Using Camtasia to Quit My Job
Camtasia is a very popular video screen recording program created by TechSmith. Its probably the best screen recording application for Windows – at least that I know of. We here at PC Media make routine use of it for our video tutorials. The simplicity of it is that you start up the recorder, start recording, do your thing on screen, and stop recording. Now, we do some after-recording editing to make our videos have the style that they do. However, you don’t have to do much editing (if any at all) to make your videos useful. Now, tutorials are perhaps the most thought-of genre of video that one would do with Camtasia. However, have you thought about using it for your business?
Here’s the thing. And any person who works full time in this business will probably agree with me. This gig has a tendency to eat up all your time. I have worked hard and have created a business which has a fairly nice footprint online and I make my coin off of it. Enough to make a pretty good living. But, I’ve created this business, this thing, this SLAVE DRIVER! In other words, since I created it, I run everything and it ends up being the equivalent of the most demanding boss anybody could have. But, as Tim Ferris talks about in his book 4 Hour Work Week, what’s the point of creating a successful business on your own if you don’t have any time to enjoy it? I mean, I love the game as much as anybody, but if I’m the only guy keeping it going, then I’m stuck with it and I become the bottleneck. You see what I mean?
Make The Job Occupiable
So, what’s the answer? The answer is to make myself portable, to make myself dispensible. I want to make PC Media a self-running entity which can operate whether I am sitting at my desk or not. I’m a long way from this as of now, I must say. However, I am working toward it. I just hired a virtual assistant and am in the process of slowly but surely letting go of some things. But, how do I make it so that others can do the job I do and do it pretty much the same way?
Manuals? Screw them. Well, I should say that manuals have their place. However they have some big drawbacks as far as I’m concerned:
- They’re long and boring
- They take a long time to write
- The person reading it is most likely to go to sleep of boredom as well as not being able to SEE what you’re talking about
Recording Yourself
So, why not use Camtasia to record yourself doing what it is you do? Save the video, put it on your server or on a disc (whatever works for you) and allow others to WATCH and learn. That’s exactly what I’m going to do. For example, one of the things I want to do is show my new VA how to use my mass email software 1-2-All. Rather than try to write a manual, I’m just going to record myself doing the common tasks. It’ll probably take no more than 10 minutes to record what it would take me several hours to write. And I could turn around and have the VA document it in writing later if I wanted to.
It is important for any successful business entreprenuer to document the job they do in order to be portable. If you don’t, you’ll be stuck with that job for the rest of your life. I love what I do, but I don’t want this whole business to revolve around me for the rest of my life. So, I need to start documenting everything I do so that others can duplicate it.
Screen recording to quit my job? Kind of…at least to reduce my workload.
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Alan McCloskey
I'm David Risley. I've been making my living as a blogger for over a decade. Blogging is my business and how I support my family. With this blog, I'm just gettin' REAL and telling you how this business works. 
