How Lux Films made back a year's VBA investment in a month, then a 30x return

Where Andrew started

Business was good and steady, but stuck. Decent revenue, a full-enough diary, a strong showreel, an experienced team, and a quiet assumption that if they just kept going they would get noticed.

Underneath it there were no systems for sales and no follow-up process, so growth was hit and miss. In his words it was shooting into the dark, with a real lack of consistency. And because there was always client work in the diary, the growth work kept getting deferred.

The move

Two shifts. First, systems: the VBA gave him the marketing and follow-up process he had never built, and the ability to get on a call with Den and work out the next step rather than Googling it.

Second, and harder for him, getting off the tools. He would tell himself he would just do the edit to save paying someone. He calls that out now as false economy: the more he outsourced and built a team, the more the business grew.

“I've learned very quickly that it's really false economy. The more that I've outsourced and built a team, actually, the business has grown more.”

Andrew Fowler, Lux Films

The result

He made back his whole first year's fee within the first month, off the first few jobs, and puts the return since at around thirty times the investment. The growth came from building a team and stepping back, not from doing more himself.

“Within the first month, within the first few jobs, I was able to pay back my first year's investment into the VBA. The return on the investment has been something like thirty times that investment. It's a complete no brainer.”

Andrew Fowler, Lux Films