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How I made $4,000 in 3 months By Executing HARD

ChaseFade

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Mostly procedural videos, and patient training videos for post-surgical recovery routines.

With such clients, if they haven't contacted you themselves, it requires more finesse.
You would have to research their practice and see where visual-media content comes in.

At that point, you can pitch them on either streamlining existing media needs, or offering something new.

It could be video documentation. It could be editing of video documentation, if involved procedures won't permit third-party presence etc. These are things you'll find when researching their practice.

You will generally have more success with people in private practice than large hospitals, for instance. Gotta work your way up.

I post classified ads in a few places, and get contacted by people and businesses from all walks of life.
Try doing that, and it starts moving you closer to cherry picking your clients.
This all depends on your copy, and what you can show them after your copy motivates them to contact you.

Also, don't forget you can offer editing services as stand-alone work. This allows you reach clients pretty much anywhere, and opens doors for out-of-town work.

The videos you posted are nice, so you're on the right path already, as far as the technical aspect.
Thanks for the feedback! I am definetely interested in doing just editing. It's my favorite part of the process and my strong suit.

And you can do it from anywhere and that gets me excited. I would love to travel and do editing work at the same time

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ChaseFade

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Fantastic post man! That mentality switch you had (your FTE) sounds like it kicked you into high gear and you made the most of it.
No question! Thank you for reading

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MJ DeMarco

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Congrats man! Love to see breakthroughs happen in the world of self-reliance and skill-selling!
 

ChaseFade

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Congrats man! Love to see breakthroughs happen in the world of self-reliance and skill-selling!
Aw man, thank you MJ! I still get excited when I see you have liked something on here lol. *faints*

Your books have changed my life! Thank you for creating this forum for people like me to learn and get better and change their lives. I call both books my bibles lol I need to start a book club.

When I was 17 I discovered The Millionaire Fastlane after reading a whole bunch of low quality self help books with too much fluff and not enough practical info.

My favorite parts of each book are..

The section in TMF where you break down the process of how you made your money and the control over how much you made with actual dollar amounts and the process it took to increase everything. That had my jaw on the floor! Nothing was the same after I read that.

And in Unscripted where you speak on how improving certain attributes in a business is all you need to completely dominate any industry gave me so much clarity.

I've recommended your books to literally everyone.

Thanks again!

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Longinus

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Great work, man. When filming those videos, do you specifically have in mind what to film or do you just randomly film stuff and improvise on the spot?

Also, do you have people helping you out while filming concerts on different corners or do you still do it all yourself?

Just sent you more rep.
 

Lucious

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Wow, have you filmed for dreamville? J.cole fan here.

Great work. Looking forward to seeing grow your business.
 

Andy Black

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In December 2017 I was stuck. I felt awful. I was sick to my stomach because I had NO IDEA what I was going to do with my life. I made music for 4 years and got burnt out. It was all I thought about and all I did when time permitted. I was doing whatever I could to make a dollar not realizing I was becoming depressed in the process. I was addicted to that PayPal notification. I thought I was building a fastlane business but really I was building my grave. I was doing what I loved but I was doing it so much that it made me hate it.

So I quit.

I had yet to make enough to quit my job and be free from the suffocating rat race we call a 9 to 5. I was defeated. Without this business I had no potential way out. I was trapped. On top of that I was getting crushed by my new condo payments and was looking at 30-years of slavery.

So one day I was scrolling through Facebook trying to figure out what my next move was and BAM. I saw my fellow musician friend was dropping some new music off of his new album. Then it hit me. I can do videos for musicians and businesses! I already have so much experience with how musicians think, and having shot videos for my own music I could figure it out, no problem! Plus I knew the market for musicians was INSANELY crowded! I thought to myself "If the market is crowded, don't be in the crowd, serve the crowd!" So I gave him a call and said I'll shoot his next music video for free so I can get experience and he can have a nice video to promote along with his album. He agrees.

But wait...i don't have a camera. What do i do? I don't know how this works.

At this point most people say, "Idk how to work a camera or edit videos or any of that sh*t..oh well. Guess I'll come up with a new idea." And they quit. No execution. No work. No effort. No money. I decided right then and there I would not be like most wantreprenuers and I would do whatever it takes to make it happen. No more trying but a full on commitment to make it happen!

I start researching, find a camera, pay for it on credit (bad idea, but I was committed). Learned how to edit, bought the software. watched YouTube videos, etc.

