Back to university...

Its now February, boy is 2010 disappearing fast, which also means I have found myself back at university for my final semester, with an assignment from before christmas to finish off for tomorrow afternoon im taking a little bit of time out to write this blog.

The assignment is an evaluation of a entrepreneurial Venture, for which I have chosen King Of Shaves, the further into I get the more im reminded of the fact that im not that much of an academic, but also that business, depsite being one of the biggest course areas isnt all that academic either, with many of my modules being much more about theory from the last century im reminded of how far the business environment has changed, which is further reflected by my position:

A entrepreneur biding my time at uni so that I can leave with a bit of paper to show I havent totally wasted the last 3 years of struggling writing assignments.

For the last year I have seen myself change how I see myself and also question my reasoning for being at university, I always saw that bit of paper as my safety blanket, if things go wrong I can always get a day job, but my heart has never been in it, reflected by my grades, my knowledge, passion and abilities are there but im a practical person, Ive learnt business by doing it, making mistakes, triumphs and failures, like most other entrepenuers, but for the first time im actually seeing myself as a entrepenuer, rather than 'a kid having a go'.

Im ready to get serious and raring to go, working crazy numbers of hours around uni and my job to get Blinky off the ground and up and running and cant wait till May, not only my 21st Birthday but also when I finish university, hand in that final assignment, answer that final exam question and step into the future, an exciting prospect.

Tonight via twitter (@Mr_Blinky) i asked my followers what they felt the barriers to young entrepenuers were, to mixed answers the general feeling was that business just isnt all that welcoming of young people, but get past the intial difficulties and show your serious and the opportunities are there, something I have learnt from my own experience. In the past I have been taken advantage by booking agents for bands when negotiating, being the novice I was I make mistakes, now Blinky thanks to alot of work by Graham and Myself has got some very lucrative agreements in place and have a business purely based on having negotiated a better deal than everyone else, meaning we can sell to them and make a profit, its not a massive margin, but then we dont have any risk either!

I guess what im trying to sum up is, yes being a young entrepenuer has its challenges, but everyone faces these challenges or other barriers, its not always a disadvantage to be young, means I have a massive head start on many other business directors and an impressive CV to boot if things do go wrong, oh yea and sometime after may a piece of paper that says im good at writing about history!

A closing comment I want to make is Business has evolved and constantly continues to do so, you can either watch it happen or make it happen!

Rant over!

Time of change

I think I may have skipped a week again on my blog, but I was away in Germany visiting friends, quick summary, lots of snow, very cold but had a awesome time!

So whats been going on recently?

Work:

First time back to work properly for about a month, which is strange, been a not so exciting week with doing the re-pricing and new shelf labels for all 3 shops, least exciting job going, especially when its 4th time in as many months we have tried it.

Uni:

Back to uni on thursday, true to form Brookes have complicated things but timetabling me in 2 places at the same time and nobody can come up with a solution, joy! Also for timetable purposes Thursday is a monday and friday a friday, go figure!

Blinky:

Co-founder of Blinky media took the decision to resign as director of Blinky, so lots going on at the moment to organise that and get the ball rolling again, Edd's role was project managing the magazine release, which so far has not happend, so im on the hunt for the software we need to get the first full issue sorted, fingers crossed we can get that sorted soon!

The promotional printing services are really kicking in great at the moment with lots of new customers coming to us for quotes, and we are now also changing supplier so that everything is printed in the UK, which is great news and means even faster turn arounds and better value.

Stuff:

This has been an awesome week generally for stuff going on, with me winning a competition to win a limited edition Rally print from http://www.motorsportinprint.com/17/173/2566/Kris_Meeke_-_Peugeot_-_2010

which is awesomeeee and will look great on my wall, so I will put up a photo when it arrives.

Im also about to start an assignment on a entrepenuerial project/business so Im working out who to feature and loving the chance to read lots of bios and information about what other people did and how they started it, one of my recomended reads is Will Kings, Founder of King of Shaves book, I will be trying to write a review soon so keep an eye out!

Thats all for now, if you want to talk to me drop me a email at chris@blinkymagazine.co.uk or tweet at me @Mr_Blinky

A new year

OK so I broke my weekly blogigng routine, so this is my first Blog of 2010, so Happy new year!

Its been a pretty crazy few weeks so here is a quick round up!

**Blinky Magazine Introduction is released at www.blinkymagazine.co.uk check it out for more info about what we do, our readers and whats going to be inside and how to get involved!

