Chapter 2
The Business of Weddings

In this chapter:

Planning is everything

Managing client relations

Marketing yourself

Keeping it all compliant

Nearly by definition, a wedding videographer takes some joy from the excitement, beauty, and tradition surrounding the lifecycle event in which he or she is participating. For some vendors, the job satisfaction in wedding videography lies in the celebration itself; for others, it comes from finding the perfect way to capture dramatic and emotional moments on camera or creatively rendering these moments through artistic editing and effects. In my decade of wedding videography, however, I have yet to meet the wedding vendor who got started through a love of accounting. But as with any service business, operational logistics such as budgeting, accounting, marketing and bidding jobs are integral to success.

Your arrival in the industry might change how you regard your business and your goals. For example, suppose you had a great time shooting your cousin’s wedding for free and realized that becoming a weekend wedding videographer would be an excellent way to make some additional income. In that case, you’ll need to learn quite a bit about both the production and post-production processes in order to remain competitive in the field. Or perhaps, having graduated from film school, you’ve decided to start a collective with some colleagues with the intent of supporting several videographers full-time. While your education will undoubtedly serve you in the product you are creating, managing a wedding timeline—not to mention wedding clientele—may be quite different from managing the projects with which you are familiar. Most likely, you are testing the waters somewhere in between, with some experience, small immediate goals, and larger long term ones.

Regardless of how you fell into this line of work and which aspects of it you hope to focus on, it’s important, as with any business, to consider and plan the ways in which you want your business to grow. As you get further along in your business development, you must revisit your goals, revising them and extending them to match the realities you face and the vision you are striving for.

Planning Is Everything

Before you can spin off into exciting decisions such as what your Web site will look like and which magazines to advertise in (and I admit, these are both fun and important decisions), you must delve into the more basic territory of defining your videography business and your business goals. This fundamental aspect of planning your business will factor into all your other decisions, such as what types of gear to buy, how much time you will spend with your clients, the final product you will provide, and your price point.

Perhaps you are shaking your head, thinking “I want to do only a few weddings per year for some additional income. I don’t need to bother with a business plan!” On the contrary, a business plan is important regardless of the projected scale of your company.

Any business owner will tell you that having a business plan is critical for building and developing your company. It is a map to guide your route into self-employment, defining the goals, or destination, of your adventure. Along the way, it will help you consider things such as taxes, accounting, and growth rates. Furthermore, a business plan will help you assess the market, your competition, the clients your style will appeal to, and the services you can and must provide. You probably won’t stick to your business plan precisely, but having it in place will help you analyze the ramifications of your decision making: the jobs you choose to take (or not), the money you spend on marketing and equipment upgrades, the employees you hire or contract with.

Ideally, a map to your destination prevents you from getting lost in the first place rather than bailing you out once you are turned around. Similarly, it is important to write a business plan that addresses your goals and the associated logistics immediately and directly. That’s because how you strategize and organize your business will guide your startup decisions, such as what equipment to buy and, later, when to hire additional employees or contractors. Avoid getting lost by spending some time early on defining your business goals and the best route to achieve them as well as putting working systems in place for when your goals are realized.

A basic business plan should contain at least the following elements:

A description of your business. Who are you? What services do you plan to offer? What is your mission statement?

Market analysis. Who else offers similar services? How are you different? What is the market demand for your services? How much of that market can you capture?

Marketing plan. What methods will you use to attract customers?

Operational plan. How will you successfully complete the work?

Financial plan. What are your costs, direct and indirect? Which of these costs are capital investment and which are ongoing? How much will you charge for your services? At what point will your costs and revenues allow you to break even and run profitably?

Samples of business plans can be found in books and online, and the Small Business Administration offers free courses in developing them. The following considerations will help you flesh out the details of your plan.

Consider Your Time Frame

In order to write a plan, it is important to know both what your business goals are and on what time frame you hope to achieve them. Most wedding videographers begin their business slowly, either assisting more established videographers or working for free or reduced rates for friends or couples who would otherwise not have a wedding video in their budget. This allows the inexperienced wedding videographer to gain practice in lower-pressure circumstances. For videographers entering the field with little shooting experience, this practice is invaluable. Even for established filmmakers who know their equipment well, the transition to wedding videography can be rocky, with a high learning curve with respect to dealing with the tricky and changing lighting, sound management, and recording fast-paced events in a single take. The flow of a wedding takes some time to master, even for a seasoned camera operator.

