Month: February 2015

Target Market

Who’s My Target Market?

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I finally started working on my business plan which has been helpful for me in evaluating my company.  I have always had a general plan of what I was doing, but writing it down really brings clarity to what my goals are, and what I need to figure out.  One of the things I have been doing a lot of thinking on is who my target market is.

Figuring out who our target market is, and who I should be marketing to will help me focus my efforts in finding new clients.  When I first started I was trying to find new clients everywhere, and my efforts were slit.  I often get contacted by independent filmmakers, small companies, and individuals wanting to make an animation.  Which is great, but most of them have little or no budget.  I spend a lot of time and effort trying to work with their limited budget to make things work, but in the end it is just not possible for me to be involved.

I can only reduce my rates so far until I’m taking a loss on the project, and if it was a great opportunity that would help build my portfolio I might consider it.  Issue is that they are working with such limited budgets that the end project would end up looking cheap, and that is not the kind of work I want to be putting out there.  These groups are often better off working directly with the artist or animator, and don’t need someone like me to produce it.

I realized that my company is best suited for projects that require larger teams and more moving parts that needs someone to keep it organized.  This is why advertising agencies and studios are my target market, since they have the budgets that can support larger projects.

I don’t know much about advertising agencies, so I started doing a lot of research on them.  I wanted to know who hired outside production companies, so I would know who the best person to contact is.  I have been doing everything from contacting people that work at ad agencies to watching The Pitch TV series on Netflix.  Watching the show actually has given me a better understanding of the inner workings of an advertising agency, but I would love to hear from anyone that works at an ad agency how accurate the show is to reality.

I have also started the search for a commercial representative.  They are like an agent for production companies that help bring clients and their projects to the companies they represent.  I’m looking for a representative that does not have a monthly fee, and only takes a percent of the revenue from a project.  That way if they are not bringing any work to the studio it won’t cost me any money.  If they do find clients I’m happy to give them a percent, since it is work I would not have had without them.  If anyone knows of a good hardworking reps please let me know.

These are some of the things I’m working on to help grow my business.  There never seems to be enough time in each day to get everything done.

 

If you have not already, please join me on my journey by subscribing to my blog.  Also, if you have any thoughts or advice I would love to hear what you have to say, so please feel free to leave me any comments below. Otherwise, be sure to stay connected with me on Twitter (@MillerAnimation). Only Time Will Tell.

1 Year Anniversary of Blogging!

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Happy 1 year anniversary of blogging to me!  That’s right, one year ago today I started my blog with a single welcome page.  Long before I wanted to publicly announce that I was leaving DreamWorks Animation to start my own company, but I wanted to start writing my story.  A year later the blog has 44 posts, 6,482 total views, and 29 subscribers.  I’m proud of myself(a non-writer) for being able to stick with it, and I’m excited to keep it going.

Thank you for being a part of my journey!  The stage is now set, time for the fun to get started!

 

If you have not already, please join me on my journey by subscribing to my blog.  Also, if you have any thoughts or advice I would love to hear what you have to say, so please feel free to leave me any comments below. Otherwise, be sure to stay connected with me on Twitter (@MillerAnimation). Only Time Will Tell.

Understanding vs Ability

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I have been thinking a lot about how my skills have changed over the years, and the difference between understanding and ability. I feel that I now have a much greater understanding of artistry and design, but that I have lost much of my ability to create art.  I have learned a great deal about art from working with and observing such talented people over the years, and this is why I have a greater understanding.  At the same time I have lost my ability to draw and paint, since I have not been doing it.  In the past if you handed me a pencil and asked me to draw something I would be able to do it, but now I would be a bit rusty.

Ability is something you have to constantly work at, and if you stop doing it you might loose your skill.  Understanding is something I feel is hard to loose once you have it.  Once you have the understanding to ride a bike you won’t forget, but you may loose the ability to ride it after a while.

I decided I wanted to regain some of that skill I have lost, and plan to set aside some time each day to develop my artistic ability.  I feel it is important that I keep these skills sharp.  Not only will it be a great hobby for me, but will also be a great skill to have in my line of work.  In the business I will still focus on the management side of things, and leave the art to the extremely talented people I work with.

I look forward to sharing some of my artwork with all of you as I develop my skills, but it might be awhile until I’m once again confident with my work.

If you have not seen them before here are my first two animations that I made in college.  Looking back on these I feel there is so much I have learned, and many ways I could make them better. Things like character design, modeling, story, lighting, and compositing to name a few.  I’m still very proud of them, and they will always be special to me.  I hope you enjoy them.

ChessMate

 

Mediocrity

 

If you have not already, please join me on my journey by subscribing to my blog.  Also, if you have any thoughts or advice I would love to hear what you have to say, so please feel free to leave me any comments below. Otherwise, be sure to stay connected with me on Twitter (@MillerAnimation). Only Time Will Tell.

