- A quick side note before we jump into this week's episode,
I would like to thank our sponsor Squarespace.
From websites to online stores to marketing tools
and analytics, Squarespace is the all in one platform
to design a beautiful online presence and run your business.
But honestly just on a quick side note,
a company that supports creators
is a company that I support.
So let's jump in to this week's episode.
Guys, I need your help.
Does this shot look better without a light or with a light?
Without a light, with a light,
without a light, with a light.
See without a light it's very moody,
kinda feels like a Netflix drama series
like who changed the aperture,
who changed the shutter speed?
Let's find out on camera killers.
(laughing)
but with a light it feels very bright,
happy, like a normal YouTube video.
I think based on the tone of this week's episode
I'm gonna keep the light on.
What's going on guys?
My name is Chris Hau and on this week's episode
we're gonna be talking about the big tread, minimalism
and how it benefited our business.
Now to give you some more context, I own a photography
and videography agency with my fiance Lizzy Pierce
and we've found over the years by simplifying our business
and cutting down in certain areas,
we've actually doubled our profits.
There's channels like Matt D'Avella and Kraig Adams
that talked about this in terms of their lifestyle
but no one's really focusing on the business aspects
and I think this could be a huge win for everybody at home.
So let's jump in to this week's episode.
(upbeat music)
So the first tip in terms of making more money
which is gonna sound a little backwards
is actually less clients.
Now a few years ago we were saying yes
to every single project and at some point
we couldn't fulfill all the orders,
it was just too much going on.
But what we really found is that there was only a handful
of clients that were actually bringing in
the most revenue for us so what we did
is we started to cut out the smaller projects
and the smaller clients and really focus on the big wins.
And in that case we could take on more bigger projects
and make the bigger clients happier by doing this.
So it's kinda like the 80/20 rule.
Have 80% of your clients be the big high end ones
and then 20% of them be like some of the smaller projects
where you can experiment, be more creative
and that's where we've really struck
a really fine balance in terms of making a lot of money
but also being happy creatively.
So less clients actually equals more money
because you can make your bigger clients
that provide more value and opportunity and revenue for you,
you can focus on those ones, really kill it there
and then have the 20% really be your creative outlet
so that you have a nice well rounded
portfolio in your business.
Number two, less gear.
I'm sorry for all the gear heads out there and I know
that a lot of you guys actually know
that I have a lot of gear, but this has also been
acquired over the last couple years.
But the reality is I don't actually use
all my gear all the time.
I would say I really only use my Sony a9,
a handful of lenses, a few pieces of lighting
and an audio kit the majority of the time.
But we have things like client monitors
that we've actually used twice and I spent about
$2,000 on that, so that's about $1,000 per gig.
And that actually could've been rented out
for 50 to $100 which actually would've only been $200.
So I could have saved $1,800 had I just been smart with it.
So again, kinda like the client situation,
focus on the gear that you actually use.
And if you have other pieces you haven't used in a year
sell them, get some money for them
and if you actually need them either rent them
or hire somebody in your business
that comes with a kit that when they come out on set
for a video shoot or a photo shoot,
they just bring that gear with them
so that you guys don't have this acquisition
that's losing money over the next couple of years.
So yes, less gear is actually better for your business.
Alright the next point is a super simple and clean website.
Less is more is gonna be your main focus
for building a website.
So in my case when we're hiring a photographer
or a videographer for a project
I'm actually looking for a few things.
Number one is to build trust.
Does their website show some examples that actually applies
to what we're trying to hire for?
And number two what clients have they worked for?
We do a lot of work with the company Mercedes Benz.
The moment that logo is on the front page
of our website it made it much easier
to sell into other projects.
I actually remember listening to a podcast
one time where there was this guy who owns
a creative agency with about 30 employees.
He said one day he just kinda stripped everything
from their website, just had one landing page
with just the logos of the clients that they've worked with
and the name of their company and they actually landed
more jobs and had more inquiries.
The whole mentality around this
is that if your work is good enough for companies
like Mercedes Benz, Corona, Nike or any big company
the work that you're gonna do for this other company
is gonna be just as good.
So yes, if you have approval from a big company
it's gonna look good on you
and help build trust for future projects.
Another thing that helps build trust when people land
on your website and are making a decision
within the first 10 to 15 seconds is a good simple design.
Now this is where our sponsor Squarespace comes in to play.
They have designer templates.
I've actually used this website,
I've built a website with Squarespace,
it actually took me two hours to build a website
called ChrisHausHair.com.
Yes, legitimately it's a real thing, ChrisHausHair.com.
Took me two hours to build
and I had never used the website before.
So it's super easy to navigate
and pretty easy once you pick a template
to just slot in different things
and you have a good website that in my opinion
I was trying to sell my hair,
would actually sell my hair as a model.
