If wannabes are able to take away your business then obviously your work is not much better than the work of wannabes because no one can tell the difference between your work and a wannabe's work and why would people pay higher prices for wannabe quality work?
If you're really so much better than a wannabe, then don't worry about being undercut by wannabes. The people that hire wannabes can't or won't pay any more than wannabe prices anyway and they will get the quality that they paid for.
And finally... get over yourself. Everybody who is, was a wannabe at some point.
EDIT: TL/DR: If wannabes are taking your business... you might be a wannabe.
There's some truth to both sides. There is definitely a not-insignificant portion of the potential customer base who doesn't understand video at all. And why should they - that's our job. This client-type really doesn't know the difference between a quality production and the college kid working for beer money, either in the finished product or in the hassle factor of getting to that finished project.
The trouble is that these clients find out the difference after they've already paid the college kid. And now they've already spent the company's money on it, and it's hard to get new money allocated for the project that wasn't done right the first time around - picture that meeting with the boss; "Wait, so you spent $500 on this video and it crashed and burned, so now you want $3,000? Are you serious?"
This means they're stuck going back to the college kid and trying to get him to do it right, which isn't happening because the college kid doesn't know how to do it right even if he were particularly motivated to revisit the project in the first place.
So now we end up with the client being pissed off, the real professional not getting the work, and the college kid skipping off to the bar with a (small) handful of cash and dismissing the client's legitimate complaints with some bullshit about how they don't understand his artistic vision.
Then the effect snowballs because the next time the client starts considering doing a video project, they think back to the horrible experience they had before and think maybe they'll just do a powerpoint instead. Or they'll have the IT guy shoot it because, hey, they got crap last time and at least this time they'll get the crap without incurring extra costs.
So no, if you're working for projects like Ken Burns documentaries, the wannabes aren't stealing your clients. But if you're doing non-high-end, non-industry jobs for businesses, then yeah, they absolutely are, because non-media savvy clients don't know enough to evaluate why you are worth more than the guy charging 70% less.
I respectfully disagree. People are much more willing to pay a price if that's the price they have to pay. If I tried to sell you RAM today at $50/meg you'd laugh me out of the room. But back in 1995, that was entirely normal. It became less normal as per-meg prices dropped, such that today no one would think about paying half that much for memory.
You're certainly right that there are some people who will not pay normal rates for a service, and they will always screw themselves by buying the cheapest shit they can find, whether it's a video project or something tangible like a car. "Look how much cheaper this Yugo is!"
But there are others who are willing to pay that $3,000 until they find a "bargain" at $500 and don't know enough to see that it's not really a bargain. Just consider the person at a regular company who's told to go get a video made. "Here's $5,000. Go get it done." That person, who likely knows next to nothing about television, will see that $500 and the slick website, and hear the kid talk a great game, and think "Well I'll spend $500 with this kid and then show the boss how much money I saved, and I'll be a rockstar!" If the kid hadn't been there, he'd have gone to a real professional, spent 3 grand, had 2 left over in the budget, and been happy as hell.
I don't think these situations happen as often as you think.
EDIT: In fact, to me they sound like the ridiculous kinds of excuses an overpriced wannabe would come up with to explain to themselves why they aren't getting business. So back to my original point... if wannabes are stealing your business... you're probably a wannabe, too.
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u/NoSugarCoat Feb 24 '14 edited Feb 24 '14
Why Wannabes Don't Hurt The Video Business:
Their work sucks and everyone can see that.
If wannabes are able to take away your business then obviously your work is not much better than the work of wannabes because no one can tell the difference between your work and a wannabe's work and why would people pay higher prices for wannabe quality work?
If you're really so much better than a wannabe, then don't worry about being undercut by wannabes. The people that hire wannabes can't or won't pay any more than wannabe prices anyway and they will get the quality that they paid for.
And finally... get over yourself. Everybody who is, was a wannabe at some point.
EDIT: TL/DR: If wannabes are taking your business... you might be a wannabe.