To talk about the challenge of pivoting your business in these strange times I’ve turned to Andy Goode of AndrewGoode.TV, a video production company based in Southampton has been a cameraman for over 30 years, and involved in full production for around 20. He has a small green screen studio in Hamble and has helped me create some professional videos for this site. 2020 has been a very different year so far and ‘lockdown’ has presented many and various challenges. I asked Andy Goode to talk about how he has coped with the business (and personal) challenge social distancing has presented with regards to making TV in lockdown. I’ve known Andy for many years and he has created brilliant short films for myself and many colleagues in small businesses, as well as many bigger corporate clients…

Making TV in Lockdown? – Pandemic challenges for a small business

As someone who normally relies upon being able to travel to clients’ premises in order to do filming for the videos, the challenge of making TV in lockdown seemed to have completely and utterly stopped my business.  And, whilst I had a few projects that only required final editing before delivery, the vast majority of my business was curtailed overnight.  I expect like many people, I thought I would be spending the extra time at home getting all those jobs done I’ve been meaning to do for ages.

Just for context, I live alone, and therefore do not have to self-school any children and as my parents have already passed, I don’t have any caring responsibilities either.  Hence if the house wasn’t a complete palace by the end of lockdown, something was possibly going wrong somewhere!
Needless to say, a lot of those jobs still remain outstanding and I find myself wondering exactly where has all the time gone to?

So how can a TV company ‘pivot’ its business model and how does a cameraman occupy his time in the meantime…?

I’m in my late fifties and I’ve been a cameraman for over 35 years – engaged in full production for about 20.  I have had some interesting career highlights including some pieces for Newsnight, Country File and Scrapheap Challenge.  Also, nearly five years of the live broadcast for BBC1 from Southampton General ‘City Hospital’.

Current clients include household names like Stannah Stairlifts, global clean-up specialists Oil Spill Response Ltd and a whole series of SME’s with Networkers featuring strongly amongst them.  I help my customers by providing an end to end service that includes scripting, shooting, graphics and editing.  My emphasis is on under promising and over delivering to keep my clients delighted.  Most of which is pretty much impossible with the #StayAtHome message, very difficult with the #StayAlert restrictions and restricted with the ongoing social distancing advice …

My small Green Screen studio in Hamble has been particularly useful with small companies and one-man bands, as it’s a simple route into producing high quality and cost-effective videos.  These are principally aimed at the client’s website to provide a video presence, so essential for SEO and maximising Google rankings these days.

Filming with social distance in the studio with Karen Williams, the Book Mentor

 
A good example of a video shot in the Hampshire Greenscreen Studio is this one for local Photographer Stephen Phyall,which also incorporates three client testimonials.
 

Being self-employed, I make my own schedule

and sometimes I have to adjust that schedule to suit how the day has gone.  This allows me to take advantage of recreational opportunities when they arise and make up the work time later. A few of these during lockdown were:

• spend quite a while one day making a barbell out of a 12 foot steel pole to allow me to do some bodyweight exercise.
• Gaffer taping together 10 sheets of packing foam to make a mat for doing online yoga classes over Zoom.
• I am also particularly fortunate in that I have a turbo trainer that allows me to cycle in my hallway regardless of the time of day. So I have maintained some degree of physical fitness.
• Also, for well-being, I am growing some food in raised beds in the garden. This year, all fully from seed and it’s been great seeing them all come along.

So, I have spent quite a lot of time lately trying to stay fit and healthy, whilst obeying the Government guidelines and staying home as much as possible. I think it’s been a lot easier for me because I spend a lot of time at home anyway, this is because my edit suite (50% of the business) is located in my home office so making TV in lockdown is not more challenging in this respect.. I’m used to long hours indoors and occasional late nights to meet deadlines etc.

What have I been doing workwise?

• A lot of networking over Zoom, getting ready for when hopefully some sort of normality can be resumed
• And developing a video model that is shot by my clients using their smartphones under my guidance. I have a few projects in play using this system and I have created a demo video that explains how it works. You can see, below;

The power of personal video content is huge but dodgy looking videos with poor sound quality can detract somewhat… My service is a way to deliver professional video content from home!

A method of making TV in lockdown

• I was in the middle of a website re-vamp when lock down occurred, so it’s currently just a holding page, but, like a lot of things, it’s on the big list of jobs. If I can be of any help or advice with anything video, please give me a call 07775 598664 or email info@andrewgoode.tv.

This is part one of my blog story, part two will reflect on how unlocking has gone and some thoughts on the financial support received.

Please stay safe and well and hoping we can get back to a semblance of business normality soon and many thanks to Colin Bielckus for inviting me to write this blog, and of course, many thanks to you for reading it!

Thanks to Andy for sharing some of his experiences this year on making TV in lockdown, and how to pivot your business model. To adapt so that you both work differently and offer clients new ways of working and communicating. The new plethora of video calls/conferencing and ready availability of much of the tech at little or even no cost does mean many people think they can take a DIY approach. For a few businesses that may work but presenting a professional image of your company that complements your brand and that you can be proud to present to the world has never been more important.

If you would like to talk to Andy– and I would certainly recommend that you do – please contact him at info@andrewgoode.tv

This blog is part of our series on challenges for small businesses from the perspective of the entrepreneurs discuss in them. There are many other posts on key issues for small business owners and entrepreneurs across this site and to see new articles from the Outsourced Finance Director please subscribe using the box on the right-hand side of this page.
If you have any comments on this post please post them in the comments section below – or chat to us on social media