Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in photography but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Luke Flisher, Owner of BFI Media Ltd, located in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, UK.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
My business is BFI Media Ltd, and we support the education sector with promotional photography & videography. This includes Primary & Secondary Schools, Education specialists such as school marketers, marketing agencies, and web design agencies, as well as businesses who sell to the education sector.
Tell us about yourself
I started working in this industry back in 2018 with a web agency that specialises in school websites. After 18 months, I realised that I wanted to be able to provide an all-around service to schools in a way that I knew would 100% benefit them. I knew that schools had tight budgets, and I wanted to offer a much more affordable service to them while still giving them the quality they deserved. I started BFI media in Dec 2019 after getting it set up and promoting myself then COVID hit. This stopped everything overnight as schools weren't open, and when they did, there were many restrictions. Over the summer, lots of guidance was put out, and some of that said that schools could still do marketing, meaning that I could actually go into schools to capture photos and video. Lots of schools quickly got organised to have video tours of their schools as parents couldn't come in to visit, so this was a great alternative to doing in-person viewings. As bad as COVID was, it helped launch what we did as it highlighted the importance of showing prospective parents the schools.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
My biggest achievement to date is actually several. I hit my 3rd-year goal in under two years. We landed our biggest client of 32 schools. And the one I'm most proud of, I have managed to help grow my business enough to incorporate 7 of my amazing friends to work with us on a freelance basis to help offer photo and video across the UK.
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
The hardest part is trying to wear many hats at once. I realised that I couldn't do it all to finally let some things go. I have my amazing wife to thank for taking over the marketing for us. I have a great support team that picks up things to do with finance and post-production and a great network of freelancers across the country who go out to schools to capture photo and video. Once I surrounded myself with people to help share my workload, it allowed me to concentrate on doing what I do best.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Invest in software to help streamline your business. We use Xero for accounting, Receipt bank to keep our expenses in one place, Trip catcher for our Mileage, Google drive for sharing work, Pixieset for sharing galleries, and Studio ninja for our CRM. All of these items have hugely cut down our admin time as they are specific to our needs.
- Don't try to do everything yourself. Look at what are your weakest areas and find support for those areas. There is a ton of people out there specialising in the area you're not that great with. Why invest 100 % in trying to do the thing you hate doing when you could channel that into what you do best to offer an even better product?
- Plan your time. I was once told there is In the business and on the business time and to make sure that you separate these. In the business is all your normal working bits like admin and doing or making the product. On the business is planning for the future. This has really helped me to understand what I needed to get in place to help me achieve something for, say, one year's time.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://bfi-media.co.uk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bfimedia
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MediaBfi
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bfi-media/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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