Guides
Videography business markets: a six-signal scorecard to compare
A scorecard for comparing markets for a videography business: six signals with their counting sources, weights, how to read low scores and what a score omits.
What to take away
- Compare your own market and one or two candidates on the same six signals, and compare the scores rather than the impressions.
- Read the low scores, not the total. A single one on travel cost or on recurring buyers usually settles the question by itself.
- Population is the weakest signal on the list. A small city with three large employers hiring constantly beats a large one with none.
- Score the market you are already in first. Most owners have not, and discover the answer is better than they assumed.
Set up the comparison
List your own market and two or three candidates, then count the same six signals for each from public sources. That is an afternoon of counting, not a research project.
No cities are ranked here. A ranking would have to assume one service mix, one travel tolerance, one cost base and one existing network, and change any of those and the order moves. The scorecard travels because you fill it in with your own counts.
The scorecard
Score each signal from one to five for each market, and weight the first two most heavily. Keep one row per signal and one column per market, so the comparison reads across rather than down.
| Signal | Weight | Your market | Candidate market |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Recurring buyers | Heaviest | 1 to 5 | 1 to 5 |
| 2. A fixed calendar | Heaviest | 1 to 5 | 1 to 5 |
| 3. Employer concentration | Standard | 1 to 5 | 1 to 5 |
| 4. Supplier density and visible gaps | Standard | 1 to 5 | 1 to 5 |
| 5. Travel cost from your base | Standard | 1 to 5 | 1 to 5 |
| 6. Local cost of crew and premises | Standard | 1 to 5 | 1 to 5 |
Six signals and where to count
- Recurring buyerscareers pages, membership directories
- Fixed calendarvenue calendars, event listings
- Employer concentrationemployer listings, local media
- Supplier densitysearch results, service pages
- Travel costday trip or overnight
- Local crew and premises costpublished figures
Where each count comes from
- Recurring buyers. Organizations with an ongoing content need: employers hiring at volume, membership bodies, institutions with internal channels. Count them from careers pages, membership directories and institutional websites. This is the strongest single signal, because recurring work is what stabilizes a production company.
- A fixed calendar. Conference venues, event spaces, awards, graduations and seasonal occasions. Count them from venue calendars and event listings. Calendar work exists whether or not anyone has a marketing budget this quarter.
- Employer concentration. A handful of large employers produces recruitment, internal communications and training work continuously. Count them from public employer listings and local business media.
- Supplier density and visible gaps. How many production companies already serve those buyers, and what none of them appear to do. Count them from search results and from their own service pages.
- Travel cost from your base. Whether a shoot is a day trip or an overnight. This is a capacity question, not a mileage one: an overnight consumes a full working day you cannot sell.
- Local cost of crew and premises. Use published figures rather than assumptions.
For the sixth, the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics tables publish employment and wage estimates by occupation, state and metropolitan area. That is the right reference for what crew will cost in a candidate market before you add burden and non-productive time.
Reading the scores
Read the low scores rather than the total. A single low score on travel cost or on recurring buyers usually settles the question by itself, whatever the other four say.
Reading the low scores
Any signal scored one?
one on travel or recurring buyers settles it
compare weighted totals across markets
A market with strong signals one and two and a weak signal four is the best case: demand exists and nobody is serving it well. A market with a strong signal three and a weak signal one is a market of large one-off projects, which is exciting and unstable.
Score your own market first. It gives you a baseline, and it frequently reveals buyers within reach that you have never approached.
What the score leaves out
The scorecard leaves population out on purpose, because it is the weakest signal on the list. Large cities usually bring more buyers and considerably more suppliers, so the gap you are entering is narrower there.
What the model leaves out
Excluded factor
- Population
- Correlates poorly with video demand
- Average income
- Selling to organizations, not households
- Creative scene
- Tells you about competitors, not buyers
- Economic optimism
- Not countable, moves too fast
Why it fails
- Population
- Average income
- Creative scene
- Economic optimism
A score tells you whether demand exists. It does not tell you what it costs to reach it.
Every geographic market carries a rebuild: relationships, permit knowledge, crew you trust, rental and repair options, insurance territory terms, and local visibility. None of that transfers, and all of it takes months. The full list, and the staged approach that keeps the fixed cost down, is in expanding into another market.
Match the market to what you can deliver
A market strong in event and conference work rewards a company built for long days, redundancy and fast turnaround. A market strong in employer-driven recruitment and internal communications rewards a company built for repeatable interviews and reliable scheduling. Those are different businesses with different kit and different people.
Match market to your setup
Event and conference market
- Built for
- Long days, redundancy
- Turnaround
- Fast turnaround
- Kit
- Multi-camera, backup
- People
- Crew for long days
Employer content market
- Built for
- Repeatable interviews
- Turnaround
- Reliable scheduling
- Kit
- Consistent interview setup
- People
- Schedulers and regular crew
Schedules and environments in this occupation vary widely by production, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics description of broadcast, sound and video technicians records. Choosing a market whose dominant work does not suit your setup is a slow way to be busy and unprofitable.
Before scoring anywhere, be honest about which work your equipment supports consistently, and about whether you have the people to run it, which is hiring and training a crew.
Common questions
How much data do I need before deciding?
Enough to fill the six signals for two or three candidate markets and your own. That is an afternoon of public sources, not a research project.
Should I score a market I would never move to?
Yes, if you would travel there. Most expansion in this trade is a travel radius rather than a relocation, and a market three hours away can be scored the same way.
What if my own market scores badly?
Look at signal four before concluding anything. A weak market with poorly served buyers can be better than a strong one that is crowded, and the deeper and adjacent growth routes cost far less than moving.
How do I check what other companies are doing there?
By observation, and only for what is genuinely observable. A competitor's public presence shows its services and clients, and the way to study other production companies sets out what can and cannot be read from it.
