Guest Morgan Stinegal hired someone who didn't do the shot right for his biggest client to date. Be careful to hire the right people. How to accurately quote people – People start thinking, "This is where I'm supposed to ask for money." But if you have it planned out ahead of time and know why the price is the way it is, then you're going to be a lot more comfortable asking for the money. The first thing that most filmmakers asks a new client is "What is your budget?" But if you start with that question, the prospect is immediately put on the defensive and it makes things harder to move along. A better question would be, "What do you want…?" The majority of the filmmakers will try to understand the project before they ask for the budget. But ultimately you need to know what you are worth before you can charge what you're worth. You have to have a menu of services. If the budget is bigger than you are worth, don't try to milk them for more. You should know how long your work is going to take. The more cameras you use the longer it's going to take to edit. Tell me exactly what I'm going to get for the quoted price. If you feel like you are going to go above the quoted time, then contact the client and put him or her in charge. Charge by project for weddings. Weddings usually have a pretty standard shot list. Charge by project for real estate. There's not much editing in real estate. If you're doing music videos, non-profit videos, promotional videos, etc. you could take a really bad left turn if you charge by project. You're leaving the door open for the client to say, "well I wanted this, this, and this, so I'm not going to be happy." Build packages based on how long things are going to cost. When you do give people options, a lot of times, clients will upsell themselves. If the client feels like they are getting their money's worth, they have no problem paying you more. Any tips on creating a package for a monthly gig? Do you treat that differently? Is the pricing different? With YouTube channels, Morgan will sometimes ask for a percentage of the revenue going forward. YouTube channels are a lot of work, and you may not get paid very much, but you only need 1 really big hit to make it pay off for you. How many days a month do you want us to shoot? They figure out the amount of editing and provide a set price for the amount of hours of shooting and provide a limited number of videos. If they need talent or extra costs, it should be on them, not you. In the contract, Arial and 360 includes discretionary extra work at no charge. It comes down to giving the client information. You can't be lazy about this. It's not possible to provide too much information. The Failing Filmmaker Newsletter is to answer your questions. Send your questions to [email protected] Get retainer clients by applying for filmmaker jobs and then tell them after the interview about the company you work for. If you send a question to [email protected] Marcus will send you a video training on how to livestream. Catch us live each Thursday @ 10am on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/FailingFilmmaker Check out our website https://www.failingfilmmaker.com where you can find more resources to take you from failure to success as a business owner and a filmmaker.

Go to a client, bring up an emotional need that they have the they may not know that they have and then fulfill that through video. All within the same conversation. Everyone gives the same pitch. My name, I'm a videographer, I noticed you're a realtor, I'd love to do xyz for you and I'll do it for a discount to show you what I do. We need to cater to the emotional needs of the business owner instead of trying to sell our services. Everyone that is a business owner is passionate about the business that they own. There is a reason why they are doing it. We need to tap into that as videographers to make sure that we give them something of value. Sit down and take the time to meet with the business owner. Find out why they are in this business, this community, why they sell these items instead of others. Really get to know that person. Now you can start building an emotional relationship with them and lead into how your video services can save them time and build a better relationship with the community. Ask, "How many of your customers understand your passion for this?" "How many people have you told this to and how much time could you save if you had a video that explains why you're passionate about it and why you're doing this specific business?" Regardless of the business you are in, you need to solve a problem. If you walk into a restaurant and say that you could get them more customers, you're not solving a problem, you're just advertising. Bring out those raw emotions and help them solve that emotional need. If you're going to start a business the one thing you need to do is to do business. Quit talking about stuff and do business. The key is to give all of the information away for free and let your customers find you. If you can find the problem and fix it. If you want a powerful marketing tool or a way to get clients, focus on what you're fixing for them. Other discussion includes: Be hungry but don't be starving. If you're starving, go get a job to bridge the financial gap. Be real. Don't hide behind your failures. Own up to it and get better. The Failing Filmmaker Newsletter is to answer your questions. Send your questions to [email protected] Get retainer clients by applying for filmmaker jobs and then tell them after the interview about the company you work for. If you send a question to [email protected] Marcus will send you a video training on how to livestream. Catch us live each Thursday @ 10am on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/FailingFilmmaker Check out our website https://www.failingfilmmaker.com where you can find more resources to take you from failure to success as a business owner and a filmmaker.

