Question of the Day: Are you a Matterport Artist or Business Person?10683
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 WGAN ForumFounder & WGAN-TV Podcast Host Atlanta, Georgia |
DanSmigrod private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Hi All, The WGAN Forum Question of the Day for Tuesday, 17 December 2018) is: Are you a Matterport Artist or Business Person? For backstory, this discussion came up in a call that I did today with a Matterport Service Provider. The MSP was struggling with the amount of time that it was taking to scan outdoors (which was adding hours to the scanning). After reviewing how to successfully scan outdoors, I asked the MSP if s/he was an artist or business person? The short answer on the discussion was that using Matterport Views outdoors and Matterport Scans indoors would dramatically increase the speed of completing a Matterport 3D Tour. The 3D Tour would be "good enough" to deliver to the client without adding hours waiting for the sun not to be visible by the camera or scheduling scanning before the sunrise or just after sun set (to be able to successfully scan outdoors). Unless you have a five star property with a client that is willing to pay top dollar, it's likely that you will need to think of yourself as a Business Person and spend the amount of time justified by the "good enough" budget. While we all would like to think that we are both, the reality is that we likely need to make hard choices - to be practical - regarding how much time that we invest into each project. I do consider myself an Artist. That also means that I have done a ton of Matterport 3D Tours where the compensation may not have been enough to justify the time I invested in delivering an awesome Matterport 3D Tour (not just scanning, but post production). What have you decided? Are you a Matterport Artist or Business Person? Happy holidays, Dam |
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Hartland, Wisconsin |
htimsabbub23 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I would have to say business person because during the whole read I was thinking why not just do a 360 scan of the outside instead of linking them together. A realistic expectation of speed and quality is important. | ||
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 Fast Start Websites Peterborough, United Kingdom |
angusnorriss private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Business - I don’t promote outdoor as a seamless artistic walkthrough experience until Matterport Cortex works better. Until then a few outdoor 360s must suffice. Thankfully the U.K. is generally overcast most days! I continue to push the camera into gardens and driveways but it often misaligns on the minimap. |
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bryanhscott private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Depends! If I have the time and it doesn't create any inconveniences for my customer or myself, I am probably more of an artist, or at least willing to try things or techniques or even throw in a service that I would not normally do. Any other time, total business person by the numbers. I do routinely try and extend my 3D spaces outside (under indirect sunlight) to porches, decks and patios, so that I can include this livable square footage on both the mini-map, as well as the resulting floor plans. You just have to remember that 360 to 3D scans (it only takes one to cause the issue) will make ordering floor plans and MatterPaks not possible. |
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PickChuck private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Here is an older post that brings home what a lot of us struggle with right now. Perfection vs Good solid sellable images. Right now they're ongoing debates on Matterport vs Asteroom and Matterport vs Theta Z1. Both softwares are amazing and will do all we need. Yes, both could have...insert you desire. The question is: Are either one keeping you from succeeding? No question quality is better from Matterport than Z1. Full Frame and hand stitching is better than Matterport. I found that approach just now workable for me anymore. Will the Z1 give you something that will help make more money? Could it be an added service to Matterport users when time and money do not work? I think so on both parts. Is having an alternate platform advantageous? Absolutely. Would you go on a shoot without backup gear? No spare tire, one battery, one memory card, less than a full bottle of rum. No way. There are always pros and cons. Many of you are very invested in the Matterport Ecco system and a bit protective of that. I get it. Some have many years of tours and various plans. Some of you are new to the 360 world and trying to figure out everything in this no touch covid world. We are actually all in here together to help each other. That's the only reason for a forum like this. I am increasingly amazed at all the discounts, help and info that is shared. So back to the question: Are we artists or business people? I say we are business people first so as to allow the artists inside of us to breath when possible. Just my two cents worth. Cheers, Chuck |
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WGAN Forum Founder & WGAN-TV Podcast Host Atlanta, Georgia |
DanSmigrod private msg quote post Address this user | |
| WGAN-TV Ben Claremont Top 10 Tips for Building a Profitable Virtual Tour Business-#1754-Why Both Art And Business Are Important. Hi All, In this WGAN-TV Short Story #1754, Virtual Tour Pro Course Creator Ben Claremont discusses artist versus business person in offering virtual tours. Special Offer for WGAN Forum Members Save 15 percent on Virtual Tour Pro Course by Ben Claremont AND 12 months free WGAN-TV Training Academy Membership with the WGAN Coupon Code WGANVTP using this WGAN Affiliate Link Virtual Tour Pro. Happy New Year, Dan Transcript (video above) So could you comment a little bit more on this idea of whether you're an artist or a business person and perfectionism versus, or do I need to be the best before I actually go out and shoot my first tour? - Yeah that's really such an important point that you bring up because I'm sure all of us, or most of us are coming from backgrounds as artists, as photographers, videographers, artists, creatives, and we all have high standards for our work; which is a really good thing and a really bad thing because it turns us into perfectionists and turns us into starving artists as a result because we're so obsessed with our art, that that's all that matters. And the business side of things doesn't matter. And I know we don't consciously think about these things, but unconsciously, we think no, no, we've got to be perfect before we can feel confident enough to go on charging for our work. And that is the biggest downfall of all photographers and Virtual Tour photographers out there is that they become too obsessed with the photography side and they don't learn the business side of Virtual Tours. And that's actually the more important side. It's not actually that hard to make a Virtual Tour. News flash! You can actually learn it in a week. Yes. You will need to practice and you'll need to learn from people that know what they're doing, but you can get those lessons. You can get all that information so quickly. We're living in the age of information where you can learn a highly complex thing within a week. You can actually do it. That is all you need. You just need the basics. You need the basics down pat! You need to be confident that you can deliver the value, but that's it. You don't need to be expert level. You don't need to have done it for 10 years to start charging for your work. You can start charging for your work quite quickly. So it's important not to be a perfectionist here to understand it from a business point of view. You are offering a tool, the businesses to help them own money. That's it, it doesn't need to be the most perfect thing ever made. It needs to be good enough that it can achieve that objective. And if it can, you need to go out and start doing it now and stop trying to be a perfectionist because we've all fallen into the trap of being a perfectionist. Unfortunately, it's a trap that leads us all to being starving artists. If you identify with that, I would employ you to stop and just go out and do it, try it. If it all goes wrong, that's okay. You can try again next week or tomorrow or next year or whenever, but it's not going to go wrong. Especially if you've taken a very common sense approach to it, by getting the basic knowledge of how to do it first, going out and doing it for a small client, proving to yourself, you can do it and slowly scaling up from there. |
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 WGANStandard Member Los Angeles |
Home3D private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I got my first camera at age 12 and have owned many since. So I’m an artist first, trying to maintain a good business approach to work. When I’m working for an agent/client who is appreciative, who recognizes my level of commitment to service, I often go above and beyond. For example, this month I had several small jobs booked for HDR photos only, but delivered a MP tour as well as an end-of-year thank you. If I’m on a job that pays decently and I see the opportunity to do something special, I often do it, both for the personal learning as well as creating a great example for future project pitches. For example, This home I saw as an opportunity to add a few Z1 scans to put water in the dollhouse pool view. It worked, and I’m happy to have the model to differentiate from low-end scanners around town. I duplicate a model like this, removed the Z1 scans from the model, reprocess, and use this model for making floor plans. There are two approaches to increasing revenue: do more, often charging less, maybe with numerous employees, to ‘scale up’ even if the margin is less. Or, aim for an unmatched level of service to those clients who appreciate quality, striving to always exceed what the competition delivers. I happen to go the second route, but both approaches are sound. |
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