[Mick Haensler]

Hey Dave

I’m still waiting to freak

Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media

[Mick Haensler]

This is an interesting thread. Last year I started doing legal work for a few court reporting firms as a “bread and butter” income producer. Both of the firms I did work for are extremely happy with my services and have given me great testimonials. With the economy, work has slowed dramatically and I want to start marketing to more firms. So aside from an email blitz to the gazzilion court reporting firms in my service area. How should I market my product? Cold calling? Any and all suggestions are much appreciated.

Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media

[Mick Haensler]

Thanks David. I like your thinking on this. Up until now I’ve been able to avoid this aspect of business because most of my work is corporate for DVD production, or the client had a competent IT person who could do the encoding. But times being what they are, the more I can do in house, the more I can be a valuable asset to my clients. I look forward to seeing your example.

Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media

[Mick Haensler]

Thanks guys. You both answered different parts of my query. I’m going to give them an H.264 file to start with though something tells me they’re going to need an actual FLV file. At which time I’m going to have to make the decision to get Squeeze and have the ability to give clients anything they want. I really don’t want to learn a new program right now. I’ve spent the last week delving into the minutia of Motion.

Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media

[Mick Haensler]

Has anyone noticed that Walter and Grinner are starting to look a lot alike….I’m afraid…

Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media

Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media

[Mick Haensler]

Todd

I secured it with my house. I’ve been blessed to have gotten a huge old home for next to nothing ten years ago. I did most of the restoration myself which built a ton of sweat equity. Even with the downturn in housing prices lately, I was able to get a liberal line of credit. Even with the business line AND a personal line of credit, I still have $75,000 in clear equity. Right place at the right time I guess. Both my wife and I have our businesses out of the home which accounts for over one third of the total square footage keeping our overhead extremely low. Our debt to income ratio is very good which I think was key to securing a liberal line at 4.75%.

Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media

Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media

[Mick Haensler]

Another route to consider is a secured line of credit. This is how I financed my business last year. Like Walter’s strategy of long loan terms to keep the payments low, most lines of credit will allow you to pay interest only if times get lean. Just make sure you bump that back up when things get better.

Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media

[Mick Haensler]

How big a ticket are we talking. To me, 6 grand for my EX1 and a tricked out Macpro was pretty big ticket. For others that’s a drop in the bucket.

Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media

[Mick Haensler]

Some great advice here. I firmly believe niche markets are the way to go and is how I’ve built my business. If you want to stick with church work AND do some creative storytelling with great opportunity, there are several sites which you can market independent shorts for ministry and split the take with the web site. Clips generally cost between $20 and $40 a download. Popular clips can experience hundred and in some cases, thousands of downloads. I know of a few church media departments that fund their operation through making indie shorts for this market and several freelancers that make some decent residual income from this.

Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media

Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media

[Mick Haensler]

![Mark Suszko] “Thanks Mack, er, Mike”
Well played Lad!

Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media