There is a lot more that I could say on the matter of taking a step of faith but the reason I bring all that up is to talk about one of the main systems that I have been dealing with over the past few years. I don’t want to scare people away from chasing their dreams but I also want to help those people understand the reality of what they are stepping into. I was never given proper industry advice for how a freelance videography business would go, and to be honest it is still very very rough, especially during the winter when production tends to slow down to a halt and you have to figure out how to take care of your family for 3-5 months with little to no income. Just remember I am here to encourage and enlighten, not to discourage and turn people away from chasing their dreams.
When I was first getting my spurts of being busy versus being dead slow, there would never be a middle ground ever it seemed. I would either be running around like a madman struggling to keep up or I would be dead to the point where I wouldn’t have a gig for weeks at a time. My mom actually coined the term or system, as I called it earlier, as “Feast or Famine”. Well, she couldn’t have been more right. Over my past 3 years in this industry, it has been either big feats or even bigger famines, and it just isn’t sustainable, especially now that I have a wife and a child on the way. That is one reason why I started trying to focus this year on getting my own clients for my own business instead of just working under contract for other companies or relying on my freelancer friends to ask for my help. Don’t get me wrong though, I have enjoyed every bit of it until recently when my wife would ask “So how are you making money today?” and I couldn’t give her an answer. As a man that hurts and she isn’t being mean or anything, it is a legitimate question for a legitimate concern. Questions like that tend to light a fire under you that you didn’t even realize you had. I will say though that being busy then slow would allow me to really hone my craft as a videographer and I will merit the past 2-3 years with that. I wasn’t sitting there doing entirely nothing, but I also didn’t have a ton of bills to pay at the start as I was still living with my parents. As I am getting into the “Feast” season now, I have been running so crazy with being out all day only to spend another 2-3 hours each night dealing with what I shot that day as the majority of it was real estate and that usually has a 24-hour turnaround these days. The “Feast” makes you forget about the “Famine” until the latter sneaks back up on you and you realize you didn’t have enough time to put effort into growing your business since you were so busy.
To those of you who are also freelancers, the only advice I have is to never think that you have made it or that you can relax. Before you know it “Famine” will strike swiftly and unwillingly leaving you with nothing to speak for, so make sure you are always taking a step back to look at your big picture and that you are on track to have consistent work incoming and you don’t wait till the dust settles to build your business.