EVC Tips 006: Business online is business as usual
I've noticed over the last year or so how much of business (including EVC) has moved virtual. Today, I think it's safe to say that more businesses are being born in the clouds of the internet than on the streets of our cities, and I think web 2.0 software has a lot to do with it. So I thought I would take a few minutes to talk about what is working for us, because it might work for you too.
Best Productivity
Google apps wins, hands down. We've been using gmail (and now google apps enterprise version) for years as a way to access files and messages from anywhere in the country that events bring us. Google chat allows for real-time collaboration between our employees, calendar gives us an easy way to schedule meetings across timezones, and docs lets us create work-in-progress forms, spreadsheets, and soon-to-be manifestos or manuals. We also use the presentations for training and communicating. Overall, I can't imagine working without Google.
Best Finance
This one is two-fold. For personal/business snapshot vitals (i.e. how much money is in the bank and on credit cards), I love Mint. Mint makes it easy to track expenses, view spending trends, budget, and ensure we stay out of the red. For invoicing and expense reports, we choose Harvest. Harvest makes it easy to send customized estimates & invoices, track employee time/expenses, and monitor accounts receivable. They also have an iPhone app and Mac widget, which actually makes time tracking fun. That says a lot.
Best File Sharing
If you haven't heard of Dropbox, I suggest you check it out. We have employees in 4 states, and dropbox turns the internet into our own server closet. Company files are shared as necessary, and the most up to date files are instantly available on any authorized PC/Mac, iPad, iPhone, or the dropbox website. Past versions are even saved in case someone makes a mistake.
Best Project Management
37Signals, a Chicago-based godsend, brought us Basecamp a while back. Basecamp is the headquarters of all our project-based communication. Each event gets a project, and anyone involved gets access to the appropriate files, messages, tasks, milestones, and comments. Works like a charm.
Best Note-Taking
Ok, so it's not groundbreaking, but it's pretty awesome. Evernote is a note-taking program that resides on your computer, your phone, your iPad, and of course the evernote website, so that wherever you are, you can take notes, make to-do lists, or even attach a photo from your phone. I use this for everything from meeting agendas to home-improvement plans, and yes, as the program suggests, I've even taken photos of my favorite bottles of wine and let the text-conversion feature do the rest. Best of all, everything is tag-able, search-able, and category-laden to your heart's content.
Best Calling
While Skype has long dominated (and rightfully so), Google Voice and the gchat integration will give it a run for its money. Either way, computer-to-computer and computer-to-cell phone calling is an important tool for cross timezone collaboration, so jump aboard!
--
The tools mentioned above are tried and tested EVC productivity-makers, and though I don't represent or profit from any of these companies, I suggest you check them out! Remember that all of these programs are considered "Software as a Service" (SaS), meaning that you can expect to pay a monthly fee for their use, or at least for the use of their premium features. If you're used to paying for software once, and using it for years, those days might be over. So consider these programs part of your monthly utilities, just like your internet access and cell phone.
Good luck!
EV Tips 005: Same way, every time
This morning I tried to make cream of wheat on the stove, and I just about destroyed my kitchen. Why? Because I usually make it in the microwave, and I had no idea what I was doing. I expected it to come out just right, and I fully anticipated that despite using different tools, and a different process, I would get the same result. I expected awesome cream of wheat.
People expect consistency. Whether they're cooking, shopping, traveling, or going through their morning routine, consistent experiences are a source of comfort. Maybe it's the way a store smells when you walk by, or the time it takes to get your drink at Starbucks, or the way your car accelerates. The slightest change can make a customer curious, uneasy, or annoyed. We choose brands (or companies) based on subtle differences. But once we understand them, and develop a preference, it is up to the company to maintain consistency. Think of your company like a franchise, where every sale is a different location.
