Editing as a Side Business – Thoughts?

[Theo Van laar]

A very interesting question. I have some questions back:

Your aim is to earn 1500-2000 dollar extra per month and you keep your daily job. And you want to ask e.g. 15 dollar/h. So that means approx 130 hours/month extra work. Is that realistic? My normal job takes me already 60h/week excl. traveling. What about yours?

Second question: you edited already homevideo’s for some friends. Suppose you would have asked this amount of money from your friend, would they still want you to do the editing?

I did a lot of wedding video’s for friends and always for free. In two cases where I was asked by people that I didn’t know so well, I asked 1000 euro’s for the wedding video (which is still half the price a professional videographer would ask here). And in both cases the wedding couple decided to ask some relatives who could do it for free…

I thing your idea is great. But my worry would be that people don’t want to spend money on the editing of there home videos so there is still the risk that you would spend a lot of work in editing homevideo’s from all your friend without earning anything…

Anyhow, if you manage to start a business like this, it’s great and I would love to hear how you did it!

Theo

[Eric Monian]

Hey Theo,

This is why I ask the forum, because I get great question and thougts back!

Yeah, red flag for me if I can’t calculate my hours I’d need to work to pull that in. So looks like I’d have to be much lower in my monthly expected amount/or raise my pay scale (unlikely at first though).

Thanks for the story of the wedding videos. That’s what I’m wondering….if push comes to shove to people ACTUALLY have contacts who would do it for free, but they just don’t. Or do they want their photos etc made into something nice and can’t find an easy solution (that’s where I walk in).

I also wonder what something like iMovie and Animoto are going to look like in 2 more years time. It’s almost plug and play, although I haven’t tested extensively.

Thanks again for your comments/questions!

[Dan Thompson]

I offer this service and find in my area that there are more folks doing the same thing, but we can’t afford to advertise. Another thing is that there are more tech savy people out there than you might think that are doing their own. The only way I’ve found to survive is to learn all the different ways to make the video POP and get the word out that we can do what they can’t.I’m retired and use the income to supplement SS, but I’m not getting rich doing it. Good luck to you if you decide to go ahead.

[Eric Monian]

Thanks Dan for the feedback.

When you get a job, does the client email you all the content or is there a website they go to to upload?

Thanks,
Eric

[Dan Thompson]

Everything we do is local. I have never had anyone approach me long distance, even though we offer it on our website. Dan

[Vincent Levalois]

I started doing just that a couple of years ago, but on a limited basis. I work mainly for non-profits that need editing done and charge a flat rate for the project versus a per hour charge. Provided I’m given enough time, I can accomplish what they need. What I came to find out is that editing, as you probably already know, is tedious work, especially if you’re being creative. I strive to be creative in my work. I have a hard time delivering simplistic work and always need to try and stretch the envelope a little. This is great for my clients, but causes me to spend way more time doing it haha!

I’d say test the waters with your idea on a small scale and don’t expect anything. Or, if you can find a larger project that you can charge a couple of G’s for on a regular basis, that will let you stretch your time, even better. The clients that are antsy about deadlines and nag you are too much for me 🙂

Good luck!

[Nigel O’neill]

I started out editing weddings as a freebie, and as a aside to my main IT job, then got a few paying gigs which led to some referrals that have helped maintain my ‘professional hobby’ status. Back then I was charging $1500 a wedding, with all the bells and whistles including a photo montage, highlights segment and the main event in a multi-cam shoot.

New software and cheaper hardware being released enables more people to adopt a DIY approach to event videography and editing. Great for the consumer, not so great for the try-hards such as ourselves trying to make a living or pocket money out of it.

I now do a lot of community work, recording and editing dance concerts, theatre performances and ice skating competitions, often to help the organisation such as scouts or ice skating teams raise money for future performance. I tend to relate it to events that involve my kids as well, which helps make it more enjoyable.

As mentioned by Theo, getting people to pay for work, especially relatives, is hard. What they need to realise is that cameras and editing equipment cost money to start with, and require constant maintenance and consumables i.e. more money.

I deliver multi-cam productions using 2-4 cameras (two of which are pro cameras from my wedding days). When I do charge ‘full price’, I adopt a per DVD charging model for these type of events of between $10 and $15 per DVD set as parents are unlikely to pay more. I often hear them say, “Don’t buy a DVD, you can copy mine”, which kind of defeats the whole fund raising purpose :-). I might get max 30 orders per gig, but I am usually there to record my child, and I would end up editing anyway. Might as well get paid to do it :-).

An area I am exploring now is community TV, which might lead to real commercial work. Who knows, I might be able to throw in my main job one day :-).

The day I stop is when I no longer enjoy it. I have been doing it since 2006, and wallet permitting, hope to be still doing it in 2026.

My system specs: Intel i7 970, 12GB RAM, ASUS P6T, Vegas Pro 10e (x32/x64), Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6

[Eric Monian]

Thanks Vincent!

Yeah, there’s a part in me that’s thinking not much will come from this, but want to do something to keep my creative chops up. I definitely identify with you. I don’t want a hack job…everytime I edit I’m always also looking for some unique angle.

Appreciate your feedback!
Eric

[Eric Monian]

Wow Nigel, thank you so much for your thorough write up. I was thinking of tapping into school stuff with my kids as well, but then it’s back to me having to probably shoot the stuff. All I really want to do (am I lazy?) is edit.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated. Might just have to come to the realization that what I want is just a really expensive hobby. Like you, just trying to make some pocket money from it.

Thanks again,
Eric

[Dan Thompson]

Nigel, I did the community TV route with a weekly broadcast for 7 years. They limit you severely as far as advertising goes, all I could have is a 15 second graphic with my company name on it. Unless someone REALLY likes what you’ve done and DILIGENTLY tries to find and get in touch with you, nothing happens. I only had 2 contacts from the whole 7 years, and they wanted me to donate everything. Dan