Blog #15 8 Things that changed from my business plan after starting my “real“ business (3 months in)
If you’re like me and wanted to go the proper route before starting your business, you will have created a Business Plan. This is a large document, about 20 to 30 pages, full of information about your business. I included things such as: product description, business goals, target markets, competition and financial outlook. A number of things ended up working out differently than my ideals in my business plan. Here’s a list of things that changed and the new ways I’ve begun thinking about them:
Customers - this one ended up being different but… not a million miles off what I planned for in my business plan. My biggest customer so far is the government. I had planned for the government contracts being a big part of my income but have been pleasantly surprised at how things have panned out. Doing video advertisement/promotion has not panned out to be as big as I thought it would be but I’m only a few months in so that might change after a full year has passed. While the volume of customers is lower than expected, the amounts per project are satisfactory, which is another pleasant surprise.
Pricing - going into starting the business, I really didn’t have a clue how to price my services. I had different models in my head but found it difficult to apply them into real-life situation. The thing I learned that I didn’t know going in to my business is that the best way to price your service is simply to ask. For example, if I’m giving a talk for a day, the best way to give a quote for that talk is to ask the relevant manager/panel member how much is a realistic price to charge. And guess what? They’ll tell you. Now you don’t have to oversell/undersell your services and seem silly in the process. You’re welcome ;)
Process - when I was making my business plan, I was preparing for my customers to have tons of questions about my products and how each process works. The reality though, is that people just want to get on with their job and they will trust me to provide the service I have promised. They don’t need to ask me about my colour grading workflow…
There is no secret to marketing - in my business plan, I had several ideas on marketing my business, a lot of which I have followed through with. What I have come to learn though, is that there is no silver bullet in marketing. It’s a long process, with different elements to maintain, such as social media, in-person marketing and more. The thing that I try and do now is just stay relevant, keep submitting proposals for things (paid or unpaid!) and reminding people that you’re still alive.
Mysteries Unravelled
5. Technology - I have started implementing tons of new AI tools into my workflow and they are changing how I create video. In my business plan, I planned on keeping up with new techologies and practises but the speed at which these new tools are releasing are lightning quick. They are making my life easier in many ways and increasing the speed at which I can produce, which is a bonus for many areas of the process.
6. Promo swag - while appealing and not very expensive, I decided against buying any Newtown Productions merchandise because there’s enough waste in the world and you never want to be the guy doling out business cards and peaked caps so that people, who will never buy from your business anyway, can vaguely make out the logo of your brand. I instead spent more time on making different logos for the different social media requirements.
7. Social media - I haven’t shared much on social media. It’s hard! You always have to respect people’s privacy, especially when working with kids. A trick I’ve learned is that sharing a post is nearly the same as posting it yourself, so do that when you feel like keeping things to yourself. Maybe I should hire a videographer for myself…
8. It takes time - I’m starting from scratch so it will take time to build up a presence, contacts and a large body of work. But taking things one step at a time, it’s possible to put everything together and build a business. The image in my head when writing a business plan was different but plugging away with things in the right way is working slowly.
Thanks for reading and if you’ve any comments, let me know down below.
Good luck out there.
-D.C.