1. Studios book more than they can edit
Things are going great – couples are loving your films, you’ve connected with lots of great suppliers that are recommending you and you’re taking bookings left, right and centre. Congratulations!
Next thing you know, you’re in the middle of the wedding season and stressed out of your mind because you’ve booked more than you can edit. Delivery times are stretching out, clients are emailing you wondering where their film is; uh o!
You can’t possibly edit more; you’re already spending all day in front of the computer, and then shooting 12+ hour weddings on the weekend. Delivery times are approaching 6 months – perhaps its time to get some help?
Outsourcing your wedding editing, or at least some of it, can be a vital part of staying on top of your workload and delivering a great service to your couples. There’s no shame in asking for help – in fact, it’s what can help you grow and take control of your business.
Some Nobacklog clients love shooting 20 or 30 weddings a year, and outsourcing about half of their editing. If they book a few more edits than expected, or take on some last minute work, they have the confidence of taking on the projects knowing that Nobacklog is there to help.
Other clients are on a growth trajectory and are booking 100-200 weddings per season, so outsourcing is required when growing their team. Outsourcing allows them to focus on sales and shooter training and development, without having to worry about hiring, training and looking after the editing staff too.
2. Some people prefer shooting more than editing
There’s no shame in admitting you LOVE shooting, but sometimes the idea of sitting in front of the computer for an entire week editing each wedding can feel painful.
For some studios, their passion is running a small business, meeting new people, enjoying the wedding event and capturing the festivities. It’s ok if you don’t quite love the production side of things as much. There’s still plenty of post-production to do in your wedding video business, even if you don’t actually edit. You still need to speak with couples about music, manage files, organise the rendering process, upload and deliver films, along with all the communication in between.
If you look outside of the wedding industry, most professional videographers and cinematographers don’t edit their own work.
3. Increase profitability
One of the key ways to increase profitability in a small business is spend more time doing higher value work. Outsourcing your wedding editing might allow you to shoot more weddings, or take on commercial film work. The hourly income for the shooting and management side of these projects might be double or triple that of what you spend on outsourcing your wedding edits.
If outsourcing a wedding edit costs $400, but you were going to spend 8 hours per day for 4 days working on the project, effectively you would have only been paid $12.5 per hour for sitting at your desk. It seems plausible that many studios are better of investing this time in marketing their business, taking on more wedding events, or other corporate film projects. Often, the value is in shooting the work, not editing it.
We’re not all experts at every part of our business – although many small business owners do try and take on everything themselves. That’s why we hire accountants and website designers – these people are more efficient than us at doing these roles.
4. To focus on building other parts of their business
As a small business owner, there can be an endless list of tasks that pile up. It’s easy to operate in damage control mode all the time; constantly working on the urgent tasks. This can mean you never get around to important parts of running your business such as:
- Marketing (which can help raise your profile and therefore what you’re able to charge)
- Increasing your bookings (lead follow up and lead generation)
- Connecting with other suppliers to drive recommendations your way
- Skill development (superior skills = superior work = clients valuing your work more)
- Improving the efficiency of your business and workflow
- Automating tasks (such as implementing a new accounting system)
Outsourcing part of your post-production gives you time to work ON your business rather than IN your business.
5. Free up time for family and friends
For some cinematographers, its difficult spending many weekends away from family and friends. If you also spend all week editing, it can be challenging to make time for loved ones. For some studios, outsourcing part, most or all of their editing work can free-up time to spend with the most cherished people in their lives. Outsourcing your wedding video productions can allow you to create a healthier work-life balance.
