Help me spend money!

Me

More than happy to be on retainer for $15k - just send me the PO.

Thanks and great to do business with you.

Bruce

LOL!!!! I'd love to Bruce. I could use the break! Unfortunately there are very specific ways this has to be done. I'll keep you in mind though!

Besides the really obvious choice of hiring me for a couple of months ( Note to Bruce : Back me up and I'll negotiate a "recommendation fee" with you behind the scenes :P ), here's what you could go for.

a. Provided you have the necessary office space, I'd set up a small production studio with a green screen and some voice over equipment - those would come in handy if you do a lot of audio and video.

b. Invest in some stock media sites (audio and photography) so you always have resources available.

c. Spend some on training for more complicated tools such as After Effects and Flash/Actionscript so you get the best of Storyline without the current animation restrictions.

Last but not least : 

d. A nice weekend holiday - all paid for by your company of course - in a nice place somewhere, as a thank you for not wearing your budget as thin than a needles pin? Come on, you know you deserve it!   

That's all I can think of right now.

Cheers,

Alex

Sounds like a good place to be at the end of year.

What about buying a some online courses to allocate to your staff, possibly courses you don't have in house already or on subjects that they would find interesting and may not have a direct benefit to the company as a whole, but would keep them happy?

Do you already have a Platinum Support agreement?

Well if you need any specific illustrated characters that work with storyline you can always PM me. 

Aside from hiring me, Bruce and Alex as consultants and Jerson for graphics how about not spending it at all.  I know in the corporate world there is always a rush at the end of the year to spend your budget for fear of losing the money but honestly if you can't think of a way to spend it then don't spend it.

Gin is the temporary cure for everything. Sounds like you can afford a near-lifetime supply. Good for you!

I'd love to have a studio...great idea! We used a lot of green screen stuff at my old company, it was nice.

However - it is bad for your skin and complexion.

Dave is 19 years old.....  

Good one Bruce!

Thanks so much to everyone for the suggestions. I am going to try and not break the bank but take the advice given here and make a small studio. Thanks!

Since you're going along with this, make sure you spend as little as possible on the green screen itself ( most of the decent ones will only cost around 100 USD anyway) and as much as you can on the lighting - lighting is key for reliable chroma keying!

A mid-range DSLR that can shoot 30fps is also probably a good idea.

If you plan on doing any on-site recording, an Editors Keys condenser microphone bundle will also help - its compact and you can even plug and record directly on an iPad (while using the iPad to read your script at the same time).

i could really go on and on with this...........

In due time, you will hopefully enjoy a noticeable decrease to the budget previously allocated towards these processes. 

Good luck - and be sure to post some pictures when you're done with this!

Just my 2c,

Alex

I agree with the investment in a studio. Also would purchase some lavalier mics (at least two), one of those mic sticks for recording overhead and a light kit.