Starting Slowly

By building wedding-videography skills slowly, ideally with the assistance of a more experienced wedding videographer, you have the opportunity to try some equipment before making your own purchases as well as develop shooting techniques and editing styles. In addition, you have the chance to put together a demo video. As you’ll learn later in this chapter, a demo video is key to obtaining clients. (More experienced filmmakers may be prone to dive right in but should still be aware of the differences between wedding and other videography.)

Aside from enabling you to acquire experience, another reason to start your business slowly is to allow yourself to build some start-up capital. By using initial jobs to purchase equipment and develop marketing tools (your Web site, business cards, brochures, etc.), you can build your business on revenues instead of on loans or other funding sources. That being said, building a business slowly generally requires another income source during the build-up period, which may be infeasible or undesirable to some vendors who want to get their business up and running more immediately.

Jumping In

Although it is generally regarded as the typical route, you are by no means required to build your business slowly, on your own generated revenue. Some people fund their businesses by investing their own capital by persuading friends and family to invest. Securing a business loan or a credit line for start-up costs is also an option. A major resource, both for learning and for start-up capital, is the Small Business Administration. The SBA provides online tutorials, advice, and access to loans for business start-ups.

Count Your Assets

Whether you work full time or part time, a major factor in how quickly you can move toward your revenue goals is what assets you have going into the business—and what assets you need. An experienced shooter may already have a full production setup that is workable for all of their production needs. As that shooter’s business grows, he or she might want to make some gear-related adjustments—for example, purchasing lighter-weight equipment or additional microphones. But with a system ready to go, he or she may be able to make do with spending initial funds on post-production hardware and software. In contrast, I came into the business the other way around. Having started as a video editor, I had edited hundreds of weddings on my own post-production hardware and software when I began shooting; I then borrowed and subsequently bought production equipment as I slowly and steadily developed my shooting skills and preferences.

Business assets to consider include more than your gear, however. A wedding videographer needs to have production and post-production equipment, surely, but also a mode of transportation to and from wedding events, an office (see upcoming sidebar), a place to meet with potential clients, marketing materials (including but not limited to a demo DVD, a Web site, and print ad design), contracts and other legal documents, insurance policies, and an accounting system. These assets should also be accounted for when considering start-up costs and time frame.

To gauge how quickly you can get our business off the ground, prepare a list of assets you will need and determine which ones you have (or have access to). Once the list is prepared, consider the pricing estimates in Chapter 3, “Production Gear,” and Chapter 4, “Post-Production Gear,” to help you determine some of those costs.

Understand Your Overhead

When you work in a service industry, understanding the true costs of your labor can be tricky. Weddings are notoriously budget driven and vendors can be very competitive, so it is tempting to price low in order to obtain work. While this strategy can be effective, it is important to make sure that more than just your production-day costs are covered in order to run a successful business.

For example, you might assume that between the day of the wedding and the completion of post-production, the wedding will cost you approximately 30 hours of time. If you bid a flat rate with only your direct hours in mind, ignoring the indirect costs you continually incur, your business’s long-term survival will be threatened. Without additional revenue to cover the cost of a broken camera, for example, it is impossible to shoot the next wedding.

Because of the competition between vendors in the wedding industry, marketing is traditionally a very high line item in a videography business budget—but is only one of many indirect costs you will face. Although they will vary depending on the structure of the business, indirect costs will likely include such things such transportation costs to and from the weddings, disposable equipment (batteries, tape light bulbs, etc.), rent and utilities for your business location, equipment repair and maintenance, insurance, business taxes, and time spent managing accounting and meeting with clients to secure business.

Anticipating these costs up front will help you gauge both how much you need to charge for a wedding video and how long you can afford to spend on each one. There will surely be adjustments to your expenses along the way. Using a software program such as QuickBooks or Peachtree will allow you to track your spending and pinpoint how much it costs you to run your business.

Managing Client Relations

Obviously, your clients expect and deserve a professional relationship with you, their vendor. But weddings are unique in that you are providing an intimate service. It is important for you, as the service professional, to set standards that will both ensure that your clients’ money is being well spent and allow them a great deal of comfort with the person who will witness, capture, and re-tell the story of a day fraught with high emotion. I have seen tears, tantrums, nudity, fights, off-key serenades, and heart-rending displays of love and loyalty. The wedding professional must remain composed, comfortable, and supportive throughout it all.

