Video Production Business Success and Growth

1. About Your Instructor: I'd like to tell you a little bit more about me. So you feel confident learning for me about video production? My name is Ali, and I own a well established video production company. I went to film school and before that, spent several years working in the marketing and broadcast industry. I put this course together because I want to give people who are ready to take their video careers to the next level, the tools and information they need to do. So I've spent years perfecting my value pitch, working with clients and getting their feedback to make sure they're happy, referring me more work and hiring my company again. All help save you tons of time and money. So you're not wasting your own time trying to figure this stuff out. Over the years, I've worn tons of different hats in this industry, including shooting, editing and sound all the way to sales and marketing. I've learned from the best of the best and been fortunate enough to pick up the inside scoop when it comes to what big marketing agencies air looking for in video. I've learned what it takes to make a living in this industry, and I'm so excited to share industry tips and valuable information with you so that you, too, can become successful and make money in video production. 2. How to Succeed in This Course: to make the most of this course and really see results be engaged, take notes, watch lectures over again and ask questions. We've designed this course, the homework and quizzes as a guy to really help you build the habits you need to become successful in video production and make more money. I encourage you to reach out to us through the course comments and ask any questions you have related to video production. We have a team of video experts ready to answer your questions. Also, let us know where you're from and what area video you'd like to build a career in. This course is a guide to the business side of video production and will include a lot of great information for you to apply to your own start up business or freelancing career. You've already taken the first step to becoming more successful in video production by signing up for this course, so let's dive in 3. Which Area of Video Will Make You the Most Money : What type of video do you want to do? Decide what area video your best at on where you can make the most money based on your experience so far? Because guess it's great to build experience and meet different people through working various types of video. But for you to become truly successful, you need to market to your clients in your niche. Don't get me wrong. It's great to gain experience and meet new people from working in different areas of video . And this is something I'm not saying toe Ever stop but spend your time and your energy marketing and focusing on becoming an expert in one area video. People love to brag and really believe that they've hired the best person for the job. So even if you're not, it doesn't matter. As long as your client believes you're an expert, you'll get recurring jobs. Once you have experience and video, determine which area you want to become an expert in what area video do you have the most experience in Spend your time marketing money and energy on one area video to become known as the expert in that industry? Be confident and believe you're an expert and others will, too 4. Why You Need to Wear Multiple Hats: wearing multiple hats keeps you from getting bored. You're always learning and having the ability to discover new hidden talents in yourself. It's really good to be an expert in one thing, like being a great cinematographer, but be good at a few things. Most people in video production know how to shoot video, edit and record sound well. And this is beneficial because recording great video will help you have a great edit. Knowing what kind of clips you need as an editor will help you be a better shooter. And knowing how to record good quality sound will make the video strong and professional. Being multi talented and video allows you to appeal to a larger amount of clients. If someone's looking for motion graphics, shooting and editing, you have a much better chance of growing your client list and broadening your revenue stream. Wearing multiple hats keeps you from getting bored. You're always learning and discovering hidden talents. Knowing different areas of video will help you be better at the area video. You do eventually decide to focus on 5. What to Expect Working in the Event Video Industry: here are the five areas in video that you can make a great career in event videos. Event videos are great if you're starting out because you don't need a ton of experience or a ton of fancy equipment, and you get to meet really awesome people because usually when you're shooting an event, it's gonna be a band or keynote speaker or celebrity, and you get to network with some really fantastic people. The other great thing about events is that they happen year round, the hours air, usually all over the place. So if you like flexibility in your schedule, you definitely are going to get it. Shooting events. Shooting events is also fantastic because you actually get to experience what the person who paid a ton of money for a ticket to go to that event experiences while you're there and when you're editing the video and you get to shoot all sorts of events. People have conferences during the week. Nightclubs have events on weekends and evenings. Concerts happen anytime. Really, this is fantastic because you're getting the opportunity to see all sorts of different performances and speakers, and it will fit any schedule you can decide to do purely weekday events. You can work on weekends at workshop shooting events or in the evening. It's really up to you. If you're shooting events, you have the opportunity to shoot all over the world. So if you love, flexibility and schedule the opportunity to go anywhere across the world, then definitely consider shooting events as your video career. There isn't a ton of preproduction when you're shooting an event, either you show up, you know ahead of time what you're shooting. You usually know how long ish the video delivery is gonna be. So if you're the type of person that doesn't love a ton of pre planning and you also like kind of running, gunning it and capturing what needs to be captured, which is pretty obvious when you're an event than shooting events is definitely for you. Some of the downfalls to shooting events are that usually it's pretty long hours, and there's not a ton of creativity involved. If you've shot one event, you've shot him all. You set up a tripod, you have a few different angles. He captured the audience and whatever's happening on stage, and that's pretty much it so it can get a little boring. And when you have to go back and edit that afterwards, it's not usually the most exciting thing in the world to do the event. Video industry the good. You don't need a lot of experience or equipment, so this is a great area video. If you're starting out, you often get to meet and cover celebrities, bands and keynote speakers. You'll have a flexible schedule. You'll get to experience the show and performance and get paid to do it. And there's not a lot of pre production the not so good in the event video industry. It's often extremely long hours. You have limited creative control, and the work can be quite TV ist. 6. What to Expect Working in the Corporate & Commercial Video Industry: We've discussed the corporate and commercial areas and video production as the same industry in this course. While they are separate industries, they do share a lot of similarities from a client lead generation perspective. The same knowledge can be applied as you grow in these two fields and land larger clients and jobs. They will start to separate in terms of the scope off the projects commercials on the high end side, typically or source through advertising and marketing agencies. While corporate will generally consist of contacts from within the corporation, as you're starting out, your commercial projects will more than likely also consist of contacts from within the company. Due to the smaller scale of the projects, corporate and commercial work is a fantastic line of filming to get into for many different reasons. You can pitch ideas to corporate and commercial clients, and if they're good ideas, usually they're going to take them. So you get to decide how much this project's gonna cost, what it's gonna look like as long as it's following their brand and representing their company well, they're busy people and you're providing them great ideas for fantastic content that you can actually shoot. It's also pretty cool that you get to use your expertise and your visual marketing tool, which is video toe help. Take that brand to the next level. Corporate and commercial video work is also a lot more controlled than, say, an event or music, video or wedding. You know exactly what you're shooting ahead of time. There's a lot that goes into pre production to make sure that your client feels very comfortable with what's gonna be taking part on the day. And you and the clients spend a lot of time thinking about who you're going to be targeting with this video, what the feel of the video is going to be on where it's going to be shown. This area of filming requires more expertise, a lot of pre production and post production dealing with clients a lot closer than you would for, say, an event and expertise. So as your experience level grows as your kit grows, so will your opportunity to make more money. Working in corporate, commercial, corporate and commercial clients usually have bigger budget, sometimes way bigger budgets. Then say someone you're shooting an event for a couple. You're shooting a wedding for When you're on a stage in your career, where you have the experience and you know the right people and you're ready to shoot corporate and commercial work, it's great because you can really focus on what you're best at. If you're a cinematographer and you're fantastic with lighting, then you can focus on that when you're shooting a corporate and commercial shoot. Because shooting corporate and commercial work is more advance and you need more experience to do this by this stage in your career, you've probably figured out what your best at, and this is very important because on