Tag: video production

The Cost of Running A Registered Company in Kenya

Before registering a limited company in Kenya, its important to know how much it will cost you to run the same company. It costs money to just own a company with no registered office. Having this knowledge in handy will prepare a new entrepreneur on what to expect.

Video: The cost of owning and running a business in Kenya

I will not delve into the cost of registering business because it variable and is done once. However, you can see a breakdown of business registration costs on the Business Registration Service portal.

In this blogpost, I will share with you the cost of running a a registered limited company in Kenya. The information I will be sharing is based on my experience running a company Trendline Network Limited for now 5 years. Trendline Network Limited is a videography company based in Nairobi.

In the year 2019 towards the end, I closed down our physical offices and started operation from home little before Covid lockdown came. In the year 2020, we did only one job. It was the lowest year in business and we made only losses.

Operation costs

So, how did I manage the costs as the only remaining director of the company?

First thing I did was deciding to handle business the freelance way. I paid whoever worked with me per task completed and not per month. This thus gave me a space to continue looking for business opportunities while maintaining the company. When you go this route, you will save money and still maintain good relationship with your team.

While business have not looked up yet, I have saved time and money.

Let’s dive in further and breakdown company operation costs. Here is a list.

Tax and Accounting Costs

Limited company is an independent entity with its own Tax PIN. You as the director is therefore responsible for any activity that takes place within your company. You have to ensure that everything is accounted for. If you succeed to get business with a large organization, the company will expect you to charge them VAT.

While KRA maintains that only registered traders with an annual turnover of KShs. 5 million and above are required to charge VAT. And that, there are instances where a person with less than KShs. 5 million is allowed to register on a voluntary basis, you will find your company forced to register for this obligation in order to get business with reputable organization.

VAT obligation is the price you have to pay. When you have VAT obligation under your PIN, you will be required to remit tax monthly before 20th even if you had zero transaction during the month. According to KRA, ‘failing to comply is an offence subject to a penalty of Ksh 10,000 for every tax period failure occurs. This is in addition to other penalties prescribed in law.

Good news is, you can do this yourself or you can hire someone to do it for you. If you hire, it will cost anything from Ksh.500-3000 a month. Annually, this translates to between Ksh.6000-36,000 annually.

Audit Cost

Annually, you company needs to be audited in order to remit income tax. This gives you an upper hand in getting business through the tendering process. One of the mandatory requirements when tendering is having audited accounts ready.

This is for the purposes of remitting annual income tax. Depending who you are dealing with and the amount of work required, the minimum cost I have paid an auditor was Ksh. 10,000. This was when the annual sales was less than Ksh. 50,000.

So when you combine this with Tax and accounting cost, it will cost a minimum of Ksh.16,000 annually.

Tendering Cost (For Those Who Get Business Through Tendering )

On average, when you download and print a tender online, it costs between Ksh.150-250 to print based on the number of pages. You will have to make copies and attach various documents, bind and submit. At the end, you will spend between Ksh.500-1000 to have the tender document ready for submission.

You will also have to gather for transport cost or employ courier services to deliver the tender document. This will cost Ksh. 200-500 within Nairobi area and more outside.

If you apply for 4 Tenders a month, you will spend a minimum of Ksh.2400. This is on occasions where you are doing everything yourself with no assistant.

Conclusion

Its important to note that there are other additional costs of running a business like renting a office space, paying for business permit, paying annual fees for membership to various professional entities like media council of Kenya, The society of professional consultants e.t.c.

I hope this post sheds a light on the basic cost of running and operating a registered company in Kenya without a physical location.

Feel free to share your feedback in the comments section below.

If you need help to produce screencast videos, you can request a quote here.

Until next time, take care.

Follow me on twitter @cheptiony.

June 23, 2021
Video -Comparison: Camtasia 2020 Versus Camtasia 2021

In this video tutorial, I compare Camtasia 2020 and Camtasia 2021 showing you the new features. Please share your feedback on what you think of my presentation below this video.