After years in the wedding industry, what becomes just another job for you is probably the most important day of your clients’ lives. In all your negotiations and service provision, it is important that you honor the couple’s excitement and the magnitude of their emotions. Some clients—perhaps more than I care to admit—must be treated delicately, as if their wedding were the only event you have ever cared about. While this type of client can be frustrating to all wedding vendors, the flip side of the coin is that the trust and intimacy that your clients give you can be very rewarding, both for you personally and for the quality of your video piece.

Videographers regularly cite the satisfaction they receive from a couple thrilled with their work as a highlight to the job. By spending some time learning about your clients, their family, and their event, you can become a more engaged and supportive member of their wedding team. This will increase their comfort with you and, in turn, enable you to create a better product.

While gaining your clients trust and maintaining your own enthusiasm is integral to a quality product, the friendly relationship you foster with the couple should in no way affect the level of professionalism that you offer. By clearly defining expectations prior to service engagement, you will save yourself headaches, negative marketing, and potential legal action down the road.

Defining Your Style

One aspect of satisfying your customers is being up front about the type of product you can—and are willing to—deliver. If you are a videographer who specializes in documentary-style weddings and your prospective client is looking for a music-video production, it is important that you ask yourself if you can really provide that. Do you have the effects software for the stylized look they’ve asked for? Do you have the equipment to get the time-lapse sequences or the birds-eye angled shots they want? Most importantly, do you have the time and desire to spend the extra hours working on a project that is unfamiliar territory? While I would strongly argue that being flexible for your clients is important for generating business and will help build your strengths, skills, and demo reel, you do not want to be mired in a project that could cost you in hours or reputation.

Clarity with your customers starts with having demo reel and a full-length video of your own work to show them as they are considering your services. Your demo reel should be short and demonstrative of the best parts of your style, whether that is slow and dreamy or fast-paced and funny. It should grab their attention and convince your prospective bride that you can capture her in a way she will be proud of. Ideally, your demo will be accessible on your Web site as something that couples can use as an initial filter in selecting your services.

A full-length wedding video should be available to potential clients to provide a sense of how you handle the longer parts of the wedding event. Do you typically edit the ceremony down to the vows and the kiss? Or do you show the whole thing from processional to recessional? Is every word of the speeches included? Is the first dance shown unedited, or with cuts of the ceremony mixed in? That allows clients to determine what aspects of your style they like or may want done differently for their own event. With their input, you will be able to assess your ability to meet their needs. For example, if you typically use two cameras but they want three-camera coverage of the ceremony, you will be able to determine whether it’s worth it to you to rent an additional camera setup or shooter.

While I would caution against giving the couple too much say in every detail, clarifying for them as much of the process as possible will help you price your work effectively and maintain the client satisfaction upon which your business relies.

Pricing and Bidding

Because couples plan their weddings on a budget, it is standard to present a bid with a flat rate for the entire project instead of a bid with a rate for time and materials. Couples need to know the total cost of your services up front instead of being billed later. Determining a flat rate can be tricky, however, ranging from $700 dollars to as much as $10,000. Of course, the majority fall somewhere in the middle; between $2,000 and $4,000 seems to be fairly standard in most markets. As noted earlier, videographers must stay competitive in a tough market while being wary of undercutting their own livelihoods.

There are lots of variables in pricing a wedding job. The major ones may include how many cameras and camera operators will be at the wedding, how many hours you yourself will you be at the wedding, and how long post-production will take for the style and format of video you are delivering. You should have a sense from your financial planning about what overhead costs need to be factored in; use these to come up with your total price for the job.

Packaged Pricing

Videographers often offer clients packages that specify the number of hours of video coverage, the number of cameras and the final project. For example, a menu of packages may include a version of the following:

Six hours’ coverage

One camera, one shooter

One authored DVD

Eight hours’ coverage

Two cameras, one shooter

Two authored, chaptered DVDs

Eight hours’ coverage

Two cameras, two shooters

Two authored, chaptered DVDs with highlights section

Unlimited coverage

Two cameras, two shooters

Five authored, chaptered DVDs with photo montage and highlights section

Videos compressed for iPhone and hosted online

Of course, the more coverage the videographer obtains, the more likely it is that the final product will meet the couple’s expectations because there will be a wider variety of shots to choose from. Being able to pick from an array of material gives couples the confidence that the final product will be something they will be proud of and enjoy.

