Common Craft Blog
How Education Became Our Focus
By leelefever on January 26, 2009 - 12:17pm
I'm a big believer that every business needs to understand exactly what business they are in - and for us, this has been a journey. I'm confident, through months of discussion and testing, that we've defined this direction for Common Craft. Here is what we learned:
I started Common Craft in 2003 to do consulting. It was just me and I provided consulting services. Once we started making videos, we were hired to make custom videos. Again, we were a services business. In the summer of 2007, we realized that our videos could be products - products that could create a business that scales more easily through licensing. Ultimately, we felt confident in our ability to pick a subject and explain it simply and effectively. The question became - what do we do with this kind of product?
There was a specific point in our business when we decided exactly what to do. It was just a few months ago, during the financial meltdown. We were getting lots of suggestions to explain the mortgage crisis. We did a lot of research and had every intention of publishing an explanation of it all in 3-4 minutes. But it didn't feel right. Something made us feel out of our element.
Despite spending a lot of time on it, we chose to throw out our mortgage crisis work and refocus. Why? Because it didn't match with the business we wanted to be in. The more we looked at a mortgage crisis video, the more it seemed like news. We could see that explaining news events was fertile ground, but not necessarily the best thing for Common Craft. Here's why:
- Shelf Life: While news has enduring value, that value often peaks the day it's released. Videos can easily become yesterday's news.
- Production Time: Our videos take a long time to produce and it would always be a fire-drill to try to get on the next big story.
- Ad Revenue: From a product perspective, news is mostly paid-for by advertising. This model isn't our focus these days.
- Positive Impact: News surely plays a positive role in our world, but we saw other opportunities to educate people about fundamental topics.
So, we refocused. We stopped considering news stories or any time-sensitive events. We looked for ways that we could have a lasting, positive impact. We looked for problems that were relevant and timely, but had a potential shelf-life of years. We looked for ways to create a product that made sense for our business.
Through these discussions, we realized that we are an education company. We make videos that explain the basics. We give people a foundation for understanding important subjects that impact their lives. We want our products, over the long term, to help people become more informed and knowledgeable so they can become more responsible citizens. If we can accomplish these goals, our business will be successful for years to come.
Right now we're in the process of publishing a series called "Financial Basics" that is our response to the mortgage crisis. This series is our way of combating the troubling lack of understanding people have regarding personal finance. This is one of multiple broad topics plan to cover in 2009.
By creating educational explanatory videos, we can build products that scale, support us through licensing and hopefully have an enduring, positive impact. It may take a while to get there, but like we say in Financial Basics, it's all about thinking long-term.
In 2009 you'll see that our business is built around licensing videos to individuals, schools and organizations of all types.
Education is the place to
Education is the place to be! With how quickly things are changing and how many new strategies and tools are being presented to the masses every day, we need you guys to sort things out. You're only continuing to do we all already thought you were doing - if anyone needs an explanation for anything web 2.0, I usually send them your way. You've been an "education company" all along - can't wait to see the developments now that you're honing in on it :)
Your Education Business
Good for you, Lee, because explaining complicated things in a simple, easy-to-understand manner is exactly what you're good at. As I work with lots of K-12 publishing companies, it always amazes me that so many people do not understand a) what business they are really in and b) what they're good at.
May you have much success in 2009 realizing your vision!
Hammer Meets Nail Head-to-Head
Feels right, Lee and Sachi. From the get-go with Wiki and RSS, your videos (i) inspired me to educate others on what all these new technologies can do for them and for the company. Like many others, I saw the usefulness of engaging video for corporate training and try to jump to the next curve in upgrading corporate education to use video. You name the key issues, Shelf Life, Production Time, and Positive Impact.
Training and education happen to be a domain with very high short-term returns, thus there is a high potential need for your time-savers. We enjoy your generosity and all the tools. Stay productive.