Camtasia 2020 Versus Camtasia 2021

0:40 Changes on Get Started screen

4:30 Camtasia Recorder New Look

5:08 New Cool Transitions (Over 80 New Transitions)

7:07 New Audio Effects

9:11 New Visual Effects

Download Camtasia Studio Free Here

Editing Tips

Learn How to edit videos with Camtasia Studio. Use This Video Editing Formula To Edit Your Videos Fast With Camtasia Studio

How to Add and modify motion graphics on Camtasia; 3 Ways To Customize Camtasia Studio Motion Graphics Templates in 2021

Follow me on twitter @cheptiony

Have a concern? E-mail me on connect@cheptiony.com

May 7, 2021
Why it is Difficult to Purchase Licenses For Adobe Products in Africa

Since Adobe launched Creative cloud subscription model few years ago, many ‘software crackers’ have been left with little options of exploiting and using the software for free. On the other hand, it has become very difficult for many faithful users to buy the product they want on a need basis.

Many freelance video editors and videographer startups I know in Kenya still use the old outdated Adobe CS6 and CS7 to edit and produce videos in 2020.

“I mean why should I pay for a new software when the one I have can do the same job?” They say.
Videography startups in Kenya

So, does this mean they have the license for the same even if ‘it’s oooldd… as we know?’ well I don’t think so. If the do, then they are using a ‘copy and paste’ license code which does not require any login. For it to work when installing, one has to disable internet.

I remember in the year 2016, I purchased full Adobe creative suite CS6 from a local tech guy for $10. Yes you heard me right, $10. He came and installed the software for me. To my shock, while he did the installation, I noticed he was using a ‘patching tool‘ to activate the products after disabling the internet connection.

When I questioned, he promised it will work. And true to his word, when we tested it did work. At the time, I had little knowledge on software copyright license.

Few days later on using the software, it was really slow and crashing regularly. Out of me being irritated by it, I reached out to the tech guy who installed the software for me. To my surprise, he said I needed to upgrade my memory from 2GB to at least 6GB. Moreover, buy at least 23 inch monitor or higher for video resolution display.

That was the end of my rant on him. I was not ready at time so I had to manage the software as it was or go hungry without food on my table👱‍♂️

Each time the software crashed, I crosschecked Adobe premiere specifications for CS6 which said it required at least 2GB of Ram which I had installed already.

As if this was not enough, the quality of video it rendered was somehow pixelated despite me exporting the videos in HD. I later learnt the huge variation in quality of a video rendered with a torrent premiere pro and a genuine premiere pro.

And that’s a short story of how most Software’s downloaded via torrent work.

Startups in the video production and design industry only install and use Adobe products on demand because of the cost implications in terms of long term sustainability.

In this blog post, I will focus on the top reasons why it is very expensive and difficult to purchase Adobe license in Kenya and most African countries and why Adobe is missing out on ‘individual‘ potential customers.

Why is it difficult to Purchase Adobe Products?

Message that you get when you select Kenya as your country when attempting to purchase Adobe

It comes down to billing address. Where is the billing address of your card? This depends on which country in Africa you live in. If the card billing address is in the US, and you have signed up as US resident you can make the purchase without any problem. But if it’s Kenya, then you can only get the software via resellers.
FYI: I know South Africa alone as the country you can directly purchase Adobe products.

So Who are the resellers? This are companies within a given country licensed to resell the product.
Now this is where startups gets completely turned off.

Resellers price is 2 times what’s on the Adobe site. E.g annual subscription on Adobe site for Adobe premiere pro is $239.49 inclusive tax. Resellers sell it for around $500. You only need few dollars to get annual subscription of Adobe creative suite of about 7 products!

Most of the resellers don’t offer monthly subscriptions owing to its sustainability.

So what do Kenyans and other Africans do when they find themselves in this dilemma?

It’s obvious. They either find an old version of the software or download the software torrents online. This is despite the security risks that comes with installing torrents and patched products.

My story

Before I was capable of purchasing Adobe Premiere pro, I used to install Torrent software’s which slowed and caused my computer to heat all the time. At the end, I was spending more dollars repairing my PC than doing the work. It was not making any economic sense at all.

I did this for close to 5 years because of inability to purchase the license due to my production rates. My case is similar to the one of many fellow design and creatives in Africa who can’t directly acquire any of the Adobe products directly from the website .. and when they go to the recommended resellers, they are slapped with a double price. Phew!

Kenyans are creative. But due to the cost of purchasing genuine Adobe products from resellers, they resort to using either cracked or unlicensed products to do their work coz the profit they get from selling the output is not enough to purchase Adobe products directly from recommended resellers.

