Photography
Case Study For Service Businesses
2009 Update
"Starting an SBI! website can be daunting
to some but in all honesty, once you know it...
you know it, and once the snowball hits you
and you go over the top of that hill,
the momentum is staggering!"
Well, next week marks the fourth anniversary of my time with SBI! so I thought an update was in order.
First of all, I must say that I have learnt more about both the internet, marketing and especially myself in the past four years than at any other time in my life. Little did I know that when I first put pen to paper, as it were, it would lead to here!
If you could see my office, you would see a ton of books, computers, software programs, sticky notes, piles of paper notes and scribbling (mostly ideas and agendas) all over my desk... a real hub of activity.
I never have "nothing to do" and more importantly, I never have anything to do that I don't enjoy doing!
We moved back to the UK from Spain a little over a year ago and I can honestly say we couldn't have done it without the 3-year efforts I had put into my SBI! sites previously. The income and photography work generated from the websites sustained us whilst we got settled once again.
Step by Step to Reach My Goals
Last year was probably the pinnacle year (year 3) that enabled me to go full time with the internet business. Everything I had learned previously gave me the confidence to create my own product, not just an eBook as I had already written a couple of those, but a full-on, hard copy 4 DVD set tutorial product.
I don't think I have ever pushed myself so hard to get anything finished before and had to (there is a reason for displaying this huge list which I explain at the end):
- Write the initial eBook.
- Convert it "mentally" into the finished DVD video.
- Write the timeline (I didn't use a script).
- Revamp my entire 750 page website correcting all the HTML errors along the way and introducing SSI's (server side includes) finally to help with promoting the DVD's.
- Build a new SBI! website solely for the product.
- Start marketing it 6 months before it was ready or even started (great for motivation)!
- Learn about product launches.
- Learn about HD video editing and rendering.
- Find resources for DVD manufacturers.
- Find and implement the back end affiliate/payment system.
- Employ 2 videographers and two models.
- Organise a photography course with 8 attendees.
- Hire a van, wedding dress, suit, flowers, church, stately home, bed and breakfast etc.
- Film the entire course over a weekend using 2 video cameras.
- Fly to Spain and employ a videographer to film me photographing an entire wedding there.
- Offload and edit the whole lot.
- Make a short promo video.
- Learn to use and insert Camtasia screen captures to compliment the footage.
- Learn to create graphics, intros and outros for each DVD.
- Create covers, inlays and graphics for the finished product.
- Upload it all to the manufacturer.
- Test DVDs on 4 DVD players and computers.
- Write promotional articles and press releases.
- Build an email list of prospective buyers.
- Send that first launch email! Wow!
What happened from then on is another story but it is all good (very exciting). From start to finish, the project took around 6 months and if someone had told me 4 years ago that I would be able to do all of that on my own, I would have said they were mad! I feel as though everything I did and learned prior to starting the project was "meant to be" and exactly what I needed to be able to pull it off.
Here is the website - www.weddingphotographyblueprint.com
Note: There is a very important point to me including the extensive list above and that is this...
Even if the DVDs had flopped and I wasn't earning enough to live on, I know that the skills I learned and experience I got from attempting this would be priceless for anything else I did in the future... even if that meant getting a j.o.b.
I would never have had the confidence, knowledge or support to do this had I not started that first website 3 years prior. There was virtually no risk involved in spending that amount of time on this product as I had invested 100% in myself.
The Tortoise Bit
I now understand even more than ever what Ken means about the tortoise. It would have been impossible for me to accelerate or compress anything that I have done up until now. Everything I do with my SBI! sites takes time but it seems that is the only way to build real momentum. It also leads to and takes me off on the occasional tangent to something else... in a good and totally related way, of course.
Nowadays I only get distracted by ideas, new techniques, useful books and reviews etc, and it all relates to my business. I have a notepad next to me all day to jot down points for later.
Starting an SBI! website can be daunting to some but in all honesty, once you know it... you know it, and once the snowball hits you and you go over the top of that hill, the momentum is staggering!
Upcoming Year
My wife is working pretty much full time with me now and we are currently working on two new SBI! projects due for release this year.
I now have the time for 2 bike rides and two short gym sessions each day. I also cook and eat 6 healthy meals and still have time for the kids when they get home! (I learned the hard way that personal fitness is essential if you intend to work full time on a computer all day.)
So in closing, I would like to once again thank SBI! for all the amazing support and bountiful resources that you give us SBIers and hope to one day meet "The Team" at a conference somewhere in the world!
Nick Stubbs
http://www.all-things-photography.com/
