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Starting a Business

For the first 20 years of filming the only problem I had with the government was with the local forest rangers

By Warren Miller

At dinner the other night the conversation turned to the old days and I was asked if I thought I could parlay my $400 original loan to start my film business into a worldwide motion picture company today. That got me thinking.

With the current state of government intervention in small businesses, I still think with enough drive and a good product a person could do it with 16-hour work days and the desire. However, it would be much more difficult these days because of the massive amount of government involved. Since I personally narrated my film in every state north of Denver and east of San Diego to Portland, Maine, it would’ve taken an extra bookkeeper to just to fill out paperwork. Today I might be charged income tax in many of those states that I appeared in.

When I showed my first film in the fall of 1950, there was a 10 percent entertainment tax on any ticket that cost more than $1, so for the first three or four years that’s all ski clubs could charge.

For the first 20 years of filming the only problem I had with the government was with the local forest rangers. Some of them wanted me to pay a daily rate between $200 and $300 to take movies on government property that was under lease to the ski resort.

In the early days I used to stay at  friends’ houses, in dorms somewhere or in a car in a parking lot. As a result of staying under the radar, I usually finished my filming job in a day or two and was on the road to the next resort. The profit margins in those days were very slim but since I continued to keep a daytime job as a carpenter, I could live hand to mouth.

At least 10 percent of my shows were screened with little notice and the revenue came from “passing the hat.” The income ranged from a low of eight dollars and a national ski patrol pin for a show in Port Angeles, Washington, in 1950 to a high end of the “pass the hat for the revenue” in places such as the Golden Horn in Aspen.

Looking back over those first 12 rough and tumble years before I even hired an accountant, it is slightly remarkable that I didn’t get busted by the federal or local governments.

The company that owns my original film company today sells admission tickets for as much as $28.50, though the film is the same length as the ones I first made 65 years ago. In today’s market I’m sure they have a much larger staff, hence the higher ticket prices.

There are several college courses I should have taken and never did, such as a basic bookkeeping class. I did not take a single business course because I never thought I would have a business to run. I also never took any class that had anything to do with filmmaking.

Fortunately, the films that I produced were of sufficient quality and quantity that I could raise my three children, put them through college and send them on their ways to their own chosen professions.

Most of the money that was taken in the “pass the hat shows” was squirreled away until I could afford a new piece of camera equipment or office stuff – a natural, grassroots way of growing a business and still applicable today.

I don’t think it really matters whether you like to bake cookies, repair automobile engines, mow lawns or make movies, you just have to work harder to make your product better than the guy down the street. Then, when people have a choice of your product or your competitor’s product, they will be choosing yours because it is better, more dependable, and they know that your heart is in part of the purchase price.

If you want to start up your own business keep in mind that everyone that does this, regardless of their product, will have the same government overhead that you have to pay. Be sure to keep that in mind and set the money aside to protect your business.

Good luck on whatever new business venture you undertake and be sure to set your alarm clock for very early mornings.