My Recommendation to Adobe

See a way of enabling interested Kenyans to buy any Adobe products directly using their credit cards at the site listed price inclusive taxes.

And to my fellow Kenyans, I am a witness. After using a licensed Adobe Premiere for more than 2 years now, I have never regretted. It’s worth it. I have always discouraged people from installing torrent Software’s because at the end, it does not make any economic sense due to misfortunes it comes with.

And that’s it from me. If you need help to edit and produce professional videos, let me know here.

Until next time, take care.

Follow me on twitter @cheptiony

November 4, 2020
Why Sometimes Its Worth Cancelling A Well Paying Contract

I am writing this blog-post for people who love what they do and are getting well paid for it. When starting out to sell a skill that you love, it’s fun. You will take every chance that comes your way to perfect it. You will be less picky when offered an opportunity. The experience will be even sweeter when an opportunity is bundled with a good pay.

While you love what you are doing, you have values that matter to you. What believes do you hold dear to you?

With this said, will you take all the jobs you are offered if they are well paying and you are applying the skills you treasure most? They answer is absolutely yes. Now, this is where the catch lies. It will take you time to figure it out.

Of-course, any person who is morally upright, will never take a job that bridges on values irrespective of how sweet the offer is.i.e Producing Pornography videos.

Most of the jobs in this category are well paying because very few people will want to be associated with them. So, does this mean you are free to take any work so long as its not pornography? Well, the answer varies from one person to the other.

In this blog-post, I will highlight a couple of things that will make one give in to temptations to take a job that is promoting illegal and unscrupulous business.

Talk of good sales people selling snake oil. In this context, the content you are producing are used to sell snake oil- a product that does not exist.

Looking For Professional Screen-cast Video Services? .. I can Help. Request a Quote NOW!

You are only a Designer/Video Editor

The client will by all means, while requesting for your service avoid mentioning the kind of service that he/she is offering. He will clearly outline the skills he/she is looking for as well as share an example of the design or video they want emulated.

Videographer at work. Photo by Kyle Loftus on Pexels.com

In most occasions, there will be nothing in the picture that will say they are planning to use it to sell “Snake oil’ to the unsuspecting people.

Going by how they are organized and convincing, how well they are paying, you cannot help but do the job. While doing the job, you will be tempted to do research on the product online to see if it exist.

In most occasions, it may or may not be existing. On the other hand, evidence of the product working might not be there despite the script claiming that is being used by thousands of people.

And as a designer or editor, you are like, why does that matter to me anyway, after all, I was not assigned to research on it!

You Receive an Offer At Your Lowest Moments

Everyone have their low and high moments in life. During this time of Covid-19, Freelancers pray that some business luck comes their way because they depend on gigs and direct business offers to prosper. If none of these are forthcoming, they are doomed. In this time, offers that does not align with your values come your way.

Customers walking in the mall. Photo by Artem Beliaikin on Pexels.com

For instance, if you value privacy, and a client offers you a job to create a video or graphic for a product that promote hacking peoples private information for a good pay, will you take it?. Of-course you will. And then, you promise yourself not to do it again once you complete the job. In your heart, you are taking it because of the situation you are in.

You Are Just Facilitating

Most freelancers who have been in the business for a long period of time own agencies. When one owns an agency, they can accommodate lots of projects. In most occasions, when you own an agency, you are not directly involved in editing or producing a project, you just facilitate.

Work space in an Agency. Photo by Cadeau Maestro on Pexels.com

So, as long as the financial bit is good, and as long as it is not pornography, most agencies will take the job-unless your agency is involved in producing adult content. And as an agency manager, you will be assigning the work to your assistant editors.

It will take a while before the agency manager/Lead Freelancer realizes that he/she is accommodating a project that is going against his/her values.

Conclusion

While there are more things that will blind an agency manager from seeing that the project they have just accepted is going against their believes and values, it’s always very crucial to maintain your stand as a leader. Have the discipline of counter checking projects first before accepting.

This way, you will be growing knowing that you are taking in contracts that are adding value to the users and are aligned to your values.

That’s where joy lies. When you get paid knowing that you have added value or created promotional item for a valuable product are happy and look forward to more.

And that is it from me. Until next time, take care.

“Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value.”
Albert Einstein

Follow me on twitter @cheptiony.

Need help with video editing or hiring freelancers? Contact me here.