**Our first printing services customers kick of our year with a great start as we expand our offering every week, we will be getting a shiny online digital catalogue up as soon as we can with the updated price list being released on Tuesday, if you need business cards, posters, flyers, banners, lanyards, beer mats and all sorts contact Graham, graham@blinkymagazine.co.uk

**Yesterday we had a really busy day for the website with out highest ever level of traffic through the site yesterday and this week over 500 page views on the Intro issue we are off to a good start!

**Im currently out in Germany on a little bit of a holiday visiting some old friends, hvaing a great time with a insane amount of snow out here, only problem is the crazy temperatures, but was very impressed withmy Flight with easyJet which was barely delayed despite the crazy weather causing chaos! I have been site seeing around the area and yesterday we braved the cold to have a look around Coburg Castle, which is pretty huge and some amazing views, so worth checking out if your ever out this way!

** in the next week or so we will be launching our Forum on www.blinkymagazine.co.uk , which im pretty excited about as gives us a great aopportunity to talk to our readers and students in the UK about different topics and get their views and opinions, as well as our first ever poll for the site, we are just deciding on the topic/question now so any suggestions let us know!

SO thats a little bit of a breif round up very much short and sweet compared to the full story but I will leave that for next weeks blog!

3 weeks in a row

So miracles do happen its now the 3rd week that I have remembered to do my Blog.

Its not been a hugely exciting week for the Blinky team, mainly as ive been overloaded with University work, but after thursday thats all finished for 6 weeks, so we will have a awesome 6 weeks of moving everything forward.

We planned out issue 1 which is released digitally on 1st January and I must say I do think its gonna be pretty awesome and cant wait for you all to see it. I will try and release some gossip when we can, hopefully next weeks blog.

We launched a new secondary project this week which is www.student-tech.co.uk its all about rpoviding cheap technology to students our current range is some brilliant training software and Video training for creative media programmes by Media Roots, for more info head to the site and see what you think.

We are also launching a new competition which has got me really excitied.

We all know students love great Tshirts and fashion statements, and also students are pretty creative when we want to be, so.........

Calling all students, got a great idea for a T-Shirt for students we are looking for anyone to send us in their ideas for a design via the website www.blinkymagazine.co.uk we will then choose 5 winners which we will get produced for the release of issue 2 on 1st February, we want to create a student fashion revolution!

The winners will receive:

their design put into production!
their design sold online for anyone to buy!
earn royalties for each T shirt of their design sold!
Will be featured in the February issue!
One of their design for them to wear!

What have we got coming up this week then?

Hopefully from tomorrow we will start our 12 bands of Christmas feature, so keep an eye on the website, the feature will promote 1 up and coming musical talent/band each day who with think 2010 will be a great year for, so check it out each day up til christmas to get an early glimpse at the next big thing!

Sunday im heading, with Jenny, to see the Room 94 christmas Party at camden Barfly, this is set to be a awesome show, and all advance tickets have sold out, which is brilliant news, so great work guys!

If you coming down let me know!

Time to head back to watching The Dark Knight and assignmenting, have a good week!

Mr Blinky
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Back again

Well almost impressive, blogging 2 weeks in a row, im getting better at this!

Its been another one of those weeks at the Blinky Media camp, the best way to describe it is HECTIC!

The website went live at the start of the week and is nearly all up and running for phase 1 which i really exciting, please check it out at www.blinkymagazine.co.uk there are lots more functions coming over the coming months as we have teamed up with Manic Planet, who will now be working with us on all our web development projects, and boy are they going to be busy over the next few months with our plans!

SO what have we been up to?

Well we launched the website, which as ever didnt go as smoothly as we had hoped but the team got there and solved the glitch, we have since been getting all the content on there and working on getting everything right, aswell as the next few developments which will be coming later this month as web traffic builds up, which is going well, we have risen from the 22 millionth ranked website on the whole of the web to 1.8millionth which is awesome!

We have been working hard on the other areas of Blinky aswell, and as such we are half way through creating the Blinky Media promotional catalgue, so we have been deep in negoations with suppliers all week to add to our product range, which currently now includes:

Flyers
Posters
Outdoor posters
Business Cards
Promo Cards
Beer Mats
Badges
Stickers
Banners
Printed Plectrums
Glowsticks
Wristbands
Tshirts and Clothing

So there has been plenty of pricing to be getting on with this week!

We are now also working on the launch of our secondary business which is student and training software, and will before the end of the month be launching our initial range from the Media Roots range, at heavily discounted prices!

