Straight answers on pricing, sales, marketing, positioning, hiring, growth and mindset for video production business owners. Den Lennie is an author and business coach for video production company owners, and these are his field guides: the questions owners actually ask, answered plainly.
Den Lennie is an author and business coach for video production company owners and the founder of VBA.
VBA has one programme, the Elite Boardroom: $1,700 USD a month, flat, cancel anytime, no application, no onboarding fee.
VBA results in members' own words.
The S.C.A.L.E.
Den Lennie has written five books for video business owners: The S.C.A.L.E.
An anonymised case study: a four-video edit ran past its two agreed revision rounds, the owner asked for $600, the client offered $300 and walked.
Owners with years of quoting behind them still stopped to ask whether a number was fair.
An anonymised case study: a video business owner priced a one-off filming day, then built a cost-of-delivery model and set out to test recurring done-for-you packages.
One programme, one price: the VBA Elite Boardroom, with the price and what it includes.
How to price video work so the number holds: build your day rate from real overheads and the days you can actually sell, decide your margin once, then quote in four sections with a contingency line.
Work out your floor and day rate, then build a four-section quote with the fee and contingency on the page. Free, no login, nothing leaves your browser.
Travel, delivery, storage, extras: the work a video client never sees is the work owners give away for free.
Two rounds of revisions per deliverable holds only if you define a round on the quote, count the rounds out loud at every delivery, and offer a choice before round three starts.
Three client emails for video revision rounds, with copy buttons: the one to send when a client asks for more changes after round two, and the two that stop you needing it.
What to do when a client's budget is lower than your video quote: hold the rate, keep planning and filming, take deliverables and rounds out, and say it as a trade.
The three numbers every video business owner has to know: the floor a day must clear, the margin on each job built from crew at real day rates plus direct costs, and margin per day by client.
How to work out what your video business needs to make: cost the life you want, add what the business costs to run, then check the number against your packages times capacity, the revenue ceiling.
How to get paid on time for video work: put a deposit (Den Lennie normally insisted on 50 per cent up front) and the balance terms on the quote, ask accounts what a correct invoice needs, track every invoice on a forecast, chase on the dates, set the tax aside, and only discount in exchange for faster payment.
What to say in the ten seconds after a prospect asks 'roughly how much?': give a range built the way you build a quote, make scope the variable, end with a question.
What to charge for video work, and the six checks to run before any price leaves your mouth or your outbox: cost of a delivered day, a range for a ballpark, specific numbers, the whole job priced, four quote sections with contingency and a production company fee, and scope that moves while the price holds.
Six checks that keep every piece of video work paid, a fill-in scope line for the quote (what's included, what's priced as an extra, what triggers a variation), and the script for the moment a client says "while you're here".
The pre-send checklist for a profitable video quote: three priced working sections, a 10 per cent contingency on the subtotal, a production company fee of 15 to 30 per cent on the production cost, inclusions stated, terms visible, one next step.
How to qualify a video lead before you quote: why sending the showreel and waiting loses, the five diagnostic questions for the first call, how to read fit, budget, decision-maker and timing, and a get-a-quote form with thank-you page wording.
How to run a 30-minute discovery call with a video client: five questions that show authority, a summary back in their words, two or three options with their costs, and one dated next step.
How to write a follow-up email that gets a reply and how many times to follow up: add one useful thing, end on the next step, and keep to a cadence.
How to push back on a video client without losing them: why absorbing the cost teaches the wrong lesson, a five-step way to draw a line calmly, and copy-and-paste replies for extra work, late payment, a moved deadline, a fee cut after delivery, and raw footage that wasn't agreed.
Why warm introductions and networking contacts go cold, and how to stop it: following up an introduction or event contact within days, and asking a happy client for a referral without it being awkward.
How to tell whether content or outreach is holding your video business back, then run a seven-day outreach test on one channel and read the result.