August 3, 2020
I was Almost Scammed On Reddit With a Freelance Job Offer!
As Covid-19 continue to claim lives and wreck havoc on businesses across the world, remote way of working has become the new modus operandi. Fraudulent business groups on social media are emerging everyday targeting new and existing freelancers who are desperate to make money online.

In this blogpost, I will share my personal way of identifying a typical fraudulent Freelancer recruitment funnel on social media. This will in give you a picture of how the scheme looks like and how it is very hard to suspect. They will lure you to doing work for free or once you are in, they pay as they wish with false promises of increasing the pay.

These rackets are all over Reddit. This does not mean Reddit is a bad social media network. It’s the bad motives by some of the users.

If you have never been to Reddit, all I can say based on my personal experience is, it’s a good social media network where people share valuable information for free. Note the word FREE. This is the catch that fraudsters are using to get free service from You -the user- without you suspecting anything.

For the short time have been on Reddit, I have enjoyed every bit of information that I found shared on Reddit groups.

It got even better when I noticed that people were posting work opportunities for Freelancers. Me being a full time Freelancer, I decided to respond to one of them by messaging the person who offered the opportunity.

Here is a snippet of the offer.

Please take note of what the client is offering here. I have highlighted them in yellow so that you can see their hook.

They offer $10-100 to edit 1 Minute Videos

It means they will pay each editor that gets into their funnel based on how the negotiate for a given assignment. If you are confident enough to negotiate, you will be paid better. Sadly, many new and even experienced freelancers are afraid to negotiate because they fear being denied the opportunity. So if the client fixes a budget on a given video, they will accept. This takes me to the second hook.

10-20 Videos Per Week

This is very enticing to anyone looking for sustainable income. Any Freelancer will do a quick math using the average pay which is around $55 per video. If you do 10 videos a week you make $550 and if you do 20 videos a week, you make $1100. This is good money. Moreover, it will be recurrent work. One has a potential of earning $2200-4400 a month working directly with the client. In fact if you are paid $100 per video, you will earn $4000-$8000 a month.

This is enough to blind any freelancer. I mean this is good money. One can do anything to get the job:-). This is where they begin their show now that they have your attention.

The Screening Process

Like any other interview, before you are considered, you are required to submit your portfolio. That’s what Freelancers do everyday right inside their cover letters when bidding for work.

As you can see, they will first review your porfolio and if you are fit, they will ask you to do a ‘test project‘ to confirm your capability. Now, this is where one knows if its going to end well or it is going to turn out as a fraudulent opportunity.

Trusted freelancing sites like Upwork have implemented a policy regarding to test project to protect freelancers from fraudulent clients who their sole purpose is to waste Freelancers time. The condition is; that clients have to pay Freelancers for any test projects.

Having found this policy helpful is protecting myself, I apply it everywhere.

Now, in the post, the client concluded that the test project will be paid-which is still in line with the policy.

Next Steps After Submitting My Portfolio

The client liked my portfolio and not elevated me to the next stage of their Freelance Recruitment funnel, a slack channel for Video editors working for them. The channel had more than 40 members.

All instructions on how to go about the test project was in there. After, going through the files, I was happy. The instructions was very clear. Seeing that I had all that I needed to proceed, I contacted the team lead to clarify 3 things;
1. How they pay editors – Is it via Paypal, or bank transfer e.t.c
2. If they have an Non Disclosure Agreement to sign before starting work
3. How much they pay for the test project which looked like everyone in the channel was supposed to work on.
The VA could not answer that. This was the first sign that was something was not right. In response, she referred me to their accountant who deals with paying freelancers.

She avoided the question on having and signing a contract before work. That’s was alarming. I mean, who works for a company without a contract in place especially when you consider the amount of money one will earn while doing the job?

This is very important. Loosing $4000 a month is not a joke. What if they pay at the end of the month and after you do the job, they remove you from the slack channel or stop responding to your concerns. Anything is possible.

Having a contract is a sign of commitment.

Contradicting Statements

In their video editing post, they said they were going to pay for the test project. But on persistently consulting the accounts clerk on Slack before working on the test project, I was surprised to learn from her that they DON’T PAY for test project.

This is enough. If they don’t pay for test, withdraw from the interview and forget it.

But how many Freelancers do this?