A quick note on Squarespace too,
you can do everything all in one.
When we first built our website we had to get our domain
from like one service, our hosting from another service,
our design by like a friend of mine,
and a template that we purchased from like another website.
So that's four websites and four individual vendors
to build one single thing.
Talking about minimalism and how it applies to this video,
it's kind of nice when everything
ties together in one place.
So Squarespace does that.
You can get your domain, you have designer templates,
you can design it yourself design it,
all those things are in one place versus like having
to combine multiple vendors and multiple things
together so that you have your final website.
Have everything in one area versus like 100 vendors.
Alright our next tip is less overhead.
Businesses cost money to run.
There's a lot of line items per month
that's gonna cost you.
So if you can cut down on those
you're actually gonna save money and make more money.
The first one is do you need an office space?
In most cases especially today, no.
We do a lot of our business over the phone
or we can go rent a room or go meet at a coffee shop
with a client if we need to meet face to face.
But most of the time, probably 95% of the time,
we don't meet our clients face to face anymore.
So what I would recommend is either work from home,
work from a coffee shop, or check out if your library
has little work study areas that you can work from.
Actually at our Toronto Public Library has computers
like iMacs that have Premier Pro, After Effects,
and all these other things that you can just go in and work.
So if you just schedule it in for free,
you can go work from the library
and spend less money on an office space.
In our case we work from home
which is also a win win scenario because we don't have to
pay for a space and number two from an accounting
perspective we can actually write off a portion of our home.
Ultimately every business is different
and there's gonna be month to month costs.
What I would recommend is that you go through all
your month to month costs and everything
that you're spending money on and really pay attention
if it's giving you a return on your investment.
If it is, keep it.
If not, start to phase it out of your business
so that you actually get to keep
that money instead of spending it.
The next point is on social media and marketing.
You guys don't need to be
on every single platform, trust me.
Pick the big wins.
So if you've found that you're getting business
form Instagram, YouTube, Google Plus,
I think they got rid of Google Plus,
whatever social media on you're actually finding
that there's a return on your investment,
focus your time there.
Stop wasting your time trying to be on every website.
For us we focus on Instagram, YouTube,
Facebook, and email marketing.
Side note, this also applies to Squarespace too.
They have built in email marketing
you can apply to your website so that you can send out
mass emails to your clients or to people
who are visiting your website.
My next point is to specialize.
Don't be the jack of all trades.
In this case make your company specialize in one area,
especially at the beginning, before you start saying
that you can take on every single project.
Do you ever go to like a restaurant
and they have like everything on the menu
and it's kinda like overwhelming and you're like
I don't even really know why I'm here.
But then you go to like a specialty store
that only does like pulled pork really really well
and you're like this is the best pulled pork I've ever had.
So take that mentality for your business.
So when I first started my business
I found a specialty and a niche in government videos
in the Canadian space.
I know it's very specific but no one else was really making
high quality government videos at the time.
When we went all in on that,
we started getting hired by everybody
and we worked our way to the top of the government
video sphere very, very quickly.
From there once we had established enough revenue
from the government space we started
to branch out in to other areas.
But in the beginning, we focused on a single niche
that was actually making us money
and really building our name very quickly.
Focus on one area that you really see that is lacking
in like good quality content and crush it in that area
and I promise you, your name will spread like wildfire
and that each quarter you're gonna be making more money
because you're gonna be the best in that industry.
Alright guys, that is it.
Those are all my points in terms of how to double
the profits in your photography or videography business
by keeping minimalism in mind.
I talk in far more detail on how to design a website
that actually makes you more money in the link here.
I'll also link it in the description below
and I actually talk a lot more about the niche
and my background in terms of the government video
perspective in a link right here and a link below there.
And on that note guys, I would like to thank our sponsor
for this week's episode which is Squarespace.
If you guys wanna check out a free trial,
head over to Squarespace.com
and when you guys are ready to launch your website
or domain head over to Squarespace.com/thechrishau
which is also linked in the description below
to save 10% on your next website or domain.
If you guys saw some value in this video,
please press like, it actually makes a difference.
I kinda wanna change up my end screen tagline,
so if you guys wanna leave some suggestions below,
I'll be considering them for my next video.
Subscribe, would love for you to join along
and make sure you hit the bell to be notified
for future videos, 'cause there'll be a lot more value
comin' at ya and we'll catch you in the next one.
Peace out everybody, love ya lots.
On this week's episode of making a camera killer,
we talk to Joe Shutter and how he got his last name
and why he doesn't want anybody else to have
a shutter speed of 1 over 200.
(laughing)
Oh this coffee's so cold now.