Do The First Thing First

Filed Under Start A Photo Business | Leave a Comment

So you want to be a full time photographer - what have you done in the past week?

Human nature has us doing the things we love, and avoiding the things we don’t.

If we hate sales, we’ll let the customer control the entire buying process.

If we hate networking, we’ll wait around for the phone to ring.

The trouble is, as a business owner, you can’t wait for things to happen, or you won’t be in business for very long. You have to control the situation, and make sure everything comes to you.

So my question to you is, “what have you done in the past week?”

To find out, take out a notebook and record everything you do this coming week. Don’t leave anything out. Even if it seems trivial, write it down. You may find things like:

answering email - 30 minutes
shopping for camera equipment - 60 minutes
surfing websites - 60 minutes
photoshopping sample photographs - 50 minutes
talking on phone - 45 minutes
buying office supplies - 50 minutes
and so on

Now that you have your list, what does it say about your business? Are you doing things to grow your business, or just plain busy work?

While you do have to spend time on the above mentioned items, if your entire week looks like that, you’re not accomplishing goals that will grow your business. You should have things like:

networking function - 90 minutes
mailing postcards - 45 minutes
cold calling - 30 minutes
trade show booth - 1 day

Most of your time should be devoted to revenue earning tasks - or your business will no longer exist in a mere few months.

Now that you’ve seen what you’ve been doing with your week, try and write goals for the following week. Change your tasks to revenue tasks - and stick with it. Your business will thank you.

Jul

17

Putting Together Your Photography Studio

Filed Under Start A Photo Business | Leave a Comment

“Do I photograph people out of my home?”

“Do I rent out a commercial location?”

“Is it possible to work entirely on location?”

Opening up a studio is a very personal choice. If you’re like us, we wanted to keep our clients and our home life completely separate. I work out of my home now and love it. But I just didn’t want clients coming in and out of my home at any time of the day.

So for us, it was an automatic choice to open up a studio.

But what’s the best solution? Is there a right or wrong answer?

The only right answer is one that’s right for you. Start by reading and taking my studio choice quiz. Then start assessing your wants and needs.

When we did open up a studio, we also knew we didn’t want to be at the studio regular hours. And if you are in a strip center or mall, you have to be open when the customers are shopping in the area.

So we decided to open up a studio in an office building. May seem a little unusual. But we really enjoyed it because know one knew we were there unless we told them we were there. We could go in when we wanted, had access to meet people on weekends, and could close when we were traveling or simply out enjoying the day. And we didn’t have to pay grounds fees - we were in an office building. Plus we also photographed most of our work on location - so why dedicate rooms to backdrops and props?

No matter where you decide to run your studio, I would recommend a few things:

Keep your front entry way neat, clean, and with a Wow factor. When you walk in, you should entice your clients to say Wow. I’ve walked into more than one studio where the owner apologized as we stepped over stacks of paperwork and boxes of photos just to make it into the meeting room.
Create a separate sales room where you can display everything you have the desire to sell. You can’t sell what you can’t show. If you want to sell 30×40’s have them on the wall. If you want to sell multi-volume albums each with 72 pages in it, have them on display. You can only sell what a customer can see.
Keep your production rooms away from clients eyes. They don’t need to see your stacks of photographs, piles of paperwork, and boxes of unfinished business. They should only see the best of what you do.
Never have to apologize for where you’re at or what you do. Have total confidence in where you’re at and how you approach your photography. You are the expert - show only that side to your clients

And I guarantee you’ll see a boost in your business!

Jun

18

Is A Studio Necessary To Start A Photo Business?

Filed Under Start A Photo Business | Leave a Comment

So you’re ready to start a photo business. Does that mean you have to open up your home to your clients every day?

When we first started our studio, I had only one requirement – not to open up a home studio. Very few houses are set up in a way meant for client traffic.

They have to shuffle through your living room and kitchen to get to your back office.

They have to walk through your main living areas to get to your basement stairway.

You simply use your entire entry level as a studio, limiting your actual living space all together.

So what do you do instead? Can you have a successful studio without brining people into your home, or opening up a commercial location that will cost a significant amount of money each month?

Yes.

It’s called running a virtual studio. A virtual studio is one that is run with technology; one you can take with you wherever you go. You run it with a website, a blog, email, and a voice message that directs them to your online portfolio.

If you need to meet people, you do as much as you can from the phone or from a coffee shop. You choose locations for portrait sessions that are convenient for you, and offer a world of possibilities.

And if you are looking for corporate, events or wedding work, destination is the only way to go. Where else can you get paid to travel anywhere in the world?

It is possible – you just have to create a business that sells the benefits of not having a central shooting and meeting location.