commercial and corporate shoots, there were going to be people doing different things. You're probably not going to be shooting, editing, taking care of sound lighting, running cables. The good thing about this is you get to focus on what your best at now don't get me wrong. There still are corporate gigs, better, more running gun that you might be doing everything on. But as your skill set grows and as your network of people grows, you'll fill throughout those jobs. You'll get to focus on what you're best at and depending on the types of clients you're working with, you'll be making as much or more as you would when you were starting out and you were shooting event and doing everything on your own. You're most likely to make more money, specifically doing one thing that you're really good at. As you start working with corporate clients and bigger budgets, you're also gonna have the flexibility to hire out different staff. So with your experience working with different sound people, different camera people, you're going to learn who you work best with who will do a good job. So they're impressing the clients and representing you well, and they get to be the experts in the part of video production that they're best at. You get to be the expert in the area that you're best at. It feels really good to see a commercial that you were part of shooting on TV or to see a promotional video from a big company that you produced. So if you have the experience, if you take pride in being involved in the company's vision and you're looking to make more money than corporate and commercial work is for you. Some of the downfall to corporate and commercial are that often times you are working with a company, so they may have very, very specific and structured ideas for how the video you're producing and shooting is gonna look. And depending on the client and the company you're working with, you may not have a ton of flexibility to shoot creatively or to get certain shots and show them in the video that you know will look really good because they have an idea already of what they want their video toe look like. Oftentimes, you're not dealing with just one individual, which can be great. But there's usually a ladder of people in the corporate commercial world that your video has to be approved by before you can send it off as a final delivery. This area video is a lot more time intensive. There's a lot more preproduction involved when you're shooting with corporate and commercial clients. There's also a lot of scripting. There may be story boarding and post production, although you may have planned perfectly for it usually will have some kinks in it before you can deliver your final product. When it comes to budgeting, you're not dealing with an individual. You don't have to feel bad if you're charging what you're worth, but you know that person might not be able to afford it, because when you're working in corporate and commercial, you're working with companies who have allotted budgets, that they're four marketing and four video. You're dealing with a company. It's a lot easier for someone representing a company to say our budgets between 10 and 20,000 and you determine how you can work within that budget to fulfill all their needs. Then working with an individual or a couple or someone who's hosting an event who may have and usually do have more financial restrictions, the corporate or commercial video industry, the good. You can pitch concepts to these clients that they often go for. If the idea is good, you work closely with clients. They're bigger budgets. Corporate and commercial work is often planned out and structured. It's very rewarding to see your work on TV. The not so good Ah, lot of preproduction usually goes into corporate and commercial work. You often have to go through a ladder of people for approvals. You don't usually have much creative control in the corporate and commercial industry 7. What to Expect Working in the Music Video Industry: music videos are awesome for a lot of reasons and not so great for others. You are the band or artist come up with an idea of how the music video is gonna look, but you have creative control over how the shots are going to come out. And usually bands and artists have some really cool ideas and give you a lot of free range when it comes to how the video is going to be shot. If you're a creative person and you have a lot of big ideas that music videos are for you. Music video still require a lot of preproduction because you're working out how you're gonna bring this video and this band's image toe life. But the great thing is, when you're working with music videos, there are tons of crazy ideas that may never have been shot before that you get to be a part of, and oftentimes working with bands and artists. They'll trust you when you tell them shooting in a certain way will look really awesome. Or having more locations will really add production value to the video. The turnaround time on music videos is usually pretty quick, and the reason is because you don't have to record audio 99% of the time for music videos. The audio is gonna be put in during post, so you really get to focus on capturing really stunning, beautiful visual content during preproduction and music videos. It's important to sit down with the artist or band and really go over what they're trying to say with their lyrics and their music, so that you can identify the story and the field they're trying to tell with this song and how you can bring it to life. Don't be afraid to sketch, storyboard and share your ideas with the band, because shooting music videos and bringing them to life is really a creative process, and your expertise condemn definitely make the video that much better. Music videos are awesome to be involved in, but on the other side of things, there's usually a pretty small budget tied to music video. Oftentimes, especially if you're newer in the video industry, you're going to be working with new bands. Bands that are unknown have been on the radio and may never be on the radio, and they're probably going to come to you and ask you to give them a deal or do it for free or do it for a discount and for tickets to their shows. And that's great if you like the type of music there in, but it doesn't pay the bills. So keep in mind if you're not working with huge established bands with big budgets, and you're not really well known in the video world Music videos, maybe something you do for fun. But it shouldn't be all you're doing when you're doing video, because you're not going to make a lot of money doing it. The music video industry the good. You have a lot of creative control. This is a fun industry to work in. You meet very cool people. The turnaround time on music videos is pretty quick. Most of the time you aren't recording audio so you can focus on capturing amazing footage. The not so good when you're starting out and unless you're working with big bands, you're usually working with pretty small budgets. You may have to do other work on the side to support your passion toe work in the music industry 8. What to Expect Working in the Documentary Video Industry: a documentary is meant to capture something true, something rial that the world needs to hear. So being involved in documentary projects can be amazing. And it's a bonus if you're interested in what the documentaries about typically documentaries, air passion projects. And that means that unless you have investors, you're not starting out with any money. You're starting out with an idea that you feel really strongly about telling the world. So if you're working on the documentary, you're probably the person that's funding it. And a lot of times there isn't a ton of funding that can go into such a thing. So you have to be okay with the fact that you're getting a really important message out, hopefully to the world and that the money may come. But it's going to come after the fact. Hopefully, through film festivals or distribution to TV channels, shooting a documentary can be really cool, especially if it's your passion project. Because you're the boss. You get to decide what you're filming, where you're filming, the problem being that it is your money and your budget. Most of the time, the shooting process could be anywhere from a few weeks to a few years, depending on the content that you're trying to capture for your documentary. And the same goes for seeing any sort of return money wise on the documentary, because it may take a long time and a lot of work to get your documentary into the right hands so that that person can pitch it and sell it. If you're looking to be successful with documentaries, you have to have patience because, sure, you could make a ton of money off a documentary. But it could take months, even years, to see that return. The documentary video Industry The good documentaries are often passion projects. They often cover very interesting subjects and topics. Docks could be featured in film festivals. The length of a documentary shoot can be a few weeks to a few years, which can be a lot of fun. The not so good documentaries are often funded by you. If it's your passion project, making any money off a documentary could take a lot of work. The length of a documentary shoot can be a few weeks to a few years, which is a huge commitment 9. What to Expect Working in the Wedding Video Industry: for a lot of people. Wedding production is where you start out for some shooting weddings is a great starting point so that you can build your experience because you don't need a ton of experience when you shoot weddings. And for others, shooting weddings can be the entire focus on where they generate all of their money from weddings are the easiest way to reach the most amount of people. Because when you're shooting one couple's wedding, there are probably five other couples at that wedding who are planning on getting married, who are watching you to see how you're doing and asking the couple you shoot for if they're happy with the service. So as long as you're doing a decent job and you're keeping the couple happy, they're going to recommend you to their friends that they're getting married. With the exception of a few Bridezillas, this is the happiest day of the couple's lives, so they're going to be happy things. They're going to be easy. You're going to get to eat some awesome food, and when you've shot a couple