In the past month I've been offered over $30K in video gigs
and I had to turn every single one of them down.
Why?
Because in October, I had the opportunity to invest a few thousand in my business and chose the wrong area. Now I'm losing money faster than I can make it.
Let me explain.
I do video work for clients... It's my primary way of making cash. In October I had a decision to make: I could either invest in
It seemed like buying something NEW was a better option than replacing something OLD.
Bottleneck
Had I thought more about it, I would have realized that the thing limiting growth wasn't a lack of stock footage... My limiting bottleneck is my workstation.
Let me tell you about this piece of garbage laptop I'm using now.
To give you a comparison... a 2 minute video takes me two weeks to do on this machine.
It takes me A DAY on something faster.
These are the type of videos I can produce when I'm sitting down in front of a clients workstation:
These aren't projections, this is fact based on prior experience. Better work, quicker delivery.
The Client
I was approached this month by a large sports clothing brand. They wanted 10 videos for each of their upcoming clothing lines. They wanted it done in a week. I told them this would cost $20K total, and they accepted.
However, after looking a bit more into the project, I realized I couldn't do it! My workstation just wasn't good enough, wasn't fast enough, wasn't powerful enough. I needed to find a way to make this work!
Unfortunately, there just wasn't a way. This project was time sensitive. I had to reject the job. I'd rather not take the risk of failing to deliver.
Since then, I've been approached to do MORE videos. After 10K in lost opportunities, I realized what a mistake I've made and am now trying to rectify the situation.
The Lesson
The outdated workstation represents workflow inefficiencies.
The stock video represents marketing (me pursuing different types of clients.)
Pursuing more work before you can handle it is a risky move. You have to have a solid plan to scale up first.
I learned a lesson. For now on, when dedicating funds to future projects... I will optimize existing workflow before pursuing a bigger workload...
I'd be 30K richer right now, if I had invested differently last October. Hindsight is 20/20.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this lesson and if you agree or not.
and I had to turn every single one of them down.
Why?
Because in October, I had the opportunity to invest a few thousand in my business and chose the wrong area. Now I'm losing money faster than I can make it.
Let me explain.
I do video work for clients... It's my primary way of making cash. In October I had a decision to make: I could either invest in
- Stock footage/music/template licenses
- New hardware
It seemed like buying something NEW was a better option than replacing something OLD.
Bottleneck
Had I thought more about it, I would have realized that the thing limiting growth wasn't a lack of stock footage... My limiting bottleneck is my workstation.
Let me tell you about this piece of garbage laptop I'm using now.
- Screen flickers 4-5 times per minute
- Sometimes it just doesn't feel like working.
- constant crashes
- Makes noises
- overheating problems
- harddrive failed in january, expecting another failure soon
- video editing takes forever.
To give you a comparison... a 2 minute video takes me two weeks to do on this machine.
It takes me A DAY on something faster.
These are the type of videos I can produce when I'm sitting down in front of a clients workstation:
The Client
I was approached this month by a large sports clothing brand. They wanted 10 videos for each of their upcoming clothing lines. They wanted it done in a week. I told them this would cost $20K total, and they accepted.
However, after looking a bit more into the project, I realized I couldn't do it! My workstation just wasn't good enough, wasn't fast enough, wasn't powerful enough. I needed to find a way to make this work!
Unfortunately, there just wasn't a way. This project was time sensitive. I had to reject the job. I'd rather not take the risk of failing to deliver.
Since then, I've been approached to do MORE videos. After 10K in lost opportunities, I realized what a mistake I've made and am now trying to rectify the situation.
The Lesson
The outdated workstation represents workflow inefficiencies.
The stock video represents marketing (me pursuing different types of clients.)
Pursuing more work before you can handle it is a risky move. You have to have a solid plan to scale up first.
I learned a lesson. For now on, when dedicating funds to future projects... I will optimize existing workflow before pursuing a bigger workload...
I'd be 30K richer right now, if I had invested differently last October. Hindsight is 20/20.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this lesson and if you agree or not.
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