H2H MG Blog

H2H MG Blog (4)

Installation:  A world class acoustic branding service begins with your installation, but prior to getting a professional Tech-Visit we'll work with you to develop a branding package  developed and based on your requirements.

Brand Discovery: Setting the right tone for your script is an essential step in the Brand Identity process. Therefore, we'll work with your marketing and advertising team in order to establish the best brand message. 

Copy Writing: After your brand consultation discovery briefing, our staff forward their finding to our team of professional script writers. These are seasoned professionals who'll get to work on making messages that will make your clients "happy 2 hold."

Voice & Music: After scriptwriting, your brand message moves inside our studios for production. This is where our voice artist and producers get to work on creating your bespoke production.

Approval: If you like what you hear and like your script. We are now ready to record your production.

Recording: After you've approved the first production run of your acoustic brand message, H2H will then go back into the studio and finalize your recording.

Production: The final production run completes the acoustic branding process. It puts an end to your anxiety and most importantly finalizes the process of turning your unhappy on hold customers into "Happy 2 Hold" clients.

Final Approval: From start to finish, H2H will work closely with you and your team in order to get your acoustic brand message done right the first time. Upon your final approval of the brand message we'll send our tech out and have your service installed.

 

 

Copyright infringement, piracy, and theft. Many businesses faced these serious and unfortunate charges after illegally playing unlicensed music on hold. What is even more unfortunate is that these crimes are mostly committed due to lack of awareness about on hold music licensing, causing the RIAA to increasingly enforce property laws.

Playing illegal music (whether you know it or not) can cost your business big money and can even lead to jail time - not to mention it can potentially jeopardize your business's reputation (ouch!). This is why your Message On Hold, Overhead Music, and any music you use in marketing videos must all be legally licensed to avoid serious repercussions. 

According to the RIAA, a user who downloads music that has not been purchased is breaking the law, even if it is never played publicly. Intellectual property law protects the expression of ideas and allows people who create music (and other creative forms) to make a living from their creative abilities.

Businesses use music for setting a certain mood and entertain customers. For example, as a couple sits over a candle lit dinner at a fine dining restaurant, usually there is some sort of delicate, classical music playing to enhance their dining experience. Targeted music influences consumer behavior. If you own a junior clothing store, your “tween” customers expect to hear Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift blasting through the speakers. To be able to do this, businesses must purchase the rights to the music in order to legally play copyrighted songs. Trying to manage this task without using a music subscription service requires large amounts of time and still may result in non-licensed music being played.

When implementing music or messages on hold, you'll want to follow the same rules. Sometimes, business owners know silence on hold is unappealing and will play an FM radio station while the caller waits. With the adoption of mp3 players and downloadable music, a new trend among tech-savvy business owners and IT personnel is using mp3 players to rebroadcast the music purchased on line at Amazon or iTunes. Although this music was legally purchased, playing it through an on hold system is considered a "rebroadcast" of the music and is not permitted. Often, these business owners are either naïve or under the false impression that because they are not a large company they won’t be targeted by the “music police” for this crime. Unfortunately for them, in recent years' copyright owners have specifically aimed to control the smaller businesses.  In order to avoid this common mistake of placing unlicensed music on your hold message, most voice production companies will provide licensed music for your telephone on hold music.  

The right kind of music is an integral part of creating a specific atmosphere for your customers. Don't let the positive effects of music hinder your business due to illegally using music to enhance your customer's experience. H2H MG has a tremendous effect on elongating the amount of time a caller will wait on hold and overhead music has a direct effect on a consumer's experience at your business location.

What do your callers hear when they are placed on hold?  How are you broadcasting music in your store, restaurant, or waiting room?  Put yourself in the customer's shoes and call or visit your company to see what your customers experience.  

 

Friday, 24 June 2016 01:56

Venture Capital

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Venture Capital

 

About Venture Capital

Venture capital is a type of equity financing that addresses the funding needs of entrepreneurial companies that for reasons of size, assets, and stage of development cannot seek capital from more traditional sources, such as public markets and banks. Venture capital investments are generally made as cash in exchange for shares and an active role in the invested company.

Venture capital differs from traditional financing sources in that venture capital typically:

  • Focuses on young, high-growth companies
  • Invests equity capital, rather than debt
  • Takes higher risks in exchange for potential higher returns
  • Has a longer investment horizon than traditional financing
  • Actively monitors portfolio companies via board participation, strategic marketing, governance, and capital structure

Successful long-term growth for most businesses is dependent upon the availability of equity capital. Lenders generally require some equity cushion or security (collateral) before they will lend to a small business. A lack of equity limits the debt financing available to businesses. Additionally, debt financing requires the ability to service the debt through current interest payments. These funds are then not available to grow the business.

Venture capital provides businesses a financial cushion. However, equity providers have the last call against the company’s assets. In view of this lower priority and the usual lack of a current pay requirement, equity providers require a higher rate of return/return on investment (ROI) than lenders receive.

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Understanding Venture Capital

Venture capital for new and emerging businesses typically comes from high net worth individuals (“angel investors”) and venture capital firms. These investors usually provide capital unsecured by assets to young, private companies with the potential for rapid growth. This type of investing inherently carries a high degree of risk. But venture capital is long-term or “patient capital” that allows companies the time to mature into profitable organizations.

Venture capital is also an active rather than passive form of financing. These investors seek to add value, in addition to capital, to the companies in which they invest in an effort to help them grow and achieve a greater return on the investment. This requires active involvement; almost all venture capitalists will, at a minimum, want a seat on the board of directors.

