What's your story?

Run your own business? Want to start one? Discuss business applications of ProShow Gold and Producer here.
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What's your story?

Postby bellzerr » Sat Jan 09, 2010 12:39 pm

How did you happen to become involved with ProShow? How long have you been using it? What brought you to the forum?

For those of you with ProShow related businesses, how is your business related to ProShow and what prompted you to take the business plunge? Is yours a hobby business or livelihood? How old is your business and how is business in today's economy? What plans do you have for 2010 and the future?

Aspiring business people... what's your ProShow related business idea and what do you see happening for you in 2010 and years beyond?

Our lives are a story. ProShow and the forum are part of yours. Tell us about it.

Mark

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Re: What's your story?

Postby FL Views » Sun Jan 10, 2010 12:51 pm

I haven't taken the plunge yet; I retire in exactly 80 days. I am considering doing some shows as a side-line. My wife is into jewelry and will be working some of the craft shows, etc. I am preparing a demo show of her work for her and may try to branch out to do similar shows for others....

Michael

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Re: What's your story?

Postby Patricia_C » Sun Jan 10, 2010 4:22 pm

Hi Mark,

Last Christmas, I was in charge of putting together a "year in review" for my families Christmas celebration. I had never done a slideshow before nor knew anything about software available. Basically I had three weeks to throw something together. I searched the web for some info on software and came across Memories on TV, purchased it and put a show together very quickly. I didn't edit any of them, had the motions and the transitions random. Cut off many peoples heads and zoomed to non important parts of the picture. But I've always been a story teller, and the show did exactly that...told a story without words and the reactions of my family (as bad as that show was) was over the top. Tears and laughter and memories brought back. It was the best thing. My brother suggested that I could make a business out of doing this for others. And I had enjoyed the process so much I began to think maybe he was right.

So a bit later, I searched for a better program and came across Proshow. And purchased it in Feb of last year. I announced to my friends and family that I was going to do show as a business. The first show I did was a way to learn the program. I did a baby to graduation show for a co-worker's daughter. I gave her a hugely discounted rate in order to practice. It worked out great.

For now, it is a hobby business. But my goal is for this to be my livelihood in the future. But I think it will take something bigger than just doing shows to make that happen. I have decided that I want to concentrate on doing personal family documentaries that will include videotaping interviews and incorporating "speaking" segments into the shows as well. Which means purchasing a video camera suitable for that and then learning another trade of video editing. And hopefully when I have that accomplished, people's wallets will have loosen up abit and see the value of spending money on creating this family heirloom. So for now, I am researching this type of business and still doing regular slideshows.

Regards,
I
Patty Cantu
Digital Heirloom Studios
http://digitalheirloomstudios.com/

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Re: What's your story?

Postby bellzerr » Mon Jan 11, 2010 5:53 am

Patty,
That's a great story and I love the live interview idea. Your description of the response of viewers is so true. It factored into my decision to develop a business as well. I'll submit my story in a day or two - kind of tied up right now.
Thanks for replying. It's always fun and informative to learn how people get started in a business enterprise.
Mark

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Re: What's your story?

Postby scorpion » Mon Jan 11, 2010 12:42 pm

Here's my story.....I'll make it short so I don't put you to sleep. I've spent my whole work life ( I won't say how long that is :wink: ) working my butt off for someone else. I've always wanted to own and operate my own business. Last year I hurt my back at work and was off for a month while I mended. Unfortunately this pissed my boss off and he fired me once I returned.....which was fine, he wasn't the nicest person in the world anyways. Now what?.....find another job and work for another jerk or do what I always wanted to do.....start up my own business and be my own boss. But what to do? I spent months and months trying to think of what I could do and be happy at. I'm not quite sure how I came up with the idea of doing slideshows but it seemed to be the perfect fit for me. After much research on the internet I discovered a wonderful slideshow program called ProShow. Then shortly afterwards I discovered the ProShow Enthusiasts site with members that had a lot of passion and knowledge for everything slideshow related.

Where am I today?.....I've haven't started up the business quite yet. I'm still in the learning phase but I'm getting close. Doing slideshows will only be a very small part of my business once it's up and running. I know I'm not going to become rich but at least I am happy with what I am doing.

