Speaker (Eric Deeran) warns videographers and small video-business owners that the single biggest mistake in the slow season is "huddling" — doing nothing and hoping business returns. He explains that months like November–February are often slow for freelancers, and argues the correct response is to use downtime (especially Nov/Dec, termed "separation season") to implement predictable lead-generation and sales systems. Doing so produces results in ~30–45 days and prevents a weak January/February; failing to act leaves the business dependent on luck and referrals. The video ends with a CTA to watch more content or book a demo.
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What's going on, guys? In this video, we're going to be talking about the number one mistake that videographers and video business owners make in the slow season, which actually kills their business. And I've been working with videographers and video business owners for the past five years. I've been running my own video business for the past decade. And so all of this to say there is one thing that most videographers do that absolutely kills their business in the slow season. And I want you to avoid that. So then you don't run into the same mistakes that they run into. So you don't have the same slow, extended season as after the slow season. So let's dive into it. So let's talk about the slow season, right? So typically, and not all the time, but typically for freelancers, our clients are typically super busy. November, December, January and February. But when we talk to a lot of newer or inconsistent revenue type video businesses, they typically are super slow during November, December, January and February. And the reason is, is because that's when things start to die down a little bit. If you don't have a lead generation and sales machine built into your business like our clients do now, now, because they have those things built in, they don't have to worry about the slow season because they have that built into the actual business. And they can just tune up and turn up more leads whenever they want. But what happens is, is typically in December, November, December, January, February, if we're dealing with a newer freelancer, somebody who's coming with us, or a new video business owner, someone who's like notoriously slow in the season, typically what happens is they start to just huddle and they start to hold on to everything. They start to get super scared about doing anything because it's slow, right? So here's why that's a huge mistake. So let's say that November is a little bit slow, December is a little bit slow, and you're expecting January to be busy and you're expecting February to be busy, right? So let's pretend that you're expecting those to be busy. And you're like, you know what? Because it's the holiday and because it's, you know, November, December, I'm just going to kind of like hold on to everything. I'm not going to invest in my business. I'm not going to invest in learning a skill or a system to get more clients. I'm just going to get really, really tight and I'm not gonna do anything. Well, the problem is typically what happens is these expected busy seasons right here don't always pan out to be busy. Right? And there's no guarantee that those are gonna be busy either. And so what typically happens is these January and February, because they huddled. This is actually even slower in January and slower in February. And then they typically. You typically run into an issue, or now you're scrambling even more because. Because you didn't put that system in place. Right. And so, honestly, this is what I typically tell our clients, and this is what I've had over the past five years. A ton of clients come to us and say, so typically in November, December. That is the best time. This is the best time right here to put a system in place. Sorry, my handwriting is horrible. Guys. Hold on. This is the best time to put a system in place because you have more downtime to actually implement it. Right? And so if you're super busy, you can still implement the system. But November, December is a great time because you can actually implement that system and start getting that system up and running. So then December isn't slow. Right? Right. This is busier. And then January is even busier than that, and February is even busier than that. Right. And so because you were kind of going down in work, now you start to go up and up and up and up down here because you spent the time here to actually implement that system. This is also what we like to call separation season. And so November and December are typically what we like to call separation season. And the reason being is because when everyone else is slowing down, this is when the real people, the people who want to get ahead and in this time period actually start to get ahead. Because when everyone else is sleeping, when everyone else is, you know, slowing down, not working as hard, not putting systems in place, you can actually get ahead by putting those systems in place and doing those things when no one else is doing them. And that way, you start the year off in a better position than everybody else in your industry and all of your competitors. And so, like the most successful business owners, they implement systems here because that is when they know that. That everyone else is slowing down and they can get the upper hand. And then the other thing, the other side of this is typically what you do right now. You will see the fruits of that labor in 30 to 45 days. And so if you're not working on getting new business, you're not working on getting new leads, you're not working on getting new clients, then what's gonna happen is in 30 to 45 days, you're gonna see that rough patch appear. And that was the result of not doing the work 30 to 45 days ago. And this is one of the biggest problems and biggest misconceptions that that videographers have during slow season is they're like, when things get slower, they just huddle and shut down. So when things get slow, you go faster, you go harder. When things get hard, you slow down a little bit, right? But slow season is the perfect time to get started because that's when you actually have the time to implement a system like this. And what most people do and what most people run into is that they work super. They slow down. November, December, and then January, February is not a strong start to the year. So like I said, what you really want to be doing is working on your actual system. So setting up a lead gen system, right? Setting up a sales system and then making sure that you have your fulfillment systems in place as well. Now most business owners have this fulfillment piece in place, so you're fine there. You don't need to worry about that. But what you do need to worry about is the lead gen and the sales system. And one other thing too, guys. Like, business is not going to magically fall in your lap. And if you're just riding the rollercoaster of like, well, I hope business comes to me, or like, you know, maybe those people will call me again or, you know, maybe I'll get that referral again or maybe I'll have that, you know, that client reach out. If you don't have a predictable way to get clients, then you don't really have a business, unfortunately, like, you're just in a place where you're kind of just, you're left up to whatever people do. And like, that's a scary place to be going into slow season. And so you want to make sure that you're covered, you have your bases covered and you're not in a place where you're hoping and praying that January and February are going to be busy months, right? So 20 get prepared. Put yourself in the best possible position you possibly can now, so then you don't deal with that later. And so if you want help with getting some sort of system like this set up, there should be a link below this video. You can book a call with our team or you could just watch more of my videos on YouTube here. It doesn't matter either way. Feel free to check both of those out. But what I want to say is just don't sleep on not putting this in place because you don't want to wake up in January, February and be stressed out starting the new year with not the level of revenue you want to start at. So hopefully that's helpful. Guys, if you want learn, if you want to learn more about how to actually set this up, there's again, free videos on this YouTube channel. If you want our help just setting it up for you and just doing it for you so then you don't have to worry about it, there should be a link to book a demo with my team. We'd be happy to chat and get you packed out for November, December, January, February, and whatever months you want. So with that being said, we'll see in the next video and keep being awesome.
