Small enterprise house owners within the video trade know that their tech stack can play a key function of their efforts to scale—and even to outlive. I discovered that first hand as an entrepreneurial solo colorist and I’m excited that I can share my journey with you. Full disclosure: I now work at Body.io, however that’s on account of being a Body.io person for years, and I by no means get uninterested in telling different individuals within the trade why I’m such a believer in our product.
At first
Once I began Good Grades, my tiny colour and ending home in 2018, I knew that I wanted to be as lean as doable. I used to be based mostly in Philadelphia, a secondary market, and had made peace with the truth that as a newcomer I would wish to have low overhead in an effort to survive on the budgets of smaller shoppers. Initially, most of my startup prices went towards tools upgrades, furnishings, and the area I’d have to accommodate native shoppers who would come for in-person classes.
Whereas Philadelphia has a thriving promoting and filmmaking group, I quickly started to set my sights on the sorts of shoppers you’d extra usually discover within the main markets like New York and Los Angeles. However in an effort to discover them, I’d must do some vital outreach. And, as soon as I discovered them, I’d must show to them that I might be a viable various to a few of the high-end expertise in these cities, even when I wasn’t bodily there.
Establishing for achievement
In my day-to-day work I spent lots of time behind the panels. However past the method of really grading, I noticed there have been lots of different duties I used to be performing that have been important to my enterprise operations, requiring me to make use of various completely different cloud providers. Roughly, they broke right down to:
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- Native importing and downloading
- Digital asset administration
- Evaluate and approval
- Cloud file transfers
- Undertaking supply
- Archiving
- Sending portfolios for future work
I needed to obtain and add new information from editors or shoppers and needed to output graded information for colleagues and collaborators in different areas of submit like VFX, sound, or on-line editorial. I wanted to share drafts or work-in-progress with shoppers. I wanted to ship finals for supply and backup tasks in case I ever wanted to return to them. And, in fact, I wanted to have the ability to make reels and share shows with individuals who may change into future shoppers. Like this one…
Once I first launched my enterprise, I used to be utilizing a cocktail of client cloud platforms for various variations of those day by day media actions. Then I signed up for Frame.io. I had used it as a freelancer through the years and I knew it might be a powerful instrument for evaluation and approval, and at $25/month, it was a no brainer.
Not lengthy after, I canceled each different cloud account.
Maintain your shoppers near the work
As I started to work with extra shoppers from completely different cities, I noticed how a lot I used to be leaning into Body.io to assist handle varied features of my enterprise.
For one factor, distant shoppers weren’t going to come back sit in my suite, which meant that there was no foyer, no financial institution of calibrated reference displays, and no fancy drinks to impress them. The one factor I needed to present them was the work itself.
“Within the remote-work paradigm, client-service extras are changed by elements like accessibility and belief.”
Even earlier than the pandemic I noticed that within the remote-work paradigm, client-service extras are changed by elements like accessibility and belief. It’s all about how shut you’ll be able to hold your shoppers to the work, the progress, the revisions, and the supply.
So why would I ship a Fortune 500 shopper’s advertising and marketing marketing campaign, with dozens of deliverables, over the identical cloud I take advantage of to retailer household pictures or to put in writing emails?
Body.io wasn’t created as a consumer-grade cloud platform. It’s designed for content material creators who’re doing professional-grade video work. That’s why I made a decision that each challenge at my store was going to enter and go away by that cloud platform.
I additionally realized that Body.io may give me a aggressive benefit in workflow and distant shopper providers. Whereas my in-person shoppers loved the expertise of hanging out in my snug grading suite, I discovered that each one of my distant shoppers liked the diploma of entry and connection they needed to their tasks and the velocity of my workflow.
“Each considered one of my distant shoppers liked the diploma of entry and connection they needed to their tasks and the velocity of my workflow.”
They have been not ready for one thing from me. As a substitute, they turned my Staff Members and Collaborators in Body.io, which meant that even when we have been 3,000 miles away from each other, we felt like we have been collectively within the suite, sharing our ideas and concepts in actual time.
A powerful spine
My subsequent discovery was that as a substitute of utilizing Body.io on only a project-by-project foundation, I may make it the spine of my total enterprise.
I uploaded and downloaded every part over the Frame.io Transfer app, which is so quick that it’s nearly unbelievable. I despatched each Evaluate hyperlink and each custom-branded Presentation hyperlink from Body.io. And because the platform is trusted amongst so many media corporations, I turned indistinguishable from colorists in New York and LA.
The work was good, the value was truthful, and on the finish of the day, everybody ended up with the identical Body.io Presentation hyperlink they might have obtained from any of the big-name submit homes. Who cared that I used to be in Philadelphia? Because it turned out, nobody!
One in every of my favourite use circumstances for Body.io was once I was in between jobs. I began to maintain a grasp catalog of completed tasks in my account, in order I hunted for the subsequent job, or approached larger shoppers, I ended sending out a normal reel and as a substitute was capable of ship Body.io Presentation hyperlinks containing the perfect examples of the form of work they wished to see. It was the digital equal of sporting a go well with to satisfy with a brand new potential shopper.
Body.io had come to really feel extra like a enterprise engine than a evaluation and approval instrument. It turned the submit workplace, the airport, the suite, the screening room, and the media library. Earlier than lengthy, feature-length documentary movies, branded content material, late-night TV segments, and advertisements for Fortune 500 corporations began transferring by my store. Body.io allowed me to each showcase my work and to show my work ethic by the standard, velocity, and scale with which I may ship.
Body.io helps
Whereas your work, your status, and your enterprise ethics completely make or break your success, I do know that Body.io helped. So much. I couldn’t have run—and scaled—my enterprise with out it.
Now that I’m at Body.io, I look again on these days with nostalgia. What I keep in mind most was the sensation of pleasure and satisfaction I felt once I noticed the appears on my shoppers’ faces (or the phrases of their suggestions) after we received their tasks over the end line.
Now, once I speak to prospects who share their success tales with me, I get that very same feeling. And imagine me, nothing can beat it.
When you’re enthusiastic about trying out Body.io for your self or your enterprise, simply click here for a free 14-day trial. Or in the event you’re utilizing Adobe Inventive Cloud, you’ll discover it included in Premiere Professional and After Results—simply go to Window->Evaluate with Body.io.
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