It’s one of the most exhilarating hobbies you can take up!
Quad Biking is suited for a variety of ages and abilities, and has venues all across the world to fuel your adrenaline addiction.
Most venues offer hire of bikes for the session, however it is important to check first before booking. It is also key to make sure safety equipment such as helmets are provided by the venue also.
More experienced riders who might have their own bike might have their preferred courses, but if looking to try a new one should check that the course suits their bike, such as engine size.
For those looking to buy their own equipment, essentials to buy first include boots, chest and back protectors, goggles, elbow and knee pads and a helmet. These can all be found on MoToSPORT.
QUADNATION lists all UK Quad Biking venues as well as prices, with 60 Quad Biking venues nationwide, you might find one closer than you imagined!
Feel free to watch the video below to see how the professionals do it!
There’s many reasons why people decide to try standup comedy – a desire to make people laugh, a way to turn your problems into something enjoyable – but whatever your inspiration, there’s a few things you should keep in mind.
Writing and performing are both important
As a spectator it’s easy to be fooled into thinking that comedians go up on stage, tell some jokes and leave. As a performer, it’s important to remember that this is actually a very small part of the job. The reality of stand-up comedy is that more hours go into writing than anything else – otherwise, you’d have no material to deliver.
It’s important to make sure you’re writing original material whenever you can. A solid five minute set will be enough for your first open mic, but that doesn’t mean the first five minutes of stuff you write. The more you write, the better you will become. The phrase ‘practice makes perfect’ may be a cliché but it rings true in the stand-up industry.
I find it helps to set myself a schedule of writing time at the beginning of each week and stick to it no matter what. During my day-to-day life I make notes of ideas and thoughts that I think have potential and then I’ll expand on them during those dedicated hours. For me, stand-up is still a hobby on the side and is something that I have to work around university, so my writing schedule often consists of two big sessions of around 4 hours at the weekend and then the odd hour throughout the week. I find this is enough for me to have a new 10 minutes of material that I’m confident in by the end of every month.
Check out Jerry Seinfeld’s interview with The New York Times if you want some writing tips from a true comedy legend:
Remember that everybody bombs
This is possibly the most important thing that a beginner comedian needs to know. Many people use a fear of bombing as an excuse to put off their first time on stage, but there’s no need to. Simply put, everybody bombs. Even the most established comedians will have terrible sets when trying out new material in small clubs. Unfortunately, there is only one way to find out whether a joke works in front of a live audience or not – and it’s the hard way.
If you go on stage for the first time and a joke falls flat, or you’re unhappy with how it went, then don’t let this phase you. Take this reaction as the best feedback you’ll get during your time as a comedian and use it to change or drop what you’ve got until you’re getting the laughs you think you should be.
The first time I bombed was at a venue I’d never set foot in before. I went on stage with around 5 minutes of material I’d tested at another, very different bar in the few weeks before. I quickly learnt that some things aren’t going to work for everybody and used my time to play around with my existing set to try and get the audience back on my side. I wasn’t entirely lucky, but I finished the night with some new ideas under my belt at least.
Comedian Hannibal Buress went into great detail about the positives of bombing in a recent interview with Village Voice. It’s essential reading if you’re sure you want to give stand-up a whirl.
Keep performing, practice before and after and then perform some more.
If you want to take this even remotely seriously, then it’s important that you perform and practice as regularly as possible. Even if, like me, you live in a town with little to nothing in terms of live comedy, there’ll be somewhere you can get stage time. Music-centered open mics are usually happy to have stand-up comedians come and perform. Just find out who’s in charge and ask them before you go up and don’t be afraid to go back the next week with the same set.
It’s also important to get into the habit of practicing at home. If I’ve got a gig one night, I like to spend the day going through my delivery and timing. It may seem silly to think about, but reading your material aloud in front of a mirror can be a great help. Pretend the mirror’s an audience and you’ll get the rare chance to see how you look to other people, rather than how you think you’re coming across.
Performing to friends or housemates is another option but don’t be fooled into thinking you’ll get the same reaction in the same parts of your set during an actual gig. From my experience, friends are too kind and laugh just because they think they should, rather than because they’ve actually found something funny.