Mortgage Crises
Personally I find " Financial Basics" promising more than it can ( and ) nothing at the same time. While Mortgage Crisis might be conceived as being yesterday's news, it still needs explaining as a contributing factor to a situation which will be around for a long time. It is a phenomenon and could repeat itself.. not an event which can be dug out of " Financial Basics" .. like Freshman English ?
Sorry.. I like your work too much to see you watering down for the sake of clarity or simplicity.
I may be very very wrong here.
Glenn
Do one thing, and do it well!
Good choice and good article Lee. As I've mentioned before, I use CommonCraft videos to pretty much explain anything I can to anyone. nothing is simpler, and also as enjoyable.
Making education feel like it is not education is a challenge and one well met by CommonCraft.
Anthony
Anthony Russo
Conferencing Consultant
Great America Networks Conferencing
arusso@ganconference.com
www.ganconference.com
http://blog.ganconference.com/
Skype: anth.russo
Twitter: @AnthonyRusso
Einstein
Someone sent me your blog post today, and I have just looked over your site.
Thank-you for sharing your business development experience with us I appreciate your honesty.
"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough" Albert Einstein
Heather a passionate Accounting educator & MYOB Trainer from downunder
It's always good to find a
It's always good to find a new areas of doing business and this puts you on the first place compared to those, who can't see the opportunities in front of their face
Very good , there are plenty
Very good , there are plenty of good videos ,which help us a lot in English learning
Awesome
I am glad you've found your direction. I remember watching these amazingly creative educational films when I was a kid, like "Our Mr. Sun" and the quintessential 70's "Free to Be You and Me." I'm pretty sure no one has tackled those in a while beyond the Baby Einstein franchise. I can't wait to see what you guys come up with.
Crystal-clear
You are really goods at explaining complex things. Using videos o with this short post. Crystal-clear.
Steady focus is the way to go!
I applaud your critical thinking skills. I know exactly what you mean, and I have learned it the hard way. Several years ago my friends and my started a web based business. We were young, energetic and full of ideas. Not even 2 years passed and we went bankrupt. Why ? We weren't focused enough. Instead of creating and following a certain business model, aiming at specific goals - we did all we could. Webdesign, seo, network administration, you name it - we did it. As a result we never made a name for ourselves in any business, were earning pocket change and only grew frustrated and apart.
I wish every fresh business owner would read your post. Especially in these economically challenging times...
Education for all of US
Amazing video, so well explained!!!
Congratulations!!!
Business not always money
good way I apreciated it.. business not alwaoys about money..... more make poeple in the world have better living with education....good luck
I agree bosq that business
I agree bosq that business is not only about money, but... if the business has the right mission - for example to help a person in her needs (it's not the money target), then the money becomes an absolutely real and normal effect!
Power of information
Providing good information about important subjects such as finance is a great goal. Some people may say that you don't reach enough people to make a difference, but if everyone said that, nothing would happen. Keep up the great work!
Have some suggestions
To be frank I am new on CC - but always look at feeds if a new story has come up! Getting addicted :p
On another note -
I reckon - you guys should have gone with the Mortgage Crisis project -rather than Financial Basics. Finance - personal or other-wise is so vast/diverse a subject, I don't think 3-4 minutes will be enough for it. But if it is a series as you say - I am excited about them. Because, most people like me are not very good at managing their finances properly. Also the mortgage is one the trickiest subject one has to to deal with. Rather than looking it as news - the video could be "Mortgage Basics in Plain English" - an educational video explaining the concept of it, how to find better deals etc. etc. It certainly goes with the business model you have decided to be in.
I am a career educator and teach Politics and Economics to 15-17 years old students. What I look on the web is to improve my knowledge so that I can teach my students more than that is written on the Text-Books.
Cheers
Education
Thank you very much for your videos and explanations. They are very important for teachers of English (ESL).
They are also interesting for us, teachers who want to know more, in our case, about Web 2.0 and to use it in our classrooms.
From Spain.
Pitxu García