Your Family + This Career

[Andrew Brown]

Earlier this year after years of filming and editing everything myself I bit the bullet and took my business to the next level.
I finally got an office away from home and started employing editors on a freelance basis.
Although I still film on most weekends throughout the season I now edit/catch up with office bits and bobs Monday to Friday 9-5.
I must say that the sense of freedom from shutting the door at 5:00 is amazing, and hey presto you get your life back.

www.memoriesonfilm.co.uk

[Jeff Kellam]

Rose:

I certainly cant speak for everyone, but I would bet far more wedding videographers fail or quit than make it as a career.

Weekend work, low pay/return on equipment investment.

[Denny Kyser]

Although our full time job is photography, we do a fair amount of video too. My wife and I do this together but still takes time away from our family and social events.

We are trying to find a happy medium but have a hard time saying No to a client wanting to give you money.

I have to say its getting easier though as the market is filling with photographers / videographers the clients are wanting better deals, and more time / products. These customers its easy to say we are booked for June.

[Rachael Hastie]

Hi Rose, I'm 34, pregnant and have a 2 and 6 year old - same as you. I've been running my wedding video business for 6 years and am currently looking for a buyer. During the last 6 years I've found balancing being a Mum and running a wedding video business challenging - but extremely rewarding. Most of the issues for me have been because I've had pregnancies and newborns to deal with which havnt mixed well with the demanding aspects of the job. (Morning sickness and filming are not a great combination for creativity) The other issue which might effect you more, is meeting clients in the evenings which clashes with bed time for children. I run my studio from home and my husband has to hide the children in the bedrooms and keep them quiet during meetings. The 6 year old is fine with this, the 2 year old is harder to manage. Prior to the clients coming, the studio end of the house has to be cleaned which is time not spent editing. I sometimes feel guilty during busy periods that I am not spending time with my kids, and the 6 year old has expressed dissappointment quite often when I head out to a wedding. I tell him I'll bring him back a chocolate from the reception and this generally appeases him. The hours are extremely flexible and work well for school and pre-school, although grocery shopping, washing and cleaning take up great portions of my 'work' time. I find I end up with 50% of the work time I think I'm going to have. While I am spending time with the children I often find I am thinking (or stressing) about all the work things I've got to get done, and with owning your own business the list never ends. The biggest problem with this business is the level of investment in equipment required and the associated number of bookings needed to make the investment viable. There is always another piece of equipment to buy to make the wedding videos that much better. As a hobby business, it is financially not viable in consideration of the risks you'd be taking on, pressure of deadlines, actual hours of work each week etc. I think you could definitely build the new business and run it as more than a hobby with your children being the age they are. If you are planning to have one more, I'd wait till after that and make the financial investment in the latest equipment when you've got decent hours to give to the business. The industry needs more female wedding videographers!