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What I Learned In 30 Years Of Concert Production

Monday, October 19th, 2009

Until recently, my chosen career was in concert and special event production. I spent more than 30 years doing sound, lighting, staging and event management. It was a great run-I got to see the country and make dozens of great friends. I saw more than my share of great shows along the way.

So, what did I learn that I consider really valuable today? I can coil cables, level stages, mix sound for live TV and focus lights from the top of a 20 foot ladder. Those were all hard-won skills that served me well, but they don’t have a lot of value today.

The most valuable skill, by far, was being able to make decisions. As a producer of large events and concerts, every day was a string rapid-fire decisions, all focused on the starting time of the show. There was never a chance to kick around a lot of options or “sleep on it”. There just wasn’t enough time.

Fortunately, these were not decisions of the life-or-death variety, and if I was able to get two out of every three right, I was usually a hero. There was never the option of putting off the decision until later. The show would be today whether I made a decision or not. Choosing “not to decide” was the same as “choosing to fail“.

I reality, the more decisions I made in a day the more likely I was to get really good results. Making a couple of decisions before my first cup of coffee always gave me new options that got me closer to an on time show. That was the goal.

Actually providing good entertainment was the job of the performers and their hands on technicians. My job was to make enough correct decisions to insure that they got to do their job.

Making lots of decisions can be risky, even painful. Rarely will it do the sort of damage that is almost guaranteed by making no decision at all.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. I enjoy sharing good business ideas with our readers and customers. Let me know what you think.

Posted in gaffers tape, good business ideas, tape | No Comments »

What Big Companies Tell Us About Small Ones

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

Public companies, whether they like it or not, are required by law to reveal a lot more about their finances and operations than they probably want to. They are owned by their stockholders and regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

An article in Pro Sound News about Harman International caught my eye over lunch. It was about Harman’s finances and it was as dry as toast. I read every word.

Why? Because Harman’s customers are my customers. This company that did almost $3 billion in sales last year sells some of the most desirable brands in pro audio. If you use equipment from makers like JBL, Souncraft, Crown, dbx or lots of other well known brands, you are a Harman customer.

Harman reported a decrease in pro audio sales of 26% in their last quarter. If your sound business is not strong enough right now to buy a new JBL line array, then you are probably not doing enough shows to need a lot of gaffers tape. If a new AKG wireless mic is not on your shopping list, then you probably aren’t going to be ordering ProCell batteries for it. No dbx processing gear means no Hosa patch cables.

Two years ago the stock price for a share of Harman International was $100.00. Yesterday, it closed at $37.00. That’s up almost 10% since the first of this month and a near doubling of the price since October of last year.

How goes Harman, so goes the pro sound industry. We wish them well.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. Click here to sign up for our newsletter. Here’s a link to our new “How To” animation series.

Posted in Pro Sound, audio visual, batteries, gaffers tape, good business ideas | No Comments »

Blowin’ In The Wind

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

It’s outdoor show season, and that means that drought stricken areas all over the country are planning elaborate and expensive outdoor events so they can make it rain.

It’s all but guaranteed that 30 minutes before the event is over, but well after dark, the bottom will drop out of the sky, promising a load out in the rain and a truck full of wet gear.

While the standard hardware store blue tarp is the industry standard for quick cover ups in the rain, they can really cause you some problems when the rain is accompanied by a stiff breeze.

A simple modification in a cheap tarp can make it many times more useful when the raindrops start falling.

Turn the tarp into a plastic bag.

Just take your tarps, fold them in half, and stitch up the edges. If you’re not handy with a sewing machine, gaffers tape or even a stapler will work almost as well.

Larger tarps can be turned into bags that will cover up your entire PA stacks, and you can make smaller bags for covering up things like monitors.

Since the tarps can be easily cut and normally do not unravel, you can take one large tarp and turn it into a lot of custom covers for things like your consoles and amp racks. No hemming necessary.

Since the tarps have grommets, you will have some tie down points, but you probably won’t even need them. Since wind can’t get inside the bag, the harder the wind blows, the firmer the bag stays in place.

Make sure you label each bag with a large label (try using a Sharpie marker directly on the bag) in letters large enough to be seen in the dark.

At the first mention of rough weather, place each bag close to the location where it will be needed and instruct stagehands or volunteers how they are used.

This might well be the best piece of sound equipment you ever buy.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands. Sometimes we have some interesting ideas about web development too! Click here to sign up for our newsletter. Lots more good ideas at our Twitter feed.

