How can I get away from my retail job to do video freelance work (that I love) in this economy?
I am in a very painful predicament. I work at a big box retail store in the digital camera department. I chose that job because my main interests and knowledge are in filmmaking. I have been working there for a little under a year, and feel I have learned nothing, built no rapport with my management team, and all I've gotten from customers are snippy remarks about bad business, complaining discount beggars, and how I am trying to "put them in the poorhouse." Needless to say, I'm totally burned out. I have a lot of skills in the video production world, and I have started a video production company, Atlantis Legend Entertainment. I have tried time and time again to prepare my workplace for schedule changes so I can plan ahead. Time and time again, they say, okay, but when the time comes, they deny me the change, saying they would have to let me go due to "not working weekends." That's total bull I and I know it, we have plenty of people who can't do weekends. I can't just quit or get fired, I need a backup so that I'm constantly making money, but no one else is hiring for anything. My sister-in-law just got word that 2,000 people applied for the same job she did. A Red Lobster just opened across town, within seconds of the "now hiring" sign going up, people lined up until they filled the parking lot. Jobs. Are. Really. Scarce. Here's the other thing. I am having very little luck with my video business - I have lost my first major project because of, what I would call it, ageism. I am only 20 years old, and look even younger. My client took one look at me in the consultation meeting, and stated he didn't want a "kid" running his production. I don't get it, I have worked with several respectful videographers, one was even the president of the Utah Videographer's Association. All of them and their clients are respectful, and tell us they'd want to work with us again, yet when I go do it myself, I get shot down. I cannot get any other projects - I'm persistent, respectful, and "ask for the sale," but get the same response, it's the "Oh, that's nice, good luck," response. I am just completely frustrated with my circumstances, and can't seem to catch a break. Here's my website, www.atlantislegendent.com, please tell me if I just fail altogether. I can't seem to get any further, I can't be my best because of the workplace, and I don't know what to do. Thanks everyone, and have a good day. -Alex
Small Business - 4 Answers
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1 :
Try growing a beard. Beards make you look older and more creative. If you're only and you've been working full time since you were 19 I would assume you haven't been to art school. You will probably get more respect if you've been to art school. Is a scholarship or student loan an option? Get a loan, move out of town, get a part time job and go to school. It'll give you some time to look older.
2 :
I started off in your position, and I was very frustrated that I couldn't break in based on my skills alone. Unfortunately a lot having a production studio is based on who you know, and the image you project. My best advice is to be patient. It takes a long time to establish yourself in this business, and you're right, you have to be flexible. In this economy I don't blame you for wanting to keep your day job for now. In the meantime, do all the video work you can get your hands on: but I'd work on managing expectations. If you model yourself as an established business, people will expect letterheads, business suits, staffs, and sorry to say it: someone above 30. A lot of people have a hard time taking young adults seriously. But if you learn a lot of skills, and attach yourself to an established freelancer or company, you'll be able to build the network you need to get the contracts you'd like. Before you try to take on the big production houses, I'd recommend you join one. There's a lot to learn from these guys that you can take out into the world after you've put in some time there. Also having a staff job on your resume will really help out your credibility immensely. And my final word of advice would be to learn some of the industry standard software. Final Cut, Avid, etc.
3 :
I have a dating website for asians, I need video models to advertise my business. Basically I just need attractive asian men and women to look sexy on camera, but with their clothes on. So for the past 2 months Ive been trying to get people in Asia to film some women for me. In alot of those countries, it would only cost the videographer like $15 to get a guy or lady to come out of the bar and make a 2 to 5 minute video for me, and I said I was willing to pay $50 for each video (I said they could film it with a webcam, camcorder, whatever), nobody wants to do it, so I have to go over there myself now. I had about 15 people contact me and said they were interested, but when it came time for them to get out there and film, they never came back with anything. Ive filmed a few people last time I was over there, so I know how incredibly easy the job is (many women there work in prostitution, they sleep with men for less than $10, if someone would just get out there and start filming them, they are helping to end prostitution, plus its cheap since $15 is more money they would normally make so they would be happy to make videos, especially since they dont have to take their clothes off and its only for 2 to 5 minutes), so they are crazy for not wanting to do it. Im afraid of flights after the last one, so I vowed never to get on a plane again, its like a boycott for me. So I have to take a cruise over there and pay 3 grand more just to get there. I spent alot of money developing my site, so I cant just forget about it, advertising everyday is costing me lots of money. There are tons of people like me, who own websites and need videos shot for our websites, and as we get the videos, that brings us more customers, so then we need more and more videos. Im not saying you go over there, Im just saying film things, then sell them to people in that industry. Film the grand canyon, then search for websites that deal with the grand canyon, and sell them the footage for their sites, but dont make it exclusive, so you can sell the same clip over and over again to more than 1 site. This is lucrative to you because if you are working for 4 or 5 websites, thats 4 or 5 people paying you that will just keep increasing. Start advertising your services on getafreelancer or elance, set up a website, and use google adwords to attract customers. You can target people who see your ads, for instance, if you only want people in California to see your ads. For my asian dating site, I target only people in malaysia, indonesia and thailand. So I dont have to pay for americans clicking on my ads since they dont convert well into customers and the asians do, since my site is asian. You can also start videotaping things and making videos, then put logos on the videos to send people to your site. Then put google adsense ads on your site and get paid when people click on them, I make about $1200 a month doing this and I make very basic videos with my camcorder, sometimes just slideshows with pictures.You can also sell videos on sites like istockphoto.com. I bought some video clips off of there for my site. You make stock videos, and then upload them on there, and get paid each time someone downloads your video clip. So you can sell it over and over again. If you put the same clip on tons of sites like that, it should pay off, well once you load hundreds of thousands of clips you should be doing good. Then from there maybe build your own site or pay someone to build it to promote just your clips. You can see how many people download which clips, so you can get an idea on what will sell on there and what wont. I bought some pics for my asian dating site, and I bought some videos of beaches for a make money online site of mine. Just a 30 second looped video cost me about $25 on there, so the website probably made $12 and the photographer made $12, so if they sold to tons of people they probably made alot of money. Im just assuming they get half on there, I dont know the exact ratio the company pays the photographers, but like I said, theres alot of sites like that. (Adsense is not the same as adwords, adwords is when you pay google to show your ads to bring people to your site, adsense is when people pay you to show their ads on your site, they are both Google programs.)
4 :
Alex, Make a list of all the types of businesses that could benefit from using your services. Once the list has been made, contact those companies directly. I would suggest you walk-in and introduce yourself and have a portfolio ready to show them of the quality work you can do. It's important that you DO NOT SELL YOUR COMPANY - but rather SELL THE BENEFITS the customer will receive/obtain from utilizing your video services. Things like 'annual income', 'return on investment', "sales conversion" etc., etc, are all important to every business, so if you can address those issues and show them how they can achieve these things, your age won't be an issue. Personally speaking, a person's 'age' means nothing, as long as they prove to me that they know what they're doing, can prove to me that my business will grow from using their product/service, then I'm all for it! As an additional suggestion, head over to www.warriorforum.com/index.php Create a free account and post this very question in the main thread called "Main Internet Marketing Discussion Forum" I know for a fact that many internet marketers are always hungry for anything they can use in order to help increase their own business. So, your very services can definitely be an added value for those in the Phoenix, Mesa, Scottsdale areas...and beyond. Hope this helps
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