Growing my small but steady business

[Lara]

Hello forum users,

I am pleased to have found you as I feel a bit at sea and am in need of small business advice. I run a small community based business called ENGAGE and details can be found at laraleslie.com. We produce video content for communities and specialise in working with young people and in schools. I only set this up a few mnths ago and have had a steady stream of work but it's just me (and the freelancers I take on for specific projects). I am not very business minded (just a hard worker with initiative and drive) and have no idea where to go with the business form here. I would love to grow it so I could take on staff and have more than 1 or 2 projects on the go at once...

I would really appreciate advice on organisations that offer business advice free and how to start expanding. I have looked on the council website but there seems to be nothing there....Where to go now?

Thanks a million guys,
Lara

[Zman]

Have you tried your local SBA? They offer free advice on all things business.

[vangogh]

Welcome to the forum Lara.

First if you have a steady stream of customers, you're probably doing something right so that's good. It's possible you simply need more time for word about you to spread. Have you done any marketing? If so what have you been doing? How are you trying to reach potential customers?

One thing I notice when I checked your website is I wasn't entirely clear what you do. I have a general sense of what you do, but I wasn't sure of the specifics. What would I specifically hire you to do? What need of mine as a customer would you be meeting? I know you help organizations work with communities, but I'm not understanding the specifics of that. Maybe it's simply that I'm not your target market, but it could be others who are possible customers are confused too.

I guess my main question is really what have you tried so far to market your business? If we could get an idea of what you've done we can probably help generate new ideas to try.

[Harold Mansfield]

Just to echo what VG said, it was immediately noticeable to me, after reading your description of what you do here in this thread, that I had to go almost to the bottom of the page before I saw the words "to produce, direct and screen films." And then that made me question: Do they actually make the films or just "help"? Do you do marketing too? Distribution? Syndication?

It was also noticeable that you never say how you do all of the engagement.

Online you have to be very direct or people don't get it. You pretty much have to say "We are a film and video production company", and then get into who your target audience is and what type of videos or film productions you specialize it.

Please don't take this offensively, but the first sentence and most of the copy on the home page (above the fold) is about you personally, and not about the company and what it does. Not that you shouldn't be proud of your accomplishments and career up until this point, but you have to assume that not everyone who comes to your website knows you personally. Your detailed bio should be on an "about" (or "About Lara Leslie") page, and the home page should be more about what you do and what's happening now, not where you've been.

Which brings up my next point from Marketing 101, if the company is called "Engage", why is it on Lauraleslie.com? Why not Engagemedia.com? Engagevideo.com? Engageproductions.com? or something on .co.uk?

Which brings up my next point, you are obviously working out of the UK. Unless you travel worldwide to produce films, there is barely anything on your site that signifies where you operate. How will I find you when I search for UK based film and video production companies if your website is on a .com and very few things on your site tell me that you work in my area of the world? My first sentence would be "[We] are a U.K. based film and video production company that specializes in..."

Also, when I'm looking for a video or film production company, the first thing I want to see is a video or film. It's hard to sell video services with words alone. I had to dig into your website before I finally found an actual video and then amazingly you only have one video on your entire website. You really should show off your work more. You have more Testimonials than actual examples of work or a portfolio.

There are some other noticeable things that stood out, such as, a film/video production company without a You Tube channel? Vimeo channel? No Social Media profiles. Facebook. Linked In. Places where you can post your work for sharing across your networks.

I'm actually kind of shocked about that. Video collateral is HOT! People love sharing videos. There is no better media that gets shared more than video. And it seems like you produce the kind of social commentary, thought provoking, community involvement stuff that people love to watch and share. Why aren't you capitalizing on that?

I believe some of these things will help you attract more clients, especially if this is indicative of all of your marketing both online and offline. You aren't communicating, nor selling your service/product well.

[huggytree]

just find more customers

are you having problems finding more customers? why?