Coordinating AV crews is often a long and daunting task. You have the perfect crew members in mind, but their availability doesn't match. You decide to add AV contractors to the project, but you're lost on how to handle their contracts and insurance. Your project times and dates need to be changed and you have to communicate these changes to your entire crew, fielding questions in between, but your communications are scattered and messages get lost in the process. AV crewing is a big job, and the more opportunities you have to streamline and automate the process, the more time you’ll be able to save and redirect toward managing the rest of your responsibilities.

As an AV scheduler, your job is all about keeping track of your crews, their schedules, and the labor costs associated with your projects. This can pose a challenge when your management resources and assets are scattered, leaving you to manually piece the puzzle together.

With the help of an AV crew tracking and management software, AV professionals can capture accurate labor data for better business analysis. When data is accurate, organized and easily accessible, reviewing your project’s performance and reporting that data back to your clients is simple. Even better, by streamlining your data collection and analyzing process, you’ll save yourself time and money, and potentially save your clients money too. Here are a few ways you can improve the way you collect and analyze crew labor costs in order to get the business insights you need to improve cash flow.

How do you pay the project-based technicians that work on your projects?  Do they have their own Workers Comp and Liability Insurance or do you provide their coverage?

In the AV industry, companies typically choose from two options:

Economic Conditions in 2014 are looking up for both the overall US economy as well as small businesses.  The Consumer Confidence Index has steadily improved since 2010.  AV consultant Tom Stimson of The Stimson Group is forecasting industry growth in both AV Integration and Rental & Staging.

Full Sail University recently hosted the Rental & Staging Road Show in Orlando, FL with industry speakers covering topics from pre-production to the integration of new technologies in show production.

The highlight of the event was a roundtable of industry leaders entitled “Are You Ready For A New Staging Industry Landscape?”  The speakers (pictured above) were: Matthew Carson (PRG), Colin Murphy (Bungalow Scenic Studios), Les Goldberg (LMG), and Tom Kervitsky (TEK Productions).

If you’re a business owner or key decision maker in your company, you’re responsible for making sure your business is growing.

Growing Clients.  Growing Revenue.  Growing Profits.

I want you to love freedom.

Love the freedom that a freelancer life provides.  Love the flexibility to pick and choose where you work, how you work, and for whom you work.

Oh…  and I want you to love the financial rewards of freelancing too.

You’re a freelancer.  You can make AV magic happen.  You know the latest equipment and your regular clients are happy with the services you perform.

But when it comes to getting new clients, you just can’t seem to get any traction.  You’ve gotten recommendations, you’re on LinkedIn, and you’ve told every person you know in AV that you’re available for projects.  But nothing seems to work.

MertzCrew is making waves in the live-event industry.  We are changing the way Rental Companies, Producers, and AV Installers contract freelancers so they can focus on their core businesses.  We are doing this in a way that benefits and respects the freelancers that are the very backbone of the live event & AV Industry.