Winter Media

Winter Media is a freelance marketing business that specialises in video production and social media marketing.
(7)

28/03/2024

We did it! 💪

Another YouTube channel monetised 🎉🥳

(Affinity Racing is one of our brands within the Affinity Media Group.)

A lot of people aim to reach this point with their YouTube channel, because they think the money starts rolling in immediately

❌ I've never launched a YouTube channel with the pure hope and goal being monetisation.

💰 In fact, my main goal is the channel earns enough revenue to cover its own costs

Why? Because I want to build real-world businesses and brands. YouTube channels and social media content are what build the brand itself, and build an audience connection. They generate awareness, leads, and sales. If you have a marketing machine that essentially runs for free, that is waaaaay more beneficial than pocketing a few hundred quid a month from ad revenue.

There are so many businesses that will tie into Affinity Racing over the next 5-10 years and more. I'd love to open go-karting tracks, sim-racing competitions, car and motorsport events, and who knows, we may even have our own motorsport team down the line.

Onwards and upwards for a channel that was essentially born out of boredom during lockdown! 😅

04/01/2024

Here's how I plan to make more than 1,500 videos in 2024! ⤵

1️⃣ My drum channel 🥁

1 x weekly 'Albums in 60 seconds' drum covers: 52 videos
3 x weekly social media clips and gig highlights: 156 videos
1 x bi-weekly livestreams: 26 videos
3 x weekly review/reactions: 156 videos

📊 Total for drum channel: 390 videos this year

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2️⃣ Affinity Racing 🏎️🎮

1 x weekly livestreams: 52 videos
3 x weekly episodes (reviews, reactions, races): 156 videos
1 x daily YouTube shorts: 365 videos
3 x reaction or review videos for each Formula one race (23 races): 69 videos

📊 Total for Affinity Racing: 642 videos this year

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3️⃣ My personal brand (slight ick saying that phrase)

1 x weekly videos documenting my business journey: 52 videos
1 x weekly podcast episodes, advising business owners on their own content marketing: 52 videos
3 x weekly social media clips and highlights: 156 videos

📊 Total for my personal brand: 260 videos this year

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4️⃣ And lastly, Winter Media:

For client projects alone, we'll probably complete around 60 projects this year. Most projects average around 3 final videos: 180 videos

1 x weekly video for our own marketing: 52 videos

📊 Total for Winter Media: 232 videos this year

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Of course, there'll be some weeks that don't go entirely to plan, but overall, this is definitely what we're aiming for!

Creating consistent content is incredibly difficult. It's easy to 'fall off' and see months disappear. Over the years, I've had this happen so often (often known as the freelancer's curse, or 'feast and famine') but as we start to build the foundations of an awesome team at Affinity Media Group, I fully expect to see our content capabilities and capacity grow... and this is just the beginning! 💪

01/11/2023

I'm normally a pretty positive person... but THIS grinds my gears ⚙️🤬

As a result of this incident, I now run what I like to call a 'Del-Boy' check on business owners 🔍👀

i.e... if you seem dodgy, you probably are! 😅

I can laugh about the whole situation now, because watching back this video, I actually realise just how STUPID I really was.

On a more serious note, I've learnt huge lessons from this. I always do whatever I can to give people the best possible videos, and the best possible service to match...

And so I really didn't take well to being accused of trying to rip people off. For anyone that knows me, I couldn't imagine ripping someone off in any way, let alone actually doing it.

For that matter - if I was trying to rip people off, I wouldn't take a minor deposit, outlay twice as much into the project, and then spend 8 days planning, filming and editing for no pay.

If I did that, I wouldn't make a very good scam-artist 😂

However, I definitely got mugged over on this one.

Moving forward:

✅ I have to be a lot more strict with deposits.

✅ I have to be a lot more strict on planning, and detailing out the 'what-ifs' of a project (like being locked outside a venue for 2 hours while the client turns up late)

✅ I have to be a lot more strict on boundaries and learning to say no. This project genuinely ruined a holiday for me and my girlfriend. I spent the entire time cleaning up the client's mess after they failed to meet their end of the logistics just days before the shoot.

