Making Movies, Event Planning or How to Learn From My Mistakes

I worked in the movie business for a few years on such films as Jerry Maguire, Dante’s Peak, Hollow Man, Twister, American Pie, Congo, and Starship Troopers to name a few. I started out as a production assistant for a company that created and produced the computer graphics on the storm chasers computer screens in the movie Twister.

After a few years of incredible experiences, horribly long hours, no vacations and unimaginable stress I decided I needed to do something a little different for a while and moved on to other things.

Then couple of years ago I decided I was tired of working for someone else and thought if I was going to have to work long hours I might as well work for myself. Although I loved my time in the film business it wasn’t something I was dying to do again and I wanted to have my own little company.

I began to think about what kind of work I could do with my particular skill set and abilities and I got what I thought was a brilliant idea...why not start an event planning company.

As I began to take a mental inventory of my aptitudes and skill set it seemed to me that I already possessed the skills and know how I needed to start this business.

Making a movie from my experience was about being creative… Check! working with all types of people crazy and not…Check! having the ability to handle details…Check!...knowing how to please everyone and all at the same time. Check…and check!

I had also planned production meetings which included directors, DP’s (Director of Principal Photography), planned and produced company wrap parties, managed big budgets and had played a creative and technical role in film set design… Check, check and double Check!

So how hard could it be I thought to start an event planning business. I figured I’d just to get the word out that a new event planning company was in town by throwing up a website and I’d be ready for those first client calls.

I can now say and with all honesty I had no idea what I had just got myself into.

What had originally seemed like a brilliant idea, that of owning my own event planning company, slowly turned into a kind of nightmare. I found trying to break into the event planning business was like being in a line with a thousand other actors all trying to get a break.

I kept telling myself all I needed was a couple of small parts in even a “B” type of event to get my name out there and then I’d start to get those big parts that paid enormous amounts of money and get my name in lights. Well, maybe not my company name in lights but maybe a lot of cash.

But the harsh reality was that there was a long line of people in front of me wanting the same thing I wanted and I was at the bottom of a very, very long list.

So how was I going to get my company noticed with all those other event companies vying for the same clients I was. I knew I needed to advertise. I needed to get my company name out there somehow but cash was in short supply so my website was designated as the company salesperson.

Sadly I was so naïve at the time that I actually thought all I needed to do was put up a site describing my services, publish it and I’d get all kinds of potential clients coming to my site.

I remember the horror I felt after I first published my site and I googled the word event companies expecting my company name to come up in the search. What did come up in the search was hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of event related companies but with my company name nowhere in site!

What I had failed to realize is that although I had a graphic design background and could design a visually presentable site, what I didn’t have was the technical know how or SEO knowledge needed to get my site noticed. I just didn’t understand what it took to create and promote a site…a site that the search engines gods like Google and Yahoo would list and would then bestow upon the honor of a good page ranking.

Although I did understand how important it was for my site turn up on the first couple of pages of a Google or Yahoo search what I didn’t understand was what a good page ranking meant, how to get it or how it mattered to my visitor count.

And this lack of know how about just this one facet of SEO was made painfully evident week after week when I looked at my website stats. I was hardly getting any hits and my business or course suffered as a result.

Well, all this rambling now takes me to the point of this article which is; I wish I had known then what I know now. Or how to learn from my mistakes.

Recently I started a new company offering a different kind of event service and one, which I feel, is more suited to my likes and talents. And I decided this time around I was definitely going to do things a whole lot different when it came time to creating and promoting my website.

This time I decided that I was going to put some real energy and time into learning how to get the attention of those big bad search engines so potential clients could find my company website…But I wasn’t exactly sure how.

Unfortunately I didn’t have a clue as to where to begin or what I needed to know. Although I had seen words like SEO, page ranking, and back links tossed around on different sites and knew they were a clue to a successful site I had no idea what they meant or just how important understanding them was to getting visitor traffic to my site. What did it mean to optimize a website? Or what were keywords? And how did they affect my ranking? What did it mean when a search engine “crawled” your site?? I was absolutely lost!