As video production companies, it's important that we uphold our individual brands by doing things the same way, every time. It's all about the process. I just finished a great book called "The Checklist Manifesto" by Atul Gawande, which explains the importance of using checklists to do things in the right order, the right way, every time. In terms of video production, think about your process for completing a job. Each of us has a slightly different process, unique to our companies, which our customers love. To grow our companies, it's crucial that we stick to that process.
Of course, I'm not advocating you never change. We are always looking for ways to add value - new cameras, for instance, can produce a better image. But buying a new camera doesn't change the process in which you use the camera, or the steps you take before picking it up. Our process is our most important tool!
So next time you're dealing with a customer (or cooking cream of wheat), revisit your process- your checklist. If you want to produce the same results, do things the same way.
Recommended Book:
iPad for Event Video?
I definitely consider myself somewhat of a tech geek, and when the iPad was released, I couldn't have been more enthralled with listening to the hundreds of reviews and reports popping up on every device I own. Somehow I managed to wait a full 3 months before actually purchasing one (most likely because of all the friendly reminders my fiancé Lianne was dropping about our upcoming wedding).
Well, the day has finally come. I don't mean for this to be a review either - there are plenty out there. But I thought I would write about some of the ways that event video companies might be able to use this new toy for good.
The most obvious use of the iPad is to hold some sample videos of your work, or sample files that normally live on your desktop, and just don't display well on a smart phone or iPod. More than anything, I think the iPad is a great tool for passing content between prospective clients, employees or freelancers. Where else could you so easily show someone a sample contract, event map, site photos, website, or a quick slideshow of your company's offering?
The next potential use for the iPad in event video production is payment processing. Taking a mobile sale from a customer after selling a DVD or delivering your final edit for a big project is not only convenient, it's dead sexy. And let's face it, with so many competing video companies out there, it's important to a remind customers that you are technologically awesome. Most of the work that goes into making great videos happens behind the scenes, but it's the face to face interaction and demos that get you work and build your reputation. Making great videos is not a differentiator, it's an expectation.
You may have heard of apps like Square Mobile, and there are bound to be more ways to "iPay" soon. Traditional wireless credit card processing devices can cost double what an iPad or netbook might, so I think its about time we start looking at alternatives.
Next, it seems that the iPad makes a great input device for data entry. At EVC, we go through thousands of paper orders each year, and we're excited about the iPad's potential to eliminate some of this waste, and keep data organized electronically. I'm looking forward to this convergence of our on-site and online ordering processes, which we hope to share with videographers around the country (stay tuned!).
Last, this thing is just plain fun to use. After all, it is a toy. But it's catching our attention at EVC, and it might just fit into your business too!
EV Tips 004: Clean Up Shop
Independence Day. For many videographers, particularly those who cover events during the school year, it is finally time for a much deserved vacation. Fall will be here in no time, and it's time to take a step away from the computer.
But while it's easy to get away and neglect your company, this is also the perfect time to liberate yourself from all the clutter and disorganization that has accumulated all spring (it's always tempting to set the office on fire and start a new). Here are some quick questions that you can ask yourself to prep for an upcoming busy season:
1. Take a look at your desk. Do you use every thing on there every single day? If not, find a new place for those things out of plain site. In my experience, physical clutter causes mental clutter, if not for you than maybe for your employees or visiting customers.
2. Now look around the office (drawers, shelves, closets, etc). Is there anything you didn't use once last year? eBay! The longer you hold onto something, the less valuable it becomes. And more space and simplicity in your storage areas is priceless.
3. Do you need any new software or equipment for the upcoming season? Now is a great time to make these purchases. Often times new gadgets are released for back-to-school shopping, and there are amazing deals to be had on last-generation models. Assuming you don't require groundbreaking NASA technology, most of us will do just fine with the time tested and fully functional predecessors of cutting edge products. And buying new gear during your slower season gives you plenty of time to figure out how to use it.