If all of the 40+ Freelancers in the channel had started doing the job without confirming if they were going to be paid for the test or not, what does it tell you about their level of seriousness towards freelancing? Its vague right.

Those are the same freelancers you will hear soon crying that they were not paid.

Conclusion

The only way we can stand out as full time freelancers online is upping our game based on our experiences for us to gain trust and respect from new clients looking to hire online.

What do you think of the jobs being offered in reddit?

Until next time, be vigilant and take care.

Follow me on twitter @cheptiony.
July 8, 2020
10 Things A Video Production Agency Will Do To Save Clients Time And Headache

Any client, be it a newbie or experienced at hiring, have one thing in common- they are always looking for ways to save time and money. That’s exactly what a Freelance Video Production Agency does for clients when they hire them. On top of it, save them headache!

I know you are thinking, but what type of headache? I will explain this in a moment.

Lets begin with the foundations of a video. What does one need to produce a professional video? Well it depends on the type and purpose of the video. Here are 10 things that a Video Production Agency will do to save you time and headache.

Writing Powerful Scripts And Sales Copies

This is what communicates the vision of a company or rather the vision one has for his business. It has to be written is a simple and convincing tone.

While engaging a professional copywriter is essential, you as the owner of the business is in a good position to provide direction by providing an outline of your vision for the copywriter to rewrite it in an engaging manner. This is where a Freelance Agency comes in.

Hand Picking Pro Voice Overs

In instances where a video requires a professional voice over narration, an agency will help you hand pick the right voice. For a new person who have never created a video before, choosing the right voice over is quite difficult. When you engage a Video production Agency, they will not only hand pick for a the right talent, they will also enlighten you and the varieties of voice-over talents out there. e.g American, African, Indian e.t.c.

Searching And Purchasing Royalty Free Music and Sound FX

Music and sound effects are necessary in most videos as they set the mood. Not all freelancers will tell you where they got the music used in your video and whether they have the rights to use it. As a result, you video maybe be taken down a few weeks or months later after you have publicly published it due to copyright claims.

Most Freelancer Video Production Agencies will inform you upfront about the music rights, as well as where they are sourcing out the music they propose to use in your video. In-fact, they will give you an option to make the purchase yourself so that you are sure.

Constructing Easy To Follow Storyboard

While it is necessary to have a storyboard before producing any video, most video producers are creative and would rather produce the video using the script only.

This is very common in occasions where client’s budget is very small. Storyboard saves one a lot of time and money. Most Video Production Agencies will advise you to include a small fee for storyboard creation because of the benefits that comes with it.

These are four common ingredients of a professional video.

So, is this what a Video Production Agency able to provide and safe one time and headache?

Yes. But there is more. Click here to hire us today.

Managing Video Reviews And Revisions

Any video produced has to undergo a review. The review process is very necessary because little mistakes are easily sported and quickly corrected. A Video Production Agency usually offer their clients unlimited revisions for a given period of time. This is good for the client as through this, satisfaction is guaranteed.

Advising on Payments And Approvals

Once you agree on how you are going to pay the Agency, you will rest assured that you project is being taken care of. Most Agencies love when they are paid for giving value to their customers. Freelance video production Agencies are flexible and understand the modalities of online payment.

Drafting NDA’s and Contracts

Setting up contracts and NDA’s for Agencies is easy and hassle free. Most agencies have an existing NDA’s document that can be edited to suit both of parties. This will act as protection for both the Freelancer and the client.

Providing Customer Service

It doesn’t matter who responds to your e-mails so long as it’s timely done. Freelance Video Production Agencies are customer oriented. They listen to the customer requirements and addresses them fast and on time.

Easily Managing Multiple Projects

This is what differentiates an Agency and individual service providers. They can handle multiple projects at once. If you assign an agency two different projects, they are able to handle them at a go without fail. This is because of their experience and team work. They are connected to experts in each category of video editing and production.

Negotiation For Discounts

If you are a company that requires video services on a regular basis, Video Production Agencies are the best option. As you engage them on more work, you can negotiate on rates after sometime. Agencies are flexible and are willing to give discounts based on trust.

On the other hand, they negotiate with service providers connected to them for a discount in return for long term engagement.

And these are ten things that a Video Production Agency can do to save their clients time and headache.

Imagine hiring one entity to take care of everything from scripting to production? Is that not awesome?

Have you ever engaged an Agency to handle your video projects? What was your experience like? Let me know in the comments below.