✅ I have to be a lot more strict on WHO I work with. I have no interest in dodgy business deals, tax-dodgers, cash in hand jobs and mates rates who inevitably mug you off. I'd stick a rusty spoon in my eye than work for someone like this again.

I want to work with genuinely good people, real business owners, marketing professionals and people who want to make a difference through awesome videos. 🙌

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31/10/2023

About 5 years ago, I started freelancing.

The first 6 months were some of the most stressful times of my life, and at the time, I didn't think things could get much worse.

I also thought that growing the business would solve all my problems. I was only partially right...

I'm very early-on in my journey and learnings within the wonderful world of business, and you soon realise that running a business is stressful on any level.

It's just stressful, full-stop. It's that simple.

Just when I think I have things bad, I speak to bigger business owners and realise it could also be worse.

I currently have £8,000 in overdue invoices...

Some business owners have £80,000 in overdue invoices.

Some have £800,000 in overdue invoices.

The really unlucky ones (or lucky ones perhaps) have £8million in overdue invoices.

Currently, we're £12,000 out of pocket within the business. But 5 years ago, I would have DREAMT to have £12k in outstanding invoices.

5 years ago, I was just starting out. I had no clients and no money - and even still today, I'm not sure which situation is worse. It's all relative!

Working with a range of businesses gives me a chance to speak to lots of business owners. They all want the same: to grow their business. I've learnt to question 'why?' a lot more now...

Whenever I see an overdue invoices, or have clients not pay us altogether, I still think back to myself 5 years ago, and remember the stresses then.

I wouldn't say it was better or worse.... just different.

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09/10/2023

Would you spend £100,000 per year on content creation? 💸

That's my aim by the end of 2025! 🙋‍

For Affinity Media Group, I aim to be spending £50k/year on content by the end of 2024, and £100k/year by the end of 2025 purely on content creation.

In this clip, I'm breaking down some of the investments needed into building a decent content production team ⤵

Big things to remember:

💡 Content is an investment, not an expense.

💡 The best data is found between your own 2 thumbs 👍 i.e get engaged with your audience in the comment section and see what people are saying!

💡 Hiring one person to do all of your social media marketing is a sure-set way to lose money and be ineffective in marketing. One person can't do it all.

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05/10/2023

Looking forward to getting back to Christmas Rocks Festival this year to film some of the UK's best tribute bands 🤘

Here's a video we made for Def Leppad the UK Tribute Band! Not bad for a debut gig!

04/10/2023

My honest thoughts on outsourcing video 💭⤵

To me, every business should be employing a great video FULL-TIME, but ONLY on these conditions 📝

1. You understand the difference between video, and video-marketing.

👉 Most business assume that just because they create videos, they will instantly market their business. 99% of videos don't market or sell businesses effectively. They are made without purpose in the hope of bringing in sales or growing a brand, but very rarely do so.

2. You understand that video-creators are NOT marketeers.

👉 Just because video is a great way of marketing, it does not mean that anyone who creates videos is good at marketing. If you are employing someone to specifically work on creating videos, you need someone else to create the actual marketing ideas.

3. You have the right ideas at the right time

👉 A lot of videos can be made within a 40-hour work week. Don't make the mistake of employing someone, and realising the 3 videos ideas you had only took a few minutes and an iPhone.

4. You understand the message your business needs to put out

👉 This is crucial. You could spend years of your time and thousands of pounds creating videos, but if you aren't communicating your message effectively, those videos are about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike 💨

5. You have time, or management in place to work alongside the in-house production

👉 It's no use employing a video creator if you're too busy, or they don't have an effective team alongside them. Video creators want creative minds, they want a great team, and they want great ideas, but most importantly, they want to create great videos. Make sure you have everything in place to accommodate and work effectively.

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Can't manage that? Then hire us instead! 😜

Our monthly marketing packages start from £1,250 per month (half the cost of a full-time employee) where we write, script, plan, film, edit and even upload all of your content for you.

We work with you to create effective video-marketing strategies to grow your business 🚀

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02/10/2023

When planning advertising and marketing, a lot of businesses start with how much they can afford to spend.

Let's say they have a budget of £10k...

They think about creating a video for £2,500.
They spend the remaining £7,500 across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Google.

