Six Tips for Maintaining Sanity During the Busy Season

Hello everyone

I had such a hectic day yesterday and today so my apologies for not writing anything and posting in a timely manner.

For this quick post I wanted to post a link to a great review of what to do during the coming holiday season. It is a carry over from what I discussed last week, but here are what some other professionals in the the business think you should be doing.

It is from the Shootproof website blog. It is where I host all my photographs for my clients.

Hope you like the article.

Denzil

You've Got Paying Clients - Now What?

It's such a great feeling when your work is truly valued, and especially when it starts paying the bills! There is so much more to running a photography business than just finding clients and taking pictures, of course. Following are a few steps that will take your business to the next level.

1. Surround yourself with people who are strong in ways you are not. Find a great lawyer, accountant, and insurance agent who understand the photography industry and will be able to guide you when you have questions. There are so many details that they can bring to your attention to help you save money and keep your business going in the right direction. Having a lawyer look over your contracts (remember to ALWAYS have a contract!) will save you from issues down the line.

2. Talk to your accountant/banker/lawyer about incorporation. Becoming an LLC was such a great decision for me, and it shows my clients that I take my business seriously.

3. Find client management software that suits your needs and can grow with your business. Keeping track of clients, to-do lists, and payments is vital to having happy clients and clear records. Being able to do that all in one place really helped ease some of the anxiety that was always gnawing at me. My program of choice is the recently launched 17 Hats, which lets me accept credit card payments, track projects from quote and contract to completion, and sync with Google Calendar (among other things). While this is exactly the type of program I have been waiting for, there are tons of options out there that may be perfect for you such as Pixifi or Simply Studio. Have a favorite already? Leave a comment with your experience!

Happy Friday!

-Friday Ambassador

Blogging when Busy - recent work and the importance of SEO

It's so important to try to blog regularly for your business to bring in traffic from the type of clients you're looking to book. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is something you'll learn about in various classes, and blogging with posts of at least a couple hundred words and relevant tags will help your web presence thrive. For a decent breakdown of SEO, check out this article from TechRepublic. If you have SEO resources you look to for advice, share them below!

Wedding season has been busier than ever, and my business blog has suffered because of how much work I have. Finally I found a few free minutes to gather images and get a special post published! Today I want to share a recent wedding with you that meant a great deal to me. The flowers at Friendship Park Conservatory in Des Plaines made such a gorgeous backdrop for the very first same-sex wedding I had the privilege of photographing.

Happy Friday, and happy shooting!

-Friday Ambassador

Work Cited:

Matteson, Scott. "SEO 101: How Search Engine Optimization Really Works." TechRepublic. CBS Interactive, 18 Dec. 2013. Web. 26 Sept. 2014

Covering Your Bases: Equipment Insurance

Source: Terry White's Tech Blog.

A few weeks ago I wrote about safety when it comes to setting up a shot in public places, but there's another, equally important aspect about safety that deserves its own post. Your gear is what allows you to capture the best images for your clients, so insuring that equipment may just save you from a major financial setback if something should happen. You may find that your homeowner's insurance won't cover equipment that you use to make a living. Talk to your agent to find out, and if you need to add more coverage for your photography gear, check out the options below!

• Start with basic coverage through an association membership. Groups like PPA offer coverage up to a certain dollar amount once you join (in this case, up to $15,000). More coverage can be added up to $100,000.00 with their PhotoCare Plus plan.
• Package Choice through Hill & Usher is a popular plan in the photographic community. The site allows you to easily add or delete items from your insured equipment schedule.
• Another provider is TCP & Co., which offers options that look great for studio owners. 

While you're at investigating equipment insurance options, take a look at this article by The Modern Tog about other types of insurance you should think about purchasing if you plan on starting your own business. Protect yourself, your family, and your business for peace of mind while you do what you love!

-Friday Ambassador

Works Cited:

Brenke, Rachel. "Photography Business Insurance Coverages Every Photographer Needs." The Modern Tog. TheModernTog.com, 2014. Web. 24 July 2014.

Hill & Usher, LLC. "Package Choice™ Insurance for Professional Photographers from Hill & Usher Insurance & Surety, LLC." Package Choice™ Insurance for Professional Photographers from Hill & Usher Insurance & Surety, LLC. Hill & Usher, LLC, 2014. Web. 24 July 2014.

