Today we’d like to introduce you to John Hank.
John, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
In the summer of 1980, the 12-inch sub woofer on one of my stereo speakers went out. I went to the local electronic shop to buy a new 12-inch sub woofer. I was informed that I needed to buy them in pairs. But I only needed one, I was not employed at the time and did not want to invest $300.00 each to fix my problem.
Now what was I going to do, I needed my stereo system to sound good.
So I saw a label on the back of my speaker with the name, address & phone number of the manufacturer, VERIT who was located in Sun Valley. So I called and introduced myself as John Hank with Hank’s Audio and made an appointment with the President, Estelle Finney. When I got there, I purchased the part I needed for $18.75 yes that’s right $18.75 not $300.00. Since I thought that was a very good investment, I decided to invest an additional $2,000.00 worth of NEW speakers and start a business. I registered my business name as a DBA and advertised in the Penny Saver using the slogan Hank’s Audio says HA-HA to high prices and took them to swap meets and sold them out of my Manhattan Beach apartment.
It got pretty old real fast, getting up at 3:00 AM to set up a booth at the swap meets, so after I sold all my inventory, I decided to expand and buy some video equipment. In July 1981, I borrowed money from friends and family to finance my business. My investors asked what are you going to call your new business. I said since I’ve been using the DBA Hank’s Audio, why not just add Video to the name. So my business became known as Hank’s Audio Video Enterprises and decided to get into the special event business videotaping weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, etc. as I knew my cousin Nancy Hank was getting married the next year and I needed some demo footage. So I gave her the video as a wedding present and I now had the footage needed to make a demo reel.
I got my video equipment on a Thursday July 9th, 1981, flew to Ohio Saturday the 11th, read the operators owner’s manual on the plane to familiar myself with the equipment. I only had 90 minutes of videotaping experience using the new camera equipment before I videotaped the wedding on July 18th, 1981.
In May of 1982 radio station KIIS-FM 102.7 was sponsoring a Bridal Faire at the Hollywood Palladium. It took an investment of $3,000.00 of which I borrowed from my sister. I had to do it as I thought what a great way to get exposure and start my special event business. As luck would have it, I was the only videographer registered for the 3-day event as video production companies were NEW and there were not many of us in Los Angeles at the time doing special events. The $3,000 investment to the Bridal Faire would include all the contact information of the future brides attending, an 8 x 10 booth and 30 prime morning and afternoon drive time commercial airtime on KIIS-FM.
During the 3-Day Bridal Faire there would be fashion shows. KIIS-FM asked me if I would videotape the Fashion Shows for 30 additional airtime commercials.
And that folks is how my business all started in 1981.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
As video became more and more popular with the invention of the consumer VCR, videotaping of Special Events also became very popular. Unfortunately, video services were at the bottom of the bride and grooms budget, flowers, catering, photography etc. always came first before video. As prices on consumer video cameras dropped, I had to compete with everybody’s uncle who had a video camera as they said they could video the event, as they used to do this with their old 8mm and super 8mm cameras.
So this was an obstacle and challenge I had to overcome in order to make a living doing what I loved to do.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with H.A.V.E. Productions – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
In order to overcome these obstacles and challenges, one had to have the talent and financial means to make an investment in Professional video equipment. It was still a major obstacle and challenge as technology was rapidly changing. It was difficult to have the equipment pay for itself as professional equipment was expensive and had to be constantly upgraded in order to keep up with the competition. So one had to do other projects in addition to special events to pay for the equipment.
Later, I decided to shorten my business name from Hank’s Audio Video Enterprises to just the initials H.A.V.E., as the Special Event business got very saturated and I knew my talent alone could not compete with the competition as I just did not have the necessary capitol in invest in the latest equipment to keep up with the Joneses, so I decided to get into the Legal Video Business of videotaping depositions. You didn’t need to constantly upgrade equipment as courtrooms do not have the budget, means or needed to have all the bell and whistles of new technology.
I saw an ad in the classified help wanted section of the Los Angeles Times from Herb Wolf of VALED Inc. a business from Massachusetts that was in the legal video business and was looking for local Los Angeles videographers with their own video equipment. They would furnish the leads and I would send them a 10% commission. This partnership was not as lucrative as I had hoped, so I contacted local court reporting agencies offering my services with the same 10% commission. Video depositions in the 1980’s was very new and not that common. Lawyers did not know how valuable this new tool was in addition to the written transcript.
I then joined the National Court Reporters Association and became a Certified Legal Video Specialist (aka CLVS) in the mid1980’s. I also became a Notary and have been in the Legal Video business ever since, which today is the majority of my business
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
My future plans are to retire.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.johnhank.com
- Phone: 818-438-4283
- Email: john.hank@sbcglobal.net
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