Boom. I shoot the video. everything goes well and they love it! It was an amazing moment! I was finally providing value to people and was actually good at it! Now it was time to become profitable...


I got valuable experience from shooting that first video, but I now had something to show other people to get more work!

They release the video about a month later and I get a message from another artist on Instagram who saw that first video and what's to know how much I charge! Cha- ching!

$500 just like that!

Before you know it I'm getting calls from other musicians and also start diving into real estate videos and parties and live concerts! I'm experiencing things I could have never seen and done in my last business! I was on top of the world! People are loving my quick turnaround time (insane execution to make this happen, late nights and early mornings) and high quality videos.

Later on I get a call from a friend that wants to shoot a documentary for him. Hmm...I don't know how to shoot a documentary, or how much to charge but I'll give it a shot. Again I did research, spent many hours editing, and made it look great. Blew him away with the quality! I made $1,000 from that and couldn't believe it! And better yet he ended up having the video played in front of a crowd of 200 people and they loved it!

I haven't had a day off in 2018 and I am loving it.

Now it's time to scale this business to get to the point where I can quit my job.

Here I am today at the beginning of April with $4,000 in revenue and 4 more videos booked on the schedule and my first wedding booked next month! Uh oh...time to figure out how to film weddings [emoji23]


(This was just a big rambling of words but if you got any value from it please leave a like and comment below if you want me to continue the progress thread and go into more detail moving forward! Thank you!)

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Awesome story. Thanks for sharing.

My take:
  • You didn’t need to be an expert. (You figured it out.)
  • You made a (free) sale first, then figured out how to deliver. (You focused on needs instead of building stuff.)
  • You started with someone near you. (You didn’t build a website, buy cold traffic, or cold call to try and sell to people who didn’t know you.)
  • “If it’s not a hit switch.” (A line from Derek Siver’s great book “Anything You Want.)
  • You didn’t worry about scaling, you just started.
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ChaseFade

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Wow, have you filmed for dreamville? J.cole fan here.

Great work. Looking forward to seeing grow your business.
I did! I am a huge fan of J. Cole! I found a way to get into pretty much any smaller show by contacting the openers on Instagram and offering value to them. In this case it is a free 1 minute recap for their social media. I show them my previous work and they usually give me an all access pass. Then I stay around for the headliners! Just happened to be pretty much everyone on Dreamville haha. It was crazy! I was on stage with my favorite rappers and backstage talking with them about everything and anything. I was super nervous!

Crazy part is I nearly had the chance to shoot for J. Cole in Miami next month! I was talking to Lute backstage in Seattle and ended up getting his number and his tour managers number because he liked the recap video I shot for him! So once I saw the festival had Lute and J Cole on the same day I offered to come shoot his set again because they know me now and know what I can do. They said they might be able to make it happen but would need to figure out how to get a pass for me.


But as luck would have it...the wedding I booked is on the same weekend as the show. *cue sad music* Cant even imagine the chance to shoot my favorite artist live.


It worked out for the better i think because I would have had to fly to Miami and book a hotel on my own dime and all that. Without a guarantee that I could shoot it because it is a big festival and tickets cost around $500.

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ChaseFade

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Awesome story. Thanks for sharing.

My take:
  • You didn’t need to be an expert. (You figured it out.)
  • You made a (free) sale first, then figured out how to deliver. (You focused on needs instead of building stuff.)
  • You started with someone near you. (You didn’t build a website, buy cold traffic, or cold call to try and sell to people who didn’t know you.)
  • “If it’s not a hit switch.” (A line from Derek Siver’s great book “Anything You Want.)
  • You didn’t worry about scaling, you just started.
Rep+
Woah! Andy Black! I've read pretty much every one of your posts haha thank you

Love the list! Sums it up perfectly. I didnt even want to create a website or business cards because I didnt want to action fake. Just wanted to get to the sale! It took about a month from first getting the camera to booking my first gig. I have heard from other videographers that it took them around 2 years before making a dime!

I only got business after being asked for my card 100 times by realtors and potential clients. Then a website to refer people so they can see my portfolio.

Offering free work for the first time is honestly the best tactic I have used. I highly recommend it to anyone trying to get there foot in the door. When you do the first one free, you get a low pressure chance to impress and build your portfolio and relationship with the customer. Then they know what to expect from you and then you can start charging. Most of my opportunities so far have come through doing free work initially. Restaraunts do it all the time with free samples. Costco must make a killing.