Offering a basic set of packages does not prevent you from tailoring your projects to your customers’ needs—often providing additional revenue to you. For example, if a couple wants basic one-camera coverage of the wedding but also wants a highlights section and coverage of bridal preparations, you can add these “à la carte” items to the basic wedding coverage.

Here are some additional services that you could consider offering to your clients:

Rehearsal-dinner coverage

Photo montage

Highlights section

Engagement video

Projection of video (montage, engagement video, or same-day edit) at reception

Additional hourly coverage per shooter

Additional copies of video

DVDs of raw footage

Customized Pricing

Some vendors prefer not to use packaged pricing. Instead, they meet with potential clients to determine their needs and preferences and then come up with a proposed price. This method of pricing offers two major advantages:

Many couples prefer what feels like a more individualized approach to their event.

The wedding vendor can be flexible with rates depending on his or her current needs. For example, in a heavily booked month or for a particularly difficult job, there is little motivation to bid low. But a videographer might lower his or her price if a couple is stretching their budget and the videographer really wants that particular job.

The major disadvantage to customized pricing is how labor intensive it can be to meet with and create a proposal for every client. Because price is a determining factor for many couples, having a published schedule of prices can filter out the clients who you may not be suited for before either of you invest any time.

Set Pricing

Increasingly, vendors are moving away from packaged pricing and customized pricing, instead offering one price that includes a certain set of services and deliverables. While some clients may still try to customize your services and prices to suit their interests, those clients who are exhausted by the buffet of options and decisions that accompany wedding planning will welcome your set price; deferring to your expertise may well be a relief. For the vendor, using this style of pricing ensures that you know exactly what you are in for and makes it easier to streamline your workflow. If you decide to use set pricing for your business, I suggest that you gain some experience in the field before you determine and publish your set price, as you will want to have a very firm understanding of the time and costs of your product before you are tied to a price.

As discussed further in the next section, it is imperative that the client understands exactly what services are included with the fee they are paying. If additional costs may arise down the line, such as editorial changes or charges for additional copies, that potential should be made clear up front.

Legal Issues and Contracts

As with any business agreement, a signed contract is important to protect both you and your client. These documents can range from a few sentences to pages and pages; it’s imperative that you find a balance between these. Aim for a document that is thorough yet unintimidating.

Your contract should, at the very least, include the following:

Full contact information for both you and your clients.

The locations, times, and events for which you are expected to provide video coverage.

The end time of your shooting responsibilities. While the photographer and videographer are sometimes the last to leave an event, often they will leave when the dancing is underway. Whatever your endpoint, it should be specified in your contract so that the bride doesn’t become angry that you won’t be capturing the couple in the limo driving off when you pack up your gear to go. Your end point can be measured by time (e.g., after 10 hours) or event (e.g., after the bouquet toss). If your clients hire you for a specified period of time, such as eight hours, consider a pre-arranged hourly fee for staying longer should they request you do so on the day of the event. Be wary if the end of your workday is tied to an event; weddings rarely run according to schedule, and you may be in for a longer shooting day than you bargained for.

The final product you will be providing. Be clear on the delivery format of the final product and the number of copies the couple will receive. For example, do they get the raw footage, or do you keep that? Are you compressing a video for them to post online, or will you post it yourself? Be sure to specify.

The date upon which you will provide the video. In my experience, it is far better to give yourself more time than you think you will need. Couples are very understanding when you say up front that a video takes a long time to make; they’re less so when you deliver later than promised.

A defined payment schedule. Be sure to clarify when payment is due. It is typical to get 50% with a signed contract and the balance after services are rendered, but any arrangement that suits you and your clients is fine as long as it is mutually understood. Be sure to clarify which payment methods are acceptable and whether there are any applicable penalties should a personal check be returned.

Additional fees. It is important to be up front about the possibility of additional fees. These could include additional shooting hours, extra copies of a video, DVDs made of the raw footage, etc. One line item that is especially important to clarify is editorial changes to the video once the couple has viewed it. Depending on your pricing structure, such changes may be included as part of your service—but you want to make sure that you don’t fine-tune a video seven times without appropriate compensation.

Disclaimers. This is the section that can take your contract from a single page to a frightening volume of legalese designed to scare off your client, complete with references to acts of God and various breaches. While I urge you to avoid that, I would recommend including a clause for both equipment failure and sound quality—two items that may be out of your control even with the best preparation.

