Starving Artists?

Yesterday, I wan an invited participant in a regional video producers meeting, hosted by the North Jersey Videographers Association. The first part of the meeting was a 90-minute State of the Industry panel discussion, and that included two associates from Boston, one from Dallas, and another from Long Island. With a 3pm start, the meeting drew about 75 attendees.
One of the issues identified by the LI associate is somewhat local to his area i.e. there are a number of photo studios that, as he explained, treat event video as a commodity, not as an art form. They sell fairly basic packages at relatively low prices, and actively do not want artistic-type shots. The Long Island associate talked about his relationship with the couples he worked with, and felt terrible that he could not deliver an artistic video. While this may not be national in scope, there is a terrific business lesson to be learned. The fact is that the photo studio owner is acting like a businessperson. He is selling video for more than the video is costing him, and keeping that client in his studio. One attendee remarked that he recently started offering photography in his video studio, which is a perfectly appropriate action. The point that I made, and others on the panel made, was that we have to act like entrepreneurs, like business people, in order to achieve business success. It's a simple formulation, really.