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| Tim Welch |
It started with a nibble. Tim Welch barely felt it, but he sat up straight and zeroed in. Experience had taught him that the biggest catches usually appear no different than the smallest at the start - both feigning an indifferent casual curiosity. But, as he had hoped, each nibble become a little bolder as he waited and patiently responded to each reaction with a calculated counter move. Then he felt a firm bite and gave the line a tug. Feeling the hook set he slowly started reeling, feeling various amounts resistance - sometimes mild, sometimes strenuous - with each turn of the crank. It almost got away a couple of times. That's when Tim called for some help and settled in for the "long day" of give and take required to land a monster. When it finally came in there was no big finale or crowds or celebration. It was just the culmination, six months in the making, of daily patience and diligence. But Tim had a trophy. He had hooked the largest film order to date in the history of Home Video Studio - "weighing in" at 65,000 feet!
Tim Welch seems to have a penchant for landing the big corporate fish out there who need their old media archived. In fact, we have more fishing stories, but we'll talk about them later. Meet Tim Welch, studio owner from Home Video Studio Sherwood AR and our November Studio Owner of the Month.
The beauty of Home Video Studio's turnkey operation and in-place support system is that there are many stripes of people who become studio owners - and all have the potential to succeed. Some have a strong creative background. Some, in fact, are seasoned video professionals. Some barely know how to focus a camera but have impeccable sales and customer service skills. Many owners, including Tim, come from a computer technical background.
In fact, Welch enjoyed twenty-plus years as a computer engineer after graduating from electronics school. But nothing stays the same, especially in the technical field: "When I started my career the computer rooms housing a company's information system might take up several floors," says Welch. To a "hardware guy" those days of mammoth machinery were the good ole' days, but then he noticed the hardware side of computer technology diminishing rather than burgeoning. "Now," opines Tim, "the same capability takes up the corner of a room. I really didn't see anything exciting on the horizon of computer hardware - and the disposability of computer hardware in general made my future somewhat vulnerable."
Tim decided a change was in order, so he considered turning a long-held passion into his profession. An interest in photography for many years led him to video. Here he enjoyed the creativity of working with images and sound, and he especially liked giving his friends and family meaningful mementos of their most cherished possessions - treasured memories. So he asked the big question: "Can I make a living at this?"
He looked into launching out on his own but as he was searching online one day came across Home Video Studio. A phone call started him thinking that joining a franchise was the way to go. Welch attended a Show 'N Tell in Indianapolis to learn more and was
soon on his way to opening up his studio.
"I was relieved to find a place that invented the wheel already," says Welch. "I enjoy the support staff of Home Video Studio, the camaraderie of fellow owners and the recipe to follow."
Today Tim Welch is in his fifth year of business, a milestone for any entrepreneur. He daily takes on projects large and small. In fact, the significance of Home Video Studio's motto "Video Services for Everyone" is that Tim was more than likely handling a customer's transfer of one tape to DVD when he learned a few weeks ago he had landed another big corporate job: including 30,000 feet of film, 65 various formats of tape, 40 audio tapes and 600 Kodachrome slides.
"That's why they picked me," says Welch. "They wanted a one-stop shop that could handle everything - and that's me!"
And now back to the fish stories:
How did Tim land a 65,000 foot film transfer order? "It started with a simple email inquiry," says Welch. "It took patience and making sure I was talking to the right people. These are things I learned when I got involved in this business."
What about the big order he just landed? "Funny," he says, "it all started when a lady saw my Home Video Studio vehicle sign."
What does the future have in store for Tim? "I love what I'm doing. I plan to keep building the business and have it sustain me for a long time." "And," he says with a twinkle in his eye, "wait 'til you see the big project I'm working on landing next...it's huge!"
Happy angling Tim, and may they keep biting for years to come!