Some people say that if you have too much business, go hire people or pick the cream of the crop. This is a good problem to have, right? Well it's not so easy when you're in the thick of it and still trying to figure it out. Having too much business can sink a business because you lose quality, stop getting new clients, wear you out, affect your time with family. There are a lot of companies that grew too fast, got really big, and eventually failed. You can destroy your company by doing too much business. Sometimes it is better to focus and hone in and grow slowly. Be good at 1 thing or be a jack of all trades. Check out the book Oversubscribed which talks about having to turn people away. There's a power to stopping your growth because everyone wants you. Marcus and his team are getting behind on projects. He hasn't even had a day off in 3 weeks. He and his family is struggling with it. He even called a client and said, "We're not going to meet that deadline." You may not be too busy right now, you should have a goal to be in this situation. Number 1 option is to not do anything and hopefully ride out this storm. The problem with hiring new people is that you don't know if you are going to be this busy. When you hire somebody, you are telling them that they are going to be okay, can pay the rent, and put food on the table. Number 2 option is to hire people and give the work out as long as he can. Referrals aren't slowing down. But they might need to start marketing. Number 3 option would be to stop taking on business and just finish this up. They would need to turn people away, but it's hard to turn down a referral business. Number 4 option is starting a second company and shove some of this stuff off to the second company. The advantage of opening another company would be to improve the reputation of Arial and 360 by keeping the higher quality clients and providing a great referral option without losing out on business. Stay tuned to find out what Marcus decides to do. Catch us live each Wednesday on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/FailingFilmmaker Check out our website https://www.failingfilmmaker.com where you can find more resources to take you from failure to success as a business owner and a filmmaker.

Brennan is a relatively young videographer. His issue is not maintaining clients, but getting new clients. His 3 recurring jobs have been in real estate. One of them was a direct connection (friend of a friend). Another put a post on a Facebook page. The 3rd client was a previous client's father. You may not want to be a spammer and post your stuff too much in the online groups that you belong to, but the only way to find out is to post and see what happens. In every single bid, when realtors are looking for videographers, don't post in the comments. Look them up and call them, every time. The first person that contacts them is the person that does business with them. Be the first person to call. Have a separate pitch for a person who is looking for a photographer and the person who is not actively looking. Ask them what they want. Let them be a part of the decision making process and ask you how much you charge. Make sure that you inform them of the value that you give. Send them a form (with the prices) to let them select your time and services.   If you email prospects: What in your email sets you apart from every other photographer and videographer that's reaching out to them? What in your email makes you memorable compared to every other videographer out there? What part of your email made the realtor feel like you value them vs just trying to get a sale out of them? A common mistake of filmmakers is they try to act like they know what's best for that property when the realtor doesn't. They know what's best for their property. We just want to be an extension of their reputation. Ask them a personal question before you make an offer. The first email would be short and simple with one purpose, to get the realtor to respond.   Don't ever claim to be the best. There are other people out there who are better and worse than you. Market yourself as a person. Market the experience. Market how they are going to be involved and how you are going to keep them in the loop. That emotional factor builds the relationship between you and the client and builds loyalty. Don't automate your personal interactions. Automate the process. Automate updates regarding the steps along the process. The workflow is not about making the job easier for you. The workflow is about making it better for the client. Doing this increases your client engagement.   Failing Filmmaker is doing market research for the Filmmaking Bootcamp. Sign up at facebook.com/failingfilmmaker   Catch us live each Wednesday on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/FailingFilmmaker Check out our website https://www.failingfilmmaker.com where you can find more resources to take you from failure to success as a business owner and a filmmaker.

Marketing and getting clients You don't have a business if you don't have clients. Sales and marketing are very different things. Marketing is building a relationship with somebody. There is no easy way to do marketing. Everything that is "easy" is gimmicky and people see right through that crap. The only way to do marketing is to let people to get to know you. If a potential client doesn't have any projects for Arial and 360, Marcus will say, "My company does videography. What I suggest is that you do it on your phone yourself and if you have any questions, reach back out to me." Arial and 360 likes to offer free videos for law enforcement and first responders where they showcase the police department and the good that they do through community outreach. It gets them exposure to charities and other groups with the city. If you really want exposure, get involved with high visibility organizations. Do something for a great cause. Discounts are meaningless, but if you say you say that you believe in the company and what they do and you want to give them something for free, you can get some huge exposure that way. Even if you are full-time. Find some powerful things going on and do it for free. How to navigate home life and still make videos. Managing your time is extremely important. You have to schedule time to spend with family. Make sure that before you go full-time, that your business income matches your job income. And check-in to see if it is getting in the way of your business as well. Schedule gigs ahead of time so you know how much money you're going to start making 2 weeks out. Demo Reels Don't have a demo reel. Have a video that allows you to show behind the scenes. Advertisements and Leads Quality What is a quality lead and how do you get it? A quality lead is someone that wants to work with us that I didn't have to convince to come work with us. They aren't doing me a favor. I'm doing them a favor. People who reach out to me are quality because I know that they want to work with me. If I can get them to ask me questions and engage in what I do, that becomes a quality lead. And various other questions.   Catch us live each Wednesday on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/FailingFilmmaker Check out our website https://www.failingfilmmaker.com where you can find more resources to take you from failure to success as a business owner and a filmmaker.