weddings, the structures pretty much always the same. And when you're shooting weddings, you don't need a ton of equipment you can get away with having a DSLR camera. No mono pod Weddings are a really great area to start out on and video production to build your skills. But there are a ton of professionals who see the benefits and the money that can be made in weddings and make it a full time career. Remember that the couple's you're shooting for usually aren't video professionals, and this is a very personal, very intimate day. So most of the time they're pretty happy just seeing themselves in their grand parents and their special moment on video. There's no script when it comes to weddings, So other than knowing the schedule for the day, there's not very much preproduction that goes into them. And when you're at the wedding, you're capturing whatever looks best in the moment. So it's pretty easy to capture everything that needs to be captured to make your client happy. They might watch this video a few times. It will be very close to their heart because it will show the most important day of their lives. But this isn't a video that's being made toe. Make money for the couple and because of that, there's a little more room for trial and error for maybe not framing something so perfectly and maybe having a shaky shop for a second or two. Obviously, you want to perfect your skills. So even if you're not interested in shooting weddings as a full time career, this is definitely the best area to grow as a shooter. On the other side of things, weddings could be challenging to build a career in, because weddings are often seasonal. This means you'll be working like crazy and making a ton of money in the summer, Let's say and barely shooting at all in the off season's the Wedding video industry, the good. You don't need tons of experience or equipment. You could make decent money. Ah, lot of word of mouth recommendations can come from weddings. This is an intimate video featuring the couple, so most of the time they'll be happy with the final product because they're featured in it . There's not a ton of pre production the wedding video industry, the not so good. Usually you'll only make great money in the wedding season could be very long hours. It can be repetitive and tedious work. Although weddings, air planned and scheduled, they usually run late and often a lot of run and gun moments take place. 10. In Summary: so working in video production allows you the opportunity to work in tons of different areas. But as you gain more experience, and as you become a more successful videographer and shooter, keep in mind that you wanna have a niche on one area that you're really the expert in. 11. About Video Production Insurance: to become successful in the video production industry and make great money. Being a freelancer or starting your own company are your best bets. Both require a very entrepreneurial mindset. Both can be extremely challenging, but also extremely rewarding. Personally, I've done both, and running the company would be my recommendation if you're looking for limitless possibilities. But, ah, lot of time and hard work goes into building a company which ever path you decide to go down. I'd highly recommend getting production insurance with the general liability coverage of two million or more. The cost per year is well worth it. All it takes is one accident to shut your business down are even worse. As a freelancer without any coverage, you could lose your house, car or livelihood. Whichever route you choose, the side based on which one screams out to you the most. Let's look at both options so you can better decide which fits you best. 12. Should You Start Your Own Video Company or Do Freelance? : starting a video production company has a lot of benefits because it allows you the possibility to grow hugely. You can hire people to work with you and eventually for you, following your vision and brand of the company. And when you have other talented video people working for you, you don't have to say no to two shoots happening on the same day. You can also hire people that are better at what you do in video than you are and really take your company to the next level. If you like working in a team dynamic, consider growing your business by partnering up with another person. With an Inc structure, you can utilize each other skills and be much more efficient. You're also protected this way because the company is considered its own entity and therefore you can't be sued personally. When you're first starting out, you'll most likely be a one man or woman machine will be producing, filming, editing and marketing your services. This is normal, and almost everyone starts out like this. As you meet more people in the industry. By doing shoots or networking, you'll find that your network will grow with people that are great in the areas you might be lacking in. This is a great time to team up with other people to join forces. You might meet someone that's great at getting clients and marketing your services. When that area of business isn't your strong suit, you'll both benefit from getting together to focus on growing successfully in video production and becoming more successful a lot sooner. On the other side of things, you may not want a partner or someone else voting on every decision that has to be made. Like most businesses, owning a video production company takes a lot of dedication, long hours and hard work. But it can be extremely rewarding in the long run. Starting a company the good When starting your own company, there's the opportunity to grow hugely. You're your own boss, so you make the rules and don't have anyone to answer to. Starting your own company means it's your idea, your vision and your company direction. You can hire people to work for you and therefore say yes, tome or work. You can partner with someone who has skills that you don't to grow successfully faster. Starting your own company means you have flexibility, you can create your schedule usually, and especially in the beginning. You're working early mornings until late at night. Tow. Avoid the 9 to 5 style job, but you also have the freedom to decide how much or how little you want to do in order to make your company a success. The not so good running your own business is hard work. You're never not working. Even a night off with friends isn't really a night off because you're always be considering your business and be selling yourself as a business owner and you'll need to to become a success. You're responsible for the amount of money your company makes and how much profit comes through, and it takes time to grow a well known business. If you do partner with the co owner, you have to run decisions through him or her, which sometimes works out for the best and sometimes can be a little bit frustrating. If you're a really independent person, being a freelancer will most likely be more appealing to you. Being a freelancer is great if you're looking to do one or a few things and video really well, and if you don't want a leader, train people, but rather work independently. And as you become more talented and build a name for yourself, you'll be in a position where you could be choosier with the clients and people you work with. So if you like working by yourself and will continue to be creating all of the content than the freelance route and building up your name might be for you. Being a freelancer can be tough. You have to find jobs. You have to be very good at building relationships with people and video companies so you can get hired by them again. And if you aren't working, you aren't making money. Being a freelancer, the good being a freelancer is great for independent people. If you have no interest in building a Team B a freelancer, freelancing is great if you're looking to utilize Onley one or a few of your video skills. If you're a cinematographer, you can really focus on being a great cinematographer. So consider this when making a decision on what line of work fits you best. When you're a freelancer, you don't have to deal with getting incorporated finances, paying off staff and so one. As you gain experience, you can become choosier about who you work with. If you like working with certain clients, but not with others, you can choose who to say yes to. And who does they know to. Whereas when you own a company and have bills to pay and staff to provide salaries to, you're more likely to say yes to more jobs and more clients that you don't really want to work with, especially in the first few years. Being a freelancer allows you to have a fairly flexible schedule. In the beginning of your freelance and career, you'll probably be taking most jobs. But you also won't be working every day, so your schedule will be fairly flexible, and you can decide what jobs toe work on and not work on the not so good you have to find jobs, which isn't as easy as you may think. You have to constantly look on Craigslist could g mandy dot com and wherever else you confined video work, you have to be good at building relationships with friends, clients, potential clients, basically anyone and everyone, because anyone and everyone could someday hire you for a video project. If you are working, you're not making money. So if you aren't putting yourself out there and if you don't have connections with other freelancers or clients, you're making no money. You could make $1500 in one day and then not work for a month. This is something to keep in mind. 13. Should Your Name be Your Companies Name : A lot of freelancers tend to use their own name as their business calling card, and this is great if you're very independent and prefer working and managing yourself rather than a team. Remember, if your name is also the name of your business, you're the face of it, and clients will expect you to run the show and be it all the shoots doing the majority of the work, however, for example, a business names such as Ali Saunders Productions might come across a seeming small. Think about any big video production companies you know off. Are any of them a person's name? Clients like to know that you can handle the ideas they have for video, and as you grow, it can be challenging to do everything on your own. If your name is your company name, it will show clients that you just hire help when you need it. Rather than working closely with a creative, cohesive team of talented individuals using your own name as a business name, consider you are your brand, so any good or bad that happens in your professional and even personal life will affect your business. You represent your company, you are your company, so clients will expect you to show up for shoots. And if you aren't showing up for the chutes, make absolutely sure that whoever you've sent out on your behalf will represent you professionally. Using your name can be limiting because it doesn't sound as big potential clients who look up. Your website may assume you're a one man show, and if you are, that's fine. But if you armed, this is something to keep in mind. Usually, clients won't assume that you can handle a big corporate or commercial gig if you're one person. 