PPA. "PPA Insurance Solutions | PPA." PPA Insurance Solutions | PPA. Professional Photographers of America, 2014. Web. 24 July 2014.
TCP & Co. Inc. "Photography Insurance." Studio Photography Insurance. TCP & Co. Inc., 2014. Web. 24 July 2014.

White, Terry. "How I Broke My D700 By Tethering - Terry White's Tech Blog." Terry White's Tech Blog. Terry White, 22 Sept. 2011. Web. 24 July 2014.

Three People You Need on Your Team!

There is so much that goes into running a business. If you plan on working for yourself, you're still going to need some help. Some of you may want to hire on assistants or go into partnerships with other photographers, but there are three key team members everyone should have.

1. Lawyer. Whether you seek out individual counsel or get covered legally through a professional organization like Professional Photographers of America (PPA), an attorney can help you draft solid contracts and will be able to assist if something happens that requires representation.

2. Accountant. Tax season makes me oh so anxious! If I didn't have someone on my team to make sure my numbers make sense and I have found all possible deductions, I'd probably end up paying way too much and thinking I paid way too little. An accountant can get you on the right track when it comes to bookkeeping, and can also provide financial advice about things like incorporation.

3. Insurance agent. Covering your gear with good insurance will save you major headaches when something breaks or is stolen. It's stressful enough to lose an expensive camera to damage or a thief; you don't want the fact that you have bad or no insurance to bring even more stress to the situation! PPA covers up to a point, but you'll likely need to up your coverage as your gear collection grows.

I also have a great banker and fabulous friends who will model for my lighting and retouching experiments (like Briana, right), all of whom have helped make my business stronger. If you've started your business or have experience in the industry, what do you think of the list? Did I miss someone vital to your team?

-Friday Ambassador

Ethics in Business

Source: "Stop Stealing Photos." Photo Stealers. Stop Stealing Photos, 2014. Web. 20 Mar. 2014.

The ultimate free advertising is word of mouth, when people love your service so much that they share your images and information with family and friends. Eventually, your studio may even become a household name! At the other end of that spectrum, though, is the fact that your reputation can be completely ruined because of one mistake. Taking one shortcut or making one unethical move, no matter how small it may seem to you at the time, can mean the end of your career. Following are just a few examples of people taking those shortcuts and deciding that they don't want to take the time to create their own work, whether photographed or written.

During the past couple of months I have been following Photo Stealers/Stop Stealing Photos, which was started by a photographer with the goal of exposing copyright infringers. You will be amazed at how many so-called photographers she has on her site! Keep an eye on her Facebook page for new listings to see how NOT to run your business. The image above is one example of a photographer taking an original image (right) and using it as his or her own (left). The price for wedding coverage alone is enough to tell anyone in the know that something is off, and having a resource like Stop Stealing Photos that calls out frauds is one step toward weeding out those without real skill.

People haven't just been infringing on image copyrights. Lately, it seems there has been a wave of plagiarism by some well-known photographers in the wedding and portrait industries. Without mentioning names and adding to the myriad articles and opinion pieces out there, one popular wedding photographer has repeatedly copied other people's tweets while another has duplicated entire pages of his workshop brochures from other photographers. While copying tweets may not seem all that horrible, that first photographer has built up a reputation of being a funny, relatable person that others trust. Even such a seemingly innocuous thing can bring an entire body of work into question. Had she simply retweeted instead of making it seem like she was the originator of the various thoughts, she may not have become the center of controversy.

Much like the legal and political worlds, in photography the appearance of impropriety is enough to get you shunned. Build your brand in an ethical, honest manner and your clients (not to mention other photographers) will appreciate and value you. Check out this November blog entry on ethics if you're interested in photojournalism, a field in which even the smallest photographic manipulation is a definite career-ender!

-Friday Ambassador

Works Cited:

"Photo Stealers on Facebook." Photo Stealers on Facebook. Facebook, 2014. Web. 20 Mar. 2014.
"Stop Stealing Photos." Photo Stealers. Stop Stealing Photos, 2014. Web. 20 Mar. 2014.

The Pricing Puzzle

It is pretty much inevitable that as a professional photographer, you'll have to figure out how much to charge per job or per hour. The pricing puzzle has a different solution for everyone; it may be tempting to look up photographers in your genre and compare packages and session fees, but don't get caught in that trap! What you need to charge depends on so many factors, and you don't want to end up selling yourself short or charging more than your level of experience is worth. Get all the pieces of the puzzle together, though, and you will end up on the road to success.