Watch it on the Failing Filmmaker Facebook page. The business side is not something that comes naturally to creatives. The One Thing. Focus on one thing at a time. The one thing that Marcus focuses on is not to get an immediate sale. Nobody wants to be sold to, but we love to buy stuff. What are you struggling with in your filmmaking business? Marketing: A lot of videographers blast their advertisements all over the place and they struggle finding clients. It is better to take some time to get to know a specific niche/industry and use that specialized knowledge to market to the right people. There are 2 things you need to know before you market your product. Those things are what makes your product awesome and who it is that wants it. You have to solve a problem. The problem is never getting more clients in the door. But maybe you are saving them time by creating a video that you tell people a thousand times a day. If you want to do marketing that works, you have to know your market. You cannot do everything for everybody. Define who you are targeting. Doing hard stuff last: If you have a workflow and you follow the workflow to the T, it takes care of everything. When you get it down on paper, it doesn't look as crazy as it was in your head. If you have a good workflow for your business, it will make things so much more simple and improve your processes. It's good for the client and it's good for the business. Having a workflow is key to being successful and having more free-time. If you create a workflow and force yourself through then you will get it done faster and more complete. Lacking confidence: If you niche, then you can become the best in that industry. It increases your confidence and gives you a marketing edge. It's not about only doing 1 thing. It's about focusing on 1 thing. Nobody does it and they wonder why they are not getting clients. If you do, then you will know how to reach that market and you'll be successful. Business name: A lot of people put their names into their business but it limits your ability to have someone else do the work. The name needs to describe what you do. Finding a name that is not crazy in the dot com is really hard. Don't get too creative. Confidence, professionalism, quit playing video games: Playing video games is not a bad thing, unless it's taking away from your business. You need to have something to take you away from your business and improve your thinking. Confidence and professionalism are extremely important. It's not just about your image, but how you interact with other people. Professionalism comes down to how you conduct yourself and being true to your business. Getting clients: There's plenty of clients to go around. If you are solving a problem and doing it in a way that no one else is doing it, then you will find what you need. Getting a website designed: If you're interested, go to stampedeweb.com and download the Sales Site Blueprint. You do not need a big, giant, complicated website. That's just a waste of money. Storyboarding and deciding what to shoot: Marcus doesn't storyboard the entire shoot. He asks for a bullet point list of shots that you want to get and fill in the rest organically while they are filming. Writing proposals for potential clients: Define and strategically outline the scope of the work for that amount of money. The more detail, the better. Not lawyer speak, but detail. Catch us live each Wednesday on our Facebook page facebook.com/FailingFilmmaker Check out our website failingfilmmaker.com where you can find more resources to take you from failure to success as a business owner and a filmmaker.

Is it actually moral to hire employees for your own personal gain? Don't hire a friend to help them out. They gave that friend a deposit and the work didn't get done. Bobby used to hire people to help them out. That's the worst reason to hire somebody because people that have problems, there's a reason they have problems. Never hire a friend unless you know they perform at a certain level. Marcus will never hire a friend, but he will become friends with people that he hires. If the people that you are going to hire has a certain level of expectations that they hold themselves to, that's fine. If you're an entrepreneur or business owner, you've probably failed to get where you are. If you have enough money and you keep playing, you will eventually win. Failure is one of those things that you don't need to be afraid of. If you fail, you can always make things better. If you succeed you can always make things better. But if you fail and quit, you will never get better. The secret to success is not quitting. Reminder: Arial and 360 is hiring. If you are a filmmaker and looking to get paid hourly or get some leads for your projects, check out the JOB APPLICATION at https://www.123formbuilder.com/form-5498395/?fbclid=IwAR2BYhp1md0VSlZFAU6NgRQEp9YIjmg3PYFmbyuhrH8qqS1IbbsM1_mc5E4 If you don't have a video reel, Arial and 360 will provide one when you start working with them. Marcus failed early on as an entrepreneur because he was taking all of his revenue and using as his personal income. When his computer broke down, he was not able to pay for the repairs because he didn't save any of his money. Profit first is a powerful book about how to take your income and hold onto it and pay yourself first. Arial and 360 put everything they earned back into the business for the first year. They were focused on growing the business. If it's about the money, you need to get a job. You only quit your day job when it's in the way of creating revenue. If you don't invest money back into your business, you're going to stay small. If you hire an employee, make sure that you know how to do that job. Connect with Marcus and Bobby on Channels by Marco Polo. https://channels.marcopolo.me/-/failing-filmmaker

