8 steps to scaling your video business. EP #225 - Shorty

Hi guys, it's Dan. Here we are on Tuesday 12th October with episode 225 of the how to Scale a Video Business podcast.

I'm calling this today eight steps to.

Scaling your video business. And let me explain why. Last week here in Australia, a fairly sizable video production company called Visual Domain was acquired by the Murdoch Group, News Corp, who unless you've living under a rock, owns a lot of media outlets around the world. And so what we did on the coaching call today was we actually broke down what their back end might look like.

And whilst we'll never really fully understand the reasons why Murdoch and his group bought that asset, I do know that to be in the running, to even be.

On the same page as someone looking to buy a video production, you have to have your chisel together. You know, you can't just be like, oh yeah, I rely on word of mouth and then, you know, what comes in that way.

So what I wanted to do is break down very briefly the eight steps that that kind of open up to become your core systems for your business to scale. So let's start with marketing. Marketing exists to attract people into your business so that you can fulfill your obligations as a production company.

Now.

We talk about the marketing Parthenon, which is multiple streams of marketing coming into your business to attract people into your operation. You might be looking at LinkedIn, you might be looking at paid advertising, you might look at giving away free content. Joint ventures is a really strong one. You certainly want to be positioning your expertise in the right way with podcasts and articles and blogs. Maybe you have live chat available on your website, maybe you have a phone number people can call. Your website is very important. Is it well written? Is it designed well, does it load quickly? So that is your core marketing Parthenon and that is to attract people to raise their hand and say, yeah, I'm.

Interested in what you're doing.

At which point we move into a prospect nurture, where you use email, follow up sequences, phone calls, face to face meetings, maybe case studies and examples of relevant niche specific content to help someone make a decision to move from just being vaguely interested in your business to actually wanting to do some business with you. At which point we move to the sales process, which is phase two. Once you've got inquiries, you move to the sales process. Whereas initial inquiries can come in through web forms or calendar links, you're likely going to want to create some kind of discovery call where you're going to really diagnose what the client is really looking for. And whether or not you are in fact the right person to provide that.

Then you're going to move to a.

Quoting or cost estimating process where you're going to set up a quote, add options, send them to the client and then have a call to discuss that court in detail if needs be.

And then you're going to look at.

Some kind of follow up where the decision is going to be made and you can answer any outstanding objections. And either the deal gets won or it doesn't. And then so either your deal gets one, you move to accounting and finance or it doesn't get one. And then you, you move to a kind of follow up sequence and then you want to be having some kind of sales CRM in place to follow up with opportunities at the accounting and finance phase. Then you're into collecting the money. You know, are you receiving the right information from the salesperson?

Is the client terms and conditions being sent out? Is a deposit invoice being raised and is there receipt of that invoice being confirmed so that you can begin the project and hand it over to a producer or project manager? Also what's important at this stage is at the end of the shoot making sure that any updates to the project have been accounted for so they can be accurately invoiced towards the end of the project. And accounting and finance also looks after your monthly profit and loss, checking, cash flow, any quarterly legal and compliance elements that have to be deployed as a company operating and then look after your annual accounts. Then we move to the client onboarding phase and this is where you start to look to schedule intro calls with clients. You know, maybe you've got project management software running in your business.

And then you know, you want to get all those pre production assets together so that you can gather all the brand assets, you know, things like logos and any kind of design assets and guidelines that you need to adhere to and then outline the production process that you are going to have the client follow.

Throughout the entire process and work out who the key point of contact is and establish a single line of communication and how you're going to communicate throughout the project. Then we move to the production process and this is the part where most people have got a handle on. We look at pre production, you know, production and post production and I won't map them out because you guys know that stuff already, right? And then we look at client follow up. What happens after the shoot? How is the project delivered? Is it just handed over? Like there you go, here's the invoice thanks very much. And you know, here we are for next time. Or are you having some kind of feedback and review process where you can seek referrals or request a review.

And then, you know, are you putting some kind of three, six, nine month follow up in place? And you know, something that I think can be very effective as well is either a weekly or a monthly production update email where you send that out to your market and you say, hey, you know, this is what we've been working on. It can be a great way to stay front and center of mind. And then when your business starts to scale as.

Visual Domain did, then you've got to start thinking about leadership and management and they've got to look at things like what is the structure for leadership, how is the organization being structured, what's the organizational and organizing chart? And the culture, what kind of culture do you want in your business? Then you'll start looking at how do you find and retain a player team. You want to have systems of business growth stages, you want to have accountability and compliance and you want to be kind of really looking into how you can make sure everyone has a great experience who comes into contact with your company. And then, and then as your business scales, you start looking at things like human resources, you know, what are your legal and compliance requirements, how do you exit someone who's not performing, how do you hire amazing virtual team, how do you identify and recruit talented team members and how do you reduce employee turnover? So these, these eight sections are really the kind of backbone, the skeletal structure of a high performing business. And that high performing business could be selling anything. But someone on the call this morning said, gosh, it's a lot of work and it is, but that's only if you're trying to do it all this year. If you think the average business takes seven to 10 years to really come to fruition, then if you, if you build these over the next seven years, you'll have a really solid business. And, and that is something that is salable and if not salable will just provide you with an incredible income while you go and do whatever you want. Ask yourself this.

Has owning your own video business been everything you dreamed it would be when.

You first got started?

It might be hard to admit, but think about whether you're genuinely achieving everything you set out to when you made.

That decision to grab the camera and go it alone.

Are you really working less?

Are you really earning more and are you really in control?

Chances are you're bloody good at what you do, but you're having to work like a dog 70 plus hours a week. Whether it's filming, editing, marketing, or any of the other jobs that come with being the big boss of your own video company, when you're managing projects, constantly searching out for new clients and worrying about cash flow, it's easy to lose sight of the bigger picture or make real progress. Let's face it, that stress is the last thing you need when you're trying.

To run a profitable company that supports.

You and the people you care about. Truth is, a business that provides financial, professional and personal freedom really is achievable. But maybe you've got that nagging feeling that you're overworked, lacking stability, and struggling to get to where you really want to be right now. It could be that you just don't know how to make a positive change on your own. So I created the Video Business Accelerator Coaching Programs to really supercharge your video business. With these unique coaching programs, you'll learn all the tools you need to get complete confidence in the success of your video business. You can take the first step on your journey to a successful business that doesn't control your life. Let me show you how. Head over to Denlany.com and click on Accelerator.