🎬 Why you NEED to start a video editing agency

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• 🎬 Why you need to start a video editing agency

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WHY YOU NEED TO START A VIDEO EDITING AGENCY

Think of your favorite YouTuber... okay, someone other than me.

Are their videos attention-grabbing? Do they have crispy edits? If so, chances are they hire editors.

In fact, many of my friends, including myself, hire editors for their socials like YouTube, TikTok, Insta Reels, etc.

These guys & gals get paid hundreds of dollars for every YouTube video and around $20-$30 per TikTok (from what I’ve seen)

And this is only for one creator - imagine working for 5 of them. That's easily an extra 1,000 dollars every month.

But this newsletter isn’t about how to become an editor - no, I want you to think bigger.

Let me paint you a picture (Bob Ross style)

Imagine instead of being the editor, you employ the editor. You charge $250 to edit a video and pay your employee $150. That’s 67% profit margins.

Now imagine you hire 3 or 4 video editors and are doing this on a larger scale. That’s thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars every month.

Your job then becomes getting clients and managing people.

It would look something like this 👀

And before you go thinking YouTube is too saturated, let me hit you with some stats.

#1 - YouTube is the second biggest search engine behind Google

#2 - YouTube has 2.6 billion monthly active users - that’s 33% of the entire world

#3 - 400 hours of videos are uploaded every minute to YouTube - that's a lot of content that needs edited!

#4 - The video editing industry is set to be the fastest growing sector at 14% from 2021-2031 - almost double that of many other occupations in the space

All this to say that video editing (and YouTube) isn’t going anywhere. Even when AI comes and takes over, there's going to be new roles for prompting it, which is going to be a whole market of its own (and we’re still years away from that)

So if you want to not only ride the massive tailwind of this growing industry and start a business making you thousands every month, then wink-wink... this is your cue!

Now before we hop into the steps, I want to show you the potential. I have a friend who is building this business and know many big creators using editors and agencies.

When it comes to TikTok, creators pay anywhere from $10-$500 for a TikTok edit. Obviously, it depends on how much quality and effort goes into the video but I know someone paying $500 for 30 second videos!

YouTube videos are a lot longer, therefore, the editing time is much longer as well so you can charge more. Creators pay anywhere from $100-$1,500 for a YouTube video edit.

My friend’s agency edits ~500 videos per month (mostly TikToks) and charges $20-$40 for each. He said it’s a lot of cold emailing but it’s so worth it.

What sucks the most for him is logistics. Keeping everything organized and keeping communication top tier is tough but if you’re able to create systems to do this he said it’s a great business model. Especially if you target businesses or people “selling a service or a product”.

SO HERE’S HOW TO GET ROLLING

1. Hire great editors

Not good editors, great editors. Your service needs to rock. I want your editors to make such good videos that your client refers 2 others when they see the first one.

How are you going to do this without breaking the bank?
Don’t hire from the US (in most cases).. hop on Fiverr and search for “video editors” (like this)

And don’t forget to filter by “New Seller”. This is important for two reasons: 

1. These people want work and most likely don’t have any (you can provide this if they’re good)

2. They haven’t done many jobs, which makes it easier for you to bring them off the platform. People with built-out profiles usually don’t want to leave so you’re stuck paying service fees

The other way to find great editors is by posting a listing on Upwork (my preferred route) because people come to you, not the other way around.

In almost all cases, you’ll find great talent for 1/10th of the cost of US workers. I’ve been doing it for years and I love it! Just make sure they speak relatively good English so the two of you can communicate.

And always test them first. Before you hire anyone make sure they demonstrate their skills. Take a 10 minute video of yourself talking about an interesting topic and tell them to make it look dope. A great editor can make any video somewhat appealing.

2. Find clients

If you're serious about this side hustle, you're going to get customers.

It’s a numbers game. Cold emailing naturally has low hit rates but here’s how to grab a creator’s attention and most importantly, get a response:

1. Get over the first hurdle, them opening the email. You need an interesting subject line. Something like “Ready to Level Up Your Editing Game? Let's Chat!“ not “Let’s Work Together“ or “Services Offered”

2. Next is the response. Go the extra mile. Attach one of their own videos that’s edited 10x better than the one published on YouTube. This shows you’re serious and that this email is personalized just for them. Most creators are going to ask for an example anyway so you’re just beating them to the punch!

Creators need great editors and understand they are worth the investment. You can start off pricing your editing services low and move up as you grow but I’d suggest starting with high prices.

Compete on quality not cost and you’ll have a 10x bigger business than the person competing on cost. Jeez, I should quote that.

3. Provide a great service & manage relationships

Once you’ve got your All-Star team and clients, your job is what I’ll call “the facilitator”.

Your main responsibility is managing your editors (making sure they’re working/meeting deadlines and providing quality editing) and ensuring your clients are happy.

This probably looks like weekly calls with editors and bi-weekly or monthly calls with clients to check-in and keep the relationship going. Ask how they’ve been liking the content or if they’d like to see more of something.

You know how they say “happy wife, happy life”. Same thing here - “happy client, your business is giant”… I should trademark that 😂

Once you’re at the stage of signing more clients and hiring more editors, you’re punching your one-way ticket to creating a million-dollar video editing agency.

This business can make you well over $1,000 a day. It won't be easy but it's a legit way to kiss your 9-5 goodbye 👊

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That's a wrap! Enjoy the weekend :)

DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.