly fee and link my channel to my profile, when I upload a vid a copyright claim normally comes in, but is then cleared by the service for me. I think it's all unknown music producers, so gets them a bit more out there too.

 

[dowie]

I pay a small monthly fee and link my channel to my profile, when I upload a vid a copyright claim normally comes in, but is then cleared by the service for me. I think it's all unknown music producers, so gets them a bit more out there too.

That is pretty cool - so I guess there aren't further checks? What I mean is say you stop using music from them in future videos or just stop making new videos do you still have to carry on paying a subscription for the service else take your existing videos down or can you leave existing content up and unsubscribe from their service?

 

[Jambo]

Just restarted a heart.

Tres bien!

Hope the person is okay.

 

[tres]

Tres bien!

Hope the person is okay.

Just found out the person is reading a newspaper, eating his dinner with no lasting effects.
Pretty good considering a semi-out of hospital arrest, and he had 25 minutes of CPR!

 

[Jambo]

Just found out the person is reading a newspaper, eating his dinner with no lasting effects.
Pretty good considering a semi-out of hospital arrest, and he had 25 minutes of CPR!

Absolutely amazing! Great work!

 

[dowie]

Just found out the person is reading a newspaper, eating his dinner with no lasting effects.
Pretty good considering a semi-out of hospital arrest, and he had 25 minutes of CPR!

Nice one!

 

[toshj]

I've just turned down a a tier one competitors trying to buy us up - happened again this time last year, they found another target this summer and have made a massive purchase.

They've just come back in for us through an intermediary asking if we'd consider talks with them. Not much in it for either of us at this stage - ws told we could get 2-3x EBIT for the business, but that's basically me giving up ownership of the business for the price of two years' worth of my time.

Very complimentary though! Ego going wild...

 

[randomshenans]

@toshj nice one! Like you said, no point for you at this moment for that sort of money, but a great little ego boost. Also shows you're being noticed and doing the right stuff, so that's great. Awesome news! Keep on pushing!

 

[toshj]

@toshj nice one! Like you said, no point for you at this moment for that sort of money, but a great little ego boost. Also shows you're being noticed and doing the right stuff, so that's great. Awesome news! Keep on pushing!

To be honest, it's all a load of rubbish at this point. We've not got much of a platform to sell, just a few good client relationships we have. The more interesting thing to come out of the discussion was that when we hit a certain EBIT, we'll then move into the realms of "invest-able" by SME PE firms, which is probably more attractive than being bought and consumed by a larger competitor.

 

[Martynt74]

Got a call from a recruiter for a job which sounded quite interesting. The company has various contracts with the MoD and it's doing financial analysis into the contracts.
Just been told they want me to go for an interview.

I wasn't particularly looking. I did get offered a job last November, which i ultimately turned down to stay where i am for more money and the promise of some extra projects which haven't really materialised.

 

[Rroff]

Kind of work related myself and a colleague got started on by a group of drunks tonight outside work - fortunately managed to get back inside again unharmed and then had to call the police as they spent a few minutes pelting the premises with rocks, mud and anything else they could get their hands on because we wouldn't come out and fight them - didn't seem to be directed at anything specific just a general and very violent outpouring of aggression. Unfortunately police busy with incidents in town (typical Saturday night) so they were long gone before police arrived.

 

[Martynt74]

Interview done. Felt it went pretty well and confident of being invited back given they specifically asked about availability for the next stage. Unless the other candidates comes in and blow me out the water!

The thing i now need to consider is what to do if i don't get the job. Do i actively look or remain where i am. I wasn't specifically looking when i was approached but it has made me consider what i want.

 

[randomshenans]

Kind of work related myself and a colleague got started on by a group of drunks tonight outside work - fortunately managed to get back inside again unharmed and then had to call the police as they spent a few minutes pelting the premises with rocks, mud and anything else they could get their hands on because we wouldn't come out and fight them - didn't seem to be directed at anything specific just a general and very violent outpouring of aggression. Unfortunately police busy with incidents in town (typical Saturday night) so they were long gone before police arrived.

That's a bit ****. Any CCTV footage?

The thing i now need to consider is what to do if i don't get the job. Do i actively look or remain where i am. I wasn't specifically looking when i was approached but it has made me consider what i want.

No harm in looking about is there? See what's on the market etc. going for interviews is a great way to find out what's going on outside of your place and great experience regardless.

 

[Martynt74]

Yeah, i got offered a job last November and then took the counter at my current place on the premise that my role would change with the addition of another member of staff.

However it's 12 months on and some things haven't materialised and whilst they're still likely to happen it could be another 6 months and ultimately i still think things will be missing that are important to me. Mainly the lack of stakeholder interaction. I'm fairly isolated in a small team and i really dislike it.

The role i interviewed for is also 5 miles away which would be ace and allow me more time at home, plus i could run to work.

 

[Rroff]

That's a bit ****. Any CCTV footage?

There is a camera that covered some of it but the angle is bad - not heard anything subsequently about the matter.

 

[Basher]

Yeah, i got offered a job last November and then took the counter at my current place on the premise that my role would change with the addition of another member of staff.

However it's 12 months on and some things haven't materialised and whilst they're still likely to happen it could be another 6 months and ultimately i still think things will be missing that are important to me. Mainly the lack of stakeholder interaction. I'm fairly isolated in a small team and i really dislike it.

The role i interviewed for is also 5 miles away which would be ace and allow me more time at home, plus i could run to work.

I'd move, mate. They clearly said some things to keep you, rather than building a proper plan to help you grow and develop. You gave them a chance, they decided not to take it seriously and you now need to focus on what's best for you.

Onwards and upwards.

 

[Martynt74]

Yeah I think that’s where I’ve settled on. There’s some interesting elements coming up with a new implementation I’m to be heavily involved in (PBCS) however ultimately the biggest factor is the lack of stakeholder interaction and the way the business operates I don’t see that changing. At least without moving into my bosses role which I’m not keen to do.

 

[Rids]

Thought I'd post an update following my ranty posts a couple of months back.

Work is still incredibly tough, not enough hours in the day to get everything done and it has pushed me close to breaking over the last couple of months, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Spoke to the group FD, my ultimate boss and really the source of the workload that has been crushing me. He agreed as a whole that they were far too reliant on me, and it was a failing on his part that they hadn't given me the support that I needed. I received permission to bring in a body to strengthen my team, I pushed for more than just another body but instead to bring in somebody with experience to rival mine so to aliviate the key man dependency we currently have. Found an amazing candidate with hands on experience in the areas wwe needed and in our particular area of the industry - you don't often find finance people with this sort of background. He was expensive, we had to offer a good chunk more than we were looking to pay for the role but it was well worth it and should really take the pressure off me.

My role is changing, I'll be moving away from BAU reporting completely from the 1st of January. Instead of my current reporting structure reporting into the Head of Finance and Corporate Finance director I'll be working solely with the Corporate Finance Director, any requests for my time will need to go through him, and I'll have the new guy working for me as support. We'll still offer oversight and advice for BAU reporting, but I won't be parachuting in to save the day every 15 minutes as I am currently. Once the new job role and objectives have been set and the change has been communicated to the rest of the team there is decent pay bump for me to match the increased responsibility.

Still 5 weeks to go, and a lot to deliver in that time so its going to be tough, and in some ways I've made myself a lot more dispensible by filling the knowledge gap that existed in the team, but with some of the things happening in the near future there will be some great experience to add to my CV and the appropriate reward.

Its been a rough 6 months, and I wouldn't want to go through it again, but I think I'm going to do alright out of it.