I was already painfully aware of how my lack of “know how” about website design, promotion and SEO had effected my previous site’s success.

And from my previous experience I was also aware that my new site would be competing with countless numbers of other event related business sites: wedding planners, event planners, event vendors, event production companies, vendor referral services and others for the attention of those nasty search engines.

So how could my little site when thrown in among all those hundreds and hundreds of other sites going to be noticed by anyone if it was always listed on page thirty or forty or even page fifty of a Google or Yahoo search.

I definitely felt a serious panic attack coming on!

Since I didn’t have the money to hire one of those high price Internet marketing companies to help me with my site I begin to do the only thing I could do and that was to educate myself. I researched web site after site on event planning businesses, web design and promotion and SEO. I read everything I could find and I mean I read everything. I was not going to post a site this time around and set back and hope that clients would miraculously find my site.

Well, to make a long story short I’ve learned a lot in the last year about the business of web site marketing and SEO and I understand even more than when starting out just how complicated and confusing trying to create and maintain a successful site can be. And believe me I now know that creating a successful site is not an easy task to accomplish and even more so if you’re doing it without the help of skilled professionals.

So for you all newbies faced with the seemingly daunting task of creating a successful business website allow me to alleviate some of your anxiety about this challenge by sharing some simple yet important beginners advice or “Stuff I Learned the Hard Way!”

1. You need to understand that just because you put a web site up doesn’t mean anyone will visit it. You have to realize that there are thousands and thousands and thousands of websites out there so you need to work like the devil to get the search engines to notice you. You’ll never get much business if your site is always on page thirty of a client’s Goggle Search.

2. Just listing your company name on an Event or Wedding site along with the hundreds and hundreds of other names doesn’t automatically bring clients to your web site or lead to paying clients.

On many of these sites unless you put out some cash for top placement you’ll be listed with hundreds of other vendors and unfortunately if you’re not on one of the first few pages most potential clients will search no further than page one or two and so they’ll never see your listing. You’ll most likely be waiting by a phone that never rings.

3. Understand that your site is your business calling card. Don’t just throw up a site. Your site speaks for you. It’s got to say I’m a professional and this is what I can do for you. If you can’t pay for a professional web site designer there are sites that help novices like I was to create a simple yet professional site. Or put out an ad to design schools with talented students who have knowledge of how to design a search engine friendly site.

Whatever you do don’t put up a site that you’re not proud of. If a potential client goes to your site and it’s a mess with graphics placed anywhere, or tons of different fonts or misspelled text or one that’s designed so poorly the client can’t figure out how to navigate from one of your pages to another I can tell you I wouldn’t be looking at your site for very long and I certainly wouldn’t be inclined to do business with your company. And you can pretty much bet no one else will either.

4. But probably the most important advice I can give you is to learn everything you can Search Engine Optimization or SEO. Long gone are the days when you could put up a site and just sit back and you’d get visitors. There are way too many sites now.

You need to learn everything you can about SEO or Search Engine Optimization. This is critical to the success of your site. There’s loads of free information online.

5. And for my last bit of advice don’t just sit back and think you can relax because you’ve got your site up. Continue to research, read and learn everything you can about your business, website design and promotion and SEO by attending seminars, going to networking groups, and learning from online information sources. The crazy world of SEO continues to change everyday so to continue to stay on top you’ve got to continually upgrade your knowledge.

So to reiterate: For all you website newbies who want a site that helps sell your company; be aware of how absolutely critical it is that you have a knowledge of web design, web marketing and SEO, how important it is to your survival and how this knowledge or lack of can mean the difference between a profitable or a non existent company

Remember if you want a starring role, you want to see your company name in lights you’ve got to study your lines, understand your character and audition every chance you get. In other words learn everything you can about the business of promoting your company, learn the business of web design and promotion and take every opportunity to promote your company by making your website the company’s ultimate salesperson.