Posted in Pro Sound, audio visual, duct tape, gaffers tape, tape, tie-line | No Comments »

What’s Google Up To Now?

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

Have you heard of Google knol? I hadn’t either until yesterday.

Knol is an acronym created by Google, and it means “a unit of knowledge“.

Knol is a new content creation index from Google that has a lot of similarities to Wikipedia. Individuals are allowed to post articles on any subject of their choosing and then the articles can be commented on and edited by other users of the service. Unlike Wikipedia, knol will allow the creation and viewing of multiple articles on the same subject and the author can control how his or her work is edited.

I first came across it through an online posting by Jason Calacanis, a highly regarded web guru. Mr. Calacanis went to great lengths to draw interesting and accurate between KNOL and traditional content creators like the New York Times. These parallels led Calacanis to determine (and I agree) that this project was Google’s latest attempt (not unlike YouTube) to get into the content creation business.

It should be obvious that a business that has become the defacto provider of indexed search results faces potential conflict of interest problems if it is the creator and controller of the content it returns with its search results.

Since we are currently indexed at the top of page one for a number of Google search terms, I have created a couple of KNOL articles on microphone stands and gaffers tape to see how quickly Google might index them and how high they might rise in search rankings.

You can take a look at these articles here:

microphone stands

gaffers tape

If you’re interested in whether this test turns up any interesting results, check back here from time to time.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment ONe extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands. Sometimes we have some interesting ideas about web development too! Click here to sign up for our newsletter.

Posted in gaffers tape, good business ideas, microphones & mic stands, web development | No Comments »

These Guys Are “First” Among Our Favorite Customers

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

We got a nice gaffers tape order this morning from the First robotics competition and we are excited about working with this customer.

The first several times we got online orders from “usfirst“, frankly we thought they were coming from a bank or other financial institution. I’m glad I took the time to look a little closer.

First sponsors a national program for for middle and high school students who design and build robots and then compete against other teams.

It turns out that they use gaffers tape to lay out the “arena” where the robots compete. The lanes and end zones are marked with different colors of cloth tape.

You can see an example in this video.

First was founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen, a well known inventor and entrepreneur probably best known for inventing the Segway.

To date, First has awarded almost $10 million in scholarships. This year they will work with over 196,000 students making up 1680 teams.

This year the national First championship will be at the Georgia dome in Atlanta April 16-18. I hope they will take us along.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment ONe extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands. We are proud to be a supporter of our local schools here in Chatham County, NC.

Posted in customer service, gaffers tape | No Comments »

Google Says “Find Your Niche”!

Monday, January 5th, 2009

There are probably as many theories about how to optimize a web site for search engines as there are web developers who do search engine optimization. Some developers do a really good job of making a web site more “search engine friendly”, but there are thousands of scams clogging up e-mail inboxes which promise to move your site up in the rankings, but which actually do nothing but take your money.

We’ve had pretty good success with gaining Google Page 1 rankings for key words like gaffers tape, mic stands and extension cords. There is nothing better than gaining high search engine rankings for building your web business.

Most recently, we’ve jumped to page 1 for the search term “hoop tape“(tapes used for decorating hula hoops). This on the strength of one of the smallest and least useful sites we have ever published, www.hooptape.com.

Hooptape.com is a total of two small pages which link back to buytape.com. It took about 15 minutes to build and post this site and there is almost nothing there. Why do Google and Yahoo (#1 on on Yahoo today!) rank this site so highly.

While I’m no expert on search engine optimization, I believe that the success of this site’s results in search engines is primarily based on having found a niche. There simply is not that much real competition for the search phrase “hoop tape“, yet this is term most likely to be used by someone who needs tape to decorate a hula hoop.

We’ve had comparable results with the term “Route Setting Tape“, the tape used for setting routes on climbing walls. Route setting tape is simply another name for one inch gaffers tape. Using a name more specific to our customers needs gives us a real advantage when search engines index our sites.

Need better search results for your web site? Find a niche and Google will find you!

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Enterainment 1 extension cords , OnStage Stand mic stands and quality speaker cables. Count on us when you need specialty tape items and sound advice.

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Don’t Like Going To The Dentist? Just Chew On Duct Tape!

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

A recent article in Science News reveals an amazing tape fact. The simple act of unwinding a roll of tape generates X-Rays. Not just a few random rays-enough to actually expose a piece of dental x-ray film!

Scientists at UCLA were able to build a simple tape unrolling machine that generated enough X-ray bursts to actually image one of the technicians’ finger bones on an dental photographic plate.