Another thing to consider is whether you get full rights to the images captured. If you want to be able to use an image in your marketing materials or on your Web site, for example, you can obtain permission on an as-needed basis or have that clause drawn into your basic contract.

Marketing Yourself

Sales expertise doesn’t take you far without prospective clients. All the discussion in the previous section about working with your clients hinges on them being able to find you in the first place. When brides, or their mothers, start thinking about wedding vendors, your name must come across their radar. Regardless of the scale of your business, marketing must be a continual process, as marketing opportunities tend to have a short shelf life and must be regularly refreshed. Furthermore, a busy wedding season doesn’t mean the marketing can end; it just means you have more marketing material with which to work.

There are numerous methods for exposing your business, some more traditional and some based on newer Internet-related opportunities. As you develop your strategies and marketing budget, keep in mind that your marketing methods must evolve to match your clientele. Even though you might be loath to join a social-networking site, remember that the average 25-year old bride is likely to be similarly put off by the Yellow Pages phone book. That being said, traditional marketing methods still prove effective. The best marketing strategy for your business will likely combine elements of traditional and modern methods designed to suit the demographics of your prospective clientele.

Print Materials

Ideally, you will have a logo to unify all of your print materials and brand your business. If print design is not your forté, a logo can be commissioned from a designer for reasonable rates. The logo should be finalized before you, or your designer, work on your cards or other handouts. Your logo should also appear on your Web site and in the opening and closing to your video product, further branding your services for those who see it.

Business cards are a must, and should include your logo, contact information, and a link to your Web site, where sample work can be seen. Cards should be distributed frequently and gratuitously; give out several when asked for one. Larger printed materials can also be useful: 4×6-inch cards or brochures that allow room to discuss your style and even your packages and pricing, if you choose to disclose that information.

Always keep a stash of your printed materials in your camera bag for the wedding day; I once shot a wedding in which three of the four bridesmaids were planning their own weddings. Similarly, when appropriate, leave several copies of your cards or brochures on display at places where brides are likely to be in wedding-planning mode, such as bridal stores, flower shops, and wedding-cake bakeries.

Magazines: Print and Online

There are numerous print magazines devoted to helping brides plan their weddings. These publications have regional editions, allowing for local vendors to purchase advertising space. While this model has traditionally been a solid marketing approach, make sure that the magazine’s clientele is appropriate for your services before making an investment. The magazine publisher should be able to provide information about their readership to help you determine whether the demographics, such as geography and budget, will match what you are looking for. There is little point in advertising to a bride that is 500 miles away if neither you nor the client can cover your transportation costs.

The Yellow Pages provide advertising space for a fee. That said, while it may be useful for prospective brides and their parents to be able to find your contact information in the phone book, it is becoming less and less likely that they will look there for referrals. I recommend being listed without paying for additional space.

Purchasing ad space on online bridal sites—either sites run by magazines (such as www.brides.com) or forums (such as www.theknot.com)—can help boost your business. As with print magazines, your digital advertisement can be placed for local viewing.

Web Site

Your Web site will be one of your key marketing tools, because it is where your work can be seen. In fact, even before you post any video, your Web site conveys your design sense and ability to transmit information. Because visual aesthetics and storytelling skills are the services you are selling in the wedding video itself, it’s crucial that you use your Web site as an opportunity to put your best foot forward. Make your site easy to navigate and appealing to look at.

At the very least, your Web site must contain your contact information and some samples of your work. Ideally, it will also provide a way for you to capture the contact information of your visitors so that you can contact them yourself (see Figure 2.1). Beyond that, you (or your Web-site designer/developer) can make your site as fanciful as your imagination allows—as long as you maintain navigability and clean design, and the site loads quickly.

Figure 2.1
Ideally, your Web site will have a way to capture information about prospective clients. That way, you can contact them instead of hoping they contact you.

A word of caution on that last point: As a documentarian, it is natural that you will want to use the highest resolution possible for your online images and video demos. Keep in mind, however, that brides are literally inundated with information and have massive to-do lists. If your site, or your sample work, takes too long to load, it is unlikely she will notice the high quality of your images; more likely, she will give up before she has the opportunity. Make sure your site images and videos load quickly.

Your Web site, like all your marketing, should be an ongoing project, subject to both maintenance and revision. If you aren’t designing it yourself, make sure that you either learn how to update your site or include site updates by a third party in your budget. You want your images and video samples to reflect recent wedding trends and your best and latest work.

