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What do you do when you’re slow?
No, not slow like short bus, but slow like when biz is slow…what types of things do you do to keep yourself busy? Thought it would be interesting to poll.
Do you:
Market? New website, etc.
Work on reels?
Go on vacation to wait it out?
Shoot stuff on spec?
Clean the office…We’ve been somewhat slow and are doing a bit of all of the above, with the exception of the vacating.
We’ve redone our website, put together pricing packages, tried to master google adwords/youtube video promotions, met with anybody that we can buy coffee, messed around with new software (adobe anyone?), redesigned our biz cards, more meetings, and now I’m seriously considering trying to do some sort of youtube shoot just for kicks – oh, and there’s always the 5 times a day checking to see when we’ll Epic – which will solve all of our problems (hahahaha).
Love to hear your stories.
Max
Max Kaiser
Director
Hand Crank Films
https://www.handcrankfilms.comVarious Intel
FCP 7
OS 10.5
RED/XDCAM/7D -
8 Replies
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When you are slow you double your efforts to not be slow. Sounds like you are making the most of your time,
Mike Cohen
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Slow times give you time to think, to look around at the more distant things on the horizon, to plan, research and re-think what your next moves should be.
If you’re so busy you never have time to come up for air, you can lose track of what the rest of the business world around you is doing and miss your chance to make advance changes. One day you look up, the crazy pace drops off and you wonder why, wonder there everybody went… and it’s because you were the last guy to see the writing on the wall and everyone else has already moved to the new thing, whatever it is.
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First and foremost we take advantage of the time to clean up a bit and by that I mean our storage, archiving, etc…. We do that as we’re working but stuff does tend to pile up on the SAN when we’re really busy so we try to use slower times to catch up and definitely erase and clean our RAIDs.
We’ll do some internal creative stuff, maybe originals, maybe update the reel, etc….
Obviously schedule time to meet with past and potential clients.
But the cleaning up is priority as we never seem to have enough hours in the day when we’re crazy busy to to get that done.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media -
Max,
It sounds like you are doing the right things. But it takes time… sometime a very long time.
Think of it like farming… You have to cultivate the land, plant the seed and continue to care for and plant. Just because you don’t see the seedling sprouting out of the ground yet doesn’t mean that potentially wonderful things aren’t happening under the ground.
Be patient and keep on going with the watering and development. Over time you’ll learn which activities bear the most fruit and then you can refine your marketing (um, I mean… farming) activities for maximum effect.
Good luck!
Production is fun – but lets not forget: Nobody ever died on the video table!
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Find a good cause and do a pro bono promotional video.
Jason Jenkins
Flowmotion Media
Video production… with style! -
This is what I do when I get slow –
1) get sick to my stomach
2) Solicit, solicit, solicit. Call everyone. Act like you are just getting started in business and contact everyone. Call everyone you know, call all your old clients.You do that for 2 – 3 weeks, and you will have work again – I assure you.
However if you relax, you will soon be with the unemployed masses. Relaxation for the modern business owner is a luxury you will never have. You can have the nice car, the nice house, the great vacation, etc, etc, but you can NEVER EVER relax. Work Work Work (even if the work is soliciting new business) and then die of a heart attack. That is the definition of a successful business man (he was so young to die !).
Even when you are busy, you still solicit. The biggest companies do it – the biggest most successful companies advertise like crazy, even when the money is coming in strong. You never stop.
I often say how lucky I am to remain busy, but I know that it’s because I am constantly tormenting anyone that makes the mistake to call me for anything. “Can I come in and do that work we talked about – so, when are you getting that new edit system – I understand that you are moving – when exactly are you moving ?”.
There is a simple expression to keeping booked –
“stay hungry”.Bob Zelin
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Thanks guys, these are really good posts. Bob, it is hard to imagine you ever being slow, but I’m sure it occurs to all of us. Wait, this sounding like something that can only be fixed in a late night commercial…
Anyhow, these are all great suggestions and here’s to more active times!
Max
Max Kaiser
Director
Hand Crank Films
https://www.handcrankfilms.comVarious Intel
FCP 7
OS 10.5
RED/XDCAM/7D -
First thing I do is catch up on my sleep. Well, after making sure my AdWords account is working right…
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PatrickOrtman, Inc.
Los Angeles Digital Agency and Video Production Company
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