VIDEO CAMERA PROFITS
USING YOUR VIDEO CAMERA FOR EXTRA MONEY
One of the easiest ways of making extra money is with a video
camera. More people own cameras than radios, and photography is
the fastest growing hobby in the world. Yet using a video camera
as an extra income tool is largely overlooked! With a little imagination, a flair for showmanship, and just a
hint of salesmanship, the average man or woman, or even teenager,
can easily make an extra $300 a week with a video camera. You don't have to have one of the popular, more expensive
video cameras either, or a lot of high priced attachments and
equipment. In many instances, a "off-the-wall" video camera will
suit the purposes perfectly. The only special piece of extra
equipment you may want to invest in would be a tripod for
mounting the video camera in certain situations. One of the easiest ideas is to visit a children's clothing
store in one of your busy shopping centers, or the children's
department in one of your large department stores. Sell the
manager or store owner on the idea of your setting up in a corner
of the store or department, and taking videos of the shoppers'
children. He can promote the fact that you'll be in the store
taking videos for special prices during certain hours - perhaps
on Friday evenings and all day Saturdays - in his advertising,
thus drawing patrons into his store because of you. You'll need a sheet or a plain piece of material, or some sort
of imaginative set for a background. But this you can easily make
or build yourself. You should also have an eye-catching poster
that calls attention to what you're doing and the prices you're
charging. Unless you're a commercial artist, spend the money to
have this sign made for you by a professional. The next and last
thing you'll need will be a 2-part receipt or coupon. This can be a simple piece of paper about 2" wide by 5" long.
On the left side draw lines for your customers to fill in their
name, telephone number and address. You might also want to
include space for additional information such as the child's name
and age and the number of children in the family, for future
efforts, but keep it brief and simple. On the right hand side of this coupon, have your business
name, address and telephone number, plus a quick outline of the
different kinds of video work you handle, and perhaps a
business slogan such as "Satisfaction Guaranteed or You Don't
Pay." To add a little bit of class to this coupon, take the basic
outline of this idea over to an instant print shop. Tell them
what you want; show them your outline; and have them typeset
everything. Then put a fancy border around the whole coupon and
have it printed on colored paper. The best color of paper is a
"dollar bill" shade of green. If you want to give it even more
class, you could have it printed on green, lightweight card stock.
You'll want to divide the "information" side of this coupon from
the "business card" side with a dotted line and perforations. If you layout this coupon properly. You should be able to get
six of them on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper or card stock. This
means the printer can print and cut 6,000 of them for about the
same cost as printing 1,000 circulars or flyers. On your printing, shop around for the best deal, but in the
end, it shouldn't cost you more than about $60 for all 6,000
coupons which will come from those 1,000 sheets of paper or card
stock. Now, when you video tape a person, regardless of whether
it's an "in-store" set-up, out on the golf course, or along the
street, you give your customer one of your coupon-receipts and
offer to sell them the video. They fill in the information part
of the coupon (which you keep as a receipt) and give it back to
you, retaining your "business card" portion of it. Some stores, golf courses, bowling centers, and other retail
merchants may even let your customers charge the video on MC or
Visa. You should expect the store to charge you for this service. By all means, be sure to include an advertising circular with
each set of videos you deliver. This circular should explain
how the customer can get the other video services you offer. Back to the original "in-store" video taking set-up during
evening shopping hours and on weekends for extra income. You can
call attention to your "in-store" set-up and bring in more
business with a few merchandising promotional ideas. In the
following paragraphs we give the highlights of a few ideas that
have worked well, however, you should keep your eyes open to
observe additional promotional ideas that could be adapted to fit
your new business. Dress a helper in a clown suit, and take videos of the kids
on his lap or with his arm around the kids. Put a sandwich
advertising board on a helper and let him stroll through the
shopping center advertising the fact that you're in Kiddie
Clothing store taking video pictures. Set up a booth in the mall and promote "Instant Videos."
Be a Roving Photographer and take candid shots of shoppers and
promote a "Shopper of the Year" contest. Work with a clown and
have him "attach himself" to the kids, and ask if they'd like to
have their pictures taken with him. Build an inexpensive and
portable set, such as an airplane, a race car, bucking bronco,
hand-shaking scene with a famous person or "balloon figures" and
take videos of people standing in or on these sets. Get out to the golf course and take videos of the golfers
teeing off. Get over to the bowling centers and take candid shots
of the bowlers in action. Do the same thing wherever there's a
sports event taking place. Be on the spot and ready whenever
there's an opportunity to take team pictures. You might follow, or hire someone else to follow a Little
League team through its season, take candid and action shots. You
then arrange to have the videos duplicated. You should be able
to sell one of these videos to each member of the team. There's also the idea of "just strolling through the park" on
a Sunday afternoon. You take candid and interesting videos of
couples, children and people in general spending time with their
relatives. Keep tabs on the announcements of new births. Send
advertising literature to the new mothers, and follow up with
phone calls efforts to set up video photography sessions. Keep tabs on the engagement notices in the weekend papers.
Send your sales literature to the brides-to-be, and follow up with
phone call efforts to make a video of the wedding. Set up household and business video inventory service. With
this idea, you contact the insurance companies and determine if
they will approve and endorse videos you take of their policy
holders' household, personal and business property in loss claims. Most will, and from there - working either with the help of an
insurance agent, the agency itself, or on your own - contact
owners of property and sell them on the idea of your taking
videos of the household goods they have insured. You take videos
- a pictorial inventory of everything they're claiming or
would like to claim on an insurance policy - and then identify
the videos, giving one set to the property owner and a duplicate
to his insurance agent or company. Video inventories of household and personal property has
definitely proven to be a super money-maker for the people willing
to get out and hustle. Once you decide that using your video camera to generate extra
income is what you're going to do, get out and use your camera,
start taking videos, and allow yourself the opportunity to
build. Give yourself the chance, and you'll quickly begin to
think of hundreds of ideas for taking videos, merchandising
ideas for promoting your services, and sales angles for increasing
your profits. The important thing is to get started, regardless of how small
your start, and begin cashing in on an idea that's still in its
infancy. This is an idea that can produce new concepts for profit
every day of the weak. An idea that can be fun, as well as
financially rewarding for you! You've got the idea and the plan - the rest is up to you.
You've got the ball; now run with it!