Starting a Video Production Business

This month's column is for folks who make videos for fun, but feel that it might be more fun to make videos for money. Making the jump from hobbyist to pro can be fun, rewarding, and more than a little scary, depending in which direction you jump.

You could work for someone else who has an established video business. This is how I got into video. While still in college, I went to the public TV station and said, "I'll work for peanuts, I'll work any time you need me, I'll come in to work on a moment's notice and I'll work my tail off when I'm here." And I did.

It's an unfortunate truth that video and television production is viewed as a "glamorous" endeavor. It isn't, really, but this warped view supplies a never-ending stream of hard-working youngsters (as I was) to the video mills. Economics 101 (supply and demand) tells us the inevitable result of this high supply: low demand and low wages.

To make good money from a video business, you have to control the video business. So even if you start your journey to professional video by working for someone else, you'll eventually get the urge to be your own boss. Now the question is: are you cut out to be a video entrepreneur?

The professional video business is tough. Competition is fierce. Potential customers expect the quality they see on network TV, and yet have no clue as to what those programs cost. And from my experience, the video business has weird and unpredictable rhythms. You can be up to your neck in work one week and sitting on your hands the next.

Are you discouraged yet? No? Good, you'll need a thick skin if you want to go into business for yourself. More than half of all new businesses fail within the first five years.

If that failure represents the loss of all your savings, and depletes the loans you took from friends, relatives and banks, it's going to make a dent in your lifestyle. I don't want to be the voice of doom and gloom, I just want you to go into this process with your eyes wide open. I wouldn't be doing you any favors by making it sound easy.

There are a lot of factors to starting a successful business, but a big piece of the puzzle is your personality. Can you take the mental stress that comes with owning a business? If not, you don't want to find out a year from now as the bank is repossessing your car--you want to know now.

Are you the person who is usually put in charge at your present job? Can the boss leave for the day and know that the project you are working on will get done even when no one is looking over your shoulder? Do you have the drive to see a job through to its conclusion?

These are personality traits of a business owner. In your business, the bills will continue to come in even if you put off finishing a project until next week. That's negative cash flow--your money going down the drain. It's not a good thing.

Do you really think you can run a business? No fooling, now. If you have any guppy-sized doubts now, you can expect them to come back as big blue-whale-sized doubts if the business has a couple of bad months. You must have the confidence to believe that everything will be fine if you keep working hard. This is the attitude that will help you make it in business.

If you want to own a video production business, you've got to be a gambler. You'll be putting your security on the line and rolling the dice. You can count on skipped paychecks from time to time, long hours and weekend work with no guarantees of compensation. And no matter how hard you work, you can still lose everything. Sound like fun? Yeah? You're made of stern stuff. Continue.

Do you have an aptitude for the accounting side of the business? Here's an old joke. A businessman is selling finished widgets for less money than it takes him to buy the raw materials that make up the widgets. A friend asks how he can do this. The businessman replies, "I make it up in volume." If you don't see the humor in this, business may not be the place for you.

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