They sell 3,000 items and generate £15k in revenue. Sounds great right?

However ⤵
- Their product sells for £5.
- It costs them £2.50 to make. They have a £2.50 gross profit.
- but it's costing them roughly £3 per sale.
- This leaves them with MINUS 50p per sale.

I know this mistake as I did exactly the same. I started a side hustle during lockdown and invested £5k into stock (t-shirts). They were sold at £25 with a 50% gross profit. However, cost of advertising was so high that it was costing around £15 to sell each item. This means I was losing £2.50 for every sale that came through 😢
It took me a while to realise and immediately stopped.

Now I have £4k of stock lying around doing nothing!

This is hugely important for any business, but particularly product-based businesses.

Spend a couple of hours looking very closely at your numbers before you spend thousands on ads and potentially lose more money than you make.

This is extra important with Christmas fast-approaching, and a hugely busy time for e-commerce businesses.

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20/09/2023

At the moment, I'm working with a few commerce brands, a few that are looking at video and ad campaigns on the run up to Christmas and venturing into 2024.

One common theme is that a lot of their goals are based on revenue ❌

This is a big mistake that I've also been making for the past 4 years.

Only in the last 12 months have I really shifted my mindset to start monitoring my business properly 👀

Most people manage their business by monthly revenue and how much cash is in the bank. As I've come to learn, this is a big no no! ⚠️

If you hit £10k monthly revenue, but your business costs £15k/month to run, you'll be bankrupt before you know it.

You have to look at how much profit you want to make. Look at how much salary you want to take home on a monthly/annual basis, and work backwards from all your expenses and running costs. This should give you a fair idea of how much revenue you should aim for in order to do all of that.

This is especially important for commerce businesses, it's easy to forget about cost of sales when you're plucking numbers from thin air, so always work backwards from your desired profit! Your revenue should be a bi-product of every aim you have for your business.

As I say in this, I'm just learning this now!

Don't forget, a monthly profit and loss paints a much better picture than the number in your bank account. Take a look at your books for the last few years, and produce some monthly management accounts to properly track where you need to be.

Revenue is vanity 🌟 Profit is sanity 🧠

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19/09/2023

❌ Most events businesses are a HUGE failure! ❌

Here are the most common reasons:

🤑 Too money-focused
They are too busy worrying about money, trying to break even or make profit in the first year. You need to invest money and kick your profit down the road onto following years

💰 Lack of investment
It's easy to focus on saving costs. This means your event will only ever 'lack' and not improve. You have to invest to make a truly great brand.

⏳ Lack of patience
Most events-based businesses take time to grow and develop a following, popularity or good marketing materials to promote year on year. A lot of people do not have the patience to see an event grow over 5, 10, 15, 20 years. Always think in years and decades, not weeks and months.

📸 Not thinking with marketing in mind
Every event is your promo material for the next one. Always be thinking about how you can capture content and things to advertise your event the following year. Whenever you look at big festivals or events throughout the world, 90% of their promo content is captured from previous years. If your event is crap, that's exactly what your next event looks like when marketed.

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14/09/2023

🚨 I'll soon be getting arrested for tax or pension fraud 🚨

However, I'll be sharing this clip as my defence in court 😂

I've always had huge respect for business owners...

but until August of this year, I never knew how much of a headf*ck it was to employ someone!

Maybe I was looking in the wrong places for information, but I never thought it would be such a struggle to find answers to relatively simple questions.

A HUGE shoutout and thank you to Chris Newham at Solutions Accountancy Ltd for all his help. I've pestered him with more questions than even an accountant could count, but he's been absolutely awesome help! 🙌

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24/08/2023

I've recently been working with a few e-commerce clients and this seems to be a recurring theme 🙈 ⤵

❌ So many businesses have no idea how profitable they are, or whether they are actually profitable at all...

❌ Many business owners wait for their accountant to tell them how profitable they are.

❌ This means you only get a look an overview of your business just ONCE a year.

A monthly management account is absolutely crucial if you want to keep a close eye on the direction your business is going 🔎

For e-commerce or retail businesses, I always recommend a weekly or daily income sheet to constantly keep check of your business over a 1-7 day rolling period.

This helps you in your business decisions - especially when it comes to pricing and marketing!

