Scalable Fastlane System to develop as a Videographer?

[Tim Fischer]

Hi, im about to finish school this year and i want to start as a freelance filmmaker immediately afterwards. I have already collected a few payments here and there.
As i can’t really imagine being able to create a fastlane system out of freelancing, i wanted to ask what would be great options to start a big business (that is ideally related to filming / cameras). Create a website for content creators? Create a camera shop?

I would really appreciate your ideas
(I don’t know if it may be relevant but i live in germany, not sure if that makes a big difference to the US)

 

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[Matt Lee]

I think one of the biggest leverage you can utilize for free is to use social media to build and position yourself as a "pro" filmmaker.

Once you have a brand going for yourself, people will come to you for guidance in anything related to filmmaking. I generally like the idea of people coming to you after you build up a solid reputation than looking for 1 by 1 individual that needs your service. It's just preferences. Once you have a name going for yourself, you can either help clients personally via courses or cohorts or build an agency of some sort to serve individual clients or businesses.

Generally, if you give out free content in form of "how to" or "why __ is __ " in your specific niche, you will become an authority figure over time if you make it a point to improve your production+quality. It's good to keep in mind though that a lot of people are doing what I just laid out for you. So if you really want to thrive whilst doing the same, you'll have to iterate something that has never been done before in the niche.

A few examples could be 1) better production quality for your free content if everyone else is doing talking heads 2) better storytelling if everyone else is doing bullet points 3) a better personality of some sort if everyone else seems to be bots and dead inside.

 

[NeoDialectic]

Hi, im about to finish school this year and i want to start as a freelance filmmaker immediately afterwards. I have already collected a few payments here and there.
As i can’t really imagine being able to create a fastlane system out of freelancing, i wanted to ask what would be great options to start a big business (that is ideally related to filming / cameras). Create a website for content creators? Create a camera shop?

I would really appreciate your ideas
(I don’t know if it may be relevant but i live in germany, not sure if that makes a big difference to the US)

Here is a thread that may give you something to think about.

More specifically to your situation, what do you want to be involved in? You can go in unlimited ways. Here are just a few that come to mind:

1. You can springboard your current freelancing into a media company. Hire other freelancers to do the actual work and you are managing the company. You can hire freelancers that already do fantastic work but that will be expensive (which is ok, as you will charge enough to compensate). You can also decide to hire cheaper less experienced workers and build a system for them to follow that will result in good outcomes.
2. You can think about what software would help you do your job as film maker better and create that. SAAS like.
3. You can think about what tangable product would be useful to you as a film maker and create that. Either b2b or consumer.
4. If you believe you have some unique style or insight, you can create paid guides/courses/classes for others to be as succesful with it as you. Amazon KDP, Udemy, Etc....
5. Some combination of all 4

Good luck!

 

[fastlane_dad]

Hi, im about to finish school this year and i want to start as a freelance filmmaker immediately afterwards. I have already collected a few payments here and there.
As i can’t really imagine being able to create a fastlane system out of freelancing, i wanted to ask what would be great options to start a big business (that is ideally related to filming / cameras). Create a website for content creators? Create a camera shop?

I would really appreciate your ideas
(I don’t know if it may be relevant but i live in germany, not sure if that makes a big difference to the US)

You are treading the line here of trying to distinguish what YOU want vs what the MARKET wants. It sounds like a lot of your thinking is 'me me me' VS. trying to figure out what the market needs and is willing to pay for.

When it comes to a 'fastlane system', and options to 'start a big business' - the skills, knowledge and actions required to move towards THOSE goals are completely sometimes in opposition with serving 'you' goals such as something related to 'filming and cameras'. Does that make sense? Not to say that all of these are always completely at ODDS with each other --- but you might need to think about what it is that you are actually trying to accomplish here.

When @NeoDialectic and I were drawing out and working towards our fastlane itinerary - our goal was to make $3, then $5 and then $10 - and ECOMMERCE was the vehicle we decided to frame a lot of our strategy and building blocks around. It made sense for so many reasons. It worked for us while we were asleep AND awake. It was mostly disconnected from our time once it was set up. We can add on to our product list with each day. The numbers are easy to crunch right from the start (work backwards on where you want to end up).

We have sold everything from personal care items, automotive parts and accessories, cutlery, video games, baseball cards and everything in between.

Our passion was 'building a fastlane business', not focusing on whether we care or not to sell any of the particular items that we did.

Hope that helps a bit. Good luck.

 

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[Andy Black]

i can’t really imagine being able to create a fastlane system out of freelancing

Freelancing improves your technical skills and sales skills. If you provide a B2B service then you rub shoulders with business owners which also helps you level up.


There's well trodden paths from freelancing to fastlane.

MJ did a video here:

• From Flat-Broke to Financial Freedom: How to Get Started When You Have No Money

I wrote something a few weeks ago:

Worried freelancing isn't a businesss?

Check out these podcasts, the first one in particular:

• www.tropicalmba.com/services
• www.tropicalmba.com/scale
• www.tropicalmba.com/consulting

In that first one there's a sliding scale like:

Employee
-> Contractor/Freelancer
-> Consultancy/Agency
-> Productised Service
-> Platform


High level plan:

1. Get some valuable skills (ideally by consulting to clients rather than taking courses and doing certifications).
2. Figure out how to get paid.
3. Scale.

Business is simple:

• Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
• Start. Sell. Scale.

** Business gets complicated because we don't keep it simple. **

Some ways to scale:

• Offer products/services that bring recurring revenue without much more work from you.
• Improve your infrastructure (people, processes, and technology).
• Buy more hours by hiring people.
• Build a consultancy, agency, or productised service (these are businesses where you help other businesses).
• Build consumer facing brand(s) and fulfil the leads or sell them to other businesses (possibly via Adsense ads on your YouTube videos ... check out this YouTube progress thread).
• Teach other people to do what you do.
• Sooo many other ways that it's not something to worry about. Figure it out when you get there.