I think that my opinion may not be a popular one. But it seems not a day goes by that I don’t hear someone complaining about how hard business has become. It’s as though we are living out the line from the film The Endless Summer: "You should have been here yesterday." In that film a group of surfers travels around the world, searching for the perfect wave. At each beach visited, the locals tell them it was really great yesterday. For many of us, it seems today should have been yesterday. Yesterday there were fewer directors. Yesterday there was a higher markup. And yesterday there was just less competition.
What I find curious is that I have been in the business for over 20 years, and everyone has always talked about yesterday. To me it seem that yesterday was no easier than today. The industry has always been competitive. Markup has always been in question. There have always been too many directors available to shoot any given job.
But what are we going to do about tomorrow? If we have just complained our way through one of the greatest economic booms in decades, what are we going to do in this slowing economy?
I feel that business is actually pretty strong. Opportunities abound if only we choose to seek them out. We have never had as many creative freedoms and the tools to implement our ideas. The traditional paradigms for advertising have totally changed. We are presenting and producing projects for our clients that years ago would never have been accepted. It actually seems that many of our clients are hungering for innovative thinking.
Although markup has been sliced, we have come up with approaches that have given us many cost-efficient options. We can shoot almost anywhere on the globe at exchange rates that give us far greater latitude. Software programs have helped us make our office staffs more efficient. Where once we needed a clerical staff, accounting and actualizing can be done on software employing far fewer personnel.
If I send out reels and bid jobs with no success, I had better figure out what I am doing wrong and not ask what’s wrong with the industry. Someone once asked me whether I knew the definition of insanity. After answering incorrectly I was told, "Insanity is doing the same action time and time again, with no change, and expecting a different outcome."
I think we all would agree that it would be great if 75 percent of all the directors and production companies disappeared. But we all know that isn’t about to happen. In slow times it is amazing how few actually do vanish. I feel it would be fair to say that the number of directors is only going to increase over the next few years.
I’m not trying to say that business is great and easy. That would be idiotic. But the entrepreneurial options are there if only we seek them out. That’s the challenge of our industry, but that is also what makes it fun.
