Hi, i am always trying to think up ideas on how to make money with my video\editing skills. It is one tiny business i have going out of 2 but the other one is almost finished, very little work any more. SO, i live in a small rural town of 1000 or so people. the closest bigger towns are 70km away. one is around 30,000 the other around 15,000. there are quite a few new houses\groups of houses (can't remember what they are called) but i was thinking of approaching the house builders to see if they might like to offer a couple of packages to their clients. Initial start would be photos\video of the vacant land from ground and drone views, then depending on the budget of owner, would depend on how often i go back and update the images\footage. Has anyone here done this before? Would love to hear from anyone that has and any other comments\ideas from others on how to go about this. I would be fully insured with relevant covers and most likely do the shoots when no one is on site. Looking forward to your input.....

Here are a few thoughts:

1. If a contractor has a web site it would be helpful if they had a video about what they do. There are General Contractors and there are contractors that specialize in things like plumbing, electrical, surveying, Engineering, etc. States, counties, and cities require contractors to be licensed. Find out what contractor divisions are required to be licensed and if a business license is required. Cities will have more license requirements than the State and, of course, the business license is an income generator.

A city of almost any size should have a list of licensed contractors available along with contact information. With that, one can do an on-line search for a web page, if they have one, and suggest what would improve it (pictures, videos, etc.) then approach them with your ideas. Naturally one should be able to have credits on the video and/or web page. If they don’t have a web page, and it’s surprising how many don’t, find someone who does web pages and team up with them.

2. Sell the contractor: show the work they do. Whether it is repair or new construction, a video showing the steps from talking to a client, viewing the project site, developing alternatives, construction drawings, the permit process, breaking ground or starting the job with all the tools and materials, doing the work, inspecting various steps along the way (using a tape measure checking for the proper dimension or a level, maybe a moisture meter, etc., basically showing Quality Control (QC) then the finished project then ending with a happy and smiling customer). Basically a nice but short story. That can work for everything from a kitchen remodel to new construction.

3. Help sell value added … increased property value (kitchen remodel, energy retrofit, remodel for elderly family member, for example). There are lists of bang-for-the-buck remodel projects. Then there are the repair contractors, ones that specialize in fixing things like plumbing. Heck, even appliance repair.

4. Come up with a “story board” in writing telling the contractor how you would envision their video sales story to see what they think. Besides construction or Real estate sales, there are student Sumer camps or classes who try to attract students that could use a video to entice signups.

5. Follow-up on how the finished jobs went for feedback to see if there was an increase in their business so one can use that as a selling point for the next client.

6. With construction activity, be sure to show proper workplace safety. If hearing protection, safety glasses, hard hat, or other protection is required it would be good to show that. Heck, discussing workplace safety could be one of the steps in the video when starting the job and it’d look good.

Just some idea.
-= John =-
Edit: added my OSHA wall picture from a building for lease

Mount a long term timelapse camera to provide a one minute video shot over a month?

Edit: You just reminded me of my shed building video a few years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGeVFHuo-v0

Thanks for all the detailed comments John. Sure gives me plenty to think about and to work on. Really appreciate your comments and ideas!

Rainer, for some reason i can't see video clips on this site and have no way of opening the clips on youtube, i tried clicking in the video window on your post (which is blank\white) but nothing happens. perhaps copy\paste the URL?

Thanks guys...

Hi Gary,

Yes there is an issue currently with video embedding on this site.

I'm aware of it and hope to have it fixed and working properly soon.

In the meantime the direct link to Rainer's video is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGeVFHuo-v0

Hope this helps,