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Undercutting as a business model
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Yeah, you can’t fight nepotism. Don’t worry though, when the entire project is delivered ‘mtv style’ and mixed with a track from the kid’s best friend’s ska band, then delivered with inverted field issues at offline quality, they’ll probably be calling you.
I really really hate MTV style. It’s neither music television or style. Discuss.
John
Magic Feather Inc. -
This whole thing brings to mind a few of the most important rules of this and most other businesses. Stay engaged with many, many different prospects because only a percentage of them are going to turn into clients. Plan on there always being some attrition in one’s client base — it happens so be prepared to deal with it. And when times are good, save for a rainy day because, like now, there will be rough patches.
Good luck, David. We’ve seen downturns before and you just have to still be sure to be there for the upturn.
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If you guys all want to feel a LOT better – run out and buy yourself a copy of Malcolm Gladwell’s new book “Outliers”.
He’s the guy who wrote Tipping Point and Blink – and is a leading business writer and social commentator.
Outliers is, among other things, about research into what it takes to actually achieve MASTERY at any subject. The contention is that it takes roughly 10 years of work to achieve a level of true professionalism in any area – video creation would be included.
The “take away” for me was to stop even TRYING to compete on price. It’s never going to be my strength. I’ll instead compete on my experience and judgement. The trick is to CONTROL the discussion so that you relentlessly bring ALL discussions relating to your work around to this point.
It’s no different from recent politics. STAY ON MESSAGE. PRACTICE THE MESSAGE. DEVELOP SURROGATES TO DELIVER THAT MESSAGE. BE CONSISTENT. Your message is NOT ever price.
IT’s EXPERIENCE. Period.
We can win the business worth winning on that – and when we lose, we’re losing work that won’t ever actually help us grow.
FWIW.
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[Bill Davis] “stop even TRYING to compete on price. It’s never going to be my strength. I’ll instead compete on my experience and judgement.”
Great point, and a superior post… I’m giving you 5 Cows and a Kudos light bulb for that one.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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10,000 hours baby!
Terence Curren
http://www.alphadogs.tv
http://www.digitalservicestation.com
Burbank,Ca -
When I started taking karate back in eighth grade, the sensei told me that anyone teaching martial arts who had less than ten years experience was probably not worth the tuition.
Now that I’ve been in the video business more than a decade, I can see how that rule of thumb applies to our industry. Even though the equipment is completely different than what I was using back in 1998, that background I got from arguing whether non-linear editing was ever going to take the place of tape-to-tape does make me appreciate the changes that happen over a longer “season”.
After a decade, you learn that things are never as bad – or as good – as they might first seem, you don’t get ruffled quite so fast, and you learn that while it’s noble to take a position on a particular technology, you reserve the right to be proven wrong.
I’ve gone through several separate “learning curves” during the last decade. The “technical knowledge” learning curve eased up after about three years – now it’s rare that I get stumped on a particular technical issue for too long. At least I’ve learned where to look for help. (… and Creative Cow is still the first place for that!)
The “artistic” learning curve arced longer. Once I gained some technical skills, it took longer to learn the discipline of when not to pull out the magic bag of flashy tricks.
Learning how to manage people has been the longest curve so far. I feel more comfortable in management roles than I used to be, but I realize that leading people is an area with distinctive and unique long range challenges. With technical questions, you usually find out if you were “right” within minutes. With management challenges, it might be months or even years before you know if you made a good decision.
Even ten years sometimes seems like the first phase.
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When setting out to be known as the cleapest place in town… what usually becomes known as such.
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I think I’ll have to read that book.
10 Years! Piece of cake.
I’m on year 24 of my own business. Fortunately, economy hasn’t been a problem yet. Most of my clients are long-term repeat ones. Right now I have more work than I need. Let’s hope that keeps up for the new year.I’m in a small market. Price is always a problem. New people with no experience and no or little “overhead” will always be around. I’ve learned to try and ignore them. Wish them well. I find business people appreciate this attitude. And, what does it matter, you can’t control it anyway, so take the high road. My line is “the more people using video, the better for me in the long run!”
Won’t kid you though. Lost lots of sleep in my early years worrying about anyone and everyone. Maybe getting older has helped. Started my own business at 25 and am now 49.
Nothing beats working for yourself and setting your own hours. Have never missed one of my 4 kids sporting events. This year will be a grandfather and hope to never miss any of the next generations either.
But I’m off topic now.
Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!
David
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hats off to you, sir.
…for missing no kiddoe sporting events. Thats too dadgum rare today. I’ve had fussy clients because of my kids before.
But I’ll never have a fussy family because of clients. -
Oh, sweet! Thank you- just got my Christmas reading.
As for the Burbank post services company… wow. Well, we’ll see if they’re still around in 2 years with that business model.
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http://www.geniusmonkeys.com
(818) 653-9144
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