14. What Should You Call Your Video Company : if you see yourself hiring out people and being Maurin a leadership and management role as you develop your brand than creating a business name is a must think of a name that fits your style while remaining professional names that indicate motion or movement. Future or strength. For example, names that your client how would be proud to associate themselves with having a business name, allows you to market yourself better. You can use keywords within the business name that represent your business, or you can pick a name that works really well for Google searches like including the word video in your name. Your company could be called video production experts, for instance, although that names probably already taken. Also, consider how other people might read the name, ask friends and family their opinion and really consider their feedback. When choosing your business name, pick a name that really suits your style and your ripe a name that you'll be proud of. Use words like motion, our movement keywords that can really relate to video, so people searching for you will understand that you are video company. Pick a name that will work while for Google searches, maybe include the word video in your business name. Think about how other people outside of the video world will read and interpret your business name. Search online for your local business center. Here in Ontario, we have a service called Nuance Search that allows you to easily find out if a business name has already been registered. If you decide on a business name and it hasn't yet been registered, locked down the Web domain immediately. If the Web domains available, purchase it right away because names go fast. 15. Is Your Entrepreneurial Style The Hunter? : are you going out to networking events where you're meeting new people who may be potential clients? Are you making cold calls with big companies and setting up meetings to discuss how you can help market their brand through video? If you love connecting with people and selling yourself, then you're considered a hunter. Hunters will go out and get new clients. Hunters will educate these people on why they need video to market their brands on why they need to hire that hunter to create the video for them. If this sounds like you corporate commercial work, maybe where you want to focus your efforts. These areas of video require building and maintaining their relationship, being persistent and winning the client over and being okay facing rejection because you know you're going to make the sale. Eventually, don't let the nose bring you down. Look at every know as ah, not right now. Your potential clients may not have the budget at the time to do video with you, or they may not have the exact idea as to what video they want to put out. But do not give up on them. If their client that you really want to work with. It takes an average of three attempts to finally get a new client to say yes. So keep that in mind. Don't get discouraged. Persistence is key. You can follow up with them in a phone call every few months. Send them some of your more recent work. The point is that you want to win over the clients, and the best way to do that is to stay on their mind. You're a hunter. If you love connecting with people and educating them about why they need video, you're willing to put yourself out there and really sell yourself. You're persistent. You don't take knows. As knows, you take them as not right now is, and you don't give up on clients that you really want to work with. You find opportunities where most see impossibilities and you really love the hunt. You love meeting new people you love meeting potential clients. You love going to networking events or setting up meetings with companies to tell them why they need video and why you're the right person for the job 16. Is Your Entrepreneurial Style The Farmer? : Do you prefer word of mouth marketing and referrals as a way to get more clients to come to you? Are you really good at looking at clients? You've shot maybe one video four and pitching them a series of ideas to keep them as a client. If you work best by using your marketing material, such as business cards, fliers or ads as a way of planting seeds with people and letting the business come to you, then you'd be considered a farmer. Farmers aren't the people that are going to go to the networking events and really trying get a new client. To be honest, most people have the farmer mentality, and that's fine because it does work. So, for example, instead of you going to a networking event and hunting for your clients, consider showing up at that event with a camera and letting people come to you because you're showing what you dio and these people at the event may very well need video. Keep business cards on you. Ready toe, hand out. Remember to do a great job and be presentable because someone's always watching and the person that's watching maybe a potential client for you. If you're a farmer, then covering events are working with real estate agents may be a great area video for you to focus on at events. Everyone in attendance is going to see that you're behind a camera, and usually there are a few people out events who will need video coverage themselves. So this is an easy way toe lance New leads working with a real estate agent, for example. It's fantastic and can lead toe ongoing work because once you've done one walk through video for a real estate agent and you impress them, you're gonna be doing a lot of walk through videos for them. And once you build a relationship and feel comfortable with that real estate agent and you know their style, you can pitch some other great video ideas, like doing a personality piece that they can showcase on their website and on their social media as another way for them to gain more clients. The former selling cell You're a farmer. If you're great at building and cultivating opportunities with current clients, for example, you'll provide them with great video concepts that will get them or work you prefer using marketing material and receiving most of your work from a word of mouth marketing to get new clients. Rather than putting yourself out there and schmoozing with people till one day, get them as a client, you're good at planting seeds and ideas within your client base so that you can get more video work from the current clients that you have. 17. The Importance of Knowing Your Entrepreneurial Style: determining whether you're a farmer or hunter is important. You really have to be honest with yourself and know your strengths. If you know you're not gonna put yourself out there and sell yourself on what you do to strangers and people, you're just meeting, then really consider that when you're determining what area video you wanna work in. Section summary happy you attract clients. It's very important to determine what your selling style is. And really be honest with yourself, because this will determine if you should be a freelancer or start your own video production company. It will also help you consider whether you should start a company on your own or ask someone to partner with you. Determining you're selling style will help you narrow in on what industry of video you should focus your time and efforts on. So use this information to really key in on what type of work, whether it's owning a business, are being a freelancer suits you best 18. Who is Your Perfect Client : Hi, guys. Welcome back. Now we're gonna take a look at identifying your clientele. Who is your perfect client to become more successful on video? Really think about the qualities that you're perfect client has. This will help you identify who you want to work with and how to target them. Do they trust your video expertise, or did they give you a lot of direction into exactly what sort of video they're looking for ? Do they ask you to do tasks beyond the initial agreement with no additional pay? If so, they're probably not your ideal client. And it might be time to consider spending less energy focusing on them and more time focusing on other areas in the film industry. Do you prefer working with individuals like artists and musicians? Or do you prefer working with companies? Filter out the areas that don't bring you value for your time and focus on the areas that keep you happy. Who is your perfect client? Ask yourself, Does my perfect client trust my video expertise? Does my perfect client give me a lot of direction into what they want? Does my perfect client respect my time? Does my perfect client asked me to do additional tasks without the pay. Really Think about what your ideal client is and isn't. So you know who you should be going after to do work with. 19. Get Your Network to Refer You More Work: look at your network and determine who you can reach out to. That could be a potential client. Looked at the people you know to see who could be on your team to connect you with your future clients and really reach out toe anyone and everyone. One key in keeping yourself on people's minds is offering them referral fees for any video business. They bring your way. We give a $100 referral fee toe Any people who bring us clients for jobs that go through people will go out of their way and refer more if they're rewarded for doing so. Build and maintain relationships with people. Stay fresh in their minds. Be someone they'll be proud to refer to their friends and colleagues. Utilize your network to get more leads. Get people on your team by letting them know that their support as you grow your career is hugely helpful. Tell people in your network