The numbers you need to focus on are:

📊 ATV - Average transactional value
͢➡️ The average amount spent in a single sale

📊 ACV - Average customer value
➡️ The average amount a customer spends over a period of time

📊 CPA - Cost per acquisition
➡️ The amount you spend to acquire a new customer

📊 CPS - Cost per sale
➡️ The amount you invest into marketing in order to generate a sale.

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22/08/2023

Things to consider when creating adverts for your business!

⭐️ Who is our ideal client or customer?
📣 What does the advert need to say?
💰 How much money can we afford to invest into advertising?

📱 What platform or website do we need to advertise on? I.e where is our ideal client/customer most likely to be spending their time online? Or most likely to be receptive to ads?

📊 What platform proves to be most effective? (This should be discovered through testing and reporting)

🚀 Lastly - how can we improve these ads (after testing) to really make them a success?

All of these questions can be answered through some simple research and testing! 🔎

A lot of people conclude advertising is a waste of time after trying a few Facebook or Google ads.

More than likely, they've lost money and seen no return, so gave up.

By answering even just a few of these questions, you can minimise your risk and actually advertise in places and platforms that work 🙌

21/08/2023

How to avoid losing money on Facebook ads ⤵

❌ DO NOT 'set and forget'.
✅ Check your ads daily to monitor their progress.

❌ One size DOES NOT fit all.
✅ Run a variety of ads (or do A/B testing at the very least) to see what works.

❌ DO NOT always rely on Facebook or Google's auto-suggestions.
✅ Make informed decisions based on your own audience and market.

❌ DO NOT assume your ad will work.
✅ Most ads fail. That's why you pay agencies and experts to do them for you!

❌ DO NOT expect instant results.
✅ It can take months to get your ads performing well. Take time to run tests and understand data.

❌ DO NOT allocate budget to a single advert.
✅ Split your budget to run tests, multiple variations and different target. Then, do more of what works.

❌ DO NOT try doing it all yourself.
✅ An expert opinion could save you thousands! You could run ads more efficiently, and invest less for the same success.

❌ DO NOT assume that ads are right for your business.
✅ Some businesses or industries might find that the cost of sales is too high on Facebook or Google ads, particularly in competitive markets, low-barrier-to-entry industries, or business models with low margin.

21/08/2023

One huge business lesson I've learnt time and time again is that bad-fit clients can be one of the biggest killers to small businesses.

The tyre-kickers, time-wasters, want-everything-for-nothing(ers?) can often be the downfall of us.

Instead of trying to attract all people, you should be working on attracting the RIGHT people. Focus your efforts on the right clients and actively reject (or better still, repel) the bad ones.

I've learnt this lesson so many times, but it's recently taken a £4k loss to this month's turnover for it to really sink in and teach me a costly lesson 🙄

People work with bad-fit prospects because they prioritise how much they could pay you, and don't consider how much they could cost you! 💰

There's 8 billion people on the planet. 🌎 You can't work with all of them, you might as well try and choose the good ones.

18/08/2023

The big debate... Should you work for free in order to gain exposure or bag future work? 🤔

I caught up with a fellow freelancer recently and this ended up being a topic of convo.

I've probably done hundreds of free and discounted videos over the past 5 years

However, I only believe in it when YOU, the business owner, are offering the free work.

I've been asked countless times about doing free work in exchange for exposure or 'more work in the future'...

but once you get to know these people, you figure that they don't have the means to promise either, and are often taking a gamble in a risky new venture they don't want to put their own money into.

I could guarantee that the type of people pitching this to you are not the type of people you want to work with.

You'd be lucky if you got a 'thank you!' from some of them! 🙄

In my experience, reaching out to your ideal customer and offering free work or product (or even just offering advice) can be amazing for both sides.

One of the best things I ever heard from James Sinclair is 'People expect discounts forever, but they don't expect free forever.'

This genuinely has been game-changer to my mindset when it comes to pricing and projects.

I'm not saying this is correct, it's just my opinion - but I know 90% of my work in my first 2 years of freelancing came from offering free videos to my ideal clients.

For some, I got immediate work, but for most, I got recommended to other businesses and built some fantastic connections that have lasted years.