4. Are there time-consuming tasks in your business that you can automate, template, or outsource? In event video, many companies get bogged down with administrative tasks when they should be spending time on revenue-producing production work. Consider creating PDF contract templates or outsourcing your accounting to a local bookkeeper. Looking for an eCommerce and fulfillment parter? Eventvideo.com can manage your video sales and archives so that you never have to copy and ship a DVD again (shameless plug, but you get the point).
5. Thank your customers. This is something that often goes undone throughout the year as one hectic production leads to another. But when you have a moment, don't forget to reach out to your customers and thank them for their loyalty and support. In this business, as in most, solid relationships create longevity.
So whether your slow season is July or January, don't forget to work on your company while you're working in your company!
EV Tips 003: Less Is More
When I look back at an old video that my company has produced, or when a customer shows us a copy of a competitor's video, the thing that makes the video look old and unpolished isn't the lack of resolution or the square image ratio. Far and away, it's the "special effects", the music, and the graphics.
Often times an editor copies their effects from modern styles that they see on TV shows (i.e. crazy MTV transitions from 1987). Well, you might as well stick a cabbage patch kids commercial right in the middle of your video too, because other than simple cuts and fades, special effects and transitions are a dead give-away to the time period of the production. On top of that, they are embedded in the final video forever. Thanks for nothing HD-Upconverting DVD player.
In the last couple of years, EVC has adopted the less is more theory, and we're living by it. The idea is this: customers don't buy your event video for the cheesy effects, royalty-free music, and fancy new modern fonts that you've emblazoned all over the production. They buy your video for three specific reasons. First, their child's event only happens once, and the parent would much rather see it with their own eyes than from behind the shaking lens of a Flip HD camera that can't zoom if it tried. Next, more often than not, the videographer has the best seat in the house. You get there hours before the event starts - probably before the doors open - and claim the angle that will make your production shine. Parents are busy with their kids, concession stands, and tickets, and before they can jockey for space they end up behind a pole with a less than optimal view of the action. Last, you probably have nicer equipment than the parents do, so chances are your raw footage will look better (If you don't, that's another issue). A bigger lens provides sharper images and better depth of field than a point-and-shoot camcorder will.
So once you've captured some great video, don't taint it with the effects of the day. Stick with timeless fonts and transitions, and preferably leave the video in it's purest form. Lots of rendering and encoding on your end may make their point-and-shoot a quality contender, and that isn't good for anyone. In event video, quality is more about capturing an event in the best possible resolution, from the best vantage point. Keep it simple, and 20 years from now your customers will appreciate it.
Free Video?
I've been reading Free, a book by Chris Anderson (@chr1sa), Editor In Chief of Wired Magazine, for what seems like 6 months now. And on my 2 hour and 50 minute flight from Phoenix to Indianapolis, I finally finished it. Not that the book was boring. It was actually very thought provoking, so much so that it caused my mind to wander every time I picked it up, thinking of new ideas and determining how Chris' research applies to EVC and to the Event Video industry.
In many ways, Free reaffirmed some of the things we've started to implement over the last couple of years, and I think everyone could benefit from skimming over the book, or at least reading the first and last two chapters. Main idea: In this book, free refers mostly to online businesses or electronic media, and the dozens of very unique & creative ways in which entrepreneurs are inventing business models around it. Online, free is inevitable. Every year technology gets faster and cheaper, so Anderson recommends rounding down - stop charging for services that you make less and less from each year, and start figuring out other ways to make money.
With EVC, we're using free to give away live streaming coverage of some of our productions (more each year), in order to increase awareness of the video, and hopefully drive sales. Over the next few years, we intend to offer more and more ways for our customers to purchase productions at varying price and quality levels (download, DVD, blu-ray), while keeping the most basic version (low-quality streaming) free. For many of our customers, the free product will satisfy their needs. But for some, the portability of a DVD, quality of a Blu-ray, or flexibility of a downloaded file are reason enough to spend the extra money - and those are the purchases that subsidize the entire operation.