Judging & Taxes

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Yesterday, I did my taxes which was the first time I did them with the business.  The business is still setup as a sole proprietorship, so personal and business taxes are done together.  DreamWorks Animation and my wife’s employer both took taxes directly out of our paychecks, but that was not the case for the business.  As a business owner it is my responsibility to pay the taxes myself each quarter.  I had an idea of how much they would be, so I made sure I set some money aside.  This was the first time I did not get a tax refund, but instead will have to pay Uncle Sam.  It is more obvious how much money you pay in taxes when you pay it all at once instead of having it taken out of your paycheck each week.

I’m looking into changing the business into a S-Corp for the tax benefits, but if I don’t make enough money it will end up costing me more then what it will save me.  I will see how the next month goes before making a decision.  I know there are other benefits to switching to an S-Corp, so I may just bite the bullet, and make the change.

I was contacted by the president of my alma mater’s Film/Video Society about being a judge for their annual Filmmakers Showcase.  When I was a student at the University of Toledo I always enjoyed attending this event, and would often have my own work in the show.  I was honored when they asked me to be a judge, and have been making my way through the 39 entries.  They include film, video, and animation projects that range from a couple of minutes to 30 minutes in length.  To be honest, some of them are pretty bad, but there are also a lot of really good ones in there.  I’m about half way through them, and still hoping for an amazing one.

This week I have still been doing a lot of work on my website.  I mentioned in an earlier post that I started with a website that I liked, and was trying to change it to be my own.  I realized that getting it to a point where I did not feel I was copying someone else’s work would require a lot more skill in web design & programing then what I have.  Although I was making a lot of progress, and learning a great deal I still had a lot of work to get done.  I already have spent more time on this then I wanted, so I needed a better option.

I typically try to stay away from the cookie-cutter website design programs, since they are often very limiting on what you could do with them.  After I had two friends mentioned using SquareSpace I thought I should check it out.  I was pleasantly surprised with the available options, and how simple it made it.  Realizing I was not progressing fast enough on my current course I decided to make a change.

I signed up for a SquareSpace account and started over with my website.  I already planned out the layout of my website, so with the SquareSpace tools I was able to quickly get back to where I was.  I now feel I have a functioning website that at the minimum shows our work, and gives clients a way to contact me.  I will continue improving the site, but the basics are there.  Please check it out and let me know what you think of it so far.

www.milleranimation.com

I hope to be finishing up the site this week, and starting next week I plan to focus on finding my next clients.  I feel I might have been dragging my feet on this with other projects, since I’m not sure where to start.  I have a couple avenues I can explore, and hopefully one of them will get me somewhere.

 

If you have not already, please join me on my journey by subscribing to my blog.  Also, if you have any thoughts or advice I would love to hear what you have to say, so please feel free to leave me any comments below. Otherwise, be sure to stay connected with me on Twitter (@MillerAnimation). Only Time Will Tell.

MillerAnimation.com Coming Soon!

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I wanted to give a quick update on the progress of things.  I have been spending all my time working on my website, but it is finally starting to take form.  I have also been learning a great deal about web design.  Putting my site together is a slow process, since anytime I can’t figure something out I watch YouTube videos for the answers.  I started with the main page to get that looking the way I want, so I can then duplicate it to the other pages and change the content.

I started from another company’s website that I liked, and then started changing it to make it my own.  That helped me from having to figure out all the coding, but still enabled me to have some cool features on my site.  What this ended up mean though was that I had to dig through the code to find out how to do every little thing.  For example if I wanted to change certain text to a different color I would have to find what CSS code was effecting that text.  It was tedious, but I’m starting to understand all this css stuff.

You can check out my site in its current state at milleranimation.com.  Some of the images and text are still placeholders, most of the links don’t work, and none of the contact forms are working.  My next task is to learn how to set up the contact forms, so potential clients can actually get in touch with me.  Let me know your thoughts on how it is coming along so far.  If you have any cool ideas I would love to hear those too.

In an earlier post I mentioned that I was expecting this January to be my companies first month with a negative net income, but I actually had enough work that the month ended with a positive net income.  It helps that my expenses right now for the company are extremely low, but I will still take the victory. Maybe I will get lucky again in February, but my prediction is that February will be in the red.  I’m OK with that since I’m putting so much of my time and effort into getting the company setup properly.  This is something I did not have time to do when I first set off on my own.  As long as I’m making progress I’m OK with a few unprofitable months.

 

If you have not already, please join me on my journey by subscribing to my blog.  Also, if you have any thoughts or advice I would love to hear what you have to say, so please feel free to leave me any comments below. Otherwise, be sure to stay connected with me on Twitter (@MillerAnimation). Only Time Will Tell.