In my case I'm in the new wave of business who started right in the middle of the recession so it had been very difficult to make a solid presence in the freelance world. The economy is at an horrible shape in my country and everywhere in the world, believe me I study Economics. For my business I had done a lot of things including visiting business around and calling business owners trying to convince them of the necessity of video productions for the web. I have deliver a few postcards around and hundreds of business cards, but none of them worked. I started out with a Sony DCR SR47 and with many efforts from my family, which saw that I was serious about doing video, bought me a Sony AX2000 and from then on I could start doing a more challeging gigs like a Quinceañera, some slideshows and a special holiday event, not highly payed, but its something.
In my country gigs like this are difficult to find and they usually happen by referrals in long periods of time so waiting for that to happen is definitely not an option. So I make a quick analysis and decided to join Video StoryTellers and the benefit of this type of service is that you do not shock people with the price, is just $35 (One person actually told me that it was too cheap). In my case I'm having some difficult marketing Video StoryTellers because in my country people are receptive to new things and they don't trust anyone (I believe this happens everywhere). So in order to get work I cannot sell them a product or services, what I do is I sell myself. What I mean by this is letting people to know ME, not my business. I invite them to eat just to talk about their business and I pay them, so when people start knowing me they begin to trust me. Eventually they trust me enough to hire me because they know I will make a terrific job.
I believe that in the economic world we are living today the key is not sell, sell, sell and your done with the client. I believe the new economy approach should be creating trust with people and with that trust the product or service will sell. So when you finish a product and hand it over to your client contact him/her from time to time to strengthen client friendship/professional relationship.
I also had great results using LinkedIn. I got a highly payed gig from there offering Internet Marketing services. I simply use all my knowledge and talents to come up with new ideas for my business and I never ever given up.
The meaning of a movie are the characters, the life of the movie is the music, but the magic is in the editing.
Luis O. Maymí
Follow me on Twitter @lomaymi
