Hi All,

I'm new to this site and am looking for some advice for my business plan. I am currently employed full-time at a rep firm that places Brand Advertising Video on television and online - mostly :30 or :15 commercials designed for local TV and the web. We use a limited list of outside vendors in my area. Since a large portion of our client base are small businesses who cannot afford some of the larger production firms, we regularly use a couple of lone wolf operations who do decent work for an affordable price. This prompted me to go out on my own as a producer - something I've always wanted to do.

I have a degree from a 4 year University in Television/Film Production and 8 years experience in the sales/marketing field for television. However, I haven't utilized my production background since graduation in 2002. In other words, I write scripts, storyboard, help setup and breakdown (occasionally) BUT I have to start from scratch and re-learn the camera operation and editing software since everything I learned is outdated. This is overwhelming and a little terrifying. There are so many resources and training classes that I'm finding it difficult to choose a path.

For my business plan, I am estimating completion on roughly 6 projects per month. Not all of my projects will require a shoot but some will.

I realize the scope of every project is different but can you give me some rough estimation on how long a graphics based commercial takes to edit? Most of the shoots I have been on have been less than 4 hours excluding the projects for larger clients. I am trying to connect the dots for the business plan as I need to be able to forecast profit margins to apply for the loan.

Also, I need to pick the right training program to help me hit the ground running in about six months.

Thanks so much for any and all advice!