5 Things We've Learned in 5 Years as Business Owners
This week, Remote Team Films is celebrating a big milestone— our fifth anniversary! It’s been a wild ride from the humble beginnings in our University of Texas dorm room, but we wouldn’t trade our experiences for the world. The journey hasn’t always been smooth sailing, and we’ve definitely picked up a few things over the course of running our own business.
Here are five things we’ve learned in our five years doing video production in Austin.
The early days of Remote Team Films in our University of Texas dorm room.
1. You are only as successful as the people you surround yourself with.
Remote Team Films wouldn’t be where it is today without the amazing group of people that we are surrounded by. We really lucked out and somehow ended up with the most insanely talented group of peers that are constantly innovating, trying new things, and achieving the seemingly impossible. They are constant motivators in our lives and are always helping us raise the bar to reach new heights.
The best part is that sometimes we get to collaborate with them and pay them for their expertise on our own projects. Not only do we get to have fun working with people we love, but their insight and skill always take our projects to the next level. We hope that we continue to create an environment and workspace where our friends want to be and are empowered to make cool content!
2. Customer experience is just as important as the quality of your product, if not more important.
Many production companies make the mistake of advertising the quality of their work as their main value proposition. But in our industry, having a good quality product isn’t necessarily unique— it’s expected. You can produce the most beautiful videos in the world, but at the end of the day, if you were a nightmare to work with, no one will hire you again.
We learned early on that being easy to work with was one thing that clients loved about us. Since then, we’ve made it our mission to build a fantastic customer experience around every project that we do.
For us, the first step to a successful client experience is building a relationship. We understand that when you hire an outside company to create marketing material and handle your brand message, it takes a lot of trust. Oftentimes, a client’s business or organization is like their baby, and the videos that we create will be people’s first impression of that baby. Because of this, it’s important to us that we get to know our clients, their stories, and their missions.
The second aspect of creating a stellar client experience is making the process easy. Most of the time, clients hire us because they don’t have the time or resources to do video internally. We know the time that they do have set aside for us is limited, and we don’t want to bog them down with extra work.
Lastly, we try to be as transparent as possible with everyone we work with. It’s important to us that we are open and honest about what we think they need. Our goal isn’t to drain someone of money and or create flashy content that doesn’t serve a purpose. We want to recommend a video marketing system that actually works for them. If a company needs something simple, that’s absolutely fine! We hope that companies find us flexible enough to fulfill all of their video marketing needs.
3. You’re always worth more than you think you are.
When starting a business in college, it’s easy to get tangled in the web of imposter syndrome. There’s always a little voice in the back of your mind saying that you don’t belong up there with the others in your field and that sometime soon, someone is going to call you out for it.
Luckily that little voice has quieted down over the years, but every once in a while we have to remind ourselves that we are worth more than we think we are. The truth is, we’ve worked hard to get to where we are and attain the skills we have. It’s important to step back and tell yourself that yes, you are deserving of your successes.
4. You are your own worst critic.
This goes along with the point above. You are always going to be the person that is most critical of your work. Most creatives can probably relate to feeling that no product or project is ever perfect. There’s always something that you could have done differently and better. But, the reality is that we are probably the only ones that notice the little things.
A healthy dose of self-criticism helps you learn from mistakes and create better products, but too much and you’ll get bogged down in details that ultimately do not matter. We’ve learned to keep our eyes on the bigger picture instead of focusing on the nitty-gritty should-have, could-have.
Having outside opinions from people we trust keeps us on track and reminds us of the things we do right. And the fact that our company is helmed by two people is also extremely beneficial. We keep each other in check— one of us is always thinking about the creative vision while the other has our marketing vision in mind. The results are products (and an overall company) where artistic execution and marketing live in perfect harmony.
5. The more flexible you are and the more you are willing to try new things, the more opportunities will be open to you.
There are so many ups and downs that come with owning a business, so it’s important to roll with the punches and be flexible.
“No, we can’t do that” are words that we try to keep out of our vocabulary. We’re always up to a challenge and ready to try new things. It’s a strategy that has worked well for us, too. Every time we say yes, new doors open for us. Sometimes saying yes means thinking quick on our feet or doing some innovative thinking, but it always pays off in the end.
The next five years with Remote Team Films
As we continue to serve our clients and expand our business, we’ll carry these five lessons with us and use them to guide our decisions going forward. Our hope is that in the coming years, we’ll be able to serve our clients in new and innovative ways and cement ourselves in the community of Austin entrepreneurs.
By being at the forefront of media and technology, Remote Team Films will be able to stay on the cutting edge of how we make media, the mediums we work with, and how our content is distributed. The goal for the company is to be able to expand our offerings and team so that we can help clients in a new variety of ways.
We can’t wait for the things we learn on the road ahead!