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Another One Bites the Dust #2
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I came to this forum originally to pick up marketing tips when I was slow and to compare trends in my geographic area with peers in other parts of the country. However, this thread is odd because it ignores the 800 lb gorilla in the room or forum: THERE IS NO WAY TO UNDERSTAND THE FINANCIAL SITUATION AND RISK LEVEL OF OTHERS IN OUR BIZ.
It is very hard for us to compare our financial situations because we are all coming at it from different circumstances. Who knows why someone can buy a building without a loan while others are struggling, given similar circumstances? I have been doing this for a long time and have observed that many people in our biz are on a different plateau than the rest of us financially, so why compare what works for one in terms of investing, than another? Some people are able to take on investment risk because there may be a safety net.
Recently I visited or communicated with a few guys who were my mentors and are 15-20 years older than me and now comfortably in retirement. When we were working together they seemed “normal” financially. Now I know that the majority of these successful guys, or ones I thought “made it on their own”, or wanted all to believe they did, 1) either came from family money, 2) their wife came from family money, 3) a combination of both or 4) the wife made a very high income. It is one or a combo of those four factors. I see it in our biz quite a lot, from the young kids getting REDS or DSLR packages for graduation all the way to my competitors.
So let’s kill this thread, there’s no way to know why someone has money to risk. I know people in the biz who are struggling that all they have to do is outlive their parents. I also know people who start studios who have investors and angels behind them, they personally don’t have the money but always appear as they do.
Perhaps people making major capital investments in studio real estate did make it on their own but it is non-sensical to weigh their investment decisions because some people have deeper pockets than others for many reasons. You never know. And those that claim they just keep getting five figure raises every time they quit or get fired, well, without seeing their 1040s such bragging is meaningless and probably BS.
I wish this forum would be used to help share the secrets of how people (who do make it on their own) in our biz do get so damn profitable they can buy buildings! Even if it is a deal due to the depression, they still have the money somehow. Just how is it done? Do they have contracts for 20 shows? Are they cranking out high end spots every week for an agency that pays well and quickly? This is the Business Forum, please share the tips so we can all buy a building! That’s why I come here, it’s to figure out how to do my business aspects better, I have video down real well.
Scratch that, I wouldn’t want real estate. Just lost a lot of my nest egg in my brother’s major shopping center deal that went under. It was super successful until I got in at the wrong time. Commercial real estate is in much worse shape than video production. Slow paying tenants are deadlier than slow playing clients…Much deadlier.
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[Ned Miller] “Some people are able to take on investment risk because there may be a safety net. Recently I visited or communicated with a few guys who were my mentors and are 15-20 years older than me and now comfortably in retirement. When we were working together they seemed “normal” financially. Now I know that the majority of these successful guys, or ones I thought “made it on their own”, or wanted all to believe they did, 1) either came from family money, 2) their wife came from family money, 3) a combination of both or 4) the wife made a very high income. It is one or a combo of those four factors.”
And then on the other hand there are people like me and Kathlyn. We don’t have family money. Never had any investors. Didn’t have a safety net. No insurance either. Didn’t have a cushy job and income to bank on. We invested what we did have in our original video system, a Media 100 back in 1994. Everything was on the line. Everything.
Why did it work for us? Because we never waited for anyone to make anything happen for us. We knew that if we didn’t get off our asses every single day and work hellacious hours that most of our sane friends would have laughed at — we’d have failed.
We didn’t give ourselves excuses. Too many do that. Way too many, really.
Do something. Do it again. And again. Do it until it works.
That’s what we learned in the fire.
Ron Lindeboom
founders, creativecow.net -
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[Ned Miller] “What fire?”
Let’s see: no money, no savings, no insurance, three bouts of pneumonia in two years, getting ripped off for one of the businesses we built by a bunch of lawyers and scheisters, insane hours of fighting to bounce back from it all, and on and on.
Maybe there were no matches or gasoline involved, but it sure felt like fire to us.
😉
But as they say: what don’t kill you just makes you stronger — oh, and ornerier.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
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The IRS is the same unit that will be collecting our payments under the new Health Care Bill. I am moving to Costa Rica.
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD .Ask me how to Market Yourself using Send Out Cards
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Amen!
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD .Ask me how to Market Yourself using Send Out Cards
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I’m totally on board with Ron – it’s passion that gets you started and wisdom to learn from others that leads to success. This forum is filled with bits on how to market and run a shop – it’s your job as the reader to glean this. If someone has to point it out you should be an employee not self-employed. And I’d stay away from those that “had family money, a wife with a good job, etc” and are now retired. Unless they returned the investment and really made a go of it. Running a losing business with constant free money is not someone to look to for advice nor someone I’d admire. The pyramids are amazing, but at the cost of a continuous stream of slave labor. That’s just wrong.
Complacency. That’s what I got out of this thread. If you sit around thinking that work will just come in the door and current client will keep coming back you are wrong. Much of your time will be spent marketing and selling – probably upwards of 40%. You MUST keep your customers happy. Did you ever complain at a restaurant about anything? Stop complaining, write it down and NEVER do that to your customer. A dirty fork at a restaurant is a typo in a graphic. This cannot happen. When was the last time you sent a gift card to somebody? I spend a few hundred bucks a month on that.
My shop is now solely me with a bunch of independents – It gives me great control over expenses and reduces recurring overhead like salaries. Ryan Mast blogged “If I ask you what’s your specialty, don’t answer ‘a jack of all trades.'” If you are being everything to everyone you have no time to sell. You get a great gig in the door that will keep you busy for 4 months… then nothing. It’ll take 3 months to get you back on the radar. While I love doing all the trades, my main job is to get biz and shoot. When a big job comes in the door, I can get an assoc prod to help out with scheduling so I’m not burdened; or an editor to ingest & do rough cuts for a week and then I can sit in for a few hours and finish up; or maybe I do the roughs and call in a finish person. The other option is to work that additional 30-50 hours that week and never see my family. Not gonna happen. This keeps work flowing in, keeps clients happy and I still make money on other people working. I don’t need 100%, just a portion of a bunch of work. Don’t forget that you can “grow broke”.
That’s all I can think of now.
Steve
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[Ned Miller] “I wish this forum would be used to help share the secrets of how people (who do make it on their own) in our biz do get so damn profitable they can buy buildings!”
I have a three part series on starting and running your own business that pretty much lays out how I got to where I am today. I opened this business $80,000 in the hole due to a failed partnership and then the expenses of starting up my one man operation in my spare bedroom.
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/biscardi_walter/ready.php
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/biscardi_walter/shop.php
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/biscardi_walter/running.php
And more recently, Small Steps to Big Success
https://magazine.creativecow.net/article/small-steps-to-big-success
A lot of my information is in there and of course throughout these forums.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” featuring Sigourney Weaver coming soon.
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Thanks Walter! And all the best in your new space. I need some inspiration.
Thanks,
Ned
Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
http://www.bizvideo.com -
Walter –
Thanks for passing on the great business info. Much appreciated.
As a sidenote to real estate – when Howard Shultz, CEO of Starbucks, was asked what business his company was in, he answered ‘Real Estate’.
He was only half-kidding.
Chris Donaldson
Producer
Hand Crank Films
http://www.handcrankfilms.com
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