And if you need help to create and produce professional videos for either marketing your business or educating your customers through your website help center, let me know here.

Alternatively, you send me an e-mail to connect@cheptiony.com

Until next time, take care.

Follow me on twitter @cheptiony or wordpress @cheptiony

May 18, 2020
How to Deal With Offline Clients Who go For Months or Years Without Paying
It’s exciting when you hear how people start as freelancers then turn their experience into something beyond just freelancing- an online business enterprise. The beauty about the process is – you never know when it happens because you are having fun while at it.

Video Summary Part 1

That’s why if you are freelancer, you should be proud of yourself and what you are doing. It takes courage to commit freelancing as a full time job. In Africa, people will not take you serious if you tell them you are a full time freelancer and you are not attached to any company. Its really hard to explain to everyone what Freelancing is especially to the old school folks aka industrial age guys.

And this takes me to my point of the today’s blog-posts – dealing with offline clients. In many occasions, you will manage to convince the ‘old school’ folks to give you business by showing them the portfolio of the services that you are providing.

And when they buy your idea, you carry out the business offline.

Why You Decide to Handle Their Offers Offline

Owing to their unwillingness to take time to understand how the online freelance economy works, you offer to serve them offline since they are ready to give you business. Unlike the online platforms where someone funds the escrow before the contract- with the offline ecosystem, you work on a written signed and stamped L.P.O (local purchase order) from the company you are working for. This confirms that you have order with the company you are working with.

What Makes People Excited to Work on Offline Projects

There are many reasons to this. One of the the top reasons is because of the budget involved. Usually, offline projects pays 2-3 times the amount you could have received online from a Freelancing site. The risks are less when the project is completed offline and two parties know each other.

Another reason is – direct human contact. You know where the company offices are and you can go there personally in case there is a payment delay and vice versa.

The problem comes when people overlook the downside of this type of projects or contracts which is the risky part.

What People Overlook

First thing is, the time it takes for one to receive payment after completing the contract. This is not determined when you start the job-you just use estimates. Even if you complete the job to satisfaction, you will still need to give the company a grace period of 30 days to process your payment. The 30 days may extend to even 3 months or 1 year if its a government entity you are dealing with.

On the other hand, if you are dealing with an individual, then that will depend of many things. Individuals are the most difficult ones. They may take many months or years before they pay you. I have a client who has taken 6 years before coming to take their wedding DVD.

You can imagine, if 90% percent of the clients you serve don’t pay you on time, how will you survive? It’s really hard. You have bills to pay and new projects to finance.

Dealing with clients indebted to you

Video Review

If it’s a government agency

First things first, if it’s a government agency, the furthest you can go is writing notification letters to procurement departments to look into your payments as a priority. Make sure you have followed the right procurement procedures like writing a delivery note, and submitting the invoice for your payment to be processed. Sometimes, the approval process is long in some arms of government because of security measures.

If it’s a private company

If it’s a private company or an individual, propose to have a non-disclosure contract to be signed by both parties at the beginning of the contract.

This way, you can have clauses within the contract that defines how you will be paid. You can propose to be paid after certain milestones have been reached.

Most private companies are flexible when it comes to making payments as long as you have completed work to satisfaction. But an N.D.A is very important to have in handy for reference when requesting for payments.

Other Approaches to Get you Payment After a Long Duration time – more than 6 months
1. Don’t get angry. Anger will not get you anywhere unless it’s rightly directed. For example, you cannot start threatening a government Agency or a company because you are desperate for money. If you have to do it, have a plan so that sounds professional.
2. Give them a window period for them to settle your payment – First, do this on e-mail or physical signed letter then follow it up with a phone call to make them take action on your request. Be as professional in your conversation as you can.
3. For the cases where you did not deliver final project files – Use them as a hook to demand for payment. If say after 1 year, the client finds an urgency of using the project you completed and starts pressuring you to deliver- ask them to pay you first. That’s the only way you will get paid by this type of client.
4. Destroy the files or delete them from your system but first inform your client 30 days prior. This way, if you take action, they will be aware of it.
5. Put a penalty on projects not paid for and collected within your stipulated duration. For instance, you may say – if you don’t pick your project within the next 3 months, it will attract a penalty of 10% every month of the cost of the project.
This is an issue that requires a lot of creative approach. Otherwise, you will not be paid and you will fall into a lot of debt. Always stay positive and use positive language always.