One way wedding videographers update their sites regularly is by including a blog. After each wedding is completed, the videographer can post a bit about the event and even some video clips. In addition to being an easy way to keep your Web site fresh, using a blog is also a good way to bring traffic to your site, as couples are likely to forward the link to the blog entry about their own wedding to their friends and family (see Figure 2.2).

Figure 2.2
Many wedding vendors use each event as a new blog entry. Blogs are excellent marketing tools because they showcase the video-grapher’s personality and a link to his or her work, as well as serving as a marketing tool for the venue.

Other Internet Marketing Tools

It is critical that you remain aware of current Internet trends as you develop your marketing strategies. Even though some of these trends might feel short-lived, annoying, and/or cumbersome, it is important to remember that in 2010, the average bridal couple had been using the Internet since grade school and may have very different expectations with respect to communication than the vendors with whom they are working.

That being said, I am not suggesting that you rush headlong into every new technology. For example, despite the current popularity of iPhones and BlackBerry devices, at the time of this publishing, I do not recommend investing in a mobile site. Wedding-planning decisions take weeks or even months, not moments; so the investment necessary to get an attractive site running on a few different mobile platforms does not currently seem worth the value of what it may bring in. A bride is still likely to plan her wedding from a computer at home or at the office as opposed to on the go.

On the other hand, having a social networking identity for your business, such as a Facebook presence or a Twitter feed, is becoming more and more popular among wedding vendors. According to Annyce Meiners of Beyond Video, social networking has created easy and free referrals (see the upcoming sidebar). While these forms of marketing communication may not be lasting trends, they come at little cost to you as a business owner and can be easily discontinued if need be. As such, they might be a reasonable, even profitable, marketing method to add to your overall plan.

Obviously, this advice is current as of the time of writing and could, of course, change in the near future. What’s important here is that you remember to follow the trends in which your customers are savvy and determine which ones might be the most useful, practical and economically feasible for you to incorporate into your own marketing scheme.

Word of Mouth: Brides and Other Vendors

By far the most valuable marketing tool available is good referrals. Regardless of how beautiful your Web site may be, a prospective client is much more likely to contact you if she heard from her friend that you were easy to work with and delivered a great piece than if she loved that header font you deliberated over for weeks. Referrals can come from the brides themselves, their friends, and other wedding vendors.

Keep in mind that your brides have siblings, cousins, and friends, some of whom are likely to also be planning local weddings. As mentioned earlier, do not hesitate to hand out your card at the wedding event itself (as long as your marketing doesn’t get in the way of completing your tasks, of course). When you receive compliments about your work, ask the couple if you can publish their opinions on your Web site. Many videographers use a testimonial page to highlight their strengths (see Figure 2.3).

Figure 2.3
Use the testimonials from your pleased customers to highlight facets of your company that you want to show off, such as your personality on the job or your use of effects.

As best you can, maintain contact with your clients after the event by including them on e-mails that highlight Web-site updates, new blog entries, or special promotions you may be running. With memories of your good service, a DVD in their hands, and your name at their fingertips, you should be able to maximize referrals from pleased customers.

Referrals don’t always come from customers, however. It is very common within the wedding industry for vendors to refer each other when they admire another service provider’s product or work well with that person. While referrals from other wedding videographers will be rare in such a competitive industry, they are not unheard of. If a videographer is already booked, or can’t provide the same services as you, he or she may give out your name and vice versa. More commonly, however, a different service provider such as a photographer, a wedding planner, or a reception venue will recommend you as a videographer. A referral from a photographer can be especially compelling, as the prospective client will likely understand how closely the two of you must work.

When you find vendors with whom you work well, make sure to trade contact information and refer them. Often, you will see wedding vendors link to other preferred vendors (for other service areas) on their Web sites. This is beneficial to the couple, who might be searching for a certain aesthetic or price range that like vendors have in common. It can also be tremendously beneficial for the vendors, both in terms of marketing and because their work quality can be improved by working with familiar people. This is especially the case with videographers and photographers who, as described in Chapter 6, “Pre-Production,” must perform an elaborate dance around each other throughout the day. Do not recommend a vendor or link to their site, however, just because you like the individual. Make sure you understand the quality of their work and trust their customer-service skills. Sending a bride to someone with whom she may have a bad experience will reflect poorly on your own business.