How to market a video business with work you've already delivered: audit your archive, then turn one finished job into a case study and a filmed client testimonial.
Why video production work comes in waves and how to make it steady: a weekly marketing hour that doesn't move when the work lands, a message for the people you spoke to months ago, and the marketing Parthenon, built one lead source at a time.
How video business owners can connect with the right people on LinkedIn without being a pest: a profile checklist, the room check before you comment, a connection note to send after commenting, a first message with no pitch and one question, two follow-up notes, a weekly routine, and Den Lennie's own accept-rate test.
How a video production business gets found on Google locally: set up the Google Business Profile with the right categories, services and description, link it to your website, post weekly and ask for reviews.
You don't have a lead problem, you have a 'who am I for' problem.
How to use your background to position your video business: find the part of your story a specific client would recognise as their own world, then use it on your About page, in one line on a first call and in a proposal.
How to write the one line that says who your video business helps: the message equation (We help [niche] get [result] through [offer]), a homepage hero checklist, two anonymised homepages broken down, and a short script for testing the line with clients before it goes on the site.
The ASK framework: three to five recorded fifteen-minute conversations with clients who already value you, five questions each, and their exact words sorted into triggers, frustrations, outcomes and feelings.
A client avatar is one buyer described in enough detail to write every quote, email and web page to that person.
One-off video work resets every month.
How to grow revenue from the clients you already have: rank them by margin per day rather than revenue, find the next project and the other departments or teams, then open the conversation with an end-of-project review email and an introduction request.
How to measure and reduce dependence on one big client in a video business: a client concentration check with share of revenue, margin per day and a leave test, a profile of your best client to find more like them, the review conversation that protects the anchor, and a twelve-month plan in four quarters.
Before you change your offer, marketing or niche, audit the last twelve months: where the revenue came from, what you kept, which clients cost the most time, what you're known for and how your last five clients describe you.
How to hire a video editor without gambling on a showreel: a job ad that filters (adapted from Matt Smolen's), a recorded interview, a paid test edit for the top two, a scoring sheet, and a thirty-day onboarding plan with a one-page style guide.
How to make the first hire in a video business without betting the business: a one-week time audit to find what to hand over, a suggested worksheet to check the profit can carry the hire, and a role outline for a part-time, contractor or VA first hire on a trial period.
Better systems rarely means new software.
How to plan a video business year so the important work gets done: one annual list, three to five quarterly priorities, five weekly goals and three a day, with a review every 90 days.
How a video business owner gets three hours of focused, goal-moving work out of a day: the CEO test, the four Ds, email twice a day with the touch-it-once rule, one list, and Schedule it Done (no more than three hours of above-the-line work a day, 30 minutes of white space).
How to handle the imposter feeling in a video business: tell a skills gap from a confidence gap, build an evidence file of projects, client words, repeat work, referrals and numbers, and read a short reframe before a big pitch.
How to get your weekends back as a video business owner: why more revenue never does it, how to write your version of success life first, book three non-negotiables into the diary before the work, and set the revenue goal last.
What a video business coach works on (the seven systems every production company runs on), what happens week to week, what coaching doesn't do, and a one-page brief to send any coach before a first conversation.
The signs a video production company is ready for a coach, a readiness check to fill in, what too early looks like, why revenue alone doesn't decide it, and when to wait even past the baseline.
Hire a specialist video business coach when most of your problems come from how video gets quoted, made and delivered; a strong generalist when they don't.
A solo videographer usually needs focus and a production company owner usually needs structure, so the coaching differs.
How to choose a video business coach: start with your own constraint, compare coaches on five checks, and know what a first conversation should feel like.
The questions to send a video business coach before you sign up, what clear answers sound like, the questions a good coach should ask you, and how to check a claim yourself.
The cost of a video business coach is the monthly fee times the minimum term, plus anything up front, plus your hours.
A video business coach is worth it when the cost of standing still, in your own numbers, is bigger than a year of fees and you'll do the work between calls.