Episode 2
Key Lessons for Video Production Companies
In the second episode of Creatives Grab Coffee, hosts Dario Nouri and Kyrill Lazarov open the notebook on their first five years running Lapse Productions. No guest yet, just two founders being honest about the lessons that only came from doing it wrong first.
The conversation covers the red flags that should make you walk away from a project, the unglamorous hire that saves you money, and why no two clients can ever be handled the same way. There is a fourth lesson too, but the hosts save that one for the episode itself.
Key Takeaways
- Learn when to say no. Undefined variables like extremely short timelines, uncertain timeframes and budgets, and constantly shifting ideas about the project’s purpose are red flags, and taking those projects on anyway led to a negative experience every single time.
- Get yourself an accountant. A good accountant keeps your books and records in order, helps you save money, and takes a whole category of work off your plate so you can focus on growing the business.
- Every client is different. Clients come from different industries and different niches within those industries, so each relationship has to be handled on its own terms rather than run through one template.
- Experience is the teacher. Most of these lessons came from not yet having the business experience to spot the warning signs early, which is exactly why the hosts are passing them on.
- There is a fourth lesson. The hosts saved one final lesson for the episode itself, so hit play to unlock it.
Learn When to Say No
The first lesson is the hardest one to learn early: some projects should never be taken. Dario and Kyrill describe the pattern they ran into more than once in Lapse’s first five years: extremely short timelines, uncertain timeframes, uncertain budgets, and too many differing or constantly changing ideas about what the project was even for. Each of those is an undefined variable, and every time they took a project loaded with them anyway, it ended in a negative experience. At the time they simply did not have the business experience to read the warning signs.
The fix is discipline on both sides of the conversation: a defined production process that forces the purpose and scope to be pinned down before cameras roll, and an honest budget conversation grounded in what a video actually costs. Years later, the hosts turned this instinct into a full teardown in 4 red flags with new business leads, but this episode is where the say-no muscle first shows up on the show.
Get Yourself an Accountant
The second lesson is the least glamorous and maybe the most valuable: hire an accountant. A good one keeps your books and records in order, actively saves you money, and takes a whole category of work off the owner’s plate. For Dario and Kyrill, it was also an early lesson in delegation: handing off the tasks someone else can do better buys back the time you need to actually grow the company. It is the kind of practical, unflashy advice that would go on to fill the show’s first big recap of video production business tips.
Every Client Is Different
The third lesson is about the work itself. In video production you will not find identical clients: they come from different industries, and even within one industry they serve different niches. That means the way you scope, communicate, and deliver has to flex to each relationship rather than run through a single template. Treating that flexibility as a feature of the job, not a nuisance, is the foundation of everything the show would later explore about improving the client experience.
The Fourth Lesson
There is one more lesson, and the hosts deliberately keep it off the page: you have to watch or listen to the episode to unlock it. If you are working through the show from the beginning, this conversation picks up right where the origin story in how we started left off, and it sets the tone for everything that follows: practical, honest, and learned the hard way.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the key lessons in this episode?
Three are on the page: learn when to say no to red-flag projects, get yourself an accountant early, and treat every client differently. A fourth lesson is saved for the episode itself.
What red flags mean you should turn down a project?
Extremely short timelines, uncertain timeframes, uncertain budgets, and too many differing or constantly changing ideas about the purpose of the project. In the hosts’ experience, projects loaded with those undefined variables ended badly every time.
Why does a video production company need an accountant?
A good accountant keeps your books and records in order, helps you save money, and frees up the owner’s time to focus on growing the business. It is also an early exercise in learning to delegate.
Who hosts this episode?
Dario Nouri and Kyrill Lazarov, the co-founders of Lapse Productions, a Toronto video production company. This is a host-only episode, recorded about five years into running the company.
When was this episode released?
September 2020, one week after the show’s debut. It is the second episode of Creatives Grab Coffee.
The Hosts
Dario Nouri and Kyrill Lazarov are the co-founders of Lapse Productions, a Toronto video production company, and the hosts of Creatives Grab Coffee, a weekly show about the business of video production.
About
Creatives Grab Coffee is a podcast about the business behind video production: sales, strategy, pricing, team building, and everything that happens off camera. New episodes every week on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
Lapse Productions is a Toronto-based video production company serving tech, finance, healthcare, and manufacturing clients with corporate, promotional, event, and testimonial video. New to commissioning video? Start with our guide to the types of corporate video.