Then when you show the video to future clients they don't know if you did the work for free! All they see is the video you made!

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ChaseFade

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Great work, man. When filming those videos, do you specifically have in mind what to film or do you just randomly film stuff and improvise on the spot?

Also, do you have people helping you out while filming concerts on different corners or do you still do it all yourself?

Just sent you more rep.
For music videos I have mostly done Run-And-Gun type of shoots. Just go to a city and drive around until something looks good and film a whole bunch of takes and then repeat. But lately I have been getting more into planning the entire video beforehand and creating a story/script and setting up lighting. It makes for a better video but takes up more time.


For concerts and events I am a mad man! It's all me. I run around the entire venue sweating my a$$ off in the process. Getting all different types of angles! Its exhillirating but also very draining haha. For headliners it's not as frantic because you have an hour or more to shoot. But when it's an opener they typically get 20 minutes or less so you have to work fast! It can be a good workout. If I'm there in the building and spending time I try to shoot everyone's set. I'm there already so why not right? Whatever I can do to provide value. I shoot clips of the DJ and send them a quick edit. I take pictures. I get backstage shots. Network with other acts.

Most videographers only film who they are being paid to film. Especially when they are on a 30 city tour, they don't want to film the openers. Huge mistake in my opinion and it opens the door for me! One day those openers will be the headliners and they will remember you. Get in on the ground floor.

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Mike Carr

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You're providing some amazing insight from your replies. I've done some paid photography work in the past using my Sony a600 but I'd love to dive headfirst into videography. I know you said you didn't buy any courses and just started going on YouTube to learn. Do you have a channel or video you recommend for starting out? Thanks again for the awesome post and engagement!
 
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ChaseFade

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You're providing some amazing insight from your replies. I've done some paid photography work in the past using my Sony a600 but I'd love to dive headfirst into videography. I know you said you didn't buy any courses and just started going on YouTube to learn. Do you have a channel or video you recommend for starting out? Thanks again for the awesome post and engagement!
I'm trying! I love to help as much as I can, glad someone is getting value from it!

There are a bunch of great channels! I have a backlog of like 60 videos I need to watch but I am only learning what I need to know right now.


Parker Walbeck - the Real Estate and Wedding Job Shadow videos are amazing.

View: https://youtu.be/0Pg_1A-iVWo


Been binge watching this guy Matt who is a professional wedding filmmaker. Great content.

View: https://youtu.be/0tMjJ1yHucE


For music videos - YcImaging is really great.

View: https://youtu.be/9LoTLfCfvoI


This guy Scott McKenna is solid as well! He uses the same camera I plan on purchasing so it helps alot. Wedding based content but lots of value definetely.

View: https://youtu.be/9JYCNNr5PLI



Also, Peter Mckinnon, Daniel Schiffer and a bunch of others are all great!

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Mike Carr

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I'm trying! I love to help as much as I can, glad someone is getting value from it!

There are a bunch of great channels! I have a backlog of like 60 videos I need to watch but I am only learning what I need to know right now.


Parker Walbeck - the Real Estate and Wedding Job Shadow videos are amazing.

View: https://youtu.be/0Pg_1A-iVWo


Been binge watching this guy Matt who is a professional wedding filmmaker. Great content.

View: https://youtu.be/0tMjJ1yHucE


For music videos - YcImaging is really great.

View: https://youtu.be/9LoTLfCfvoI


This guy Scott McKenna is solid as well! He uses the same camera I plan on purchasing so it helps alot. Wedding based content but lots of value definetely.

View: https://youtu.be/9JYCNNr5PLI



Also, Peter Mckinnon, Daniel Schiffer and a bunch of others are all great!

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Wow, thank you so much for providing that list. I got instantly hooked by the first video and I almost forgot to reply! I'm gonna dive deep into this content and start reaching out for free gigs in my local area. Thanks! +rep
 

ChaseFade

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Wow, thank you so much for providing that list. I got instantly hooked by the first video and I almost forgot to reply! I'm gonna dive deep into this content and start reaching out for free gigs in my local area. Thanks! +rep
Not a problem! Keep us updated on your progress

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ChaseFade

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I just booked another documentary! This time for $2,000! Wooo! Also making $900 this weekend with some music videos, making my total for this qaurter so far almost 3k! Which is almost what I made so far this year! Insane!