Another way to implement Free is to make the product cost nothing to the end-user (the customer), but make a profit elsewhere. Some examples of this would be to bundle a DVD in the cost of registration for an event, place advertisements within the video to subsidize the cost of the production, or allow a company to sponsor the entire production, even going as far as to put their branding on the DVD packaging.
Today's Free isn't about tricking the customer. But it is a business model that you can't ignore. Assuming technology continues at its current pace, and video distribution continues to get cheaper, you might as well stay ahead of the curve.
Read: Fittingly, you can download Free, by Chris Anderson, for no charge here: link. Or you can buy it the old fashioned way.
EV Tips 002: Manage Expenses
A couple months ago, I went to a seminar featuring Scott Morrison, CPA and Financial Partner of Morrison & Associates in Chandler, AZ. Scott made a great point, and one that I think it's easy for small companies to forget. As our businesses grow, it's easy to keep adding expenses like more equipment, more people, more bandwidth, and more administrative overhead. But as we grow our companies, taking on more expenses as well as more revenue, it's easy to lose track of the proportions and find that despite creating a larger company, profits can shrink. Many event video companies fall victim to this - what starts as a small 1-2 person operation can quickly fall apart without tightly managed expenses and very organized systems. Think of it as a wagon rolling down a steep hill. It works just fine if you don't plan to go anywhere.
Scott also said that during a slow year, if a business shrinks, it should be able to stay just as profitable as it was last time it was that small just by eliminating the expenses that it added as it grew.
After the seminar I took a thorough look at every dollar going out of my company (I can't recommend this strongly enough). What I found were three things: First, there were some expenses that we could just plain eliminate. Things like automatic domain renewals, unused email accounts, and equipment that never sees the light of day. A few calls to vendors and an hour on Craigslist and eBay freed up some monthly cash flow, and brought in some extra cash from things that we don't need. If you can't sell something, my advice is to throw it out or donate it. The less useless stuff you have surrounding you, the better your business will run. Next, there were some monthly plans that we were able to upgrade or bundle in order to avoid overage charges - phone systems are the best example of this one. Crazy how 900 minutes on one plan costs more than 1,200 minutes on the next plan up. Last, I called vendors and asked for better deals. In the last month, we've reduced the cost of our supplies, our credit card processing, equipment financing, and credit card interest rates... just by asking.
Moving forward, I plan to do this every couple of months. Why not?
EV Tips 001: Stay Focused
It's about time I used this blog for something productive.
So, I've decided to share some of the things that I've learned after 10 years in the event video world. Here goes...
Like many small businesses, a video production company usually starts off as a hobby. Maybe a passion. But, if my business is any indication, my guess is that most of you started by taping things for friends, family, school, or a company that you worked for, and at some point, you decided to make a living out of it. Great - so you're all in, maybe you purchased some start-up equipment, cleared out a second bedroom to use as an office, and it's time to start raking in the dough. First stop... neighbor's bar mitzvah. Then maybe a wedding, a commercial for your uncle's paint shop, a home video transfer, and before you know it, you've become the wal-mart of video production companies. You do it all.
At the beginning, no doubt it's hard to turn away work. And I recommend that any new company dives in head first to experience all the different avenues that video production has to offer. But at some point in your company's life cycle (hopefully sooner than later), you've got to narrow your focus. Any production company will tell you that the bulk of their business comes from referrals. Well think of how much more powerful those referrals are if they all relate to one core service, one direction for your company. Focus is a powerful thing.
Consider this - the more focused you are, the less competition you'll have. You'll also have less potential customers, but by crafting our your own niché, you brand your business much more strongly. Be the go-to company.
Being focused is being efficient. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to event video. But the more experience you get in a certain niché, the faster and cheaper you'll be able to do it. Whether it's Muslim Weddings, Irish Dancing, Commercials for Small Businesses, or Public Service Announcements; Find that brand, and stick to it.
--