Bridal Fairs and Expos

Bridal fairs and expositions are an excellent way to both meet brides and network with other vendors. These range from small city shows to state and regional affairs. (You can find listings online.) There is no reason to snub the smaller shows; not only are they less expensive to participate in, but it is often much easier to meet local brides and vendors in shows that are constrained both in geography and floor space. Indeed, many vendors would argue that better business and customer relationships are formed in the smaller shows.

Should you decide to spend part of your marketing budget on a bridal show, make your entry fee worth it. Arm yourself with print materials to hand out, give away demo DVDs if possible, and make sure you can play some of your work at your table or booth. Consider a giveaway or other promotional item; if a bride gets a free engagement session from you, she is likely to hire you for the whole job.

Professional organizations such as the Wedding and Event Videographers Association (WEVA) may also be good marketing and educational tools. They have a yearly conference and provide member listings, information for brides, technical assistance to members, and business-related services such as group insurance rates and equipment leasing programs.

Keeping It All Compliant

In order to run a legitimate and safe operation, you will need to abide by the rules of your local and state governments as well as secure appropriate insurance coverage to protect yourself and the people you may affect in the course of your business. Because these regulations are made locally and change regularly, it is impossible to outline an exact set of rules for you to follow; a trip to your local city hall should put you on track.

License and Permits

Many city and local governments require a business registration. Fees will vary by location, but are generally fairly inexpensive. Check the requirements for your local jurisdiction at your city/county tax collector’s office; it may be illegal for you to practice without being a licensed business. In many cases, you will need a license in order to obtain a business, as opposed to personal, checking account.

Depending on your state, you might also be required to charge sales tax on your services, which requires you to obtain a seller’s permit. Some states allow you to charge sales tax only on the DVD or tapes that you sell as a final product (i.e., the cost of the blank media); other states include the labor that goes into the final product as the total value of the item, which means charging sales tax for the entire cost. Learn about sales tax for your state at your local tax collector’s office; they will direct you to obtain a reseller’s permit if needed. If you are required to get a seller’s permit, it is generally an easy process. Plus, depending on the state, the permit may grant you the ability to buy supplies tax-free.

Insurance

Although some venues or clients may require it, you are not obligated by law to hold insurance. That said, I strongly recommend it. Liability insurance will protect you and your business in the event a guest is injured because of you or your equipment. While this is not a particularly likely event, it is far from the realm of impossible; you will often be moving quickly, hefting heavy equipment in the air, and setting up hastily. Complicating matters, you will often be amongst a crowd.

Depending on the policy, liability insurance may or may not cover your equipment in the event of theft on the job, another unlikely but possible event. Ideally, your equipment should always be covered by insurance—through homeowner’s or renter’s insurance if you work from home, through car insurance when it is packed in your car, through liability insurance on the job. You will obviously have to look at the details of various policies to find the best plan for your setup, which may require a policy of its own.

Finally, some wedding vendors invest in Errors and Omissions insurance, which will cover the damages should a wedding videographer not be able to provide the service contracted, due to accident, equipment failure or other mishap.

Local professional organizations might be able to help you find group rates that may be cheaper.

Summary

From this chapter, you should have the framework to develop the following:

Personal business goals

A business plan

A list of assets that you have and need

A description of your video style

A method to price your work

Ideas to build your marketing plan

The methods to keep your business compliant and legally protected

Next Up

After some plans and goals about your venture have been set, it’s time to start ramping up for production. To maximize both your budget and your production quality, you will need to make careful decisions about the gear you purchase. Use the next chapter to think about the equipment you will need and what factors are crucial to a professional, high-quality production.

Chapter 2 Tutorial: Counting Your Assets and Estimating Operating Expenses

Depending on how big of a career leap you are making, starting a wedding videography business can be quite overwhelming. As discussed in Chapter 2, “The Business of Weddings,” business planning is a crucial part of your development, independent of how quickly you want to start up or how much revenue you are looking to generate.

Counting Your Assets

Use the following worksheet to help you determine what assets you already have and those you will need to obtain. Keep in mind that this sheet does not reflect ongoing expenses, only startup expenses. Furthermore, there may be items unique to your business that are not included on this list.

Estimating Operating Expenses

Use the following worksheet to help you determine your annual operational costs—those expenses that will reoccur. Think about whether costs occur per year (regardless of revenue) or per wedding (dependent on revenue) so that you can consider what costs you will incur no matter how many clients you serve. Customize this list as needed; chances are it contains some items that don’t pertain to you. Also, there are extra lines for items unique to your business.