Why Should Video Production Creatives Learn About Business?

Imagine your an amazing cinematographer that has been working on your video production company for the past 10 years, and you were able to get a hold of an Arri Alexa camera. The challenge you have been facing is that you are not very good at business. However, you are an innovative creative that has the ability to produce amazing videos with pristine quality and intriguing stories. With the acquisition of this brand new piece of equipment, how much will this help scale your business?

Now imagine that you take away all of Bill Gates money and trade it with a Canon Powershot SX530 to start a video production company from scratch.

Who would be more successful faster?

Many video creatives are very knowledgeable about their equipment and software. They know the look they are striving to achieve, and have a pretty good feel for what they are trying to capture creatively. The quest of continuing to create a captivating product will often incline them to invest on better equipment. Yet, their attention to another narrative is often neglected. The narrative of business management, growth, and scale-ability.

Why should video creatives learn more about business?

What is your goal? To make as many videos as possible? Ok, then what? What do you do with all of this talent, and who will be interested in what you can do? The undeniable fact is that we need to earn money to make a living. Many have the opportunity to achieve this fact, while doing something that they love. In order to make an income on what you love doing you have to be able to sell your product. In order to spend more time doing what you love you have to scale your business.

Now when we start talking about business management, marketing, hiring, and training, many become overwhelmed. They feel the inability to understand these things, so they just plug away and try to create the best possible product they can. They feel that business just has to many moving parts to understand. How can you change that perspective?

Consider this. Perhaps you could remember the first time you got your first new camera. So many moving parts and settings. Yet, you didn't allow that to stop you from learning about that new piece of equipment. You most likely watched every video you could find on the subject and you even asked other professionals about the matter. Now you are an expert. Even with changes in the industry and changes in technology, you strive to keep up and continue to learn more as things change, and you upgrade.

With business, there is no difference.

Your company is the most powerful tool you own.

So what are some actionable steps you can take today to dramatically improve your business in the next year? In this article we will discuss how you can change your perspective on just 2 commons perceived challenges that creatives may face when it comes to business. Business Management and Marketing. We will use the very skills you already possess to re-frame your outlook on the learning process of scaling a business.

Management

So many things to do. You look at your task list of 100 things, and you just don't know where to start. Yet, there is something that you are already great at that you can use to your advantage. Matter of fact, I would argue that those in the video production business have a special power that could give them an advantage in the business arena. Management.

Management? You shoot an event, and you have footage from 4 cameras and 2 audio tracks. You place them into your editing software, and you end up with 24 hours plus of footage, totaling 240 clips. To many outside the industry they marvel how a finished product was derived from this jumble of information, however, to you, this was not 240 things. This was a few things. Take weddings for example.

You have Bridal Prep, Groom Prep, First Look, Ceremony, Speeches, Dances, Reception, Events, and Dancing. You could no doubt add categories, however you don't have 240 things to deal with, you have 9 things. Even when you add sound design, color correction, and music, you still have a very manageable workflow to accomplishing what you are creating.

In business you do not have a 100 things to do. You have only a few things.

Sales, Marketing, Recruiting, Training, Time & Results Management, Cost Management, Innovation, Systems Management, and Culture.

If you take those hundred things and throw them into a timeline then place each item into one of these categories, you now have a much more manageable process, and a much better narrative of the company as a whole. Please keep in mind that the first time you may have edited a project, you did not know what you were doing. You had to learn it.

By re-framing what you actually have to manage, then build your day, week, and month based on these set of variables, you can dramatically change how you view everything you have to manage. The more you do this, the better you will come.

Try this.

Take everything you feel you have to get done and categorized them based on the criteria mentioned above. Now you have a story. You can even add music if you'd like.

Marketing

After completing the exercise above you may find that a large part of the general story of your business will be lacking. You may find that the category of Marketing will be lacking the attention it needs. This particular category of business can seem to be a challenge for creatives, yet it should be the strongest. Marketing is the story your company is telling. This should not be confused with selling.

Selling is everything involved in the actual transaction of a client. You should buy this apple. It was grown locally and completely natural. It is also the most popular one we sell.

Marketing however, is the process of sparking the interest of potential clients. The story of why they should be interested in visiting your apple farm. Someone two towns over may never had heard of it. Why should they stop by? Marketing is the expansion of your reach.

As a creative, you are absolutely certain you could sell your video production product. You have been working for years on creating an amazing storytelling process, and have all of the equipment to do so. If 100 people could come to your door, you are certain you could sell them your service.

Marketing is the process of bringing people to you. Without marketing, you are relying solely on word of mouth; which is important, but slower. You invest in better equipment to increase the quality of your product faster. You invest in marketing to increase the number of people seeing this product.

Now there are hundreds of ways to Market, and the purpose of this article is to stress how important it is to invest in Marketing. As a video production company, you also have an advantage. YOU HAVE ALL OF THE EQUIPMENT! (Sorry for yelling) You can do for your company for free, what other companies have to pay for. Just like that new piece of equipment, take time to learn about marketing.

Learn about Business

Like learning about new cameras or cinematography techniques, business is an essential skill that should be learned in order for your business to be a success. In future articles we will explore more categories of business, and how you can change your perspective so that you view it as a priority while enjoying the process.

The one constant is that technology will always change, however the fundamentals and principles of business will not. You can learn about business from Benjamin Franklin to Bill Gates. You can learn from large companies to small companies. The amount of knowledge regarding business and leadership far outweigh the amount of knowledge on technology.

Bill Gates was around during the cutting edge of technology. So was everyone else. It was his business savvy mind, not his knowledge of technology that scaled his company above all else, and was the direct result of him becoming the richest man in the world. That of course is not the goal, or the point. Business is much more important to master than technology. Business is a skill that will amplify your passion, and allow you to do more of what you love.

Bill Gates is no longer the richest man in the world. Why? Because he has spent the last 20 years giving it all away to things he believes in. That is his true passion. His knowledge of business allowed him to focus on his ultimate passion of using technology to help others.

Business can do the same for your company. Whatever your ultimate passionate about doing, allow your knowledge of business help amply that passion.

Take the time to learn.

Go get it.