This is the same guy I did the first doc for. He was very impressed by my editing turnaround and flexible payment options. Along with providing professional photos and helping him set up his Instagram/Facebook and YouTube pages.

He said his friend did a documentary and it took the guy 3 months to get it back to him. We shot, filmed, and edited ours in less than a month.

After I shoot my first wedding next month I plan on running highly targeted Facebook ads with that video in order to book wedding gigs for this wedding season and next year as well. Have been researching how to run FB ads and how to film weddings in the mean time.

Also got a call from an EDM DJ that I met at a networking party I shot a few weeks ago! Again, he was impressed with the great quality and quick turnaround time. He also DJ's weddings and I will be shooting his next show this month.

I'm thinking of keeping this thread going as a progression thread! What do you think?

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PabloBlanco

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Great stuff. From ten years experience in the wedding industry (Im a photographer) I can tell you that shooting wedding video is a massively saturated market with most of the competition in the middle to low end. If I were starting out in the market, I’d be contacting high end wedding planners and photogenic venues with a high spend. Getting recommended by these guys is the best way to book clients with a bigger budget.
Don’t fall into the trap of shooting low cost weddings as (in my experience) low budget venues are harder to make look good. Think turd-polishing...

Also, as with any satisfied client they will refer you to their peers. If they are in the same financial arena than you’ll find it difficult to raise prices.

Definitely high quality, low quantity is the way to go with weddings. Some people will pay very good money for a wedding film these days. (You make wedding films, not videos... sounds way more expensive already...).

Good luck and message me if you want any more info.
 

ChaseFade

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Great stuff. From ten years experience in the wedding industry (Im a photographer) I can tell you that shooting wedding video is a massively saturated market with most of the competition in the middle to low end. If I were starting out in the market, I’d be contacting high end wedding planners and photogenic venues with a high spend. Getting recommended by these guys is the best way to book clients with a bigger budget.
Don’t fall into the trap of shooting low cost weddings as (in my experience) low budget venues are harder to make look good. Think turd-polishing...

Also, as with any satisfied client they will refer you to their peers. If they are in the same financial arena than you’ll find it difficult to raise prices.

Definitely high quality, low quantity is the way to go with weddings. Some people will pay very good money for a wedding film these days. (You make wedding films, not videos... sounds way more expensive already...).

Good luck and message me if you want any more info.
Love it!

Thank you very much for the advice. I definetely want to be higher end.

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ChaseFade

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I finally did it....

I purchased the camera of my dreams today!

The Panasonic GH5!

After saving some money from past videos I took the leap! I also got a new lens I'm very excited about. Perfect for weddings and such.

$2,600 in total and I will pay it off all from making videos! It feels good to invest into myself.

Picking up from the store later today before my first video of the weekend and will give updates

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Hi ChaseFade,

Huge respect for your hustle and out of the box thinking sir .
Really got me thinking that instead of running away from the problem we should work harder. Don't know something ...just put in the work and figure it out .Thanks for sharing your story ..really appreciate it .
 

ChaseFade

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Hi ChaseFade,

Huge respect for your hustle and out of the box thinking sir .
Really got me thinking that instead of running away from the problem we should work harder. Don't know something ...just put in the work and figure it out .Thanks for sharing your story ..really appreciate it .
Thanks for reading! And for the kind words. I'm just trying to help people and make an impact in whatever way I can. Glad I can inspire you to do the same

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Bhanu

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Hi Chasefade ...Do you think upwork account for your service can give you more customers ?
You said you love editing and that can be done remotely ..I feel you can give a try on Upwork once .
I just googled and it shows following results :
==========
Video Editing Jobs
1,348 were found based on your criteria
=============

Anyway best of luck and thanks for inspiring us all .
 

ChaseFade

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Hi Chasefade ...Do you think upwork account for your service can give you more customers ?
You said you love editing and that can be done remotely ..I feel you can give a try on Upwork once .
I just googled and it shows following results :
==========
Video Editing Jobs
1,348 were found based on your criteria
=============

Anyway best of luck and thanks for inspiring us all .
Hmmm..never thought about that! I'll check it out, thanks!

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Sounds like the beginnings of a media agency; love the hustle and the drive to figure things out along the way - Keep at it and it's only a matter of time this becomes fastlane!
 

ChaseFade

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Sounds like the beginnings of a media agency; love the hustle and the drive to figure things out along the way - Keep at it and it's only a matter of time this becomes fastlane!
Thank you! Only a matter of time

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ChaseFade

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Just wanted to update anyone following this on problems I'm facing currently..

