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How To Master The Basics Of Success

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Success is like a ladder and no one has ever climbed a ladder with their hands in their pockets. ~Zig Ziglar

If you are planning on climbing up to the roof of your home, the steps are easy to understand. Find a ladder, place it against your home, and start climbing. One step at a time you move your feet until you reach the last one and step off to your destination. It doesn’t take much time – and probably not much thought. You just do it because you have a goal in mind.

But what if the ladder you are trying to climb has hidden steps? What if you don’t know what its leaning against, nor how many steps it will take to reach the top? Things can get a bit more challenging.

Everything in life has a final destination and the ever-important steps to get there. If you want to learn to play chess, you have to find a chessboard and playing pieces, learn the basic rules, and practice. If you want to play golf, you have to find some clubs and a ball, find a course to play on, learn the basic rules, and practice.

Running a photography business is no different. You have to have camera equipment on hand, learn the basic rules of running a business, and practice. Again and again. Things will go wrong sometimes and right others. But overall, building a solid foundation will set you up correctly and help you accomplish what you’ve set out to do – run a successful business.

If you ask an expert in the photography field what the crucial steps are to his or her success, you’ll likely hear a laundry list of items. And if you ask more than one, you’ll likely hear a few different items. Don’t get lost in the details. The real difference between a pro and an amateur is simply that the expert has built a solid foundation and is much more effective at determining what steps to take to continue building up from that successful foundation. He or she is constantly adding to the fundamental skills he or she already has in place.

You can do it too. There are three simple ideas on finding the basic skills needed to create a solid foundation.

Expect Mastery

Think back to everything you’ve achieved in life so far. Before you accomplished it, did you believe you could?

That’s kind of a trick question because the first step to any action is belief. If you think you can, you will. If your goal is to have a college degree, you take as many classes as necessary to graduate. You see the goal and word to get it.

The same applies to your business. Do you see it? Can you see yourself working full time as a photographer? Or can you only see it as a side business – your real money comes from your day job?

If you want to be a world famous photographer, you have to lay the foundation. You have to have the proper skills with the camera. You have to understand lighting, posing and production. You have to understand marketing, planning and sales. And you have to want to do it every single day, without stop, until you find success.

Think About The Long Term

Many people try to rush into success, only to give up because they simply can’t do it as well as they can see themselves doing it in their mind.

For example, lets say you’ve never had ice skates on before. But you watch the Olympics and think ice dancing looks like fun. So you head to the rink and put on your first pair of ice skates. Your first step on the ice is probably going to be filled with disaster. Your legs will wobble, your ankles will weaken, and you’ll probably find yourself sitting on the ice more than standing. But if you don’t learn to stand, you’ll never glide across the ice. If you’re not comfortable moving forward, you’ll never be able to move backward. And so on.

When you see how easy other professional photographers have it, its easy to get caught up in the excitement and expect it yourself. If they shoot 30 weddings a year making $250,000, you should be able to do it too. And you can – but keep in mind its going to take time. One foot in front of the other, learning as you go, adding on to what you’ve learned in the past, until you find the success you are looking for.

Avoid Getting Fancy

Putting the basics into action are the only important steps you need to take along the way. When you find yourself running into a complication or a problem, question yourself as to why it really seems difficult. Is it due to a shortcoming in one or more basic skills? Rarely will you find a fancy or complicated technique to be the answer.

If you can’t ice skate, the most expensive ice skates in the world won’t help you do it any better.

Thoroughly mastering the basics takes time. But its well worth the time spent. Remember, there are no “secrets” or shortcuts to success. Build your foundation. And add the basics as you go along. You’ll soon find yourself at the top of the ladder, stepping off into the lifestyle you’ve dreamed of.

Are you still struggling with understanding the basics of your DSLR? Then you have to check out the new guide DSLR: The Basics. It’s a camera and exposure book in friendly ebook format. I’ve just finished going through it myself, and love the detail and knowledge that Ed goes over. In addition to simple language for every situation, you’ll also find a wealth of information in his graphs, charts and photographs. Many of them help you understand difficult techniques in a user-friendly way. If you’ve ever struggled with the basics, or are still questioning different components of your camera, you can’t afford not to add this book to your collection.

