Finding The Right Clients *Music Videos*

business plans are for people with ties.
lol
This industry changes waay to much and fast to make a plan.
If the plan is not to lead or evolve with the industry, you are temporary in this industry.
Outlining where you will be in two years is only for your mom when you're 16 and the bank when you're 26. Once you outgrow debt, you'll outgrow these outlines called plans as well.
 
I only wear t-shirts and I have a business plan. ;-)

I do agree with your part about the debt though, debt is evil and holds too many people as slaves although wives and kids have a tendency to do the same.

Dan
 
Sooo is your plan sunject to change as the industry does?
and wouldnt that just make it a list of goals?
I'd rather bill the hour it takes to type such a thing.

Truth is, this is an entirely different industry than the one I began in 20 years ago. I had some plans back then but I had to work. I'd only be trying to comfort my wife if I pretended to have a plan.
 
Well for me, the plan is three fold and it changes slightly about every month or two. Freelance pays the bills, its great but you work for a few weeks and you have to find more.

Corporate is a nice occasional extra amount of money, especially when decently budgeted ones pop up a few times a year. Great jobs but most of my corporate clients don't do a LOT of video, just 4-5 clients who do 1-3 video projects a year at this point.

On top of all of this is the entertainment program plan we are on for conceiving, producing and selling our own shows to cable and the networks. This last one, unfortunately receives short shrift because it is totally speculative, requires us to spend money and time rather than make it but also seems to have the highest payoff potential. So we keep at it. If we were further along on this portion of our business plan, we would be seeking investors and VC but we are not far enough along yet with scripts, bibles and demos/sizzle reels. We will arrive at that point, barring disaster or life intruding, in mid '09.

So yes, without a plan, we would be floundering and wandering from little project to little project. To me, business plans are an organic, living thing that you tweak and adjust almost monthly, depnding on conditions and opportunities, but nonetheless, you need a plan. Without it, aren't you a rudderless ship?

Dan
 
No. Just aware that it's organic enough that it'll be tweeked enough that actually making a plan is a waiste of my time.
My plan is to create new things, evolve with the industry and be patient with it as it straggles behind me sometimes. Again, I don't see this as a plan so much as an ability to understand I did not choose an industry that can be templated.
This has worked for me for a couple of decades. I imagine it'll work for a couple more.

I do understand the peace of mind that comes from having a sound plan. I just don't kid myself into thinking security is part of this industry. I work from gig to gig and live week to week. Somehow, in supporting a family of five, we've never missed a meal. I think at this point I can start to trust all will be well.
 
Different strokes.

I do agree with you about the security. I book jobs all of the time that cancel, I once was on a roadtrip through the entire southwest, nine states, had been on the road for two weeks and shot 80% of the project when I received a phone call that the client canceled the project. At least got we got paid but it was a bummer.

My main portion of business for the past five years has been DVD. As you know, that business is slowly dying and eventually will die completely as on-line delivery takes over. Not much security in that so that's why I plan for the future. What will I be producing when there is no more demand for DVD bonus material?

Good luck,

Dan
 
????
so what will you be producing?
How will I make my living as an editor once voice activation takes the place between producer and computer?
Artists will always be needed to make good looking propaganda for people with money and no talent.
Knowing this, again, I just have no need for a plan.
lol
 
puredrifting said:
As a business model, trying to get low-end bands to pay you anything is not very practical. You would be trying to squeeze blood from a turnip as the old saying goes.

If you think about this logically, you should be trying to get work from clients who are recession-proof, have high incomes and are willing to spend the money to highlight themselves and their egos. Trying to eke out a living from people who have no money for the most part is a losing proposition and IMHO, you are probably wasting valuable time doing it.

If more people approached video production as a business, rather than an artistic passion, they would be much more successful at it. Sure you have to passionate about what you do but just doing something because you like it is a recipe for having to wait tables or bar tend to make ends meet.