What's the difference between having a filmmaking job vs you owning a business? They are totally different things. If you don't get jazzed about business and business models and understanding processes and systems, then maybe it's just not your thing. You have to be business minded. In a business, you are paying people to make you money. In a job you are doing everything. If you are a solo videographer, you must have somebody that can drop the hammer when clients are paying you so you're not the bad guy. Go make a billing email account with an alternate name. If you're not paying, you will get an email from this alternate person. It allows you to take the client's side and still be persuasive in collecting from your debtors. It also makes your business look bigger and more legit. Marcus's team goes to the local news website for their job boards. Multiple team members submit resumes and when they get called in for interviews, they setup a meeting with the owner. It's really easy to hire my company vs an individual. How much money does it cost to pay the employee, plus taxes, plus workman's comp? We can make an offer to do it for less than the total employee cost and we have a whole team.   Arial and 360 is now hiring. You get to keep your brand. We've dialed in over the years on customer service and found that it is hard to find videographers that don't want to brand themselves. If we hire you, you get to cobrand with us. You get to keep your brand and we will send you work that follows our brand. We can offer your services, like a reseller, but we do it under you name. We've done stuff in other cities, so you don't have to move. We give you a website and a demo reel that you can use. We take care of the client interactions. You can get your own business and you don't have to share with Arial and 360 If you're interested, fill out the application using the following link. JOB APPLICATION: https://www.123formbuilder.com/form-5498395/?fbclid=IwAR2BYhp1md0VSlZFAU6NgRQEp9YIjmg3PYFmbyuhrH8qqS1IbbsM1_mc5E4   Connect with Marcus and Bobby on Channels by Marco Polo. https://channels.marcopolo.me/-/failing-filmmaker

Starting a 3-week workshop to Build a Better Business Marcus had a failing filmmaker moment. His company was hired to do some real estate photos. The camera refused to connect to his phone. He couldn't manage the camera and had to shoot blind. The pictures ended up grainy. He learned that you need to know your gear and be prepared with back-up. Talking about Goals: - How to set them - What that looks like - What is or isn't a goal If you're not setting goals, you're missing out on an opportunity to move forward. You need a benchmark to move forward. If you don't set goals, you'll never achieve what you want to achieve. Goals allow you to focus your attention and break down into smaller, bite-size goals. Goals allow you to organize and manage your time. Figure out how much time you need to spend to make the money you want. Follow the SMART format for setting your goals: - Specific - Measurable - Achievable - Relevant - Timeframe Common mistakes when setting goals: - Conflicting Identity and Purpose - Task vs. Goals - Setting Goals that you Can't Control - Focus on What you Don't Want - Being Too General - Lacking Realism Bad vs Good Goals Follow the form and set a goal. In the next 6-months what will your business do? What to consider when you are writing a contract or when you are going to create a month-to-month or yearly contract with multiple or different clients. #1 - Be very specific in the amount and the type of services you will offer for that price. #2 - Make sure that you list that the client is responsible for any additional cost that come out of filming. #3 - You need a termination clause. #4 - Make sure you are crystal clear on the expectation for everything. Connect with Marcus and Bobby on Channels by Marco Polo. https://channels.marcopolo.me/-/failing-filmmaker

Amaya is a filmmaker from Omaha Nebraska who undervalued herself to her client and was willing to take on anything. One of her fist clients had accepted her discounted price for promo videos but when she got pushback on the increased price, she caved and kept her prices way under market the second time around. The third time around, she stood firm and lost the client. "There are people who will pay for your services, but you are not working with the right people." Our real estate prices raise every 6 months to a year and that is part of the initial disclosure when signing on to do business. We send a notification 3 months early to all existing clients saying, "Our prices will go up on {set date}, but you won't feel it until 3-months after that." Q: What do you do if you've already offered a discount and you need to get back up to regular rates? A: Provide a written notice that he prices will go up to standard rates and give them a grace period just like we do with our real estate clients. The mistake is that they are getting an in with a discount, but the discount can hurt, even destroy your business. It comes down to being overly transparent. Instead of providing discounts for the pandemic, I can offer an additional benefit and a free add on. Using a workflow for the client to see what's happening and why it's happening is a really powerful way to stay in control of your business. Anything that goes beyond the workflow is a premium cost. Be sure to check us out our Facebook page and our website failingfilmmaker.com where you can find more resources to take you from failure to success as a business owner and a filmmaker. Connect with Marcus and Bobby on Channels by Marco Polo. https://channels.marcopolo.me/-/failing-filmmaker