Five tips for your
video production,
graphic design
or Web business

It may be tempting to send a final product to your customers to impress them, but William suggests having each step in the production approved.

“Editing a video is a little like building a house: going back to the ‘foundations’ after the walls have been built involves destroying your work and living with the feeling that you worked for nothing.”

This reality also applies to creating a website, where the plan (wireframe) is the first step to get approved.

When you send a bid with a single offer and one price, you increase the risk of losing a potential customer and you miss an opportunity to educate your customer. By sending different proposals, you make your customer aware of the value of his request, the paths he can explore and, indirectly, your expertise.

“We always make three proposals. In the most expensive, not only do we offer special effects and 3D animation, but also the rights to use the rushes, which are all video excerpts, including those that were not used in the final cut. In this way, we inform our future customers that rushes normally belong to our business.”

In the artistic world, agreements that involve working for free in exchange for visibility are often criticized. Yet, according to William Henri, this type of agreement could be worth looking into if you are starting up a business. However, to achieve medium and long term profitability requires stipulating certain conditions and being proactive.

“When I was at university, I worked for free in return for visibility, but I didn’t take full advantage of those opportunities. I was happy to have my logo on the poster without taking things further. When my business accepted its first “visibility contract”, we filmed ourselves in the process of filming and published these videos on Facebook. The fact that we were proud and we showed it led to some great visibility.”

William also suggests stipulating the following condition: have free rein. If you really want to use your production for promotional purposes, you have to be proud of it. Your production should resemble you, which is difficult if your customer imposes his preferences. Do business with people who trust you completely in order to cut approval steps and save time.

Adjustments to the final product can be costly in terms of time, and therefore money. According to William, it is best to clarify at the outset the number of hours of modifications included, then charge extra time at an hourly rate. Each project is unique and certain understandable and unexpected events could occur, therefore banks of hours can vary and be flexible. However, if a customer exaggerates, you could remind him of the clauses accepted in writing, which will make the negotiations much smoother.

You are asked for a type of video, website or poster that you’ve never produced? Don’t be afraid of the unknown: if you think you can produce it, accept. You may have to invest more hours than you usually would, but you will gain experience in a different area and expand your potential pool of customers.

“The first time I was asked to produce a long video using rotoscoping, a technique that consists in tracing over an image frame by frame for use in live-action film, I wasn’t sure, because I had explored this technique in a completely different context from the one requested. Finally I agreed, and after several hours of research and production, I delivered. Now our team is able to make more accurate evaluations for requests involving this technique.”