So that's my story.....
Steve

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Re: What's your story?

Postby bellzerr » Mon Jan 11, 2010 12:56 pm

Michael,
That sound a bit different... a kind of product showcase for custom crafts. I like it. :D Be sure to post that first demo show for us and good luck with this.

Steve,
That's the American entrepreneur's dream story, isn't it? Oh yeah... ok, Canada is close enough. :wink: Sounds perfect for your situation. Are you planning a web site or just the tried and true door-to-door and word-of-mouth? Let us know how it goes as you progress.
Mark

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Re: What's your story?

Postby HunnyB » Mon Jan 11, 2010 1:50 pm

One day in 2003 my cousin had a slideshow done for his 50th birthday.
When we left his house my husband said, "you know, you could do that." And the rest is history. :D
I began searching the web for programs, downloaded a few to try, and bought a few, before I discovered Proshow.
I just came across it during one of my searches. Bought Gold and was hooked.
Then eventually upgraded to Producer.
I don't even remember how I found our little group here. But man, I am certainly glad I did.

I only do shows for my family and my church. Very seldom I will agree to do a wedding show.
I am a retired graphic designer and I have no interest in WORKING anymore. This is strickly for my pleasure.
Ain't life grand. :D
HunnyB
PSP4, Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Canon EF70-300mm lens, Dell Studio XPS 9100 desktop w/ blu-ray burner & Windows 7; hpMedia center pc370n desktop; Gateway Laptop; Epson 4990 scanner; hpC5280 Printer; Adobe CS5; QuarkXpress 8

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Re: What's your story?

Postby BarbaraC » Mon Jan 11, 2010 2:24 pm

I've been using slide show software for about 10 years but was never quite happy until spotting Producer. I bought Gold because I couldn't afford Producer, and then I worked my tail off to win the then monthly Photodex contest, a feat I finally managed, and then Producer was mine.

Background: I'm an art school graduate and have done everything from advertising design to silversmithing with a writing career in between, but when computer graphics grew up, I turned into the happiest little clam possible. Producer + Photoshop = Heaven.

I've no idea what made me do it--maybe it was because I was always designing my own frames--but last January I started working on products, and by April I was open for business. I'm obsessed with it, working from around 6 in the morning until 8 at night with time out only for laundry and sleeping plus a little chatting here on the forum.

There aren't any riches in this kind of business, not in the monetary sense anyway, but it's certainly rich in pleasure.

Barbara
The Frame Locker - styles, transitions, frames, backgrounds, & more.
Subscribe to Frame Locker News for alerts to new products.
How-to's: ProShowThink

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Re: What's your story?

Postby bellzerr » Mon Jan 11, 2010 3:19 pm

Hunny - Very cool that your your spouse is so encouraging and wonderful also that you could take that encouragement to heart and production. Church and family sounds great too. I won't be retiring for another 5 years or so, but I'm thinking that ProShow offers promise of rewarding activity and possible supplemental income into my retirement years. On the church front, just people-type shows? Have you experimented with ProShow to make Christian "music videos" or to dramatize scripture for use in small group studies or retreats? I've been wondering about the potential there.

Barbara -
BarbaraC wrote:Producer + Photoshop = Heaven.

I love this. :D You sound like a happy little clam as do all your posts. It's always a pleasure to find your smiling replies to the latest posts. January to April for a startup period? Wow. Nice work. I've been putting sample shows and a web site together for months. Of course, I have a day job as well, but I'll get there. Help from you and others in the forum are shortening my startup time for sure.

Thanks to you both for your comments. This is fun!
Mark

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Re: What's your story?

Postby AMD » Mon Jan 11, 2010 3:41 pm

Hi Everyone,

My story . . . I retired from teaching at a large suburban high school on June 30, 2008. My last five years of teaching involved teaching multiple classes of interactive multimedia design. My students and I loved working with Photoshop and Flash, especially. In order to become more proficient at Flash I began making some shows for my godchild and her family, brother, and friends for birthdays, Christmas, retirement, and memorials--or just no occasion. Some of my shows, in fact, were even PowerPoint shows. I then started using a little slide show program that, like Producer, linked to images but did not allow for layers or multiple images on slides. It did allow me, however, to make my own cute short Flash animations to play as a little interface throughout the show.

