I’ve never been a fan of New Year’s resolutions – I always figured, if I saw a change I needed to make in my self or my life, why not make it then? Why wait?

Well, for the same reason we eat too much around the holidays, put off going to the doctor too long when we’re sick, and spend more time trying to learn photography in front of a computer instead of behind the lens – we are imperfect creatures.

We need a catalyst to make change so immediate and important that we get off our butts and do what’s right instead of what’s easy.

So here we sit together, on the brink of 2012 – let’s look at 12 ways we can make this year the best in our lives as part time professional photographers.

1. You are your own worst enemy – Procrastination

I’d bet good money your first gut reaction to seeing this subhead was to put off reading it. Odds are you felt that uncomfortable twist inside that says, “Meeeeh, I’ll come back to that later.”

I’ll tell you honestly and up front, Procrastination and its conjoined twin Inaction are by far the biggest reasons your business is not where you dream it to be.

You know the dreams – when you read something inspirational, or you start to get something done to better your business, or you get a big compliment on your art, or in that twilight time between laying down and falling asleep – that time when your heart’s desires manifest themselves in wonderful half-moment visions of what your business and your life could be like, “If only…”

Your ego’s defense mechanism is of course the excuse – “If only I had time,” “If only I had more money,” “If only I had a better camera…”

Horsesh*t.

But you didn’t need me to tell you that, you already know it. Sometimes our egos sound like 4-year-olds – they whine and make up excuses with absolutely no connection to reality. But just like little kids, often we let our egos get away with it.

2012 is the year to give your ego a swift kick in the arse.

(Complete aside: While covering a local school board meeting here in Texas for the newspaper, my coworker overhead a few members of the board of trustees talking about spanking kids – one said spanking was ineffective and barbaric, another said such punishment was an act of teaching and love, and the third said, “Well then my daddy suuuure must have loved me!”)

The first step to beating procrastination’s butt is to recognize it and call it out to its face. When you should be taking action of any kind – walking out the door to practice your art, reading your camera manual and practicing to better understand shutter speed and F-stops, updating photos on your Facebook page or blog – and then you don’t, you need to stop everything and at the least acknowledge what you are doing, that you are putting off something that would benefit your business or life because it scares you in some small way.

Just the act of consciously acknowledging an act of procrastination can begin to empower you against it.

The next step is to do “just five minutes” or “just 15 minutes” of work. The hardest part of any act, any project, is to start doing it. Reading, studying, learning, thinking, absorbing – that’s the easy part, of course, because it requires no real effort, and there’s no risk involved. Taking action imparts the risk of failure, which we all have an absolutely disproportionate fear of. Start with baby steps.

And of course the final step is to follow through. You’ve packed your clubs, you’ve driven to the golf course, you’re on the first tee and you’ve drawn back to hit the ball down the fairway – let loose. You’ve got 18 holes to go, and you’ll never score until you finish them all.

Projects, goals of any kind, take focused effort to complete – and don’t fool yourself into thinking that becoming a better photographer is a passive act. Certainly, making any photo is better than making none, but real progress as a professional artist comes as you take on specific challenges – bettering your grasp of manual camera controls, improving how you pose subjects in relation to your light source to make their eyes dazzle, practicing and adding one specific new scene to your must-shoot list.

Honestly, you can skip the next 11 suggestions if you’re going to ignore this one. If you don’t overcome procrastination, you’ll never get around to them anyway.

As the goddess of victory commands, “Just Do It.”

2. Imitate your way to the top

Pick a photographer whose art you really love. Not some over-the-top weird artsy type whose work belongs in a turtleneck-magnet gallery, but someone who is obviously doing very well in the industry of professional portrait photography.

Now do whatever it takes to shoot just like them.

Don’t copycat their work of course, but make them your subject of study as you learn to improve your art and make it more attractive, more salable to your market.

“But, but, but, I’m an artist! I’m a unique and precious snowflake and I must carve my own path lest I stifle my creative spirit!”

