Transcript: Going Solo
The following is section of a a transcript of mediabistro.com’s seminar, “Going Solo: How to Start Your Own Media Business,” held on July 28, 2005 in New York. Have your own questions about starting your a business? The next session of the seminar is on February 15. Enroll now!
New York City is the media capital of the world. All of the biggest film, television, print, and advertising firms are headquartered here. But did you know that most of the creative action – filmmaking, designing, production, writing – is done by or for small businesses? Some of the most creative and best-known media are being produced by companies with only a handful of people. And most of these companies were started by young and hungry professionals with very little business experience.
Duy Linh Tu is a co-founder and the Creative Director of Resolution Seven. He is a writer, videographer, motion graphics designer, and photographer. Prior to forming Resolution Seven, Duy founded and was the Chief Operations Officer of Missing Pixel, an award-winning interactive production company. At Missing Pixel, Duy managed the production of videos, Web sites, DVDs, CD-ROMs, and multimedia installations.
Duy Linh Tu: The benefit of choosing a service oriented business, there’s two types of business – services and products. And kind of, sometimes they kind of blend in between. Publishing is one of those places where it kind of blends in between. You’re creating something for someone but you’re also creating a product which is the book or a DVD or case, whatever. Obviously the downside of products is that you’ve got to prototype, you’ve got to design something, you have to make that something. You have to have inventory. You have to pray that someone buys it. If no one buys it, you’ve got all this inventory in a warehouse somewhere or you’re giving books to your friends for the next 20 years. , as gifts. Great thing about services is the worst thing that you lose is whatever you decide to put into it. Meaning, if you do not get a gig, there’s nothing to loose. Your time has been lost maybe trying to develop a contact, but overall you didn’t have to pay $10,000 to make widgets in China. A lot of your businesses, whether it’s PR or marketing, can be done with very little infrastructure. Infrastructure meaning, everything from office space to a water cooler to your computer to Internet access. A lot of times in that kind of PR, marketing, you can have a laptop and a cell phone or a BlackBerry and you’re good to go. But we’ll talk about all this stuff. So, for better for worse, you’ve chosen one path that takes a lot less up front cost.
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