the type of video work you do so that when they hear of someone in their network who needs video, they'll think of you and refer. You offer people referral fees so they have even mawr incentive to refer. You stay fresh in your networks mind by checking in and letting them know you do video 20. Mastering Your Value Pitch: master your elevator pitch. I like to call the elevator. Pitch your value pitch because that's really what it is. Having a good value pitch is one of the best ways you can sell your services. People connect with other people in person the best. So your elevator pitch should be simple, concise and effective. Knowing what to say when people ask you what you do and knowing how to get people interested in hiring you for video projects is extremely important. As you become more successful in video and will definitely help you become more successful , make your pitch short under 30 seconds because nowadays people have a very short attention span. Be simple, using fancy words and terminology to try and come off as an expert in what you do on Lee confuses people who aren't in your line of work. Being simple is more effective. Consider who you're speaking. Teoh. If you're speaking to an entrepreneur, you can let them know I create videos that help businesses get Mawr clientele and make more money. If you're speaking to an organizer of a charity, you could say I create videos that bring awareness to not for profits so they get more funding. Think about who you're speaking to, what they need and want, and let them know how video can help them get it. Remember, when it comes down to it, everyone and every business needs video. Some examples of effective value pitches are. My company provides video marketing to companies making five figures a year and helps them make six figures a year. My videos will take your YouTube channel subscribers from 1000 to 10,000. Of course, thes claims need to be true. So staying contact with your clients and try to track their results so you can share success stories to use when pitching potential clients. Knowing what to say when people ask you what you do will build interest and help you get more clients. Having a concise value pitch will help you easily explain what you do. Consider what your potential client needs when explaining what you do. Be clear and you'll be memorable 21. Pitching Companies to Grow Your Client List: pitch companies. A great way to get clients and form new relationships is to come up with concepts and pitch them. Look at a company or person who you're interested in working with and write a proposal for a video or Siris of videos that could really help showcase the thing that makes their company unique and wonderful. Do your research by calling the company and asking to speak with the marketing director. Get his or her email address and send them a proposal and your intention on working with them. Pitching to clients gives you total creative control and can fulfill any that they have, like showcasing the charity work they support or sending out a thank you video to their own clients. This doesn't take a ton of time, maybe a few hours or so to come up with a concept, and from there you can use that as a template to form other proposals for other companies as well. How you're perceived is extremely important. You want to come off as the professional as the expert, so get used to doing research to be able to speak the language of your potential client, use terms, phrases and keywords that are specific to their industry. The more you can connect with them, the more they believe you're the right person for the job pitch. Potential clients to get more work, come up with video concepts the clients and companies would benefit from. Find out who the marketing director of the company is that you want to pitch to through linked in or by calling the company and asking for the person's contact info and email them your video proposal. This shows potential clients that you're eager to work with them and that you're willing to go above and beyond, and it gives you an opening to build relationships with the intention of getting more work . 22. How to Get More Work: there are a ton of ways to get paid work in video production. Check out Craigslist and K G because a lot of companies looking to hire freelancers will post Job adds up there, as well as companies looking toe. Have videos created for them. Contact people and follow up after you contact people. Even if they aren't in a position to hire you today, that doesn't mean they won't be down the road, so connect with them through email or phone call every few months. I have a rule. I connect with people every season. I send Christmas cards and thank you cards as a point of contact to stay fresh in their minds. Remember, everyone is a potential client, so let people know what you do and how you can help them and their business through video partner with companies that may overlap what you do, like Web design companies or branding companies. Oftentimes, these companies clients will also need video, so form relationships with them and work out a way that you can both give their clients what they need and so you can get your name out there and become more successful in video production network go to events and meet people and connect with them every few months. If they do show an interest in video work, Networking and event is a great way to meet fellow entrepreneurs and business people. You'll be surprised at who will be your next video client and how you'll meet them. Connect with everyone on set, hand out your card, add them to Facebook or send an email and say, Great working with you because everyone on set may need to hire a videographer or know someone who does. Most of my jobs have come from doing this. Everyone on set also could be additional crew that you hire out on jobs. But be mindful of handing out your card on set. If you've been hired to represent another company, you're out there representing them in their company, and it may look like you're trying to steal clients. This is a very small industry, so keeping a great reputation is extremely important. If you want to get hired again, worked with other great video people and keep great clients how to get paid work, check out Craigslist. Could G and mandy dot com. Because film jobs, air always being posted on these websites connect with potential clients every season to keep fresh in their minds partner with other companies that can refer or offer your video work to their own clients. Network with everyone. Because remember, as you're learning through this video, everyone is a potential referral or a potential client. Connect with people on set because they get hired for shoots and those shoots may need your services. 23. Where to Find Your Clients: go to the places your clients will be at if you're going after entrepreneurs go networking events. If you're looking to get corporate clients goto home shows or places that your potential corporate clients may have a booth set up often you'll actually meet the Who's who with these shows and, at the very least, meet the right representative of that company to give you the contact info off the big decision maker. If you're looking to gain real estate agents to shoot walk throughs of homes, go to real estate conferences. If you're aiming on shooting music videos, go to small and big concerts and chat with the band if you can, or chat with the people who look like they're in a band, because they probably are. If you're going after commercial clients, go to creative agencies and set up a meeting so that you can introduce yourself and show off your great work. Go where your clients will be. Really think about where your potential clients and current clients go to find more work themselves or to show off their products or services. Go to home shows, events, marketing award shows, creative agencies anywhere that you will be able to connect with people remember, it's not just what you know. It's who you know 24. Think Outside the Box: talk to at least one new person every day about what you do and be sure to have a business card handy. Although keep in mind, connecting on Facebook or through email is probably the best way to touch base with your potential client. Handing out a business card shows your professionalism, and it's pretty much a professional standard practice. You never know where your next client is going to come from. It could be your sister in law's cousin. It could be a person you're standing in line behind at the Starbucks. I have literally gained a client from chatting with someone in a lineup like this. So always take the chance to mention what line of work you dio. I've made it a habit to tell at least one new person a day. What I do, give it a try for 30 days and you'll definitely get some leads. Plus, sitting behind your laptop all day, hoping someone will call isn't going to magically make new clients appear? You have to go out, dress up a little bit and connect with new people. Make it a habit of telling just one new person a day that you create video content, and you'll be amazed at the connections you'll make and the work you'll gain from it. Think about it. If you tell just one person a day that you work in video by the end of the month, that's 30 new people who know you do video 30 possible word of mouth referrals and 30 possible clients. And the great thing about this is that it will prepare you for your bigger meetings with their clients. You'll be a lot more comfortable talking about what you do and how you can help clients and companies than if you tell only one person every few months that you're doing video. So the one gentleman I met were in the line at a bank. We started chatting about what he does, what I do, and I found out he was a real estate investor and when he found out I did video, we built her relationship right there, and he's actually become a very good client. If I hadn't have been willing and open to talk to people in settings that I may not think I'd find clients, I never would have met him and have actually gotten a few referrals from him. So really, keep in minds that your next potential client can be anywhere. Think outside the box, really challenge yourself. If you want more success, you need to change something that you're currently doing. Or, in this case, maybe not doing so. Tell one person a day what type of video you do. Find a way to bring it