What have I been doing this week other than working?

Erm not alot really, had work and uni as usual, although now looking at the home stretch for this semester at uni, with only 2 more weeks to go, which means just 1 assignment and 1 exam and I am free until the end of January.

Im counting down till the christmas break and especially january now as it is my mums 50th and shes having a awesome party and then the next day im off to germany to visit friends and play in the snow and generally do a bit less work than normal and drink more tea!

Music stuff:

So this week seems to have been a week for CDs arriving from PR companies so on Friday I sat down with a huge stack to have a quick listen and there is some brilliant stuff in there, so please do keep an eye on releases from engineer records (google them, well worth it) and some of the bigger names aswell, we will try and sort a few reviews from our newly appointed music editor, who Im very pleased ot have join the team, Rhian, see the website for her profile and wo to get in touch if you have any music related questions.


Also I will be down at the Hat Factory in Luton for the final The Hat Factory introducing night, so head down if you are about!

Long over due

Wow, its been along time since I last posted a blog, so blogging fail on my part.

Since I last posted its been one hell of a rollercoaster, but things are definatly on the up.

Blinky Media LTD is now go, with my new business partner Edd, we are working on building up an independent magazine and media publishing business, with the launch of our first title, imaginatively tittled Blinky, which will be the UKs first monthly student lifestyle magazine, things are looking great, with the website going live today and some great people getting involved.

We also have teamed up with Casio who have given us one of their cameras to play with for the magazine, so big thanks to them, its an awesome compact style with a hugeeeeeee zoom, not a EOS, but hey its half the price in the shops so cant complain.

What else have I been up to?

Erm lots of university work, im now in my final year so the assignments have a way of piling up, Ive even ventured into the library to work to try and get the work done, so scary times!

We put up our christmas tree the other day aswell, we are super christmas geeks, gotta love it! I chose the tree and may have gone a bit OTT as we now have half our living room filled with tree, but its worth it, or atleast I think so.

Ive spent the morning writing christmas cards out to all our clients and partners, so ive now got writers cramp and think im going to have a nightmare about the gold gel pen tonight, but has to be done.

New music.....

IM trying to think what new music ive checked out recently, but we have been so busy we havent had much time to listen to much, just throw on spotify and disappear in a torrent of emails and writing. However I have been reliably informed that Example (throw him into youtube im sure something will come up) is well worth checking out, he has just come of tour with Lily Allen, and we have a interview with him next week so we can give you all the low-down on what he is like then.

Also our friends at engineer record have sent me a huge stack of their latest releases so we are going to check those out this week, their acts are always worth checking out, the engineer team have a great nack of finding awesome new talent.

Cars and stuff....

So Edd has parked his shiny old (is it possible to be both? he thinks so) BMW for a freebie old escort for me to be able to learn in, also it was dirt cheap to insure compared to the BMW, but in the last 6 weeks ive been out in it once, so I think this may be a long and painful process of never having time to learn, so if anyone ever fancies playing chauffer just yell.

As always we watched Top Gear so far this series and cnat help thinking that the TG team might be onto something about building your own car, we are thinking old american V8, some decent suspension and stuff and see what happens, if only we had the time eh?

Anyways enough ranting, I need to leave something to write about next week.

Chris
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Blinky Magazine Advert

Been awhile since I have posted a blog and jenny jen has told me off for not doing one, and now we have a good excuse.

AGES ago I travelled over to Hemel Hempsted and spent the day filming with the Myspace Trident Comedy winners Ashton and George, of the Ashton and George show!

We were filming a bit of a fun advert for the finest new music e-magazine Blinky of course (ok we wish) but anyways here goes heres the link to the video, let is know what you think!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrEPiZCQ6xU

Its been a hectic 10 days or so hence the lack of Blogs and stuff, i now have a new msn (add me iammrblinky@live.co.uk) we have release issue 3 (http://issuu.com/blinky_magazine/docs/issue_3?viewMode=magazine) our mini issue Festials Special (http://issuu.com/blinky_magazine/docs/mini_issue?viewMode=magazine) so you have lots of reading to catch up on if you havent read them yet!

Coming up soon Im down at camden Barfly on 12th August for the Room 94 single launch, should be a good night and my first chance to get down to a gig in a LONGGGGG time, then the week after back in the big smoke on 19th August for My Passion playing at Camden Underworld, so good times!

Anyways sheep are waiting to be counted and little z's to be caught, night night

Mr Blinky
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