How To Turn Your Hobby Into A Successful Business
First, let me start with a confession. I think that Video Capture London sounds awfully pompous and corporate, and I still haven’t got used to it. But my more reasonable and practical colleagues overruled me for company names like “Gollum’s Cave” or “The Jedi Pub” as being too infantile for a serious business. As in most other cases, they proved correct.
Now that I’ve got this out of my chest, let me tell you how our small team of creative misfits came to being. It all started almost by mistake. My brother-in-law was running a small theme park for action enthusiasts just outside of London. He was doing alright, but the place had so much more potential! So one day, I offered to create a short 3D advertising video for free and post it on the park’s social media page. One month later, it all went crazy! The video went viral, and the park had a 300% spike in bookings. A lucky fluke, I thought, but a few months later, my brother-in-law called me and said a good friend of his who had a family-run hotel had seen the video and wanted me to create one for him. This time, of course, he would pay for the service.
This second video was not as successful as the first one, but it still resulted in a significant traffic boost for the hotel’s Facebook page, which turned into a healthy number of bookings. Fool me once – shame on you, full me twice – shame on me. It was not a fluke, and I realised I might have stumbled upon a gold mine.
The Next Step
I should mention that all this happened while I was still in university. It proved to be extremely lucky because I still had access to a pool of young, energetic, and motivated people who had not yet become cynical about the business field. I mentioned the idea to a few people and got great feedback with valuable and creative suggestions.
My future marketing director pointed out the prospective company cannot rely on just one type of video – we had to branch out if we were to be successful. The co-creator of Video Capture London warned me that we wouldn’t be making any money in the first two years – we would have to invest any profit in equipment and hiring new people.
On this occasion, however, he was wrong – we needed just 18 months to create the core of our team and gather a sizeable arsenal of cameras, drones, and additional video equipment.
We Are Still Going Strong
Actually, we are doing better than ever! We are having fun, we are meeting interesting people and helping businesses fulfil their potential. The few sceptics who initially laughed at the idea are now begging to invest in it. Video Capture London is trending upwards – and we can take you on the ascend with us!