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Need advice for a student-run videography company
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[Nick Griffin] “Randall, Randall, Randall.”
Nick, Nick, Nick, Have a Merry Christmas!
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[Randall Raymond] “Nick, Nick, Nick, Have a Merry Christmas!”
And to you, my friend.
And Merry Christmas, Happy Channukah, Joyous Kwanzaa and best wishes to the entire bovine community whatever your beliefs. You all are my co-workers and I am grateful that we have this communal water cooler at which to meet and exchange our thoughts.
Happy Holidays and Happy Holi-daze!
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I think the best way to use being students to your advantage is to literally BE students. The local competition was more than happy to give studio tours and explain all about their pricing, workflow, capabilities and more to a couple of doe-eyed college kids. Take really strong mental notes and build a map of the competition and figure out how they do everything, especially how they are marketing to potential clients so you know what holes to fill.
It sounds shady but it’s useful. For example, for our market, it helped us figure out that we will never in a million years compete quality-wise with the 3-d work coming out of one studio, and that another studio is incredibly heavily invested in film and HD technologies. What we did discover is that no one in town is offering much in the way of integrated marketing production, i.e. using the skills they have to come up with innovative ways to market a business. They’re just old timey video guys who got good at what they do and built a large – though not smart – business out of it.
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Thank you all very much for your input — it’s been valuable. Randall, thanks for the harsh criticism. Seriously, I don’t get it much, and it’s oddly refreshing when I do. Our goal is to work at a professional level; we’re not there yet, but we need to know what we’re doing wrong, so we can improve… Nick, you’re really encouraging; there’s actually a couple business people that I’m in touch with who might go for an idea like that.
Based on your input and some other ideas I’ve had percolating, here’s my plan:
Do the paperwork and make TIP an LLC. Get insurance, because often I’m renting/borrowing gear from other people, not rental shops; I’m guessing they don’t have insurance. I’ll take wedding videography off that site and market that strictly as corporate videography & design, and event services.
Handle all the ministry video through Youth Ministry Innovations. It’s better set up for connections there, anyway.
Set up another entity that operates under the auspices of TIP to handle music videos, theater, and other more artistic work. I don’t know if that would actually be profitable, but I’d enjoy it. It would keep the marketing focus separate, so it’s less confusing for prospective clients. Even though it’s the same people doing the work… would that help alleviate the confusion, or make it worse?
Redo the website. Make a new, single demo reel with editing, animation, image correction, directing, etc. Most of what’s on there is a bit old; we’ve done much cooler projects since then.
Already I’m taking your advice to get involved in the local art & music community — I’m making some contacts and trying to get some projects started. I’m going to talk with some of my profs who have business connections in the community and try to get some tours/shadowing/internships/interviews and localish production companies. I’ll also take the rates off of the site and drop them a bit.
Again, thank you all so much for your advice and criticism. What do you think of the plan?
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[Ryan Mast] “Again, thank you all so much for your advice and criticism. What do you think of the plan?”
For 8 bucks for a domain name – a company can have any number of facets of their work appear to be their specialty.
Knowing your niche takes time. And once you hone in on that niche and are better at it than anyone else – well, things will go your way. Kinda magnetic – if you get my drift.
You guys really need to work on copy writing. Your message right now is: “We’re a bunch of young folk acting like old established farts – with pricing to suit.” It’s bad copy and misleading. You’re missing you strengths – that’s assuming you didn’t start out on an AMPEX. I did, but ask Nick – he’s a really old fart.
Anyway, you have to have a passion for communicating a message that will in some way make the world better. When you lose that passion or find yourself selling out to some butt-head client – take up cab-driving or pizza delivery.
Being a Michigan boy, I’ve always been a fan of Ernest Hemingway – I rented a cottage once from his sister. He said he always had his BS meter running. Apply that same meter to your message – be ruthless in it’s application. So, no BS, no cliches, no lies – kinda forces you to be creative, doesn’t it?
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thank ya, brother!
I am having fun. Took me a while to learn life’s biggest secret.
or to realize it’s not a secret at all, I should say.
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Ryan,
Sorry to jump in here but your plan sounds great and I just wanted to say that you can go to the PA state web site and research the LLC process and paperwork there. If you’re up to the work (not much involved really) you can file all the papers yourself and keep the fees to what the state charges (maybe around $300.00) If you have an accountant they could probably help you out for a small fee.
Good luck!
Stan
Stan Timek
Pollywog Theater
http://www.pollywogtheater.com— check out —
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