We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ross Barnett. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ross below.

Alright, Ross thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

In the business of videography, scaling up is something that’s either unheard of or very difficult to do. Typically, the way people try to grow is they keep it under a singular owner: just one person doing everything, and they significantly increase their prices up and up and up until they reach a saturation point and only have to select so many gigs a year.

With Two Fly’s side, we kind of went the untraditional route. Although we started as a partnership, the wedding side of the business started as a sort of “one man band.” The way that we were able to scale it up is by building upon that base and really honing into our own style. Once we had our style nailed down, we slowly added on team members, making sure they understood the feel, style and process that we were going for.

It can be difficult to impart specific styles, because obviously creativity is subjective and there’s never going to be one right way to do things. But sometimes you just have to let an employee know that “no, it’s not that this is wrong, per se, but it doesn’t match our company style.”

So every team member that came on board, whether they were an editor or a lead videographer or even a second shooter, we really make sure that they are able to nail down what makes a Two Fly Guys product special. As we continually developed on our branding and style, we added a new editor on the team. And then as that editor grew, he was able to transition into being a lead videographer. And then the same we did with our second, and now we are at a position right now where we can do up to four weddings in a day between our four different lead videographers and three editors.

We’re currently able to handle a volume of between 70 and 100 weddings a year. We’re setup to be able to handle more growth in the near future, but that’s the range we aim for. It allows me, as an owner, to navigate and view and develop that team as a whole instead of putting all the work on one person. Even the hardest worker is going to have trouble filming + editing more than 20 or 30 weddings a year if they’re going solo.

As I look back on the years, scaling has been so important to company growth. This business isn’t just about me anymore. Now, it’s able to support a multitude of people – which is an incredible thing to see.

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?

I’m Ross Barnett – co-founder of Two Fly Guys Media. TwoFly originally started as a video marketing company designed at providing businesses with powerful social media content. Although we still provide businesses with vide content – a large percentage of our business over the last 5 years has been in the wedding industry, providing couples with story-driven 8-10 minute wedding highlight films. I truly believe we’ve crafted an unmatched style over the years.

Originally starting the company with co-founder (Adam Tsang) in Statesboro, GA. I (Ross) moved to Charleston, SC in late 2018. A move like this would typically ruin most coronership businesses but instead it only grew the areas we service. With a majority of the wedding films coming out of Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA – the business clients locations range from all over and between.

Something I’m most proud of when it comes to TwoFlyGuysMedia is just how well the implementation has worked over the years. When first starting out, (I’ll be honest) I never imagined this could be a full time income, or anything more than a side hustle. Over the years the one thing I’ve learned if you treat your customers and community right, they’ll keep coming back to you over and over again. To all of our current, past, and future clients: thank you for making TwoFly what it is today!

How’d you meet your business partner?

The founding of Two Flys is the story of Adam and I; I was 19 or 20 at the time, working part-time at one of Adam’s restaurants, the Saucy Shrimp. Adam’s always looking to lift up his employees and encourage them to pursue their passions, as I would find out when I met him. He immediately saw my passion for video and really wanted that video to be implemented into his businesses. Adam saw a talent in me or saw a spark in me that I really just wanted to take control of and develop, and so we co-founded two Fly Guys Media.

I was in a position where I had my passion, I didn’t know a whole lot about business. Adam’s an entrepreneur and knows all about that stuff, but he was a little lacking on the video side. And so that partnership really helped develop Two Fly as a whole. We two came together and it’s a beautiful thing.

Still to this day, even though we live in separate cities, we’re able to collaborate on a multitude of jobs and manage a team together. All still while using our original skillsets to come together under one business.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

I’ve always looked at the photo/video world as one of those businesses that is so incredible and easy to start because of the low barrier to entry. I have friends that are plumbers and before they can even be begin their plumbing journey, they’ve got to buy a $60,000 truck. And then a hundred thousand dollars worth of tools just to go out and do that first $500 job.

With the photo and video world, it’s completely the opposite. My very first camera setup was a $600, and I think in total we had $1,200 invested into the business. So with that $1,200, we started doing our first jobs at, I think, $50 a piece. And then the second or third video jobs came in at a hundred dollars a piece. And then our very first wedding, I think we only charged $800 for that one, but it was a great way to get our foot into the industry. Essentially the barrier to entry was minimal compared to the amount of work we could begin doing immediately.

As we established ourselves, we were able to afford better quality of our gear over time, and as we’ve increased the quality of our gear, we’ve also increased the quality of our edits, which also increased the quality of the clients that we’re able to attract. We simply had the opportunity to start small and with minimal risks. And now as the larger clients come in, we invest that money right back into the company so that we can afford professional, top-of-the-line equipment.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.twoflyguysmedia.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/twoflyguysmedia
• Facebook: Facebook.com/twoflyguysmedia