Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Murphy.
Matt, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started the company in 2002. I started knocking on doors and introducing myself to potential customers and I built up a customer base that way. In the beginning, I did everything. I created the product and did everything else that needs to be done to operate a small business. Over the years, we’ve brought on additional team members but we’ve been very careful about only hiring new team members if we’ve found that they are going to be amazing at what they do. I’m super lucky to get to work with a great team. Everyone on the team has very high standards and that has helped us grow while keeping the quality of the work very high. I’ve been lucky to have team members who have stayed with the company for a long time. We have team members who have been with us for over 12 years which is unique for a small business.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Companies need different skills from their leaders at different stages. As a founder of a small business that is growing, you need to be constantly expanding your skills to navigate the business through each phase. When I was just starting out, I needed to be great at photography and good at sales. Those were the primary skills needed to get the business off the ground. One doesn’t need to be a great manager if they are a one-man show. However, once I started hiring additional team members, my skills needed to shift to hiring the right people, supporting them, and giving them the freedom to produce better work that I ever could. I’m a very hands on person and I really enjoy the production process so it hasn’t always been easy to step away from those tasks on a daily basis.
As we’ve grown, our clients’ needs and our projects have also become more complex. We’ve needed to consistently re-tool our approach to stay at the cutting edge. It has been important for us to put internal processes in place to help us manage more complex projects which require weeks or months of work instead of days.
Boston Virtual Imaging – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
At our core, we’re a team of photographers and filmmakers. Along the way, we’ve had to become very good at several of the technical aspects of creating and delivering our work. We’ve built strong technical capabilities in the form of software and hardware development but that work has typically been done to support our primary focus on photography and film production. Basically, we like to build our own tools to solve particular problems. Sometimes the tools we’ve built internally have spun off into separate services we provide to clients. But at our core, we’re a dedicated group of photographers and filmmakers.
I’m most proud of the team we’ve built. Our industry is mostly comprised of freelancers or single person businesses. It is unusual to find a company in our industry that is comprised of a group of full time employees. That makes a huge difference for our clients because our capabilities run much deeper than other companies and the client experience is very consistent. Many of our clients have worked with our team members for over a decade. We sell a product that is abstract. Creativity is a big part of the service that we are providing to our clients and trust is an important aspect of creativity. Having a team that understands our clients and who always have the best interests of our clients in mind allows for the kind of trust that leads to more creative solutions.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Time needs to be made to maintain and strengthen relationships with friends and family. Clients need to be happy, employees need to be happy and the business needs to be financially fit. I enjoy stepping out of my comfort zone to expand my skills and challenge myself personally and professionally. If all of those things are happening in a balanced way and I get the time to run or bike a few times a week, then I feel successful.
Contact Info:
- Address: 50 Terminal Street Unit 224
- Website: www.bosvi.com
- Phone: 617-267-0800
- Email: info@bostonvirtualimaging.com
Image Credit:
All images copyright Boston Virtual Imaging
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