Brian Burling, founder of eMotimo here! I can say that after 11 years of running eMotimo, these past 15 months have been the most tumultuous. From running a business during a pandemic, modifying our sourcing to address supply chain issues, and branching into new markets, nothing over the last year has been easy.
In March, April, and May of 2020, business was slow and scary. We didn't know if sales would pick up as many of our customers were out of work. Finding jobs was nearly impossible for the small production business. But it did pick up in June. It kept on picking up as medium to large production companies stocked up as they learned to adapt. We updated the ST4 to help with remote shooting solutions and get shooters back to work. We branched into new remote and studio shooting scenarios that opened us up to new customers and markets. That's the good news.
The challenging news is it feels like everything in running a business like ours got harder. Supply chains started getting backed up. Materials started costing more; shippers started charging more, taking longer, and parking their ships sideways in canals. Parts and electronic components that used to have limitless stock and lead times of weeks started to go out of stock and have insane, multi-month, and sometimes year-long lead times. These challenges have already knocked out some players in the motion control space and made it harder for many others.
During this time, eMotimo has figured out a lot and we have found our new normal. We slowed, a bit while we retooled. In mid, 2021, we are in a great place with secured inventory and long-term production plans for our existing product lines.
What does all of this mean in layman's terms? eMotimo has its foundation again. eMotimo is investing and is building. We are bringing on more help and growing again. We have funds and direction and resources to push forward, fueled by strong and increasing sales. Now is an exciting time where long-term planning is again possible.
Since late 2020, we went pretty quiet on social media as we traversed many of these challenges. Like many of you, we did this as we reached a tipping point where the negatives of news, trolls, and pandemic life outweighed the positives of connecting with our users and potential customers over these channels. The strange part was that as we turned off social media, our sales actually continued to increase while our general sense of well being, increased. I am quite proud that word-of-mouth-marketing from user to user has always been the primary way we make sales. Turning down our social media presence didn't stop that. Thank you if you played a part in introducing eMotimo to your friends and colleagues.
Now that we are over halfway through 2021 and have solid long-term plans, we are growing and will get back to regular updates. We anticipate sharing cool projects, how-tos, and education on our product lines. Make sure you are signed up to our mailing list (scroll to the bottom of this page) to get all of eMotimo's updates.
If you are an existing ST4 customer, we have been testing some new functionality and will have an exciting new integration that will extend what you can shoot. Have you ever wanted to shoot the perfect Dolly Zoom, or “Zolly”? This is just a vague teaser now, but please expect more details with examples at the end of August.
If you are new to eMotimo we have some comprehensive videos and blogs for you to check out that will teach you more about us. First of all I suggest watching our what can you shoot in a day video to learn all the ways you can use the Spectrum ST4 and Dana Dolly integration. In addition check out our VFX with spectrum ST4 blog and our Making the Mundane look sexy and making money while doing it blog.
eMotimo is also growing our team. Recently we hired a new marketing coordinator to help us on the communication and social media side of things; welcome, Kaylee. In August, we also will be bringing on some additional engineering help. There are so many exciting things happening at eMotimo, and we can't wait to see what the future holds.
As the founder of eMotimo, I want to thank our current customers for your constant support and I want to invite new customers to jump in to eMotimo and see all that we have to offer.
-Brian