And that’s it from me.

Until next time, bye bye and take care. And if you need help to create and produce professional screen-cast videos, let me know here.

Follow me on twitter @cheptiony
October 7, 2019
How to Record and Edit Mobile App Demo Video

One of the ways mostly recommended to market a mobile app in App store or Google playstore is through a demo video. Now, the way you create and present the video is up to you.

The common and most effective way to do this, is by developing a professional screencast demo video. So, what is an app demo video? It’s a video demonstrating how an app works in real time. This way, interested users can watch it before downloading the application.

This is the best avenue to impress your prospects.

In this blogpost, I will show you step by step how I do it.

Step 1 – Install the App You Want to Demo

Install the app that you will like to demo on your phone. Open and preview it to make sure that everything is working well. Write a step by step script to guide you when recording the video. This is very important as the script will safe you a lot of time.

Step 2 – Download Screen Recording App

Note: For apple users, you don’t need this as most iPhones come with an inbuilt screen recorder.

There are many applications available on google play-store that you can use to record the screencast on phone. I recommend the one I use called Screen Recorder -no ads offered by Kimcy929.

Download the app

Step 3- Open the App and Adjust Recording Settings

Recording settings will vary based on your requirements. I recommend recording your video in full HD at 25 fps and 6mbps bit-rate.

Adjust your app settings

The app allows you to record your own voice as well; so you can turn on the audio recording option. Your settings are saved automatically.

Step 4- Record Your App Demo

Note: As a rule of thumb, I recommend that you switch your phone to flight mode and use WiFi network if you need internet. This is unless you are using your mobile data for this task. This will help you focus and avoid interruptions from people calling you and messages coming in during the recording.

Start your recording

Tab on the recording button to start. Open the target app and start your demo. Hit the recorders stop button when done with your demo. Your recording will be saved on your phone. It’s important to review the video recording before transferring it to your computer.

Step 5 – Upload Your Video To The Editor And Start Editing It

You can edit the video with virtually any video creation program. In the past, I have edited it on Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe after effects and Camtasia Studio. But to date, the easiest editor to use is Camtasia studio. The newest version of the program has more tools that simplifies the editing process. So let me take you the process of editing your video on Camtasia studio.

Upload Your Recording(s) to Camtasia Studio

Once you have uploaded the video, drag it to the timeline.

Videos uploaded to Camtasia Studio

Change the canvas setting to 1920×1080 pixels.

Canvas setting

Next, crop out the Black sections and resize your video to fit the screen.

Crop the black sections on the video

Search for a Mobile Phone Image on Google

Mobile phone image from Google search

This is the phone that you will blend with the video to make it look like it’s a real phone in action. Download transparent .png image format for use here.

Focus Your Attention to Details

This is very important. A little miss when scaling the recording to fit into the phone screen is very noticeable when rendered. So, look Keenly into details and ensure that you achieve it perfectly.

Details noticeable when fitting it into the phone

Once done, you can start editing your video and removing all the choppy sections. You can add a voice over, zoom in and out and add any other necessary effects to make it nice and attractive to watch.

Learn How to Edit Video on YouTube

If you are new to editing, you can search and find several videos on Youtube teaching people how to edit with the program of your choice.

And that is it.

Now that you know the process of creating a demo video for your mobile app, you can start practicing it until you are perfect in it.

But if you are a busy professional and you have less or no time to create a professional mobile app demo videos, let me know here.

Until next time, bye bye and take care.

You can follow me on twitter @cheptiony

July 25, 2019
How Clients Are Changing The Way They Search and Hire For ‘Videography Services’

Internet has completely changed the way people do business worldwide. People can buy and sell services to anyone across the globe.

This transformation has affected all businesses; and videography/video production has not been left out. There is a huge shift.

As per BBC Research, the digital photography market is growing at 3.8% and its value was estimated to cross $100 billion in 2018.

Early adopters are the ones ripping profits out this change while late adopters are struggling to fit in.

These changes in many ways has negatively impacted the economy. Many traditional type of businesses are closing down on a daily basis because of one reason; customers no longer walk in to their offices and shops to buy their services.

In this blog post, I share with you the strategies Videography clients are now employing when looking for video services and where you need to go in order to meet them.