And one last thing: Have fun. That’s what comedy is for, after all.
So you’ve purchased your first electric guitar, but no-one likes to rock out in silence, so now buying your first guitar amp awaits you. Which one to go for strongly depends on why you play guitar, there are some amps optimized for playing along to songs by yourself, whereas if you’re in a band and gig regular, you’ll want to consider a more heavy duty, and more importantly a louder one.
The bedroom player.
Look no higher than a 15w amp, anything more powerful will be unnecessarily loud for your surroundings. Look for amps that either have an input jack for headphones so you can use your amp and still be silent, or an auxiliary input so you can plug an audio cable into a laptop or iPod and play songs through your amp.
It is key when buying amplifiers as a band to look at the power (w) of what you are buying, for instance, having a rhythm guitar amp 10w louder than the lead guitar one is far from ideal.
If like most 4 piece bands starting out, you are unsure what product to buy, do some research first. Try not to get tricked into buying because of fancy features, such as multiple kinds of echo, and a variety of different distortion channels. These can sometimes hide a poorly manufactured amplifier. To play along with a band and not be drowned out, your first amp should be around 15 – 20w, have a solid sound on both clean and distorted channels and be able to handle the wear and tear of being carried/transported around.
Now you will have moved past combo amplifiers, and are probably looking at mastering your sound. Both combo amps ranging from 50w+ and ‘stack’ amplifiers consisting of a head and cabinet are what most experienced players choose from. Popular brands for stack amps include Marshall, Fender, Blackstar and more.The best advice would be to go to a music store and see for yourself what suits and sounds the best for you, these kind of amplifiers can extremely expensive and an investment that needs to be researched!
Image Courtesy – Marshall.
For new players, check out the video below from Free Guitar Videos to get to grips with terms such as gain, channels, distortion and more. Or if you’ve already bought an amplifier and you’re looking for a guitar to go with it, read our guitar guide.
So now you have a new hobby making craft and gift items, and you really enjoy doing it.
Then one day someone says that you ought to sell them! But could you? Would you like to branch out and turn your hobby into a business?
Do you think that you would still enjoy your hobby if you had to make things to order or to build up a stock? If the answer is yes, then you have a chance of turning your favourite hobby into a business.
Check out other craft businesses
There are many people who have set up their own business based on crafts that they started as hobby, just have a look on Facebook and type in the search ‘handmade’ and there will be a long list of pages that are advertising their wares.
Search for ‘Handmade’ on Facebook
Is it really as easy as that? It can be, but you need to find a niche in the market. Unless you are really lucky, you are not likely to hit it big in the first month.
I ‘fell’ into my business, after I had made myself a handbag and purse, something I had wanted to do for a long time – it was more of a challenge to myself.
As I also work full time, I used my handbag for work and people remarked on how nice it was. Then one person said: “Please can you make two for me?”
That was the start! But once you have started, there are then many other things that you need to think about, because once you have sold something and made even the smallest amount of profit – you will need to share it with the tax man!
Next page pricing
So by chance or design you have decided to start your craft business, but where do you go from here?
You have been asked to make an item, but how do you work out how much you need to sell it for?
How to get a price
One way of trying to find a price is by looking at other craft businesses and have a look at what they are charging, have a look at the craftsmanship and the quality of their materials. See what people are willing to pay for their goods, particularly if they are not particularly well sewn or made.
Working out a price
You can try to work out how much it costs to produce each item, including the time it takes to make and any other expenses. This will give you an amount to start at, do you think what you have worked out is reasonable?
Probably not, it is easy to think that people won’t be willing to pay that amount for something that you have made.
Ask friends and family what they would be willing to pay for your goods, what price would they suggest?
It is very difficult, as many people think that handmade and homemade mean cheap!
What to include
Quite often when starting up a business like this, to get the sales, you will need to cover your material costs, but you will never be able to fully cover the costs of your labour.
But you can always start off at a lower price to get the interest, and then increase the price slowly as the business gets off the ground.
Next page It’s a taxing business