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17/07/2023

I'm hiring! 🎉 (have I mentioned?)

💻 I'm looking for a video editor!

THE ROLE ↓

💻 Job role: Video editing and social media content production for Winter Media and our clients.

💰 £21-25k per year

📍 Fully remote role with flexible working

🚀 This is a great opportunity to be part of a team as it grows from the ground-up! I want Affinity Media Group to be one of the best content creation houses in the country, building content-driven businesses for both ourselves and clients.

WHAT YOU NEED ↓

✅ Experience in either Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro X or DaVinci Resolve.

✅ Have a good understanding of content creation within social media, or have worked on successfully growing social media channels in the past

🤩 It's also a bonus if you like F1/motorsport, as a lot of work will involve our Affinity Racing brand 🏎️

PLEASE DO NOT APPLY IF ↓

❌ You think the US Office is better than the UK Office

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If you'd like apply, please drop an email to [email protected]

Please include a few links to examples of your work (not just a showreel), and any clients, brands or channels you've worked with in the past!

🗓️ Interviews are going on throughout the rest of July, aiming for a start date of Tuesday 1st August!

27/06/2023

When I'm filming anything sports related, you can guarantee the question I get asked the most is "Did you get that on video!?"

In this case, I absolutely did! 🏀🔥

Address

Newcastle Upon Tyne

Website

http://www.wintermediauk.com/

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Videos

An amazing trip out to the Port of Blyth yesterday, capture some drone shots of this ship leaving the port just as sun sets 🚢🌄 #drone #dronevideography #shipping

Whitley Bay and Tynemouth at dusk 🌄🌊 #whitleybay #tynemouth #drone #dronevideography

BEFORE vs AFTER 🔊 Background noise can be a challenge when it comes to interviews. This was definitely the most challenging interview we had for quite some time! We found a rather delightful and quiet cafe for this morning of filming, however, one thing we didn't account for was the café actually being OPEN! 😅 Lunchtime hit, and people flooded through the doors. We still had a little filming to do but had to rely on some audio magic for voice isolation in post. Safe to say we're happy with the results! ✅ -------------------------- If you're looking for help with your content production, make sure you give us a shout! Drop me a message 📨

The WORST CLIENT I have ever worked with

I'm normally a pretty positive person... but THIS grinds my gears ⚙️🤬 As a result of this incident, I now run what I like to call a 'Del-Boy' check on business owners 🔍👀 i.e... if you seem dodgy, you probably are! 😅 I can laugh about the whole situation now, because watching back this video, I actually realise just how STUPID I really was. On a more serious note, I've learnt huge lessons from this. I always do whatever I can to give people the best possible videos, and the best possible service to match... And so I really didn't take well to being accused of trying to rip people off. For anyone that knows me, I couldn't imagine ripping someone off in any way, let alone actually doing it. For that matter - if I was trying to rip people off, I wouldn't take a minor deposit, outlay twice as much into the project, and then spend 8 days planning, filming and editing for no pay. If I did that, I wouldn't make a very good scam-artist 😂 However, I definitely got mugged over on this one. Moving forward: ✅ I have to be a lot more strict with deposits. ✅ I have to be a lot more strict on planning, and detailing out the 'what-ifs' of a project (like being locked outside a venue for 2 hours while the client turns up late) ✅ I have to be a lot more strict on boundaries and learning to say no. This project genuinely ruined a holiday for me and my girlfriend. I spent the entire time cleaning up the client's mess after they failed to meet their end of the logistics just days before the shoot. ✅ I have to be a lot more strict on WHO I work with. I have no interest in dodgy business deals, tax-dodgers, cash in hand jobs and mates rates who inevitably mug you off. I'd stick a rusty spoon in my eye than work for someone like this again. I want to work with genuinely good people, real business owners, marketing professionals and people who want to make a difference through awesome videos. 🙌 ------------ ✚ Follow for more! 🔗 Con

The bigger the business, the bigger the problems.