After I discovered Producer with its capability for multiple layers and video, I was thrilled. The keyframes reminded me of Flash and its capabilities, and I loved the layering. I am told that I make far too many shows for family and friends for free but do have a small business that I am trying to develop making shows for "hire." My problem is that I have never really developed a business plan and am reluctant to pay out the big bucks to promote myself ($1,100 for a booth at a local bridal fare this month, for example . . . too rich for me!!) I will never make any money creating shows since I continue to invest in resources--royalty-free images, video backgrounds, music, etc., etc., etc. I do really enjoy the creativity outlet of making shows and enjoy the forum immensely.

Ann

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Re: What's your story?

Postby bellzerr » Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:14 pm

Ann -
The creative outlet ProShow offers is huge for me too. And I also enjoy "gearing up" to launch a business, collecting resources, etc. Great fun. Hopefully, it will actually happen this year. Since I still have a full time job, I won't need many orders for shows to fill my available spare time. But it will give me time to explore the various markets suitable for ProShow productions and which are best suited to my skills and interests.
Thanks for taking the time to reply.
Mark

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Re: What's your story?

Postby bellzerr » Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:58 pm

I don't remember exactly when I first purchased ProShow, but my first production was a show of a vacation in Tuscany, Italy with my wife and nine very good friends. In July of 2005 we rented a farmhouse villa outside of San Gimignano in the heart of the Tuscany region. It was a dream vacation with perfect weather, great friends, beautiful architecture, breathless scenery, fabulous food and wine and memories to last a lifetime. Two of us had 35mm cameras and everyone else had cameras of various capabilities - we all took countless photos. It took us a year to plan the trip and a year afterward to periodically gather together and sort through our hundreds of photos to select those we wanted in our DVD show. Digitals were still quite expensive so we scanned countless photo prints to prep for the show. It was all great fun. Music was selected by three of the wives and the whole ball of wax was handed over to me to produce a show.

Months passed, I learned ProShow Gold as I progressed and finally a 12-chapter, 20 minute DVD show was complete. It made me want to go back and relive the vacation whenever I watched it so I knew our friends would love it - and they did. Sighs, wistful smiles and laughter throughout the 11 person private showing convinced me that ProShow had the power to elicit true emotion from the viewers as they are drawn back into a life experience. I was hooked for sure.

I produced a second show for one of the Italy couples to commemorate their parents' 65 wedding anniversary consisting of 6-chapters and running 20 minutes. More sighs, more laughter and a new response: tears. There is power in this software.

Time constraints and other demands on my time have made it difficult to produce many shows until I decided recently to follow the advice of friends and family to develop a business. Looking to retire in 5 or 6 years, the time seems right to explore the earnings potential of show productions. The response of my more discriminating "forum family" to my business promo show for the French Riviera wedding photographer (plug for Blaise Fiedler) convinced me to move forward with my business endeavor. I'm in the throws now of designing a web site (no small task even for a 30-year IT professional) and producing one or two more sample shows. This forum has been a great resource for the many business questions I've raised in preparation for launching that web site - likely a month or two away yet.

Thanks to everyone for sharing your shows, for all the encouragement and for taking time to share your expertise in so many different aspects of show production and business ventures. And thanks to Mike who is a model to the Internet world of what an enthusiasts' forum should be.

Mark

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Re: What's your story?

Postby charlie4031 » Mon Jan 11, 2010 8:26 pm

That's a great story Mark. I saw your French Riviera show and it was truly an amazing work.

More sighs, more laughter and a new response: tears.


:D That was a great description. I saw that in a wedding show my wife made for her friend who got married last weekend. Everyone was laughing during the show and the couple was just amazed. Even the other friends of my wife told us we could do that as a business.

Anyway since this is a very wonderful and interesting post (thanks to you Mark) here's my share of the story. Hope I won't make it too long.

I discovered Proshow way back in 2005 when a photographer buddy of mine introduced me to it. I wasn't into slideshow making then as I was just learning about photography, but my wife ( who was just my friend back then, not even my girlfriend :D ) was constantly the default slideshow maker in our church community. So I introduced her to the program and she was the one who started using it.

