Giving Back to the Community

A Happy Wednesday morning to everyone.

This morning I want to talk about some interesting things that we will be having in the coming months. Well, why so early you would say? The reason is that normally it takes some organizing and we would like everyone to contribute if possible.

In August to are going to dedicate the entire month to "Giving Back to the Community" series. This is the pre-planning stages and we would like you to think about all the opportunities that you might be able to give back to the community.

Now, it has to be considered in conjunction with running your own business. How would you be able to benefit and sustain a project like this on a yearly basis? How are you going to cover your costs or maybe pick up residual income if you pay for your time and prints by donating your time?

To get you going in the right direction I am going to mention a few things that you may want to consider. There are thousands of businesses around the country that make a living by giving back to the community.

One example is building a package for a Charity Auction. You may give away a portrait package, that may cost you $250. Contact all the charities in your area and find out if you can contribute to their cause.

So how does this work?

1. Get some marketing material. Banner, postcards, flyers and pamphlets that tell people about your business. (You cost should not be more than $150) WHCC
2. At the auction you can have a vendor table and tell people about what you contributed to the auction.
3. Now, make sure to get a signup sheet or even use your IPad or mobile phone to capture Name and Emails. A good way to do this is use Chimpmail. Chimpadeedoo is an app that integrates with your IPad and mobile phone to capture email addresses so that you can build your marketing list. 
4. Remember that the goal of all your charity work is to build a community where people get to know who you are and what you can contribute. 
5. Always make sure that you have some marketing or promotional material that you can give away so that you can get the referral business and you may just be called back the following year or from other businesses that see what contribution you make to the community.

Anther great way to find ways to give back to the community is by joining PPA.com Besides being a great resource for photographers, they also have a yearly plan of charity work and giving back to the community.

One charitable project that I always do each year is the Operation Smile project. You can work directly with the organization or as I did, I went to my local dentist and we discussed how this charity giving opportunity could benefit both of us.

1. We did a family portrait month. 
2. Great smiles for a mini-shoot where 50% of the sitting fee goes to the charity and you get customers to pay for your print.
3. The dentist gets the foot traffic and you may even get to use the dentist mailing list to send out information about the charity event. 

There are so many ways that we can give back to the community. A celebration of smiles mini session in your local hospital or clinic. A shoot your pet session at the local veterinary clinic if you love photographing animals. Giving back to the troops is also a personal favorite of mine.

We would love to know what you have planned? So get out there and start thinking about what impact you are going to be taking on your your community! Send your tweets to @dgephotos or please just leave me a comment on what you have planned. 

We look forward to seeing your projects and now is the time to start planning. 

I know it is early, but my dentist Photographs for smiles took almost 2 months of pre-planning to get a great day organized.

Have a great day and we will speak again next week.

Denzil