Entertainment Wednesdays: Miss Naturally Crowned Carolina

We Connected Productions, LLC are the official videographers at the Inaugural Miss Naturally Crowned Carolina. We will be filming the pageant and providing DVDs to the Contestants, Founders, and Sponsors. We are so excited to be a part of this "movement" as we've been growing our hair natural for the better part of a year and half (Sharee) and a year (Rhonda). Here is more information about the pageant, the first of it's kind in Columbia, South Carolina.

Great hair and even greater dreams will take center stage on April 12, 2014, as ten finalists from across the Capital City compete for the historic title of Miss Naturally Crowned Carolina. The grand prize winner will receive $1,000 in scholarship or non-equity start-up business funding. The first and second-runners up will also receive $750 and $500, respectively, to further their education or start new businesses. Naturallycrowned.com

Unfortunately (or maybe it's a good thing), the pageant is currently SOLD OUT!!! We'll share pictures and highlights in a future post.

Rhonda W. and Sharee W.

SCcrowdfund.com Is Now Live

SCcrowdfund.com is an alternative for raising capital and meeting the rising demand for financing local business projects.  Communities that grow their own job-creating businesses are more sustainable economies that mirror their values of rewarding local entrepreneurship, creating a vibrant middle class and protecting the health of its residents and environment.

We Connected Productions, LLC has been selected as one of SC's first participants (and currently the only one in Columbia, SC) in the inaugural year of the program, and we are excited about the possibilities of the requested funds of $8500.  It will allow us to market and expand our video production services into additional local faith-based organizations and churches.  This will allow us to become sustainable in making a yearly profit and utilize a portion of our revenue to entirely fund a week-long local kids film camp at the Columbia Bethlehem Community Center currently held during student's Spring Break.

We Connected Productions, LLC SCCrowdFund Campaign from Rhonda & Sharee Washington on Vimeo.

The crowdfunding site is now Live.  We need this first week to be "explosive" with support from the community and beyond, for as little as $10 up to $250.  Some of the perks of donating based on level of giving include a video thank you from the camp's past participants, a DVD copy of the kids completed film(s), and/or Producer credit.   

South Carolina is the first state to take on this type of crowdfunding initiative to support small businesses and a local non-profit. What is your initial reaction to this type of alternative funding?  Will you support it in your community?

Why Exposure Isn't Enough

We both recently read a blog post by Dan Perez about when exposure isn't enough, and when' it's time to stop working for free.  It resonated with us on so many levels as we've been managing our production company for three and half years, and have made less than a quarter of the revenue needed to sustain the business.   This equates to over 80% out of pocket.  We do it because we're passionate about providing positive online content.  But when do you know when passion isn't enough?  When the feeling hits you that exposure creates favorable circumstances for people to see your work; yet, you have gotten into the habit of giving it away and less and less people are willing to pay what you have to offer.  We got that feeling a few weeks ago, and have been working with a few individuals to turn our business around.

We have taken action by contacting individuals who have made mentioned in the past that they would like to work with us; outreaching to new clients with the help of a social media professional; and revising our business plan so that we can obtain additional resources.  

Primary factors for need of being paid include business sustainability, value of time and perceived worth, and contributing to society (non-profits, social entrepreneurship, etc).  We need to have confidence in ourselves to ask for payment of our services, even it means changes in current business relationships.  We've made mention of service fees on our blog on several occasions. Most recently, this time last year, we put our services and fee structure online.  No one comment on it.  But it's not like we went out to promote it heavily.  Thereby, our responsibility to the lack of revenue has been that we have not been able to capitalize on our exposure. In 2014, expect changes in fee structure to be fully implemented including automatic monthly retainers and advance payment of services.  Other changes include a newly designed management of our social media outreach and transportability of our services beyond the Columbia area.