This phenomenon is not completely understood nor is apparent that there is any commercial application for such technology. A charge is generated when the tape is peeled off the roll. Sudden jerking of the tape seems to cause electrons in the tape to give off energy in the form of protons. A slight glow is even generated.

Next time your flashlight batteries go dead, maybe you just need to unwind (really quickly) a roll of duct tape.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Enterainment 1 extension cords , OnStage Stand mic stands and quality speaker cables. You can occasionally also count on us for some fairly useless, if interesting, information!

Posted in duct tape, gaffers tape, tape | No Comments »

Is There A Place For Us In The Green Theatre Initiative?

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

I recently came across an interesting article in Stage Directions magazine and it leads to a discussion that we need to be a part of.

The article, by Mike Lawler, features Gideon Banner of the Green Theatre Initiative . It is one that anybody involved in using or selling expendables to the theatre industry needs to pay attention to.

To date, the green theatre movement has primarily focused on infrastructure and on conservation. Its great that new theatre facilities building is taking into consideration concepts like solar lighting, water conversation, and environmentally sustainable construction techniques. Unfortunately, it takes generations for these sorts of changes to work their way through the system. Theatre buildings last for decades, and quite often they are not able to easily be upgraded in an environmentally responsible way, even if funding is available.

More immediate results can be realized from simple conservation techniques. Upgrading lighting fixtures to LED technology, using more efficient sound system components and addressing wasteful uses of energy and water are something that every theatre facility can address every day.

My concern, honestly, is how this green movement will impact our own business. It is regrettable that the nature of expendables means that a lot of what we sell will end up in the landfill at the end of the show. You can’t reuse tape, and rechargeable battery technology has not reached the point where sound techs are willing to trust them in wireless microphones.

We are always on the lookout for reusable solutions for cable management and we are working with Sanyo on their Eneloop rechargeable battery line in hopes of offering this product to our customers who buy batteries for wireless mics.

We are anxious to be part of the dialog and I welcome your comments.

Posted in Pro Sound, Pro lighting, batteries, gaffers tape, good business ideas, tape | No Comments »

Finally, A Little Good News

Friday, June 6th, 2008

It is something of a stretch for me to go from selling audio visual supplies to watching the commodity markets. Unfortunately, volatility in the base components of everything we sell means that this vital information just can’t be ignored.

Between the price of the petroleum derivatives in tape adhesives and the cost of trucking these very heavy products, the cost of oil impacts the cost of every kind of tape we sell. There has been some short term moderation in the price of a barrel of oil, so we are hoping that our suppliers can hold the line a little longer. It is hard to connect the price of filling up your car with what you pay for a roll of gaffers tape, but the connection is real.

After peaking at $4.00 a pound in April, the price of copper is down about 10%, closing at just over $3.60 earlier in the week. As our cable business expands, the cost of the most important, and heaviest component, in an extension cord or speaker cable has forced suppliers to raise prices several times this year. Maybe those increases are over for a little while. Hopefully, this decrease in will help battery makers hold the line as well

Unfortunately, it seems like what one market gives back, another takes away. Dow Chemical’s announcement that it will raise chemical prices by up to 20%, effective this month, is going to impact much of we sell. Tape adhesive resins, battery components and cable jackets all have chemical components, and even if Dow isn’t the supplier, most other major suppliers are sure to follow.

We are grateful to our loyal customers and will do all we can to work with major suppliers to address pricing pressure.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords , OnStage Stand mic stands and quality speaker cables.

Posted in batteries, duct tape, extension cords, gaffers tape, good business ideas, tape | No Comments »

Now That’s Some Cool Tape

Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

After being in the tape business for twenty years, it’s not every day that learn something new. When a customer shares a new tip with us, I enjoy passing it along to you.

We’ve been working with the US Volleyball Assoc. over the last year to help develop some new floor marking products. Volleyball matches are often played on basketball gym floors and this means that a temporary playing court must be laid out over the existing basketball lines. Its a lot of work!

Gym floors require a tape that won’t damage the floor finish when its removed and we have been supplying Shurtape 724 to a number of college programs for their floor.

Laying out a playing surface on a synthetic floor requires a different product. Vinyl tape works better and this is where a really clever technique comes in.

Our friends at USA Volleyball put their vinyl tape in the refrigerator. They learned that when the tape is cold it doesn’t stretch, meaning that the lines are straighter and the tape is less likely to contract and pull up from the floor. It’s a great idea and it really works.

Need some tape to put temporary markings on the floor? Check in the refrigerator!

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