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10 Stupid Mistakes Every New Business Owner Has To Live Through

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If you’ve always worked for the “boss” and haven’t had the experience of working for yourself, you’re in for quite a shock when you first quit and venture out on your own. Its hard to lose the “job” mentality and start doing everything from an entrepreneur’s mindset.

Yet if you’ve ever jumped over to your own business, you know there are some things you inevitably do that when you look back on, you simply laugh at your actions. “Did I really do that?” Yep, I’ve had a lot of those moments over the years.

And some of those moments stand out more than others. Here is some advice for those of you that have recently crossed over to your own business.

1. Making mistakes with your contracts.

We’ve made this mistake more times then I’d like to admit. Never:

Assume someone will sign a contract because they say they will. Have your policies set up and stick with them – “I’ll fax over a contract and hold the day for you for 3 business days. If we don’t receive it back with payment, the day will open up to others.”

Assume a handshake is good enough. You may have a great relationship in the beginning, but things change when demands start in. A contract is there to cover you and the client. Always use it to maintain the relationship.

Assume they won’t change your contract. We sent over a contract in Word early on in our career, never thinking a client would change our copy. They did. They signed it and returned it. We signed it without reading it again. We only discovered it when the client began making unusual requests after the wedding – things we couldn’t uphold because we simply didn’t have the capability. When they began questioning why we weren’t living up to the contract, we went back and read it. We spent six months living in fear doing whatever the client requested to avoid a lawsuit – and we learned a very valuable lesson.

2. Spending too much money.

You’ve finally made the break from the job, and your time is your own. Since the clients aren’t flowing in, you have a chance to sit back and dream. That’s when you can start getting into trouble.

You dream about the perfect studio. And with a little research, you find a backdrop system you can’t live with out, a room full of props, a computer program that will help you with all of your photography management chores, and a new camera that will make everyone say “WOW”.

Maybe you put a little cash away to help build your new business. Or maybe you’re dipping into the credit cards. But if you fall into the “buy it today” philosophy, you’ll quickly be regretting everything that made you want to start your own business in the first place.

Ask yourself a question every time you are about to spend money – “Do I really need this right now to move me forward?” If the answer is no, put it off for awhile until you can truly afford it.

3. Spending too little money.

People love to spend money on the “things” within the photography business. Yet the “necessities” often fall by the wayside.

A necessity would be anything that will help you grow and profit from your business. Anything else is simply a “shiny object” that gets in your way of building a successful business.

A fourth lens that photographers have been raving about on Facebook would be a shiny object. A new website to help you attract new clients would be a necessity.

The difference is one is required to build your business and help bring in clients, and therefore profits. The other is simply something you justify to have because you want it. Learn to spot the difference from the beginning. [Read more...]

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Is Photography A Possibility?

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We’re coming into the final stretch of 2011, and no matter where you sit today, one thing is for sure. 2011 has been filled with change.

This is the year we hit 7 billion people on earth. And while the number of people on earth is growing phenomenally every day, there is one thing that most are not doing: fulfilling their potential. People have the potential of changing the world, releasing their own uniqueness, and catapulting themselves into any direction they choose. Yet most aren’t. Why?

This past weekend was a “movie weekend” where many top notch films were released. Did you see any of them?

One of our favorites was the movie Hugo. If you haven’t seen it (or read the book), its about a boy who loses his family and ends up living in a train station. He ends up meeting a toy shop owner, his daughter, and their lives are entwined through a series of events set around the production of movies.

While I won’t give away the plot of the movie, one scene tied everything together, and stuck with me all weekend.

In it Hugo has a revelation. He sees the world as a machine. Every person on earth, everything we see and have around us, is here as a part of the machine. If one piece is missing, or broken, the machine can’t function the way its supposed to. So it’s up to every person to fulfill his or her passion, to fulfill their destiny in order to keep the machine working at 100 percent.

For just a moment, it makes you look at the world a little differently.

Not everyone here on earth is meant to be a Tony Robbins, the president of a large corporation, or even the President of a major country. Most people are here in supporting roles, and are meant to do one thing that will inspire the people around them, even if its only a handful of people.

So what if your destiny is photography? What are you doing to make it come true? [Read more...]

