services

Product or Service Description

(draft) The company will provide complete service for consumer video productions and media transfers. The video productions can include subjects such as weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, dance recitals, video biographies, and other special occasions. TMM can handle everything from creating or assisting with the script, filming, editing, and final distribution.

With some products such as dance recitals or theatrical productions TMM will film the event, edit and produce a DVD and then sell copies of the DVD’s to the dancers or players or audience.

Other events, such as weddings or anniversaries or video biographies, TMM will sell the final product to a single customer.

Slideshows are very common for special events. These shows are a collection of photos, slides, negatives, film, and video put together in a video collage and put to music. These shows can be for events such as anniversaries, birthdays, weddings, or funerals.

Media transfers include transferring old media such as super 8 and regular 8 film, or VHS tapes, or slides, or negatives to a more current media such as DVD’s or computer hard drives. These transfers are generally done for either archival purposes or just to be able to view the material with ease (it’s easier to view DVD’s than to pull out the old projector to see slides or film).

Industry Overview

Industry DescriptionThe video production, videotaping, photography, and photo editing services fit into the services industry.

Industry Segment Within the services industry, video production and videotaping services form a growing segment. TMM will be targeting video and photo production for dance recitals, dance competitions, theatrical productions, weddings, and video biographies.  Most of the consumer spending for this segment comes from the recreation category and according to the Canadian “Market Research Handbook 2005” this spending category grew by 4.9% between 2003 and 2004 which is a continuation of a longer trend where spending rose by 39.3% between 1998 and 2004 to total $721.2 million dollars.

Growth and Trends The last 5 years have seen video and computer technology become much more affordable.  Rather than requiring $20,000 for professional cameras or computers, they are now available for less than $5000.  Professional internet forums also give access to resources and accomplished people like never before.  This means that one can learn from the experts from home.

Rapid changes in technology offer not only challenges but also opportunities.  Opportunities come when one is prepared for change. Preparedness comes from keeping in the information loop such as online forums, industry conventions, and industry associations.

The next wave of technology will include Hi-Definition (HD) cameras and the other associated hardware, such as Blu-Ray disks and more software to support HD.  Managing the change to the new technology will be an exciting challenge.  When discussing these industry changes with competitors, forums, and others in the business the general consensus is that conversion to HD for most businesses is still two years away.

Barriers to Entry The low cost of equipment now makes it easier for someone to get into the video production business.  The barrier to getting into this type of business is skill and knowledge. One needs the creative and technical skills to film and edit and these skills take some time to develop.  One also requires great marketing skills otherwise the business will never make it beyond a hobby.

Description of Business Venture

Techno Monkey Media (TMM) is a 50/50 partnership between John Romein and Paul Romein formed to provide video and photo production services to three market segments. The first focus is corporate video which consists of making videos of conferences and company events, documentaries, biographies, and commercials. The second focus is on dance studios in the lower mainland. For several years, TMM has been providing video services to dance studios, recording their recitals and competitions for distribution on DVD. The final focus is providing wedding photography and video bundles to younger couples. Our business is powered by young team members with excellent commitment to creativity, technical skill, and quality. We innovative ways to use today’s readily available communications technologies to provide extra value to the consumer such as same day online project management for corporations, one hour turnaround for dance competition DVDs at the event, and wedding video edits ready to display at the reception. We are also a one-stop company that can create the desired end product that a consumer or company wants like finishing and printing a wedding photo album, formatting video to deploy on the web or duplicating DVDs.

The company has been operating seriously for 2 years and in this time it has continued to see business growth even though the pricing is middle to high for the type of business and end products. Positive word of mouth referrals are provided in abundance. TMM has realized that it has unrealized growth potential and has undergone branding for the first time, making it more recognizable. The company has established its core vision and mission which is passionately shared between the current team members and primary contractors.

Executive Summary

Techno Monkey Media (TMM) is excited to be working to realizing its true growth potential. The company has undergone branding to increase recognition of its quality services. TMM provides video and photo services to three market segments. The company provides high end corporate services like documentaries, commercials, and training, solutions to recording dance studio recitals and competitions, and weddings. TMM has enjoyed financial and product success with large scale projects such as organization anniversary documentaries and smaller intense projects like same-day one hour turnaround photo and video media at dance competitions. TMM has also experienced success with mid range projects such as weddings. As a side effect of documentaries, we are also able to offer media transfers from film and other older media to DVD as an ancillary stream of income.

The consumer dollars spent on video productions and media transfers comes out of the growing recreation industry segment which topped $761 million in 2004.  From 1998 to 2004 this segment grew by a staggering 39%.  TMM’s quality work has resulted in many work-of-mouth referrals.  This signature of quality will be used by the company in its marketing to achieve revenue targets.

John Romein and Paul Romein are the partners in the company.  Both have experience in videography from running this business as a hobby for a few years.  John’s strengths are marketing, accounting, and organization, while Paul’s strengths are filming and editing.  Their combined skills and their determination to deliver quality products will contribute strongly to the success of the company.

The startup costs of the business have been fully financed by the partners. The company’s current year saw a gross income of approximately $70,000. The company has analyzed projects from this last year to determine which revenue streams were the most profitable and ways to increase profitability of some others. The forecast for 2009 is $180,000-$250,000 gross income.

Service: Graduations

As of 2008, we have been capturing the graduation at Archbishop Carney for five years.  Although we recognize this as a less-profitable service, we plan to continue this coverage until June of 2011. We would like to explore this service in the photographic department, and if we can bring the average hourly wage above $60, we will re-think our strategy.

Added Dec 10 2008

John spoke to Mr. Borzillo at Carney today and discovered that they already have contracted a Photography service for this year's grad. We need to find out if there is an opportunity to take either the posed grad photos next year by offering to setup at the school or some other incentive, or taking the place of their currently contracted photo service at the grad ceremony itself.