About 5 years ago, I started freelancing. The first 6 months were some of the most stressful times of my life, and at the time, I didn't think things could get much worse. I also thought that growing the business would solve all my problems. I was only partially right... I'm very early-on in my journey and learnings within the wonderful world of business, and you soon realise that running a business is stressful on any level. It's just stressful, full-stop. It's that simple. Just when I think I have things bad, I speak to bigger business owners and realise it could also be worse. I currently have £8,000 in overdue invoices... Some business owners have £80,000 in overdue invoices. Some have £800,000 in overdue invoices. The really unlucky ones (or lucky ones perhaps) have £8million in overdue invoices. Currently, we're £12,000 out of pocket within the business. But 5 years ago, I would have DREAMT to have £12k in outstanding invoices. 5 years ago, I was just starting out. I had no clients and no money - and even still today, I'm not sure which situation is worse. It's all relative! Working with a range of businesses gives me a chance to speak to lots of business owners. They all want the same: to grow their business. I've learnt to question 'why?' a lot more now... Whenever I see an overdue invoices, or have clients not pay us altogether, I still think back to myself 5 years ago, and remember the stresses then. I wouldn't say it was better or worse.... just different. ------------ ✚ Follow for more! 🔗 Connect with me and learn how to grow your business through content!

Would you spend £100,000 per year on content creation? 💸 That's my aim by the end of 2025! 🙋‍ For Affinity Media Group, I aim to be spending £50k/year on content by the end of 2024, and £100k/year by the end of 2025 purely on content creation. In this clip, I'm breaking down some of the investments needed into building a decent content production team ⤵ Big things to remember: 💡 Content is an investment, not an expense. 💡 The best data is found between your own 2 thumbs 👍 i.e get engaged with your audience in the comment section and see what people are saying! 💡 Hiring one person to do all of your social media marketing is a sure-set way to lose money and be ineffective in marketing. One person can't do it all. ------------ ✚ Follow for more! 🔗 Connect with me and learn how to grow your business through content!

Def Leppad Highlights | Christmas Rocks 2022

Looking forward to getting back to Christmas Rocks Festival this year to film some of the UK's best tribute bands 🤘 Here's a video we made for Def Leppad the UK Tribute Band! Not bad for a debut gig!

My honest thoughts on outsourcing video

My honest thoughts on outsourcing video 💭⤵ To me, every business should be employing a great video FULL-TIME, but ONLY on these conditions 📝 1. You understand the difference between video, and video-marketing. 👉 Most business assume that just because they create videos, they will instantly market their business. 99% of videos don't market or sell businesses effectively. They are made without purpose in the hope of bringing in sales or growing a brand, but very rarely do so. 2. You understand that video-creators are NOT marketeers. 👉 Just because video is a great way of marketing, it does not mean that anyone who creates videos is good at marketing. If you are employing someone to specifically work on creating videos, you need someone else to create the actual marketing ideas. 3. You have the right ideas at the right time 👉 A lot of videos can be made within a 40-hour work week. Don't make the mistake of employing someone, and realising the 3 videos ideas you had only took a few minutes and an iPhone. 4. You understand the message your business needs to put out 👉 This is crucial. You could spend years of your time and thousands of pounds creating videos, but if you aren't communicating your message effectively, those videos are about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike 💨 5. You have time, or management in place to work alongside the in-house production 👉 It's no use employing a video creator if you're too busy, or they don't have an effective team alongside them. Video creators want creative minds, they want a great team, and they want great ideas, but most importantly, they want to create great videos. Make sure you have everything in place to accommodate and work effectively. ------------------------------ Can't manage that? Then hire us instead! 😜 Our monthly marketing packages start from £1,250 per month (half the cost of a full-time employee) where we write, script, plan, film, edit and even upload all of yo

Let your margins decide your marketing

When planning advertising and marketing, a lot of businesses start with how much they can afford to spend. Let's say they have a budget of £10k... They think about creating a video for £2,500. They spend the remaining £7,500 across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Google. They sell 3,000 items and generate £15k in revenue. Sounds great right? However ⤵ - Their product sells for £5. - It costs them £2.50 to make. They have a £2.50 gross profit. - but it's costing them roughly £3 per sale. - This leaves them with MINUS 50p per sale. I know this mistake as I did exactly the same. I started a side hustle during lockdown and invested £5k into stock (t-shirts). They were sold at £25 with a 50% gross profit. However, cost of advertising was so high that it was costing around £15 to sell each item. This means I was losing £2.50 for every sale that came through 😢 It took me a while to realise and immediately stopped. Now I have £4k of stock lying around doing nothing! This is hugely important for any business, but particularly product-based businesses. Spend a couple of hours looking very closely at your numbers before you spend thousands on ads and potentially lose more money than you make. This is extra important with Christmas fast-approaching, and a hugely busy time for e-commerce businesses. ------------ ✚ Follow for more! 🔗 Connect with me and learn how to grow your business through content!

