Sha and Ronnie,
This question is frequently asked. Please do a search for "video" for the last year and read, read, read.
A good video rig that meets industry standards will run about $600. Active video shoppers usually want 2 rigs for doing routes. Yes, you can make very good money doing video and pay off a new rig within a month. But it is an entirely different wold of responsibility and relationships with a few schedulers and companies than what occurs in the "traditional" MS world. So I URGE you to read as much about video on the forums as you can before even thinking about equipment or signing up for video training.
Because of the cost, it is usually strongly recommended that you start by using a rig loaned by a video MSC, and get some training from your scheduler. That was you can decide if this is really for you. Most video shoppers find that they need to travel, since the longer shop interactions mean that the rotation for most locations is "one and done." So, if you have visited all 10 of the Ryan Homes locations within 50 miles of you, you will need to drive further if you want to do any more Ryan homes. And, even then, you cannot ever shop the same sales agent twice, and they move from one location to another. Thus, you will need to keep very good records of who and where you have shopped, and what names and contact info you have used. (For 2-3 classes on this, come to the IMSC spring conference in Indiana).
It is usually not the technology that becomes a problem; it is lack of a good scenario for the shop. Many video assignments are for long interactions (think 90 minutes for a new home; 2 hours for assisted living, 1 hour+ including a test drive for new cars.) This will require developing and managing a back story, aliases (not for car shops, but for most others), unique (real) contact info (phone numbers and emails) because the clients usually have all of their locations' computer systems linked. (Think Ryan homes: giving any of their sales agents a phone number or email will immediately identify when and when that was last used and the name given by the "customer" who used it.)
Finally, video shoppers are a tight knit community that also welcomes newcomers and will go out of the way to provide help and support. What I am posting here is NOT to discourage you; it is to help you focus on the important questions facing anyone looking at video. The equipment is the easy part.
All the best!
Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel
Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/05/2016 05:47PM by walesmaven.