That’s why I wrote Professional Video Producer

Walk Before You Run

• Dry Spells when you just can’t get enough good budgets to justify your investment of time and money
• Nightmare clients with high expectations, but low budgets who make your life miserable and never pay a fair price for the good video you produce
• The Vicious Cycle of not having the right equipment or skills to produce the video your client will pay big bucks for
• Hit-and-miss marketing that doesn’t bring in a predictable amount of business on a regular basis
• Wasting your time talking to “tire kickers” who say they want a video, but never make a commitment to producing one. (Many don’t have the money or authority to hire you.)
• The Struggle with Digital Editing (both financing it and learning it)
• Contracts that never seem to pay you for ALL of your time

Sound familiar? If you have been in the video business, I can help you avoid these problems and put you years ahead of the game. Many problems have been faced by thousands of producers. Men and women are finding solutions. Why rivet the wheel?

Are you ready to embark on an amazing adventure?

Here is what you will learn. A video producer. There is a home study course.

The Completely Revised New Edition of the book is the first thing you get. How to create a winning video for your small business or non-profit. It will ground you in the basics, but it is just the beginning. The course will take you far beyond the basics. Here is what you will learn.

Part #1 How To Produce a Successful Corporate Video

• The Twenty Best Advantages of Business Videos
  Your job is to help your client’s business and here are twenty ways to do that (these will also help you sell the job!)
• Become an Expert in the Use of Business Videos
  (This make you invaluable to your clients. Not only is it a lot of fun to help your clients’ businesses grow, but just one successful business video will bring you new clients for YEARS
• Use your client’s existing marketing literature as a starting point to structure your video
• The One Scene every marketing video should include
• The Seven Questions you must ask to make sure the video will be successful (These are essential in the producing process, and they’re extremely useful in making the sale, too.)
• The easy way to write a script and get a professional rate to do it. Three sample scripts for your eyes only. Modify them for your own clients (Service Company, Manufacturer, & Non-Profit)
• How to Hire and Work with the best Professional Narrators and Actors In the beginning you’ll only need to have one or two very professional-sounding narrators in your files. That’s 90% of the “talent” you’ll need, but they must be very good (You’ll be surprised at how little they cost since it’s a buyer’s market.)
• How to develop your own “Golden Rolodex” of highly skilled freelancers and video services to help you tackle ANY kind of corporate video project. This is how you multiply your profits from other peoples’ work. Using this “Golden Rolodex” you can produce a few very lucrative higher budget productions rather than scores of low budget ones. This is how it’s done in Hollywood. You should operate the same way!
• What you must know about working with freelancers
  Knowing how to hire the right freelancers can make all the difference in your business success.
• Writing The Budget. Learn how to be so complete and accurate you’ll know exactly what your profit is before you start. Learn the trick to predicting budgets and using contingency percentages to stay on budget in unpredictable projects.

Part #2 Build A Solid Foundation For Your Video Business

• First Do Market Research to make sure there’s enough of the right kind of business in your region to support your business!
• The Question of Partnerships – Learn why most fail and what you can do about it.
• Advantages and Disadvantages of owning Video Equipment
  (A revealing look at how some producers make more money by NOT owning any equipment just like their Hollywood Counterparts)
• Develop a Professional Business Presence with just a Telephone, An Impressive Business Name, Stationery, and a Business Suit
• The Two Things your computer MUST DO to help you operate a profitable video business
  (They have nothing to do with NonLinear Editing and can be done with ANY computer.)
• How to bootstrap your business without borrowing.
• The one thing one must do before you can even think of borrowing to finance your video business
• How to set up an IRS approved home office and deduct a percentage of your mortgage payments, avoid sending a “red flag” to the IRS, make your video business virtually audit proof.
• The definitive word on Independent Contractor vs. Employee for the video business
• What you need to know about your demo tape. Learn how to produce it and how to use it to win.
• When to show Other Peoples’ Demo Tapes – The Right way to do it and what NEVER to do.
• How To Set Your Own PROFESSIONAL Rates
  Avoid the most common mistake of self employed people – their rates are TOO LOW. Learn about the psychology of professional rates. Your time is worth more than freelance handymen who charge $50 an hour.
  Learn how much it really takes just to break even. See what others get for the use of equipment. Learn why professional cameramen and women work on a one day minimum fee. Why you should never charge for less than a half day of shooting.
• Master the Skills You Need to Run A Profitable Video Business
  You’ll be surprised. They’re not the skills you might think
  