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Top 5 Mistakes We Made When We Transitioned From Corporate To Self Employed and How You Can Avoid Them

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In the early years, as we were building our business from the ground up, we couldn’t wait for the day until we could both quit corporate, and work for ourselves full time. It took several years for us both to jump over full time, but the minute we accomplished it we knew it was definitely the right choice.

Now as we look back, we can see we made a ton of great choices – and a few things we definitely would have handled a bit differently. So I share these with you in case you are on your own journey to full time entrepreneurship in hopes you’ll have a few more things to consider before you make your big move.

Not having clearly defined roles

When you get a job, they present you with a job description. They interview you to determine if you can handle the functions of the job. They hire you. They train you. And then you have set goals and expectations to help you get through day after day, week after week, month after month. [Read more...]

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The Fear of Ruining Your Dreams Of A Photography Studio

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I had a question sent to me that made me really think.

“I really want to start a photography business, but I have no idea of where to start or what to do next.”

I know she has had the opportunity to read a ton of articles here on this blog, and with over 1,000+ articles, that is a lot of information.

And I know she’s has access to some of my best training. Just one of my Kindle books – my 30 Ways in 30 Days Kindle book is probably one of the best (and affordable) ways to have a blueprint in place, ready to take you by the hand over 30 days and walk you through the process.

And yet the question remains.

So it got me thinking about what is holding her back when she has access to so much.

And while it could be many things (I’m simply guessing from a quick question) I really feel that overall, the one thing that holds people back is the fear of the unknown.

Easy Questions versus Hard Questions

When we ask easy questions, our minds can quickly come up with an answer.

What shall I have for dinner tonight? It’s a quick easy question that we ask day after day. So we search for a quick easy answer, and it usually jumps out at us in seconds.

But when we stretch beyond the norm and ask something we’ve never asked before, it becomes a little harder. And the bigger, more detailed that question is, the more we freeze up and we simply shut down rather than search for the answer.

But what if you asked a question that literally held your future in its hands? What if the question you asked would completely change your life not only for the good, but also because there were no other options?

That today is what many people are asking. They’ve been unemployed or underemployed for so long, they simply don’t have any idea what the future holds for them. And even if you have a great job today, will it really be there tomorrow?

Yep, there is no denying it. The world is changing. And the more you look back yearning for what we once had, the more you’re missing out on the greatest opportunity of our time. [Read more...]

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4 Home Based Business Myths – Did You Fall For One Of Them?

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Ahhhh, living the life of a small business owner working from home. Nothing could be better, right?

There is an underlying expectation that comes with being a home based business owner.

  • You can work when you want, play when you want, sleep when you want.
  • You can work as much (or as little) as you choose.
  • You can do many things at once, including loads of laundry, taking care of home repairs, and watching over the kids.

And of course many more.

The problem with these assumptions is they simply aren’t fact; they are the “dream” people associate with running their own businesses out of their home. There are many misconceptions about what it takes to run a business out of your home; see if you’ve fallen for any of these myths, and learn what you can do change the outcome.

Anyone can start up a successful home based business

While anyone can start up a home based business at any time, not everyone will succeed. Success isn’t something your build over night; which means the majority of people that start small businesses out of their homes are in for months, even years of hard work in order to begin seeing success. Are you up for the challenge?

Dig Deeper: 8 Ways To Know If Your Are Meant To Be a Business Owner

When you start up a new business, there is a ton to take in. Some of it will be great advice, others not so much. The key is learning to filter out what works – and what doesn’t. Over time you’ll begin learning from everything you do, and applying it in a way that helps you grow just a little bit all the time. Once you start making money on a regular basis, and can see the effects what you do has on your bottom line – that’s when success finally happens. [Read more...]

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Are You Afraid Of Your Competition?

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“I can’t put my best work on my website – I don’t want my competition finding out what I’m doing and copy me.”

“I don’t want to go into that niche of photography – there’s too much competition and I could never make any money at it.”

While it is fair to say that your competition can make things a bit more difficult for you, competition itself isn’t the real challenge. The challenge comes from trying to distinguish yourself from your competition, and offering something that no one else can. Competition in itself is a good thing. And if you learn how to view your competition in a slightly different way, you’ll see how you can use your competition to grow your business.