into the conversation wherever you are even. Consider striking up a conversation with someone in line at a store. Everyone's a potential client, and everyone may need video. You never know where your next lead or client will come from. 25. Your Clients Experience is EVERYTHING: it's no longer about business to business. It's person to person. Always think about how your clients are experiencing working with you. Remember, they probably aren't as technologically advanced as you are. So, of course, it's silly to expect them to understand everything about resolution, the importance of good sound and lighting, and all the other fine details that go into producing great quality video. If they're struggling to try to view a reference video, you send them, find ways to make that process as easy as possible for them. Don't send them a three gigabyte video that they have to download off a site that isn't easy to navigate around when it's way easier for them to click on a private link and view a video in a much more convenient wait. People don't have time to decipher how to do things like use new websites, enjoying the website to view their video. And they shouldn't have Teoh treat your business just like an app that isn't easy to navigate. You get super frustrated with it and stop using it, so make sure that you keep that in mind when working with clients. Make sure the clients experience with you as a seamless and convenient as possible on their end. Be clear from the beginning about the length of time you estimate a shoot to take how long the edit will take to be delivered and where Adam costs may come up. Talk about how payment works for you, whether you receive full payment after the final edit is delivered or deposit be up front about timelines for your expectation on delivery and payment. If you're going to have delays with the edit, let your client know immediately keep your word. If you tell your client they're going to have their edit at the end of the week. Honor that. And if you can't let them know you're working hard on their video on working on the final details and that they'll have by Monday instead, just be sure to communicate. The worst thing ever is having a client that's left wondering when they're going to get their video. This concomitant is unprofessional, and you're less likely to get hired by them again. Established how Maney edit revisions your client will receive ahead of time and a cost for additional edit revisions, because if you don't the request continuous changes and the project won't be worth the money your clients experience is everything. It's no longer business to business. It's person to person. Always think about your clients experience, from pre production to post production all the way from your voicemail greeting toe. How long you take to respond to emails. Keep your word because your word is your honor. Communicate with your clients about timelines and add on costs to ensure they're happy and understand where their money is being spent. 26. Keep Existing Clients: Once you've built a relationship with a client and delivered great quality work to them, the hard part's over. Now that you know this, clients values and style keep the client by proposing other video ideas that will fulfill their needs. Check in every few months with a phone call to ask how the video has brought in business for them, this is a great way to basically just keep fresh in their minds and show that you really do care. Ask your clients for feedback on your services. People love giving their opinions and helping out, especially if you did a great job for them. Ask your clients what aspects of your services from pre to post they were really happy with and what areas you can improve on to deliver even better service to them next time. I used to send first revisions of videos to clients to review through Dropbox, so they'd have to download the video. And if they didn't have a DROPBOX account, they often found a confusing or frustrating to go through Dropbox. It wasn't until I asked a client how the review process of our videos waas that I found that it was a bit annoying for her to download reference videos. Now I host reference videos on a password protected Web site. They can easily review the video using a personalized password, and I've gotten a lot of positive feedback from this method of reviewing. Identify what problem your client has within their company. Maybe they need more people to understand what their company does. Maybe they need exposure in general. Maybe they need to show the world the good deep they're doing to support the community. Whatever it is, find it out and give them a solution that can be offered through video. Make sure you find out what their vision is for their first video. Some clients know exactly what they're looking for and just need a great videographer to shoot and edit it. Other clients will know they need some sort of visual content, but won't be sure of how their message or stories should come across. This is where you get to put your creative hat on and help them realize who they're targeting and how to effectively show the world who they are and what they can do in video . In video production, it's all about creating content that speaks to your clients clientele. Do your research and really understand who their client is. Understanding your clients client is key Keeping existing clients Now that you know your client, pitch them on more video ideas based around their values and needs. Check in with existing clients to keep fresh in their minds and show you care about the video that you've created for them. Ask for their feedback on your services from pre deposed to show you care and so you can learn valuable information on how you conserve them. Better identify your clients problems so you can solve them with video. Think about your client's needs in order to provide the best service possible to them. Make sure you understand what your client needs and wants when it comes to video and find out from them who they target, who are their clients. 27. Quote Like a Pro: quoting a client can be tough, especially if you're new to video production. The idea here is to charge your true value. After you have a portfolio, you'll become successful a lot faster. If you devote yourself to a few free projects in your first year to build your portfolio from there, you'll understand much more about what types of services specific industries require. And then it will become clearer as to how you can provide what they need and at what price cost of driving to and from the shoot location, the amount of time you'll spend filming the cost of all the equipment you've already paid for. Cataloguing footage, editing, color, correcting, audio, mastering and so on. All of these things add up when you do have experience and know what your clients air typically looking for in a video. Determine how much your time is worth and be ready to provide your clients with an itemized list so they can see how the budget adds up. Every industry is different, and you'll find that some industries such a shooting independent music videos will have, on average, very small budgets toe work with, if any on the other hand industries like corporate can have big budgets. However, you'll have to follow and shoot for their specific company and brand, and will often have less creative control. If you're okay with that aimed towards landing corporate clients, build your real to market yourself as a corporate and commercial shooter. If you like working on events or your contacts, tend to have projects that arm or event focused than place your focus towards that industry . Once your brand is established after a few months and you've narrowed in on a specific industry would like Toa work in start creating some basic rate cards. You don't have to share them with your clients, but it will help you figure out your worth. You don't get paid a salary, so you need to consider the overhead costs, such as wear and tear on your car, the cost of your studio Internet or your production insurance. The list goes on and on. If you do have leads on corporate commercial jobs, the budgets will most likely be decent, so you'll be able to provide them with a larger cost for the production. In other words, think about your numbers based on the industry then from there, quote the project. I think realistically about how much you want to make per year and how much you can make based on your level of experience and clientele. Setting up yearly goals for how many clients you need and what you need to be quoting them will help you stay in check and on track with how much money you need to make in a year. With modern accounting software like QuickBooks or fresh books, you have the ability to send out estimates, which are easily turned into invoices for your clients. This also gives you the ability to set specific rates for your services, like your rate for one day on set or for a one minute video at it, and so on. This accounting software and establishing your rates will make quoting much more efficient and save you a lot of time. Keep in mind you should also incorporate additional costs, like parking are other out of pocket expenses to your estimates or quotes. Build your overhead costs into your quotes. Consider. Consider other expenses that go into creating a great video for a client. The cost of Internet to upload a video, the cost of gas and wear and tear on your vehicle when getting to and from a shoot the cost of cataloguing and importing footage, the cost of exporting video, the cost of graphic in frozen out rose and so on. Really think about all of the time and the tasks that you're doing to create a video for a client and consider this one quoting them. 28. Professional Practices Your Client Expects You To Take: contracts are must asking your client to sign a contract can be daunting, but your clients, especially when working with big budgets, will appreciate your professionalism. And having a contract sets expectations on both ends. When I first started working with clients, I didn't ask them to review and sign a contract. And as my relationship grew with a particular client, she actually ended up telling me she was surprised and felt like I had left the exchange of services of payment a little too casual. Remember, you are your business, and professional businesses have contracts if you want to be taken seriously. As a professional, professional, practices like contracts are necessary. Contracts are also a safety for you. They protect you and your business. They also outlined timelines for deliver bols and payment structure and ensure you and your client are accountable. Personally, I don't like to use the term contract. It feels a little too formal and unfriendly. I prefer to use the term agreement because it's warmer and it indicates an exchange of trust between me as a service provider and the client. Asking your client for a nonrefundable retainer is a must. The particularize of your retainer like how much you required to secure the shoot date should be outlined in your contract. The retainer initiates the contract and work commences. It guarantees that the shoot date is secured so you don't have to worry about cancellations of shoots and losing out on other paying opportunities when working with first time clients . Retainers also create a financial commitment between both parties toe work together. And if the retainer is nonrefundable, the client will think twice about canceling. In most cases, we require a 50% retainer, especially when working with a new client. 