There are two major factors that go into running any business: cost of doing business (COB), and cost of living (COL). You'll be learning a great deal about these things in your business classes - pay attention and keep all of your work because you will really benefit from revisiting the worksheets on at least an annual basis to see whether, and how much, you need to raise your prices. If you haven't had a business class yet, it's not too early to start tracking where your money goes so you'll have a really good idea of what you take in and spend on a monthly basis. You will be super prepared for class, to boot!

Cost of Living
While there are charts and calculators available to determine COL based on where you live, it will be much more useful to you to input every single regular payment you have to make into a custom chart. Things like utility payments, average grocery costs, mortgage/rent, and other items that are not business-related will go into this chart. You will also want to include entertainment expenses to ensure you have enough money to enjoy your free time with the prices you set.

Cost of Doing Business
The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) has great resources on its pricing guides page to help you better understand what you need to consider when setting your pricing. The cost of doing business calculator by National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) is a great place to start, but I'd suggest creating an Excel document in which you expand on the items included in the calculator. For example, if you have one payment for web hosting and one for your domain name, itemize these instead of simply including "web hosting/portal service" so you can see exactly where your money goes each month or year. Similarly, itemizing each professional subscription or membership will help you keep track of how many organizations you have joined and determine whether you want to renew each one annually. Don't forget to include licensing costs in this section (for example, my studio is an LLC so I had to account for setup and annual fees - business incorporation is something you should talk about with your accountant or bankers, and is a blog post for another day!).

Once you have all of your costs (including the salary you want to pay yourself, if self-employed), it's time to determine the final pricing. You don't want to just cover your basic costs, you want to make a profit! Think about what makes sense for your business: will you have tiered packages from which clients can choose? Will you offer products like albums, prints, and custom flash drives for image files? Try to envision your ideal client and how he or she will be using your images. Because my focus is weddings and portraits, my pricing includes various packages with some special à la carte products (like this super fun wooden box with mounted prints I just added to my offerings, tested with some of my Tanzania photographs!).

Once you've set your prices, be confident! If you have confidence that you are worth what you charge, so will your clients.

Have any pricing advice or concerns? Leave a comment and I'll share my opinion or point you to some helpful resources!

Works Cited:

"Cost of Doing Business Calculator." National Press Photographers Association. National Press Photographers Association, 2012. Web. 06 Mar. 2014.

"Pricing Guides." American Society of Media Photographers. American Society of Media Photographers, Inc., 2014. Web. 06 Mar. 2014.

-Friday Ambassador

Let's Shoot

Greetings fellow shooters! Tuesday Ambassador Stanley, here welcoming you to another Tuesday. Unfortunately, this post will be rather short due to some troubling times of a corrupt Lightroom catalog in which I have been dealing with the repairs for the past couple of days. So in the troubling times of photography is where I will delve quickly into the side of me that is not in school.

©2014 Stanley/Demand Media

Yes, this post is one that rather “toots my own horn” so to speak, but I will also tell you that my time working for this editorial company is a rather pleasant one. As some of you may know I have been hired by Demand Media Studios, an online editorial, work from home job based out of the state of Washington. While the pay is not great by any means, it does take very little time to complete an assignment on a two week deadline. Once accepted it’s just another thing to tack on to my list of publications. However, I would like to note that approximately 99.8% of the assignments listed will not apply to you as it can be very specific, or there is no return on investment to even warrant creating the assignment.

©2014 Stanley/Demand Media

Well this would be a perfect time to mention a future publication happening in late June of this year with one of “your’s truly” photos making the finals in the “Photographer’s Forum” “Best of College and High School Photography” contest. I sure hope someone reading this could say the same. However, isn't the field of photography putting yourself out there to the world? Perhaps many of you reading this have not made it that far in your studies to warrant a right or wrong answer. I will just put it to you plain and simple. You need to get yourself out there and known to the world with whatever it is that interests you. How you go about doing is completely up to you but I warn you that your reviewer is looking for something different! I just hope that you have a portfolio to back up what you say about your work.