  Part #3 Marketing & Selling Your Services

• How to quickly compile a list of thousands of corporations, businesses and non-profits within 60 miles of your home that want to produce a video (and have the money to do so).
• Customize your own Direct Mail Plan to win those clients (Using my sales letter and 17-page booklet in the Resource Guide. This booklet gives you instant credibility. It’s how you get corporate executives to call YOU! Then see exactly how to followup and identify only the best prospects (those with the money to buy now) This plan brought me $78,000 in contracts the very FIRST time I used it. Your results may differ, but even if you only get half that amount, you’ll still pay for the course about 300 times over! (This is the only way to buy equipment.)
• Should you be in the yellow pages or advertise in your local newspaper?
• Learn how and where to network with those who have the power and money to contract your services
• Learn the Nine Best Tips For Networking and integrate them into your daily activities
• Free Publicity to build your video business right now
• Step-by-step approach to making the Sale.
  Let’s face it, until you make a sale, you don’t have a business. First you must quickly eliminate the “tire kickers” who waste your time, but are never ready to make a video. Then determine who really has the power to say YES to your video proposal. Next I’ll show you how to handle yourself with corporate executives. It’s easier than you think because you will be the expert in something they need. Then I’ll show you how to ask the right questions and listen carefully as your prospect tells you what to write in your proposal.
• Write the winning proposal including a proposal you can modify to win more jobs. Keep it on your computer to make hundreds of variations for different clients.
• How to be successful on the telephone without ever making a COLD CALL
• Followup the Hot Prospects using a simple file of 3×5 index cards or better yet a computer database used with the marketing plan above. This insures a steady stream of new clients and contracts for years to come.
• Learn the secret of numbers in selling. Even if you’re doing all the right things now, you may not be doing enough of them. I’ll show you how to make the sheer power of numbers work for you.
• You’ll learn to focus on the client’s marketing needs and help them solve the problem with a video you will produce.
• Learn to listen to what your client really wants. Inexperienced producers don’t know when to shut up and listen. If you learn to listen carefully, the client will tell you exactly what he or she needs to hear to buy from you as well as all the main points of the proposal!

FREE BONUS 80-page Resource Guide

Including
• Three Complete Video Scripts
• Writing the Complex Budget
• Master Budget Form
• Sales Letter with Complete Instructions
• 17-page Promotional Booklet
  The Business of Business Videos and how to use it to get big production jobs
• A Winning Proposal and how to customize it to get much more than your fair share of video jobs
• Letters of Agreement for Ambitious Producers
  Including 3 “boilerplate” contacts with line-by-line instructions on how to modify them for any production. I’ll even show you step-by-step how to present this contract in person and explain the important parts to your client so you’ll get a signature and check on the spot.
• Change Order Form and why it must be attached to every contract you offer. This technique alone can add thousands to your yearly income, but most importantly, it shows your clients exactly how you work for pay. So you’ll avoid virtually all of those nightmare client situations before they ever have a chance to start. And see why you should never offer a contract without a Change Order Form . I’ll show you exactly what it says and why it works. Never again will you end up working for $5 or $10 on hour on a corporate video.
• Mailing List Evaluation Checklist
  See exactly how to specify the perfect clients in your mailing list and which expert will help you find this golden list
• Killer Collection Letter. Just change the name and address and this letter will help you collect at least 95% of those HOPELESS CASES (the ones you had BEFORE you read the course)

VideoUniversity, Hal Landen is a course at learnbeacons.org.

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