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-   -   How one business opportunity can lead to another... (http://www.sowpub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10101)

Dien Rice March 20, 2018 01:31 PM

How one business opportunity can lead to another...
 
How one business opportunity (even a failed one), can lead to another...

Back in 2015, I teamed up with a friend of mine, to try to do a fun business...

We wanted to run a commercial movie night.

I'd never done anything like this before, but my friend, John, had... We were both fans of Chinese movies... (I'd been watching "kung fu" movies since I was young, due to some cousins who had a VCR - really new at the time - and I'd sometimes go watch kung fu movies at their house.) John doesn't have a drop of Chinese or Asian blood in him, but he was a "super-fan", and had even written the occasional article related to Chinese film for one of the local metropolitan newspapers (The Age)...

John had also run a regular major movie night, so he knew the background and had the contacts. He knew what we needed to do to get the rights to run the movie, and all the background details...

I found a venue. I was working in a co-working space at the time, which had the ability to "convert" itself into a place you could show films, after hours! They had done the occasional commercial film night before...

We struck a deal with the co-working space , where we'd split the takings. This was great for us, since they were taking part in the risk (rather than us having to pay a fixed fee)...

However, we still had to do a deal for the rights to screen the film! Luckily, one of John's friends (I'll call him "C") was the guy who negotiated Asian film rights for a local film distribution company... And John was of the view that the film we wanted to show ("Ip Man" - a great martial arts movie, about the teacher of Bruce Lee), was distributed by them...

In order to discuss this, John organised us to have dinner with his friend. I'd like to say this was a Hollywood wining and dining, in some plush location - but in reality we met up at a mid-scale downtown Chinese restaurant...

(To be continued...)

- Dien

Dien Rice March 20, 2018 02:03 PM

Continuation...!
 
"C" was also a fan of Chinese movies (and also didn't have a drop of Chinese or Asian blood)... Both he and John had deep knowledge, of Chinese films, actors and actresses, directors, and so on...

They were talking about these, and soon it was waaaay over my head, talking about people I'd never heard of...

However, "C" also brought his girlfriend, who I'll call "G"... G is from China, and had recently moved to Australia, though they had been in a long-distance relationship for over 10 years.... They met many years ago, when "C" was at a a film festival in Hong Kong...

Because the other conversation had gone way over my head, I spent most of the evening talking with "G"...

It turns out that "G" had worked in finance in China and Hong Kong. She was interested in working in finance in Australia too, but hadn't yet gotten her foot in the door, as she hadn't been in Australia very long...

I thought I could help her with this - using my marketing skills...

The upshot of the dinner was that, "C"'s company (an Australian company, as I'm in Australia) used to have the distribution rights to "Ip Man" - but the rights had come up for renewal, and they had recently lost them to another company. It turns the company that just bought them was a US company, which bought the Australian rights in anticipation of making money by subsequently licensing the rights to Australian movie streaming companies...

In the end, John negotiated with this US company, and we held our film night. But... an unanticipated disaster!

The day of the movie turned out to have the heaviest local rainfall in about 10 years! Faced with a torrent of rain - most people stayed home!

We still got around 20 people showing up... But that wasn't enough to cover our costs. We ended up losing money - though, after costs, we only lost about $50...

We were going to have another movie night, but as a small operation, we found it a nightmare to negotiate movie screening rights for a fee we could afford. In the end, we abandoned the project...

But... my contact with "G" and offer to help her get a job in finance, opened new doors and new adventures... In the world of finance... And how I got to meet and know dozens of multimillionaires, including many people worth $100m and more...

(To be continued, possibly, if there's any interest...)

- Dien

GordonJ March 21, 2018 12:05 PM

Yes please, continue.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Dien Rice (Post 39008)
"C" was also a fan of Chinese movies (and also didn't have a drop of Chinese or Asian blood)... Both he and John had deep knowledge, of Chinese films, actors and actresses, directors, and so on...

They were talking about these, and soon it was waaaay over my head, talking about people I'd never heard of...

However, "C" also brought his girlfriend, who I'll call "G"... G is from China, and had recently moved to Australia, though they had been in a long-distance relationship for over 10 years.... They met many years ago, when "C" was at a a film festival in Hong Kong...

Because the other conversation had gone way over my head, I spent most of the evening talking with "G"...

It turns out that "G" had worked in finance in China and Hong Kong. She was interested in working in finance in Australia too, but hadn't yet gotten her foot in the door, as she hadn't been in Australia very long...

I thought I could help her with this - using my marketing skills...

The upshot of the dinner was that, "C"'s company (an Australian company, as I'm in Australia) used to have the distribution rights to "Ip Man" - but the rights had come up for renewal, and they had recently lost them to another company. It turns the company that just bought them was a US company, which bought the Australian rights in anticipation of making money by subsequently licensing the rights to Australian movie streaming companies...

In the end, John negotiated with this US company, and we held our film night. But... an unanticipated disaster!

The day of the movie turned out to have the heaviest local rainfall in about 10 years! Faced with a torrent of rain - most people stayed home!

We still got around 20 people showing up... But that wasn't enough to cover our costs. We ended up losing money - though, after costs, we only lost about $50...

We were going to have another movie night, but as a small operation, we found it a nightmare to negotiate movie screening rights for a fee we could afford. In the end, we abandoned the project...

But... my contact with "G" and offer to help her get a job in finance, opened new doors and new adventures... In the world of finance... And how I got to meet and know dozens of multimillionaires, including many people worth $100m and more...

(To be continued, possibly, if there's any interest...)

- Dien


Yes, we're interested. MORE.

gja

Ankesh April 2, 2018 02:38 AM

Re: Continuation...!
 
Please continue!

Dien Rice April 11, 2018 11:17 AM

Will be continued...
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by ExportHubCo (Post 39035)
That was amazing story , I Would like you to continue it.

Thanks everyone... I'll continue it soon... I just need to find enough time all at once to continue it! (Time is so scarce at the moment - too many projects!)

Best wishes,

Dien

Remmik April 13, 2018 03:29 AM

Re: How one business opportunity can lead to another...
 
I Would like you to continue it.

morleyeugena January 18, 2019 01:59 AM

Re: How one business opportunity can lead to another...
 
Hi Dien

It is such a good story and you are right one business opportunity can lead to another business.


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