Glad you liked the post. No, “gear envy” is not part of the second 5. That’s one ailment I’ve never had. 🙂

And based on my #1, I would disagree with you about the line of credit. Yes, it is designed to help small businesses with short term cash flow needs. That’s the kind of LOC we had. And while it did help us through some tough times when we first arrived to Atlanta, I would argue that if I never accrued so much debt up to that point, and if I hadn’t done mistake #5, I wouldn’t have had to get a LOC.

Paying off that LOC was a bear. We actually maxed it out and paid it off twice.

I can only speak from experience. For many, managing an LOC might probably be not a problem at all. If you’re cash flow is high, your revenue consistent, and you’re disciplined, it could work for you. Based on our experience though, I wouldn’t do it again.

Has anyone ever told you you’re a spitting image of Zack Arias? (http://www.creativelive.com/sites/default/files/pictures/picture-14.png)

Wow, I love my catchy user name…

Randy (http://vomproductions.com)

I’ve just recently graduated from the mindset of “oooooh shiny” into “you know what, the gear I have is definitely good enough for the work that I know I can do”. I am fortunate to not have any debt (other than a mortgage, which is challenging enough when you transition from a day job to starting your own commercial/corporate media production company… yeah) and based on this article, I’m staying the heck away from it as much as possible.

Ron, excellent first 5 mistakes. I would hope that “gear envy” is one of the second 5.

Finally, I would suggest that for short-term cash flow management (read: I don’t have the reputation or relationships to pay above net 30 but can only invoice net 45 or 60), nothing beats a line of credit at a local bank. It needs to be a business line of credit, and you’re really best served by a local bank, rather than one of the top ten.

Amen to that Tim. I’ve been in similar situations where you tell the client one thing, even have it in the contract they sign, then they’re surprised at something they signed. Because of that, I’ve made certain paragraphs the client has to initial.

Dave is great. I would say I ascribe to 90 to 95% of what he teaches. There are a few things we don’t follow to a tee and there are some “gotchas” to be aware of (e.g. many hotels take money out of your account when you use a debit card vs a credit card; and some car rental places won’t let you rent a car with just a debit card.) But in general, I think he’s spot on.

Thanks for the kind words Cody. I am always appreciative when leaders are open and honest about their biz, so I strive to do the same.

In answer to your question regarding #5, the things I’m doing now that I wish I did the day after I stepped onto GA soil, is networking, networking, networking. Now that commercial work is my company’s focus, it’s much more challenging finding new clients. When I shot weddings, there were dozens of wedding magazines and websites where I could advertise. As well as a plethora of networking events.

For commercial work you have to be really industrious. In addition to networking events, I’m reaching out and connecting with the creative community, particularly designers, brand and marketing agencies, PR firms, etc. The work we do for Creative Mornings – Atlanta (http://twitter.com/atlanta_cm) is an investment in time to connect with that community. In fact, the work we’ve done for CM-ATL has led to us being able to work with another company that has been my latest “dream” client. (More on that in a later blog post. 🙂 And in everything we do, we look to raise the bar and break the mold. I think we’ve been pretty successful at doing that with the CM videos we’ve produced.

Lastly, I strongly believe in the power of personal work. I hope to do more of it to show what we’re capable of doing and have projects on our reel that will attract the kind of clients I want.