Fast forward March 2009, my wife (who was now my girlfriend) resigned from work and decided to start on a business (wasn't clear at that time yet, but it had something to do with videos since that's where she is good at). She started taking online freelancing jobs making videos edits and one day a pro photographer contacted her and asked if we could set-up an outsourcing team here in the Philippines to handle the post processing of his wedding shoots.

It was an answered prayer for us. And guess what program he required for us to use for the slideshow: "Proshow". We were both excited and I myself started to learn the program and discovered how great it really is. We decided after we got married last October that this was the business we want to pursue as I myself have resigned from work too and now studying full-time again for my PhD.

I'm still a student of this program but I tried to set-up a blog site to document my learning about this http://proshowtips.wordpress.com. Nothing much there yet but our prayer is to have this outsourcing business as a "the" business for us and our new family where Proshow is a part of what we do.

Still much to learn but I'm thrilled to discover this community where the great Proshow enthusiasts gather.

Thanks really to Mike for this great community.
IzzySlides.com - Simplifying SlideShow Creation
New and Updated with new tutorials and tips.

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Re: What's your story?

Postby kabeeo » Tue Jan 12, 2010 5:41 am

I still work full time. I'm an attorney in NY. My son has been playing for years on a baseball team and the kids and the parents have become very close.

About four years ago I used AMEX points to get a Canon Rebel and re-discovered my love for photography that I had when I was in college with an old film DSLR. I was blown away by the ability of the camera and with what could be done in Adobe to make the pictures even better. Although I bought the camera for a vacation I started taking (a lot) of pictures of my son's team that year and at the end of the year the coach had a party and I volunteered to put together some type of show from the pictures that I and the other parents had taken. Photoshop Elements had come with Premiere Elements and I taught myself to use that program which I thought at the time was amazing and the show was a big hit. So now I am "volunteered" to do it every year.

In July 2008 I turned 50 and was given a Dell Laptop by my family that I could use just for my pictures and shows. It was great BUT Premiere Elements did not work with the laptop! I was devastated and had three weeks left to do the year end show. I went crazy on the Adobe forums looking for a solution but there was none (there is now). When I explained my time constraints somebody on the forum suggested trying a trial version of Gold which I did out of sheer frustration and panic. I was hooked from the first instant and could not believe how much more flexible and creative Gold was over Premiere. Once I found this forum I was good for life.

I now get requests from my kids and family to do school year shows and vacation show and all kinds of things that I do gladly because I really enjoy doing the shows and love watching everybody else enjoy the finished projects.

I do not post shows for a few reasons. They tend to be long (like this post!). Because I have captive audiences my shows are generally 20-25 minutes and I know that this is too long for most third parties to watch. Second the baseball shows and the class shows obviously have mostly pictures of children that I hesitate to post on the internet without consent and lastly I just dont think that I am that good at it when I see the shows that everybody else posts!

Thank you to everybody here for all of their help and enthusiasm.
--Kevin
Proshow Producer
Canon 50D
Elements 10

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Re: What's your story?

Postby bellzerr » Tue Jan 12, 2010 6:38 am

Charlie -
You used the word "prayer" twice in the post of your story. I am not offended. It's a great story. Amazing that a photographer approached you, but the fact that he insisted on ProShow goes beyond happy coincidence, doesn't it? You've got a great sub-plot to this story going to. Friend to girlfriend to wife (and did you now say "new family???") all with ProShow in the middle - very cool. :D :D
Best wishes to you both and be sure to share some shows and keep us informed of your progress.

Kabeoo -
Another great story and very interesting how forum members discover niches that interest them most - usually having to do with their personal lives and interests, of course. I hope you will find a way to share some of your shows. Though many member may not sit through a 20 minute show created for the captive audience you mention, we are always interested at taking a peek at how other members approach a given topic or show genre.
kabeeo wrote:I went crazy on the Adobe forums looking for a solution but there was none (there is now). When I explained my time constraints somebody on the forum suggested trying a trial version of Gold which I did out of sheer frustration and panic. I was hooked from the first instant and could not believe how much more flexible and creative Gold was over Premiere.

This is a great testimonial for Photodex. I'm sure they'd enjoy your story as well.
Mark

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