Searching Online

The way people used to look for a videographer 5 years ago is not the way they do now. They prefer the easy way..which is searching online. It means that if your presence online is not that serious, your prospect will not take you serious.

Your presence online is determined by the way you Brand yourself. First, you need a website, with your own domain e.g www.techtubestudio.com. It must be well designed with your own company’s images in it.

This is how you make your first impression online before you meet with the actual prospect. But this is not all. It’s just the tip of the ice.

Checking Your Ratings on Google My Business

With Google leading as a search engine-and Google my business being their product, it follows that having your Videography business listed on Google My Business is the good idea. This is where people rates and reviews your business.

As a result, you get a chance to appear on the first page of Google. You will most probably receive an inquiry call if you have a website and your business is listed on Google my business. But that’s not all. Internet is evolving every day. With more and more people joining, the competition is becoming more fierce.

So, how do you keep your business sustainable if you get one or two enquirers a week with no one ready to commit yet? You can only survive if you have an advertising budget.

But if you are depending on organic Traffic, you have to work more harder to get clients. As I write this post, there is a big shift now taking place and most videographers are not ready for it.

Videography Clients are Hiring Freelancers and Agencies

Well, believe it or not, companies are moving from dealing with companies to dealing with agencies and Freelancers. Freelancing is taking over. With this said, videography and video production jobs are now done by freelancers remotely. Freelancing sites like Upwork have simplified the process of hiring freelancers with specialty in a given skill.

By simply posting a job, one can get many Freelancers applying for it. And in 3 days, they will be ready to hire one. One advantage of this is that, the client is able to offer bit sized assignments to gauge Freelancers skills before committing them to do a bigger project.

Expanding International Businesses Can Hire ‘Freelance Videographers‘ in any Country Worldwide

This is one of the biggest reasons international companies are using Upwork and other Freelancing sites to hire. Let me give you a scenario. Let’s say Uber-which is based in Amsterdam- wants to do a TV commercial targeted at people living in Nairobi Kenya. They don’t have an office yet in Nairobi. So because of trust and security that Upwork offers, they post a job saying that they are looking for a videographer in Nairobi to film a story according to their storyboard. They receive 10 applications. And they settle on 2 since they have two scripts and they want to do 2 commercial videos for split testing purposes.

The funds are held on escrow until they job is completed. Uber pays the freelancer once they are happy with the delivery. Because of the time saved, the Freelancer is paid well and gets a 5 star review.

Bonus Point-Value Addition

Videography and photography business is changing it’s face. It’s now more of ‘value addition’ rather than actual shooting of videos and photos per se. Camera’s that come with smartphones are doing a better job. So as a videographer, what value can you add to videos already recorded to grow your revenue? That’s the question you should be asking yourself.

On the other hand, what value can you add to existing photos to make them good and get people paying you for them? That is where the money is now.

Did you learn something from this article? I know you did. Leave your comment below and sign up for new post updates.

Until next time bye bye and take care.

If you need help to create professional Screen-cast videos, let me know here.

Follow me on twitter @cheptiony

May 9, 2019
5 New Ways to Make More Money Online As a Video Producer

Producers who have been in the industry long enough, will agree with what I am about to share with you today in this blog post.

Video production has evolved over time. When I started as a producer back in the year 2010, I only knew videography and video editing.

In this blog post, I share with you how to make more money by breaking down video editing and production components and offering each one of them as an independent service.

If you are creative enough to produce a captivating video, then, you are also creative enough to write the same script. You just need to believe you can do it.

Clients will love you more if you can go an extra mile and provide a professional voice over. Find ways that you can get the voice cheaply from freelancers and have your client pay more it.

I recently learnt this. More and more clients are in need of Subtitling service. It can be for a movie or video intended to be viewed in a different language. YouTube has integrated Google translate on their video player so that you can watch a video in any language.

You can charge between $10-100 per video depending on your clients budget and video duration.

Every video producer know how to use graphic design software’s like Adobe Photoshop or Adobe illustrator. You can propose to design a nice custom thumbnail for your client and charge them $5-50 per thumbnail. The rates you charge is up to you. If you haven\’t done this before, here is the best way to get started.

There are many other things you can do to make more money as a online video producer in 2019.

If you need help to create and produce professional screen-cast video tutorials, let me know here.

You can follow me on Twitter @cheptionymutai

March 20, 2019