With every success there comes even more problems to solve...

The new camera (Panasonic GH5) I purchased is AMAZING! 4k slow motion, better color range, image stabalization, among a bunch of other upgrades that will increase my quality for my clients. Everything I expected and then some. But every step forward comes with a new set of problems. After shooting 5 videos with this camera I have some findings.

The file sizes are much bigger than before. 4k at 60fps and 10 bit footage at 150mbs+ equals HUGE files. Slows down my render speed and adds more time to import footage. Did some research and its time to upgrade the memory cards. Camera froze a few times during shooting because the memory card wasn't processing fast enough. Have a new one coming in the mail.

Next problem is memory again...

one video shoot comes out to over 100gb of footage pretty easily. If I shoot weddings I need to be conscious of this and be prepared and be able to store this raw footage in a flash drive for years, should I need to access them later. Will be pricey. Plenty of cloud services and hardware options available. I have a 2TB drive right now.


Also...my computer hard drive isn't big enough to handle alot of files to edit at once. Found a TB SSD drive for a few hundred bucks and some larger 8tb drives I will most likely be purchasing soon.

My day job is keeping me busy with plenty of overtime to save up and pay off equipment while I continue to build this company.

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Hey Chase,

Did you have prior experience to video editing or did you just learn from tutorials?

I also would assume you're using Final Cut Pro am I right?

Thanks
 

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Congrats Chase. Reliving my days of being a cutting edge producer a long time ago. It is so addicting, so fun, and making money is a bonus.

Let me clue you in on a few things that could be hidden land mines.

I quit weddings. I did hundreds of them, and got rave reviews, and tons of referrals. The problem? They're live! What do you do when things don't go according to plan? Stop the wedding? You will face that dilemma. It probably won't even be your fault, but it will rise up to bite you. Bad.

Along with weddings - consumers. Consumers want what they see in the theaters, or at least on TV. No shake - perfect focus - perfect sound - perfect picture composure. All the time. Who wouldn't? The weddings I videotaped spanned 6 to 8 hours. That's a LOT of stuff going on. Miss one thing. Just one. They'll want to burn you at the stake. Do 50 things perfect - great - but the one thing is what they will focus on. They'll want a discount because that oh-so-precious moment is gone forever.

So my advice? Don't video something that can't be reconstructed. Use multiple cameras. I used to use two back in the day. Talk about expensive - over $5,000 each in the 70's. That might be around $12,000 each, or more, in today's dollars. That was JUST for the cameras. I had sound equipment and editing equipment that totaled even MORE than that.

I still do video today. It gets in your blood. But my cameras now are about $300 each, and I use five or six of them. I can edit unlimited video and audio tracks in my editing suite, and have all the bells and Hollywood effects. That's a far far cry from linear video using cameras that cost as much as a CAR, and manually editing. (That's opposed to rendering and having the machines do the work!)

Second piece of advice. I've already pretty much said it. Don't do consumer work. It is low pay, high expectations, and a LOT of work. Commercial is much easier, and pays ten times more. You also are not under severe deadlines, or worse yet: working a wedding reception on a Saturday night, after you've already been working since 11:00 am that day when everything started.

I made a lot of money in the video business, and it was fun. I only had three nightmares, out of hundreds of customers, to deal with. That's not bad. That is, if you're the type that thinks getting chewed up by a shark and surviving "only once" is something that's not "too bad." I can guarantee you it isn't worth it, no matter how much they pay you.

Today is different though. You CAN have multiple cameras, and of course the quality is superb. It would be hard to totally lose an event totally, although a malfunctioning camera *could* lose the most important shots you really need.

In commercial work, you just redo the shots, if that happened. Not the end of the world. No mob chasing you trying to kill you. Life is good.

I could tell you things for hours, but I'm trying to summarize an entire business in a very short response. One thing I would do differently. Delegate everything. You are the fill in guy, if needed. It is so easy to set yourself up for failure by running the show. You don't run the show - you direct the show.

Right now your prices are way too low. When you can get into high quality commercial stuff, you can afford a crew, and you don't have to do the work. Don't create a job for yourself.

That's enough for now. There are lots of resources to learn the technical things. And the marketing. There is nothing to stop you - except getting blown up by a hidden land mine! I've directed you away from those, though.

Good luck. Thanks for the very interesting posts.
 
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