©2014 Stanley/Demand Media

So what are you waiting for?! Do some Google searching on photography contests and maybe even some jobs in your area. If you cannot seem to find any jobs in your area then I suggest the next time you log into school take a look at the “Career Resources” under the “Student Services” drop down menu and go the “Job Search Guide,” right now though. If you have not already done so I would recommend creating and fully updating a LinkedIn account as you will be using it in Business of Photography not just for assignments, but maybe for some serious job hunting. Seriously if you have downtime from school and are seriously getting bored why not take a look at your options. Trust me, I did not get where I am today by thinking about what I want to do. Otherwise you wouldn't be reading this. And as always, thanks for reading.

- Tues. Amb. Stanley

All photos courtesy of me and Demand Media. But mostly me given that I re-uploaded them. Yes, the contract says I can do this.

Links to publications:

Difference Router Single/Dual-Band

Soften Carhartt Jackets

Connect 12 Volt Marine Batteries

Google+ for Photographers Part 2: It's Good for Business

Last week's post focused on getting to know Google+ (G+).  Now that you have a feel for the interface, let's talk about how it can help your photography business.

The single most valuable aspect of bringing your business to G+ is the fact that Google is one of the most-used search engines out there.  With the backing of Google's SEO analytics and various tools and apps, you can be in control of how your business appears when people search for your type of photographic services.  By adding your business address to Google Maps and completing a sleek profile on G+ with high quality images, your brand will look better than those that do not take the time to set up a profile.  Remember, anyone can post anything about your business at any time, and you can take control of your brand identity by making sure your social media profiles are complete and relevant.

Once you have the basics set up, you can search for communities that interest you.  These can help you with networking, continuing education, or even connecting with potential clients.  Try a search for local communities for more specific networking, but these offer a good starting point:

• General photography community: Google+ Photographers
• Wedding photography community: Wedding Photographers
• Fine art photography community: Fine Art Photography
• Photography education community: School of Digital Photography

Using social media to connect with other service providers and vendors is a wonderful way to get some free publicity.  G+ allows you to create circles to connect with others and be specific with what you share with whom.  Connecting a post to another business's G+ page gives you exposure to potential clients.  This is especially relevant to the wedding industry, in which word of mouth plays a huge role in booking clients.  Vendors love seeing professional photos of their product or service in action and will be excited to share it with their current and potential customers.  If I post this ring image on my G+ business page, I will want to be sure that the venue (a golf club, hence the tee and grass used to showcase the ring) and the jeweler both see it.  It is also an appropriate image to share with current, former, and potential clients.  If I wanted to post a discounted print offer to current clients, I would share it only with my "client" circle so as not to clutter the G+ feeds of the vendors to whom the post is irrelevant.  By creating circles, I can select any post to share with clients only, vendors and clients, all my friends, everyone on G+... the possibilities are endless!

The integration of Google's many apps, its keyword optimization, and the power of its name in the search engine business make G+ an important tool for your business.  For G+ tips straight from the experts, follow +GoogleBusiness.  If you already use G+ for your business, do you have any tips or techniques to share that have been successful in promoting your work or connecting with clients?  Please tell us in the comments!

Good luck getting started with your business page!

-Friday Ambassador

Stand Out!

 

Saturday Ambassador

Whether you are making your initial foray into the world of professional photography or you are already established, it is important to stand apart from your contemporaries. Consider the concept of branding: Some companies and their products are instantly recognizable by their logo and the colors they employ in their literature, labels and such make you think of that company.

 

 

Think about how this applies to you as a photographer and your future or existing business. How will you compete in such a congested environment?  It is imperative that you define yourself within your chosen genre as an exemplary photographer who can offer a more unique approach or a higher quality of service than your competitors.

 

Branding is the key. Several classes address this issue and provide an opportunity to create logos, branding statements, packaging designs, promotional materials and a portfolio with which to impress prospective clients or employers. Take this seriously, as it is paramount to success in the industry.

 

If you are at a loss for inspiration where branding is involved, consider the following:

·         What do you do really well?

·         In which genre do you intend to work?

·         Which colors and design elements exemplify your work?

·         Which font styles complement it?

·         On what type of background are your images best displayed?

·         What type of clientele are you seeking? Who is the audience for your work? How much do they make? What do they do for a living? What is their cultural background?

 

All of these things, and more, are relevant to the image you create for yourself and your business, as your customers need to relate to your presentation in some manner. Research what the competition is doing to determine what works and what doesn't. Then, improve on it. Your artwork is unique to you, and your professional image should be, too.
 

~Saturday Ambassador