29. Video Equipment Intro: Let's talk about equipment while equipment you need in your kit, where you should spend your money and where you don't necessarily need Teoh Onley by the essentials needed. You can become more successful by simply not spending all your money on equipment that you don't really need. If you do need to rent any gear, remember that something that you can charge the client for. Spend your money wisely. You don't need to buy everything all once rather slowly build your kit Onley by what you need. Equipment is expensive, and although you can write it off, buying equipment still means money out of your pocket. Do your research before purchasing things to really determine what equipment will fit you and give you the best bang for your buck. Also, go to camera stores and test out the equipment to make sure it's really the right fit for you. If you need to rank your you can always add that to your clients. Quote. So that's something to keep in mind in this section will give you suggestions as to equipment that is worth investing into. All right, let's get into it 30. The Right Camera Body for You: spending a lot of money on a camera body is a big misconception. Onley. Other industry people will judge you, and that's a relevant because they're the clients paying your bills, do your research, read reviews and comments online and pick a camera body that really fits your needs. You don't need to go out and buy a $70,000 camera to be successful in video production. Instead, spend less than $5000 look for specific features in the camera features like four K internal recording, slow motion recording, mic input and headphone output. The other features aren't really important unless you're working with massive budgets and in that case, rent the cameras or the gear you need. Do your research and read reviews online to ensure you're getting the right camera body for your needs. Look for specific features like four K recording, slow motion and headphone input. If you need a very expensive camera body for a huge shoot, rent it 31. Your Must Have Lenses, Mounts and Adaptors: lenses. I think just picking up a 24 to 72.8 lens and work your way up from there. This lens makes it really easy to get a wide shot and zoom in for a closer shot. Next, a 72 202.8. From there, start to build your prime lens kit. Ah, 50 mil. 1.21 point four or 1.8 is great. This will be your go to lens for when there's less light toe work with or you want really shallow depth of field, the next ones to get as an 85 1.4. This is your go to lens for product shots are smaller things where you want very shallow depth of field. This lens, because of the fast aperture, is a great lens for low light situations. Lens adapters are a great way to investing good quality glass and save you from having to keep buying different lenses as you upgrade your camera. If you own a camera with a micro 4/3 type of sensor, for example, I'd suggest buying all Nikon Mount lenses because you can get them very cheap and the quality is good next by a metal bone speed booster adapter. These adapters are great. They'll practically eliminate the crop factor while also adding a full stop of light to any lens. The must have lenses for your kit are a 24 to 72.8 for general shots, a 72 202.8 for tight close up shots of 51.21 point four or 1.8 for shallow depth of field and low light situations. And keep in mind that while you don't need mounts and lens it afters, they give you a lot more flexibility with your lenses. 32. Lighting Gear: you don't need to be a pro in lighting to be successful. You can always hire people who are better than you. But if you're a one person show, I'd suggest picking up to L E D lights and two stands L E D lights air really cheap and surprisingly bright but not harsh. The lights very soft, and the best part is they don't heat up. Look for a couple of 500 watt daylight balanced led lights, and if you can afford it, grab the slightly more expensive ones that you can change the temperature on meaning you can switch them from daylight to tungsten. Start with two L E D lights and two stands by gels to easily change the color temperature or by led lights that have temperature change options as you advance. You can also add a diva to your kit for soft lighting. A 6 50 watt for Nell is another great light for harsh directional lighting 33. Audio Recorders, Lavs and Mics: audio recorders allow you to have more control over your audio, and they capture better quality sound compared to recording directly into camera. A great external recorder is zoom H six. The battery life's great. It gives you XLR inputs, and the dials on the front allow you to quickly alter the volume of the track. Your recording. Laval Ear Mike's Laval Ear mikes are a great way to record better audio in uncontrolled situations. If you currently record with a mini shotgun mic on top of your camera, you should definitely invest in the last mike. I recommend something from Road or Sennheiser. We use the Sennheiser G three Mike, and we've never looked back on. Hte six is great. It's a multi channel audio recorder, and our company's been very happy with it. Laval Ear mikes are fantastic for uncontrolled audio situations. A shotgun mike that you can connect on top of your camera is important to capture clear and more directional sounds. Having the above audio gear will help you create effective videos. That sounds great 34. Invest in a Great Tripod Once: The bottom line here is don't waste your money buying cheap tripods. Spend a little more money once and invest in a tripod. That's good. A few things to look for when buying a good quality tripod are Make sure has a fluid head because you'll need to do smooth pans and tilt camera moves. You could have the best camera in the world, but if you have a cheap tripod, it's gonna show in your footage, and it may even make your footage unusable. Make sure it has a fluid head, because you'll need to do smooth pans until camera moves. Make sure it's light enough to carry, so consider a carbon fiber tripod. Also, the height of a tripod is important, so make sure can adjust toe a taller height. Lastly, the weight the tripod can handle is important, especially when you have a full rig set up such a za monitor, base plate system, Matt box and so on. Tripods aren't something you should cheap out on. Trust me on this one. Spend a little more money now and invest in a great tripod that will last you forever. Keep in mind when picking out a tripod to make sure it has a good, smooth, fluid head for panning and tilting carbon fiber tripods, air light and easy to carry. After a long day shoot, you'll be glad you went carbon fiber. When you're shooting 12 hours and lugging a lot of gear around, make sure you can extend the height of your tripod pretty high. And also consider the amount of weight your tripod can hold As your kick grows. You won't only have a camera body with a huge lens on it. You may also have a monitor, a map box and so on, so make sure your tripod can hold a fair amount of weight. 35. Other Great Gear to Add to Your Kit: it's really easy to get carried away wanting the latest drone er stabilizer. But gear, especially your camera body, is constantly changing. So keep the equipment you have for a while instead of jumping on buying the latest new gear out there. Once you have a kit that includes a camera body, a few great lenses and audio gear, Onley purchase things that will guarantee you mawr income by owning it. Once you can produce great quality, work through what you have and your talent. Stay with it for a while, Remember. Although other film nerds like us may be able to tell that you shot with really shallow depth of field and must have used prime lenses, your average client won't be able to, so instead invest your money in advertising. You won't get more clients if you have the latest camera stabilizer. If the client doesn't even know you exist, do your research and read reviews before purchasing anything. Consider buying lenses, camera bodies and so on, used because this is a great way to save money. And often people in the video industry selling used gear take pretty good care of it. Don't buy the latest camera body as this technology advances all the time. Instead, upgrade your camera body every 2 to 3 years. Spend your money wisely, and once you have a decent kit, spend your money on advertising instead of continually buying the latest gear as you build your kit. Thes air. Great add ons that you can consider buying to make your production better. An external monitor to view what you're shooting on a bigger screen sound Blankets toe. Help Eliminate echo pony clamps to clamp things. Apple boxes toe. Add height to a subject or to sit on for a few minutes when you're taking a break. Gaffer tape to tape marks, headphones, rechargeable double A batteries for audio recorders and laughed. Mike's Double A's were always handy and power extension cables. 