Although investors are committed to a company for the long haul, that does not mean indefinitely. The primary objective of equity investors is to achieve a superior rate of return through the eventual and timely disposal of investments. A good investor will be considering potential exit strategies from the time the investment is first presented and investigated.

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Angel Investors

Business “angels” are high net worth individual investors who seek high returns through private investments in start-up companies. Private investors generally are a diverse and dispersed population who made their wealth through a variety of sources. But the typical business angels are often former entrepreneurs or executives who cashed out and retired early from ventures that they started and grew into successful businesses.

These self-made investors share many common characteristics:

  • They seek companies with high growth potentials, strong management teams, and solid business plans to aid the angels in assessing the company’s value. (Many seed or start ups may not have a fully developed management team, but have identified key positions.)

  • They typically invest in ventures involved in industries or technologies with which they are personally familiar.

  • They often co-invest with trusted friends and business associates. In these situations, there is usually one influential lead investor (“archangel”) those judgment is trusted by the rest of the group of angels.

  • Because of their business experience, many angels invest more than their money. They also seek active involvement in the business, such as consulting and mentoring the entrepreneur. They often take bigger risks or accept lower rewards when they are attracted to the non-financial characteristics of an entrepreneur’s proposal.

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Understanding Equity Capital

Equity capital or financing is money raised by a business in exchange for a share of ownership in the company. Ownership is represented by owning shares of stock outright or having the right to convert other financial instruments into stock of that private company. Two key sources of equity capital for new and emerging businesses are angel investors and venture capital firms.

Typically, angel capital and venture capital investors provide capital unsecured by assets to young, private companies with the potential for rapid growth. Such investing covers most industries and is appropriate for businesses through the range of developmental stages. Investing in new or very early companies inherently carries a high degree of risk. But venture capital is long term or “patient capital” that allows companies the time to mature into profitable organizations.

Angel and venture capital is also an active rather than passive form of financing. These investors seek to add value, in addition to capital, to the companies in which they invest in an effort to help them grow and achieve a greater return on the investment. This requires active involvement and almost all venture capitalists will, at a minimum, want a seat on the board of directors.

Although investors are committed to a company for the long haul, that does not mean indefinitely. The primary objective of equity investors is to achieve a superior rate of return through the eventual and timely disposal of investments. A good investor will be considering potential exit strategies from the time the investment is first presented and investigated.

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The Venture Capital Process

A startup or high growth technology companies looking for venture capital typically can expect the following process:

  • Submit Business Plan. The venture fund reviews an entrepreneur’s business plan, and talks to the business if it meets the fund’s investment criteria. Most funds concentrate on an industry, geographic area, and/or stage of development (e.g., Start-up/Seed, Early, Expansion, and Later).

  • Due Diligence. If the venture fund is interested in the prospective investment, it performs due diligence on the small business, including looking in great detail at the company’s management team, market, products and services, operating history, corporate governance documents, and financial statements. This step can include developing a term sheet describing the terms and conditions under which the fund would make an investment.

  • Investment. If at the completion of due diligence the venture fund remains interested, an investment is made in the company in exchange for some of its equity and/or debt. The terms of an investment are usually based on company performance, which help provide benefits to the small business while minimizing risks for the venture fund.

  • Execution with VC Support. Once a venture fund has invested, it becomes actively involved in the company. Venture funds normally do not make their entire investment in a company at once, but in “rounds.” As the company meets previously-agreed milestones, further rounds of financing are made available, with adjustments in price as the company executes its plan.

  • Exit. While venture funds have longer investment horizons than traditional financing sources, they clearly expect to “exit” the company (on average, four to six years after an initial investment), which is generally how they make money. Exits are normally performed via mergers, acquisitions, and IPOs (Initial Public Offerings). In many cases, venture funds will help the company exit through their business networks and experience.

Thursday, 28 May 2015 14:31

Bespoke On Hold Messaging

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Or mission is to collaboratively administrate empowering bespoke on-brand messaging via plug-and-play technological solutions for every client. 

Installation:  A world class acoustic branding service begins with your installation, but prior to getting a professional Tech-Visit we'll work with you to develop a branding package  developed and based on your requirements.

Brand Discovery: Setting the right tone for your script is an essential step in the Brand Identity process. Therefore, we'll work with your marketing and advertising team in order to establish the best brand message. 

Copy Writing: After your brand consultation discovery briefing, our staff forward their finding to our team of professional script writers. These are seasoned professionals who'll get to work on making messages that will make your clients "happy 2 hold."

Voice & Music: After scriptwriting, your brand message moves inside our studios for production. This is where our voice artist and producers get to work on creating your bespoke production.

Approval: If you like what you hear and like your script. We are now ready to record your production.

Recording: After you've approved the first production run of your acoustic brand message, H2H will then go back into the studio and finalize your recording.

Production: The final production run completes the acoustic branding process. It puts an end to your anxiety and most importantly finalizes the process of turning your unhappy on hold customers into "Happy 2 Hold" clients.

Final Approval: From start to finish, H2H will work closely with you and your team in order to get your acoustic brand message done right the first time. Upon your final approval of the brand message we'll send our tech out and have your service installed.

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About

Happy 2 Hold Media Group LLC is an industry leader in on hold messaging, on hold marketing, and acoustic branding. Give us a call, and ask us for your free slot today. We make bespoke message on hold productions, voice mails, greetings, recordings, voice on hold, hold button, and brand music tracks for SMB's and the Fortune 500.

Note: H2H - we make your callers "Happy 2 Hold.™"