At the moment, I'm working with a few commerce brands, a few that are looking at video and ad campaigns on the run up to Christmas and venturing into 2024. One common theme is that a lot of their goals are based on revenue ❌ This is a big mistake that I've also been making for the past 4 years. Only in the last 12 months have I really shifted my mindset to start monitoring my business properly 👀 Most people manage their business by monthly revenue and how much cash is in the bank. As I've come to learn, this is a big no no! ⚠️ If you hit £10k monthly revenue, but your business costs £15k/month to run, you'll be bankrupt before you know it. You have to look at how much profit you want to make. Look at how much salary you want to take home on a monthly/annual basis, and work backwards from all your expenses and running costs. This should give you a fair idea of how much revenue you should aim for in order to do all of that. This is especially important for commerce businesses, it's easy to forget about cost of sales when you're plucking numbers from thin air, so always work backwards from your desired profit! Your revenue should be a bi-product of every aim you have for your business. As I say in this, I'm just learning this now! Don't forget, a monthly profit and loss paints a much better picture than the number in your bank account. Take a look at your books for the last few years, and produce some monthly management accounts to properly track where you need to be. Revenue is vanity 🌟 Profit is sanity 🧠 ------------ ✚ Follow for more! 🔗 Connect with me and learn how to grow your business through content!

Revenue is vanity 🌟 Profit is sanity 🧠

At the moment, I'm working with a few commerce brands, a few that are looking at video and ad campaigns on the run up to Christmas and venturing into 2024. One common theme is that a lot of their goals are based on revenue ❌ This is a big mistake that I've also been making for the past 4 years. Only in the last 12 months have I really shifted my mindset to start monitoring my business properly 👀 Most people manage their business by monthly revenue and how much cash is in the bank. As I've come to learn, this is a big no no! ⚠️ If you hit £10k monthly revenue, but your business costs £15k/month to run, you'll be bankrupt before you know it. You have to look at how much profit you want to make. Look at how much salary you want to take home on a monthly/annual basis, and work backwards from all your expenses and running costs. This should give you a fair idea of how much revenue you should aim for in order to do all of that. This is especially important for commerce businesses, it's easy to forget about cost of sales when you're plucking numbers from thin air, so always work backwards from your desired profit! Your revenue should be a bi-product of every aim you have for your business. As I say in this, I'm just learning this now! Don't forget, a monthly profit and loss paints a much better picture than the number in your bank account. Take a look at your books for the last few years, and produce some monthly management accounts to properly track where you need to be. Revenue is vanity 🌟 Profit is sanity 🧠 ------------ ✚ Follow for more! 🔗 Connect with me and learn how to grow your business through content!

❌ Most events businesses are a HUGE failure! ❌ Here are the most common reasons: 🤑 Too money-focused They are too busy worrying about money, trying to break even or make profit in the first year. You need to invest money and kick your profit down the road onto following years 💰 Lack of investment It's easy to focus on saving costs. This means your event will only ever 'lack' and not improve. You have to invest to make a truly great brand. ⏳ Lack of patience Most events-based businesses take time to grow and develop a following, popularity or good marketing materials to promote year on year. A lot of people do not have the patience to see an event grow over 5, 10, 15, 20 years. Always think in years and decades, not weeks and months. 📸 Not thinking with marketing in mind Every event is your promo material for the next one. Always be thinking about how you can capture content and things to advertise your event the following year. Whenever you look at big festivals or events throughout the world, 90% of their promo content is captured from previous years. If your event is crap, that's exactly what your next event looks like when marketed. ------------ ✚ Follow for more! 🔗 Connect with me and learn how to grow your business through content!