36. When Should You Get a Studio Space : Should you get a studio space? This is something that eventually is going to come up for you if you're in video production . If you're in the first few years of video production and you're building a name for yourself, do not spend the money on the studio space because you will probably drown in the overhead . At this stage, it's not worth having this space, but when you build a relationship with some fantastic other people in video production that you're considering having on your team, or you'd be happy to see every day or so in the same space and maybe you're willing to share that space with them, that's the time to consider getting a space until you have recurring revenue. That can support having a studio space hold off, because most of your chutes are going to be on set on location anyway. But when you get to the point that you're strongly considering growing yourself as an individual and potentially growing a team and a business, this is a great time to consider getting a studio space. Having a studio space is great if you're going to take advantage of it, and if it makes sense. If you have a great network of people in the industry that you've considered working with, invite them to your studio space. Maybe invite them to rent part of your studio space to help save on costs, but also give you the freedom to have a space toe. Work out of it will allow you to go from working at home, where maybe you're sitting in your pajamas in front of your computer to getting into a working environment and really take your professional mind to the next level. 37. Make Your Logo Stand Out: branding yourself is so so important. It's as important as the quality of video you can produce if no one confined you or if you come off as unprofessional. Even if you do great quality video, you're not gonna get hired again. So let's look at how to brand yourself for success. Branding starts with identifying how you want people to see you or your company. This may take some time, but it's definitely important and necessary. Mock up some logo designs with the name you choose to represent yourself, then put it down for a week and come back to it. Looking at logos with fresh eyes will really help you decide which one suits and represents your style best. If you prefer having someone else create a local for you, there are a ton of online resources five or dot com is cheap and often provides great results. Another option is to utilize your network by posting on Facebook and asking your friends to recommend logo designers. By doing this, you're letting everyone in your network know that you do video. You take it seriously and you're investing in your success 38. Is Your Website Outdated : you need a mobile friendly website. Everyone knows that you need a website nowadays. But what really matters is that it's mobile friendly, the main reason being as technology advances, more and more people are going mobile and leaving their computers at home to collect dust. The second is that Google changed their search algorithm in the summer of 2015 to exclude websites that weren't mobile friendly. With the increase in mobile searches, you want to make sure that people confined you over your competitors. 39. How to Make a Demo Reel That Gets YOU More Business: have a compelling de Meriel. Make it short no more than two minutes at most, and on point with the industry you want to focus on, put together the best of the best that you and your company have ever filmed or created. The music should be inspiring and upbeat the overall experience and needs to be engaging. Consider. And I highly recommend this hiring a professional voiceover to be heard throughout your demo reel to keep it engaging. Or better yet, cut back and forth from your best clips to you or an actor talking on camera about your company. Post your demo veal on the front page of your website and share it over social media every time you update it. If you're doing anything and everything when it comes to video, it's probably time to narrow in on where you want to focus your time and skills and what types of clients you're looking to attract. If you don't have a clear indication of what type of work you do, for example, your demo reel has everything from wedding footage to music video footage. You're not exactly showing you're an expert in any specific industry. Clients like to trust that you're the best at what you do and that you understand the industry they come from. So determine what type of work you enjoy doing the most and which industry you could make good money and and focus on showing off your best footage from not work in your demo reel using landing pages. Target specific industries that you'd like to work with and create a demo reel specifically for that area. Video production. For example, if you want to target the food industry created demo reel with your best work. That Onley includes content such as restaurant footage, interviews with chefs or food product shots, your landing page to consist of at least 400 words using target herbal keywords such as culinary food preparation, restaurant, video reviews, chef interviews and recipes. Remember, it's always important to do your research. No matter what projector industry you're targeting, you should understand the verb rich, who their clients are and how video will benefit them specifically 40. Optimize Your Reach with Social Media and SEO: social media. Share your work on your Facebook page, your instagram linked in Twitter and so on. It's important to make sure you represent yourself well on these social media outlets because anyone could be your client and also be shirts, delete or hide all of your college party photos because people will be looking at not only the work you do but the type of professionalism you uphold. Use social media to keep consistent in people's minds, post at least weekly, whether it's video, fax examples of video clips or commercials that are done well or, of course, and most importantly, your own work. If you don't have an INSTAGRAM account, create one and post short montages of video clips as teasers for your videos. Even if you have a few clips of creative footage or time lapses, post Thies to keep fresh and consistent in people's minds that you're the go to person for video work. Using social media is a great way to gain clients, advertise your work and showcase your successes. It is so important to be consistent and post video related content on social media. You don't want people saying, I think Joe used to do video, but I haven't seen in post anything in a year or so. So maybe he's doing something else. You want people to bring up your name the second someone mentions to them that they're interested in video. So post post post tree each network differently. The people you reach out to on lengthen will be different than Facebook and different than Twitter. For example, your Facebook network will be more emotional based. Start conversations with similarities you have with the people, because after all your friends with linked in, this is a much more professional platform. So you'll need to find a way to bring that emotional connection into any conversation you have. The goal is to form a connection that both you and your potential client, our current client, can relate to. Make sure toe have social media logos on your business cards to, because this lets anyone you hand your card to know they can connect with you through multiple outlets. Always take behind the scene photos on any production you do and post them to social media as often as you can. Title them with key words and enthusiasm. Post photos that show what you're shooting and post some with you in them, so people see you and associate your face with the video. But remember to clear with your clients before posting. Some clients may love that you're promoting the shoot through Instagram or Facebook. While others may appreciate privacy, you should be trying to establish your brand within just a few key words. For example, if you say social media people think of Facebook because of their marketing, identifying your core keywords and what represents you or your company is essential to your success. Taglines air important as well. They're basically your written elevator pitch. Use keywords and try to form a catchy, unique or clever short phrase that represents what you're doing. Ask clients to give you a written testimonial on Facebook and Google. This is a great way to appear ASIO and have your clients affirm the great work that you did . And if you did great work for them, they'll be happy to write a testimonial. Search engine optimization is so important for you and your business. If you don't know a ton about S e o, invest in someone who does. The money you spend will be well worth it because having great s CEO is gonna bring you new leads and new business content is key. So make sure you have a blogger that you update weekly. Or better yet, have a log because you do video and update your website often. So Google sees its active. And so you get ranked higher on Google Blawg constantly 2 to 3 times for weak. It doesn't have to be long and it doesn't have to be perfect, but it does have to be interesting and informative and somehow relate to your business. Blogging is a great way to show your an expert and a purist CEO. 41. Final Thoughts: you've just learned how to become more successful and grow in video production. Thank you so much for taking the time to watch this course. You've dedicated your time and energy on learning how to become more successful in video production and how to get more clients. If you like this course, please leave a review. And if you have any questions, please write them in the comments section so I could get back to you with some info. 42. BONUS Show Off Your Clients: client logos. Have you ever worked with big clients? If you have brag about it, having logos of the company's you shot with up on your website is the quickest way to show off your level of experience and the trust that big name companies have put into your video skills. Testimonials from clients on your website or awesome and really help connect you to your potential customer. If they know a client you've worked within the past, they'll start to form an emotional attachment and the chance of them hiring you will hugely increase. Make sure your contact info is easy to find on your website. The most frustrating thing for a potential client is not being able to get a hold of you. If you have a studio space, include a map on your contact page. Clearly show your business phone number and email address or use a contact form. If no one can reach you, your company will be missing out on tons of potential new clients