Starting A Video Production Company
Guides for starting and growing a successful video production business — in order, from first steps to clients, sales, and scaling.
Discover lessonsStarting a video production company? Whether you’re just starting out in video production, or if you already have a video production company, I’ve put together a series of guides that will help put you on the path to running a successful and profitable video production business.
Starting a Video Production Company: What These Guides Can Do For You?
Having your own video business is fantastic.
Imagine this: You wake up at 9am, without the sound of an alarm clock. You open your eyes and dwell on the reassuring thought of not having to deal with an annoying boss who looks over your shoulder all day whilst you trudge away in a drab office cubicle.
No commute to work. No childish office politics.
You get out of bed, make yourself something to eat and shower whilst your coffee brews. You grab your brew and sit calmly in front of the computer. You work for an hour on some video editing work, catching up exactly where you left it on your computer screen the day before.
At lunchtime, you decide to chill out and go meet a friend at the local cinema to watch a movie. Why? You needed a break, but, more to the point, you wanted to.
You’re working for yourself. You plan for shoots when you want, you edit around your own schedule, and you meet clients when you want to.
This is the life I lead day in and day out. I take vacations when I want to. I get paid to travel all over the country and even overseas to shoot video projects for clients. I get to immerse myself in awesome cultures, meet fantastic people and live life on my terms.
Is This The Life You Want?
Having a video business is very achievable these days, and this guide seeks to lay down a foundation, a blueprint if you will, for starting out in business for yourself as a freelancer specializing in video production.
This site began in 2011 and was originally a place where I wrote mindset articles and kinda experimented with building a strong mindset for my career ahead. At the time, I was going through lots of changes in my life and building towards starting my own video production business.
Since then, I found great success by starting and growing my video business into a very successful company in the UK. I travel a lot and have great links in the USA, where I went to university for a while.
Lots of the early posts on the site are almost me kind of willing myself on to success. I have left them in-tact (mostly unedited) for all to see, because I feel they’re an important part of my journey and they could be great signposts for others plotting a similar course.
A Little About These Guides To Starting A Video Production Company
So I hope you take this journey with me and follow along with the guides I’ve included on this site.
My hope is that they can help many more people out there achieve the kind of freedom and fulfillment I experience everyday from being out there doing something I love.
I’ll be adding to these guides and improving them day-by-day. My aim for them to be a launching point that people point interested parties towards.
As well the guides, I’ll continue posting all sorts of business and filmmaking related posts on the site. You can expect hardcore business and filmmaking posts, as well as practical, hands-on walkthroughs of technical tasks (like setting up a website for your business or starting a Google Adwords campaign).
Time To Get Started And Take Action!
In the video company growing guides that follow, I’ll include case-studies and back up my findings with hard evidence and screenshots where possible.
These guides and the plan laid out in them work, whether you’re looking at starting a video production company, or if you’re already established and looking for some pointers. But it requires action on your part. I’m not going to talk nonsense and say that you can get rich quick. This isn’t some scheme where you wake up one day and you’re rich. You need to take consistent action in order to make your video business take off.
With that said, take a look around, get used to your surroundings, and then knuckle down for some hardcore business building!
Happy Shooting!
Matt
PS, before we kick things off with the guides on starting your video production company, here’s a great video from Jordan Anderson (of Valley Films) on the first 100 days of your production company:
Your first paying video clients — where to look first
If you’re early in the journey, start here: realistic channels, simple outreach, and what to say when someone says “send me a quote.”
Starting A Video Production Company – The Guide
Work through the lessons in order — each section builds on the last.
Phase 1
Getting Started – The Quick Start Guide
Phase 2
Marketing & Selling Your Services
Phase 3
Getting Work Done & Getting Paid
Bonus resources
Tools and templates to implement faster
Browse the exact tools I use and grab plug-and-play templates for proposals, pricing, contracts and delivery.