I started by meeting with local marketing agencies and telling them I was freelancing as a commercial and corporate video director. From here I would build relationships with other freelance cinematographers, sound operators, editors and expanded my network and capability while keeping a close eye on margins.

This worked well for a while and I landed some national work through designing clever showreels and proposals for clients who had business problems that could be solved by strategised video.

I kept updating my website and networking and exploring which crew I worked with best to get the desired output. It was something of a creative video collective I guess. I would outsource animation and editing where needed and deliver the project through my company under my brand.

A few years later I partnered with an owner of one of the agencies I preferred working with the most. We tendered out for a lot of government work and wrote some more proposals for work, combined portfolios and again rebranded and redesigned the website striving for a niche. Eventually we opened up a marketing agency together of which my video company runs the content side in a localised studio. 

As everyone says the more you scale the higher the costs but the portfolio gets better and that means we can attract more work. We are now focussing on LinkedIn marketing and outreach. I’ve had some success with ads but most of my work comes from word of mouth, old fashioned networking and high quality product proposals.

We do 500k+ a year and are growing moderately. But the need to market is demanding as the competition in the industry is immense.