We were lucky to catch up with Princess Miller recently and have shared our conversation below.
Princess, appreciate you joining us today. One deeply underappreciated facet of entrepreneurship is the kind of crazy stuff we have to deal with as business owners. Sometimes it’s crazy positive sometimes it’s crazy negative, but crazy experiences unite entrepreneurs regardless of industry. Can you share a crazy story with our readers?
Don’t fall for deceptions….
I remember when I went full time with my business. I had a handful of clients and I was working to establish my brand as a full service creative agency. And so I started forging relationships with other agencies to partner on projects providing services they didn’t offer. One day I got a call from an agency owner to come to her office for a meeting. I didn’t know why we were meeting and needless to say I was very nervous sitting in her big office with the view of the city. Her business model was one that I was working to achieve. Under her roof she had every discipline in the creative industry. She asked me what clients I was currently working with of course I didn’t share that information. I was already informed by 2 of my clients that she had previously approached them so those are the clients I told her about. She then replied, “everywhere I go I keep hearing your name so if I know who you are working with I won’t approach these businesses.” Although her explanation sounded innocent enough I didn’t feel it was the best thing to do. When I didn’t bite, she proceeded to ask me what services I offered, which was almost every service she offered. So I asked her, “well what do you offer?” She reluctantly answered. She then said, “maybe we can partner on some projects in the future. I can give you some work and you can refer some work to me…. maybe there is a service I offer that you don’t currently have. You can refer that client to me and I will do the same for you.” I told her I will be glad to partner with her in the future. As she was walking me out, she said maybe I can hire you to work on my brand and market my brand. I am so busy helping everyone else I don’t have the time to focus on my brand. I smiled and said sure I will love the opportunity. Of course I never heard from her yet I had 2 more agencies reach out to me and ask me to join their agency. The first time I thought this was strange but the second and third time I thought to myself I must be on to something big. These bigger agencies with their fancy offices and their full time staff (there’s nothing wrong with having a nice office or a full time staff) must see something great in me that they would try to eliminate the competition in my beginning stage. So my advice to someone getting started working toward your future… don’t fall for deceptions, keep working and perfecting not just your craft but your customer service skills. Treat your clients so well that they defend your brand against the competition. Entrepreneurship is a calling, it’s not something you wake up and decide I think I‘ll start a business today. The passion to grow the business and to see it succeed can keep you up at night. This calling drives you and sometimes people and loved ones may not understand it. But if you stick with it and keep the business moving forward you will eventually succeed. Who knows… if I would have taken the bait of one of those agencies I wouldn’t have made the impact I have in my city and I may have been stuck feeling depressed because I was helping to build someone else’s business and their dream and not my own.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Princess Creative Productions LLC is a creative agency in Mobile, AL. We offer video production, photography, graphic design services, websites, marketing and more. Everyday we solve problems for clients and provide solutions to help them achieve their revenue goals. The problems I have answered range from: how to market my business, how to get my business in front of my target audience, who is my target audience, how to get more traffic to my website, how to market my event, how to use social media platforms to market my business, how to get my ad on TV, radio, or create a digital campaign. how to edit my website, what can I do to make more money or increase my foot traffic, and can you make my website look more professional. I think what sets me apart is my level of customer service. I spoil my clients. I provide a professional yet relaxing atmosphere conducive for creativity. My clients know I provide honesty and I don’t mind explaining anything in a manner in which they can understand. I listen to them and I bring their ideas to life. Yes I am educated, I know in my industry there are a lot of people out there who are not professional. They simply have bad attitudes but their work may be amazing or their prices are very low and their product is low quality. There are a lot of shysters out here as well taking people’s money and not providing anything in return. I treat my clients as if they are my top client. Because when I treat them well and provide a great professional product that yields great results they go out and tell others about me. I don’t advertise, my clients advertise for me without any incentive to do so. I am proud of the progress I have made mainly by myself. I don’t outsource anything but printing. Anything I design I can have it printed and shipped the client’s door through my partnerships with reputable printers both locally and nationally. I remember starting in a spare room in my home and I kept investing in equipment to the point where I grew from that small room to the dining room and to the living room… (then my husband said my business had to move). I started in a one and half room office (I literally had a half wall separating the production room and my office) in a not so nice neighborhood to a unit in a business district with a receptionist area, office, studio, and kitchen area. When I started my business I was teaching others how to use their cameras, editing software, and more because I didn’t have any production equipment and I couldn’t afford any. Now I own multiple cameras, computers, lights, mics, drones, softwares, and everything I need for a successful production. I remember designing using Google free images to now have subscriptions to multiple graphics libraries and more. Never despise small beginnings, keep moving forward. Your beginning never reflects your ending unless you stop growing and pursuing purpose. Your purpose is your business. This year will mark 6 years in full time business and it’s continually growing. I have been blessed