Adding Services
When I first told my family I wanted to start a video production company in the early 1990's, some thought I was crazy...some thought I had not really prepared myself. And for some of those people, they were right...but what they had not really asked me was my philosophy on adding services. I believe that adding services can change your business and your life.
Let me explain. When I first laid out my business plan I focused on the event video business. I shot and edited wedding videos and Bar Mitzvah videos. And through each service I had in my business plan, I focused on adding other services for the same client. This is where up-selling comes from. Sure, that seems like a sleazy term, but hear me out. That client that just hired me probably has old videos laying around to convert to DVD (in those days, DVDs were just coming out in the consumer market). That same client probably would love extra copies of their DVD or in those days I delivered VHS! And just like that, I started a duplication sector of my business. I started a conversion sector of my business.
And then like magic, most of my clients started asking for other services like restoring old photos, digitizing photos and the list kept growing. I made it a point of saying yes to almost every request. And from there, my business grew. I still focused my attentions to what I did best...shoot and edit events.
Fast forward 25 years, and while I no longer shoot events, I still do video work outside of teaching. But my list of services has expanded. I still focus on shooting and editing videos, but now most are short :30 vignettes for the internet. I provide marketing videos for niche markets such as dentists, doctors and other professionals. I provide some drone services. I edit videos, I colorize and manipulate digital images, I can provide photo books of events by laying them out to tell a story...and I even convert old videos to cloud for safekeeping.
My point is that if you keep an open mind, your current client base will literally tell you what services they want. Why reach out of your current market when they (your current market) can give you the answers face to face. Sure, I could poll thousands of people, but with my small service base, I just want to keep my business base small while I am still teaching. I do what I love to do...interact with a client base that I choose work with. I'm lucky that I do not have to focus on growth right now. But I am always thinking about what other services can I offer.
And when that time comes when I retire from teaching and go back into the "real world", I will always focus on what services can I offer and add. Being flexible to learn other services enable me to grow not only as a business person, but as a human being as well. I like growing and learning. And taking what I have learned and translating that into how I can sustain myself and my family.
Add new services, it just might change your life!