Most of the people I know in this business who are successful at it approach it purely as a business. granted by doing something they enjoy. I used to have a lot of high-end corporate clients and after a few years, I realized that a lot of the extra production values (shooting 35mm film over video, custom scores from composers versus library music, fancy high-concept motion graphics, stunts, explosions, etc.) that I was including, the clients appreciated but didn't really care about. I could have made so much more profit if I would have just met instead of highly exceeded my client's expectations. I was doing all of the fancy stuff for me. Honestly, for the most part, it was a waste of money for my appeasing my ego. A smart business person could have made a LOT more money with those projects than I ever did. I did at least learn from my mistakes though.

Go for clients who have money to pay you. Have a sound business plan. The gear to do this business, while the costs have come down, is still relatively expensive. Why spend tens of thousands of dollars on cameras, lighting, audio, editing gear to work hard and give away your talents and skills for pennies on the dollar? Video production is one of the most gear intensive businesses you can be in, all of the gear is expensive and it almost worthless a year after you buy it. Unless you are making enough money to pay it off in under a year, you are in the wrong business IMHO.

Dan
Click to expand...

Nice post. Well, I pretty much agree with everything you just wrote. Actually I think I do agree with it all. The only thing I'd say is that sometimes going above and beyond the call of duty on a project can help you land future projects that more than makes up for a short-term loss of profit. For instance, I'd rather make a $10,000 profit on a project and make a really great product than a $12,500 profit and make a good product. There are lots of people who can do good work -- I want my work to be great. I think in the long run, that lost $2,500 on this project will come back dressed as $10,000 more.

You have to go where the money is, though, that's for certain. You can't just flounder about without any clear plan of how you are going to go about making money. I have to agree with grinner that you don't need to "write down" a business plan, it shouldn't be anything that formal in my opinion. It's more like a set of goals in your mind that can evolve and change based on the market, your connections, your skills, your needs, etc. I mean it just seems funny to me, what if I write a plan that next year I'm going to do X, Y, and Z to get corporate clients, but then while sending out my reel to music video producers I get chosen to direct a $50,000 video where I make $5,000 for a few weeks of work and decide that this is the most fun, best way to make money for that period of time, so I stop looking for corporate clients and decide to push my music video career further, for instance. You can think up any other example you want, but the point is I want the ability to go where the market takes me, and wherever my skills will give me a good return for my time and money invested already.

My dad asked me when I was back during the summer (he's always pressuring me in these ways, which gets a bit annoying), "So what's your five year plan?" And he didn't ask it in a way that was like, "Hey, what kinds of goals would you like to accomplish in the next five years, what are your dreams?" It was more like, "What the heck are you doing with your life and what do you think you're going to do in the next five years, and you should know this now." I just kind of laughed like, "Well, I don't have a five-year plan, I doubt anyone in my position would, and if they do they're crazy because for all I know three years from now I could decide film isn't lucrative enough for me, or I could get offered a feature film directing gig, who knows." It's just way too hard to predict. I can think ahead and set goals that I want to accomplish, or figure out what I'm doing over the next 3-6 months, but I can't make some broad, far-reaching plan that's pretty much impossible to write because I can't predict the future or where the industry will take me. Who knows, I could get some great corporate clients and be focusing on that for a while, or I could get the right connections to do higher budget music videos, or I might get into commercials, or maybe I shoot a feature and it goes places and I decide to give it another go and shoot a second. It's just too hard to say.
 
It's not unlike an auto race.
When I enter an event, yeah, I guess I have a plan. To go really fast and not crash.
Sometimes I do crash though. Sometimes the course os different than it was in practice and everytime, the pack evolves into a situation I could not have predicted. I do what I need to do to get ahead of that pack. If that's a plan, you can call it that.
That's not what it is to me. It's an art of doing your best with every random situation that pops up in a nana second.
Business and life are not unlike racing. It's a balance of keeping a level head when adrenaline is pumpin' and a sense of humor when stuff happens that was not "part of the plan."
Enjoy it. yell woohoo alot. Dont kick anything when you ding your ride.
 
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