enough to win a few awards and even a Pitch Contest for my business. I tell people all of the time you may not have heard of Princess Creative Productions but if you are in Mobile, AL I promise you have come across my work and didn’t know it. You may have been driving down the street and saw a billboard I designed, listening to the radio and heard an ad I voiced or produced, watching TV and saw a commercial I wrote, directed, voiced, and produced, called a business for service and heard my voice on their voicemail, or surfing online and came across a website I created or visited an event I either worked or promoted, you may have even been looking in the paper or a magazine and saw an I ad I created. My work is all over my city. And I am most proud when I see my work in the city or when one of my clients lands a contract or receives an award because of my work. True story… in the pitch contest I participated in November 2021, my client won first place and I won second. After the event was over I spoke with one of the judges and they said the race was close between us but they chose her for first place because she had this great app for her radio station, a staff, and her website was really nice to which I replied I designed and manage the app and I created and manage her website. So I won twice lol. In October 2021 two of my clients received chamber awards. One of my clients was chosen to speak at 2 conferences because of some work I did for him and another one of my clients was chosen to speak at a major conference because of the presentations I created for her. I get super excited to see my clients win. I take it personally. A win for them is a win for my brand too.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
Believe it or not I have been in business since 2009 and the only marketing I have done was putting up a banner this spring at the ballpark. I was a TV Producer when I started my business. I remember praying asking God what should I do as it related to my career and He said to start a business I asked what kind of business because I didn’t have any video production equipment and I didn’t have the money to pay for any and He said to start with what I had and I said the only thing I have is what I know. He told me to start there. So I said ok God I will start this business and that’s what I did. My first business model was teaching churches how to purchase and operate their video production equipment. If that ministry was on TV, I would offer my editing services until their staff was ready to take it over. I was so happy I told my mentor about the business idea and he said I don’t think that’s a good business model because most churches already have a TV staff and video equipment. I said well that’s what God told me and that’s what I am going to do. The next day I shared my business idea with my supervisor and he said the same thing to which I replied well that’s what God told me to do and that’s what I am going to do. That next day I was off from work and I got a call from my supervisor. He said a pastor in another city contacted him and said they have some TV equipment but they needed someone to come teach his people how to use the equipment. My supervisor thought of our conversation and told him about me and through that one account I was able to purchase a computer and software and the rest is history. Now because I provided great customer service to my TV clients, when I informed them I would be leaving the company some of them asked to become my clients. So when I left that company, I went to work for another company who was starting an agency. I prayed and told God before I go full time in this business I wanted to have some agency experience. This company I had applied to many years before reached out to me years later for an interview. They were changing from their traditional business model to an ad agency model. I was ecstatic. It was the last piece of the puzzle I thought I needed before I could go full time in my business. During my one year there, my video production business had increased to me producing 8 shows a month plus commercials. When I left that company I went to work full time for my company. My clients were so impressed with my work they started telling their friends, families, and other professionals about me and my business grew from 4 clients to over 200 hundred in 6 years. Along the way I did partner with a couple of agencies providing work for their clients and then I got my first shot working for a political campaigns and now I have worked on 7 different political campaigns and now I am expanding into subcontracting on government projects and other government agencies. Yes I go to networking events and I have gotten a few opportunities from them but 95% comes from referrals from other clients. So I never had to market my business.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
When I got started in my business I had no money and thanks to my student loan debt, my credit wasn’t the best. So I had to go through some unconventional means to get the initial funding for the equipment I needed. My first client paid top dollar so I was able to afford my first laptop, desktop, and editing software. I decided to go back to school but I wanted to study cinematography but since I already had one bachelor’s degree I could only get funded for a masters degree and the college I wanted to go to didn’t offer cinematography at the master’s level. So I received a master’s in Entertainment Business. This opportunity provided me with the Adobe Creative Suite, Office suite, and a mac. I was able to purchase my first camera from the funds I received through my employer’s tuition reimbursement program. A co-worker gave me some lights and a client gave me a mic and I was off to the races. I started offering video productions as well as teaching classes. A few years later I was working production at the Better Day Consulting’s Business Credit Seminar and I learned how to use business credit to purchase equipment and other things the business needed.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.princesscreativeproductions.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/princessvideoproductions/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/princessvideoproductions/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/princess-creative-productions
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Princessvideoprod/videos
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/princess-creative-productions-mobile
Image Credits
Timethy Miller Photography- Business Shots Princess Miller – all of the photos