1. Lots of competition means there is more opportunity.

When you decide to open up your photography business, if you can look around your community and find other photographers to model, that’s a good thing. Don’t look for the photographers struggling to survive; instead look for good role models that are making a healthy living at it. If there are 25 wedding photographers in your community all making a full time living at it, that means there is enough business to go around.

2. More competition means more recognition.

Imagine if you came up with an entirely new concept – something no one had ever heard of before. It may seem like a great idea to move forward with it. But in reality, your potential customers will have to be educated on it before they know they need your products/services. If a customer already knows the idea exists, they simply have to go out and find the business that meets their desires and demands. If you have a slight twist to an old niche, you’ll stand out from the crowd. [Read more...]

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How Can You Turn Your Passion Into A Photography Business?

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What if you grew up loving something and being very passionate about it, and always wondered if you could turn it into a business and a career. Can you really turn “anything” into a lucrative business model?

I think that’s one of the exciting things about small business, and what the Internet has done for us as a society.

Small businesses can be started from scratch, immediately, and you’ll know within weeks if it has potential. Add in the Internet where you can reach millions of people with just a few clicks of the mouse, and you’ll be able to define your target market, and whether or not you’re truly onto a unique idea.

This week I found a great video from a photographer who makes her living photographing “secret” places. She’s invited into some amazing sites, and has created photographs that will haunt you and inspire you. In her presentation, she makes one key point that to me relates directly back to turning your passion into a business. She says she spends more time contacting and connecting with people to allow her to photograph in the places she loves then she does actually photographing. That’s the key.

You have to be willing to do whatever it takes to make your business ideas a reality. If you want to sell something big, it may take weeks or even months getting the idea into place. You can’t get discouraged. And you have to knock on as many doors as it takes to make it a reality.

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The One Thing That Makes You A Professional Photographer

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Its probably one of the hottest topics online when it comes to the photography profession:

The differences between amateurs and professionals

Is there truly a difference? Do you need something special to move from one to the other? And is it truly possible to make a living as a professional photographer with amateurs filling up the marketplace for part time work?

Right here on this blog we’ve discussed this concept again and again.

Dig Deeper: The Difference Between Amateurs and Professionals

Dig Deeper: What A Pro Captures Versus What an Amateur Shoots

Dig Deeper: How To Lose A Million Dollars in 3 Seconds

I just found a video that touches on this very topic. Michael Freeman says it in the simplest way possible:

Professional photography means making a living from it.

Can’t argue with that. [Read more...]

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Why Perfection Makes You A Poor Photographer

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“I’ve been working on my website for months now. It took me months to choose the right system to design it on, and I’ve had to go back through all of my images, finding the perfect ones to include in my gallery. We’re almost finished with it now, but it’s still not quite the way I wanted it to look. I’m not sure how many people I’ll tell about it, because it truly isn’t up to my standards.”

Do you see yourself in the above statements? Or how about:

“I’ve been shooting for years now, and love the idea of building a business. I’ve created my business cards, and have been planning for quite awhile. But I’m just not sure what to do next. I want to make sure everything is in order before I find my first client. I don’t want to give the appearance my photography isn’t up to par, so I’d rather wait and make sure everything is right before I start bringing in clients.”

Yep, both of the above examples are a form of perfectionism – something I hear quite a bit in start up businesses.

Perfectionism is the refusal to accept any standard short of perfection. It’s the tendency for being displeased with anything that is not perfect or does not meet extremely high standards.

Unfortunately, those standards are always self-evaluated, and determined through your own mindset and opinions.

Being a perfectionist may sound good in theory – who wouldn’t want a business set with high standards? But in reality, perfectionism does more harm then good because it puts us into a state of paralysis that reduces “action”.

In a report on perfectionism, psychologist J Clayton Lafferty PhD said it best:

Perfectionism has nothing to do with actually trying to perfect anything. It is about illusion, the desire to look good.

And while he was talking about perfectionism in corporate America, the same holds true throughout small business as well.

Small businesses work because they are willing to take action, and move forward with a new idea to test and see how well the market likes the idea. Then they tweak, and tweak, and tweak, until they get it right. [Read more...]

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