We were lucky to catch up with Scott Hossner recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Scott, thanks for joining us today. How has Covid changed your business model?

We are in the event business for both corporate and nonprofit clients. When COVID first struck, it was horrifying. Essentially every single “live event” on our calendar canceled – well over a million dollars of revenue vanished during the first few days of the lock down. It became clear we had to almost “hibernate” the business. We gathered the staff, handed out bonus checks, and furloughed them all.

My two business partners and I still came to the office everyday, trying to figure out how we could serve our customers in the “virtual” space. I spent weeks experimenting and daydreaming about how we could utilize platforms like “Zoom” in creative ways, to push what was possible and allow our clients to rethink how corporate meetings could be held and nonprofits could still raise money.

We also spent many hours studying the science of air exchanges, and viral loads. We implemented changes to our studio space, and overall protocols, to make it a safer environment – allowing us to host a few people at a time in order to produce live content from our studios – as well as on location.

We learned a ton and put a lot of new technology in place by the time we qualified for a PPP loan. That loan allowed us to bring our staff back and to start offering our clients virtual event services with confidence – both from the technology and safety standpoint. Those protocols and our creative use of technology allowed us to survive the worst of COVID and allowed our clients to re-emerge virtually. We traveled the state producing live shows in scenic outdoor locations, we produced small events in huge spaces, and we hosted probably 75 live events safely from our studios.

As COVID has waned, we have thrived. Much of what we learned will be used for the foreseeable future. Clients have seen what can be done virtually and have incorporated those ideas into their in-person events… allowing Hybrid events, remote presenters, live streams, etc. to shape what’s possible.

In the end, we have grown our revenue (and our staff) over the last year to be bigger and better than we ever have. What started as a huge challenge, opened up a world of possibilities!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was always a kid who loved movies and TV – and dreamed of being a part of it somehow. I bought an antique movie camera when I was about 12 and, with my best buddies, made little movies, experimented with animation, and just had a lot of silly, juvenile, fun. In High School I got my hands on a video camera, and that really was magic – we could shoot something and watch it immediately on a TV!

It became practical too… by my sophomore year I realized I could make silly videos and turn them in for extra credit in classes – my favorite was shooting doing little “candid camera” videos and submitting them in Psychology class as extra credit “psychological experiments”!

When a college decision was upon me, someone gave me the oft-repeated advice “find something you love to do, and do it well enough that people will pay you to do it”. Well, I loved making videos, so I enrolled in a TV production program and I was off to the races.

After my second year of college I landed an internship with a little video production company, Allied Video Productions (there were only three people on staff at the time). I enjoyed that internship a lot, and it proved to be fortuitous – it turned into a part-time job offer when I graduated a couple years later!

I joined the staff of that little firm and found I thrived in that world. 15 years later I bought that company and, together with two business partners, have grown it into one of the largest video production companies in the state.

Somewhere along the way, we began assisting clients with live events – and that has grown to be a huge part of what we do. We are unique in that we provide “turnkey” services – in many cases producing video content that becomes an integral part of the events we produce.

We have traveled the world (as far as Iraq) shooting video, and have traveled the country (as far as South Carolina) producing events. We have clients as far away as Washington DC. We have been recognized with many awards over the years, but I am perhaps most proud of the fact that we do no traditional marketing. All of our growth has been a result of word of mouth, repeat business and clients who seek us out after seeing our work. We have never needed a sales team and never paid cash for an advertisement… our work speaks for itself and that says a lot!

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

We don’t do traditional advertising. For the most we grow our clientele via word of mouth. Another way, specific to our industry, is people see our work, and attend the events we produce. When we “knock out of the park” potential clients will often come up to us at the event and ask about hiring us so their next event might rival what they just experienced.

Finally, we do a fair amount of in-kind sponsorships for non-profits… donating a portion of our services. We are not shy about asking for a verbal thank you “from the stage” verses a logo in the program or slideshow. A verbal shout-out/endorsement is of far more value and a logo in the program that no one notices.

How’d you meet your business partner?

When the former owner offered to sell me the business, I thought about it long and hard. One concern I had was whether the current employees would stick around and work for a new boss. As I examined the team, there were two other employees I felt were essential to ensure success. I sat each of them down and invited them to partner with me in the venture.

We eventually came to some pretty creative terms which ensured we all had financial motivation to stay. We also drew up a unique profit share agreement that rewarded extra effort, hours and sweat equity… to ensure people were fairly rewarded for the success of the company. It worked great and the three of us successfully ran the business for 15 years before the oldest of the trio retired. We are all friends to this day.

Our relationship is so strong that, even after retirement, he still comes back and works for us on occasion. The best example of that was during the pandemic, when most of the staff was on furlough, he called up and said, “What can I do?” He gave of his time and helped us weather that storm.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.alliedvideo.com
• Instagram: @alliedvideoproductions
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlliedVideoProductions