scales, robert scales

Over the past few days, I've been focusing primarily on finance and business development, I attended most of the panels, but I have to say, I find the business and finance one much more interesting.

I guess that's why I am the managing director and take care of the operation and business planning needs. That said, although RCS is incorporated, we follow a democratic collaborative management model.

Anyway, to get back to the post, the great thing about conferences is the ability to get feedback on our work from our peers, new contacts and friends.
To date, we’ve received some amazing comments from speakers and attendees on our work and business development process.

Raincity Studios is doing well indeed, we did a great job at growing our studio, and did this in less than 21 months. Since I (and the rest of the team) believe in running RCS as an open business model by carrying conversations with our clients, readers, partners, and friends. I felt a reflection on what was accomplished during that past year was in order.

Opening our books

September 1st will mark the end of our first fiscal year. We should also take into consideration that the majority of the team was completing a year long New Media Program at BCIT, we didn’t go into full production until the end of April 2005.

From the period of September to December 2004 - Q1, RCS made under $5,000, in Q2 running from January to March, our revenues increased to just over $11,000. We ended Q3 April to June with just under $24,000. Q4 has been amazing, during the past 3 months we contracted over $77,000 meaning that we will finish our first year with an income of $72,100 plus $43,900 in accounts receivable, payable within 90-120 days.

We have money in our bank accounts. We own all of our gear, computers, video camera, powerbooks, software licenses, furniture, a great resource library, other audio video equipment. That said, we have an operating line of credit owing $16,900.

For the 2004-2005 fiscal year, RCS did $117,000 in contract sales, we co-own a few projects with our partners, from which we are waiting response from telefilm and Bell New Media Funds.

We also co-produce of a weekly xbox event in partnership with Video-Monster which we will start to promote in the fall. Last, we will be co-producing the 2006 New Media Slam with our partners at Flourish Media.

What about the team?

Well, finance aside, this first year could not have been possible without the contribution of our team members. From concept to execution RCS grew out of Mark’s creativity and my business management skills. Erik quickly became an indispensable and irreplaceable member of our development team in December 2004. In March, Mark and I took on a 3rd principle. With Will Pate, a renown blogger as our new sales and marketing director, we took RCS to the next level.
In June, we moved into a shared office with Flourish Media, we then recruited the talented Mariska as our new project manager. Since Sandra already has a full-time job at the Marketing centre, she works as our content editor on a per contract basis.

Having our team grow from 2 to 6 staffers during that time, we had to find solutions to make RCS a competitive employer and retain our staff. We knew it would be a while before we could afford paying higher salaries, so we initiated an employee program providing benefits and training package to our team.
In August, we also put in motion our internship program for BCIT students and we open our new development office.

Build up a great Porfolio

2004-2005 also allowed us to expend our portfolio and start prototyping an educational blog software in co-production with the great folks at Bryght. The application is to be called Symposyum, and is currently under testing at BCIT and BC Campus for the next year.

Here are some of the company and institution RCS has been working with in the past year:

• 2010 Vancouver Coverage
• Adam's eye, a filb by Marianne Kaplan
• Athletic Endeavours
• BCIT
• BC Campus
• BIA Stratconna
• Bryght
• Capulet
• CFA Sports
• Dean Jackson
• E-xact
• Flourish Media
• Geeky Traveller
• Just a gwai lo
• MSK Productions
• Realty Cafe
• Scarlett Magazine
• Universe Village
• What's web 2.0?

Do you have a business plan?

A question that has arise often during the various conversation.
Mark and I set ourselves some goals with specific objectives and timeline when we partnered, we often re-evaluate these to assure that we are on track or .

After nearly two years of operation, we’ve learned to adjust, our plan changed on a few occasions. Our flexibility and ability to overcome challenges has helped us to move ahead.

Our partnerships with Flourish Media, Bryght and Video-monster has provided us some security and stability. We are lucky to start our 2005-2006 fiscal year with some great projects in development, funding proposal moving into the last stage of approvals and what promises to be another great year for us at Raincity Studios.