Well Princess, you learn to walk before you dance – you have to learn to make serviceable, salable photography before you set out to revolutionize the industry.

As marketing guru Seth Godin so precisely puts it, you don’t have to be the best in the world – just the best in their world, in the world of your target market.

You limit your growth as a photographer when you invest all your focus into creating “new” art instead of learning the nuts and bolts of how other successful professionals earn a living. I could trim my entire portfolio down to about six shots and do those same six shots every shoot from now until retirement and make an honest living doing it. That wouldn’t be very fun or exciting, but it’s the truth – you’ve got to consistently nail the basics, your foundational salable shots, before you can begin to successfully play and create from imagination and vision.

It will come, and it’s a great place to be as a photographer, when you can quickly knock out your basics during a shoot and then just play and flow throughout the rest of your time with a subject. As an artist, as a creative type, it’s both fun and satisfying.

Until then, choose a photographer to study and imitate, and work toward equaling both their technical and artistic abilities. Study each image, each scene, each setup – study the lighting, the catchlights in the subjects’ eyes, the posing, the background, the colors and textures – learn what makes each image tick, then practice those parts until you can consistently recreate the whole.

This kind of specific, purposeful, guided learning will help you make much better photos much faster than the typical scattershot, passive practice most photographers employ.

Once you’ve mastered one photographer’s repertoire, choose another, better photographer, and learn their work. It can take months, years if your practice time is limited, but just being on equal artistic footing with a successful professional opens so many doors to your own financial success – and the resultant time and artistic freedoms that come with it.

3. Get your web site right

Bless your heart, but you don’t know what you’re doing.

I say this with all the southern gentility I can muster. It’s nothing personal, it’s no affront to you as an artist, but photographers are no more web designers than your dentist is an optometrist.

If your business is off the ground and you’re turning a profit, one of the first places you should invest those profits is into an inexpensive but professional web site. Just like in the start-up end of the photography market, there are plentiful talented-if-inexperienced web designers ready to do good work for honest pay. Their grasp of code and layout and search engine optimization at their worst is better than yours at your best – you neither can nor should “do it all.”

There are exceptions to this rule, of course, but far more often than not I see budding professional photographers with perfectly salable art wrapped in a broken, ugly, Do It Yourself mess of a web site. Or a WordPress blog straight off the default template.

The profits from just 2-3 photo shoots will afford you a far better web site. Keep in mind, your web site does work for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week – give it the investment it deserves to do the best job it can for you. You don’t need to spend a thousand dollars on a custom site far beyond the scope of your present work – all you need is a home page, a portfolio gallery, an About page, a blog, and a contact page.

If you’ve yet to turn a profit or charge for your work (see No. 12 on this list), draw on the talents and advice of anyone you know with web design experience. A six-pack of beer or a bottle of wine is often enough compensation to have a friend over to help you go over your site and make improvements. Start with a simple WordPress blog site where you can post fresh photos every week and develop from there. Even the least technical among us can change the logo out, set up pages and make posts to a WordPress site – if you have trouble with it, just visit the Google or watch the YouTubes.

Along with your business card and e-mail newsletter, your web site is an equal part of the core of your business marketing – if you’re more interested in what new lens or flash you’ll buy next instead of having your web site given a professional’s touch, your priorities are misplaced.

4. Set a Facebook and blog posting schedule

All of my business comes from Facebook and word of mouth – which, here in the digital age, are pretty much the same thing.

Around 2005 is when MySpace became my biggest source of clients. When Facebook took over, so went my clientele.

Facebook is all about being where your market is. Easily three out of every four times a client contacts me to set up a shoot, it’s through Facebook. Surprisingly often, I’ll never even talk with a client by phone or e-mail before or after our shoot – Facebook is instant, convenient, and a daily (if not hourly) stop for most folks.

Would I rather enjoy a chat on the phone or, better, a face-to-face visit with a client? Of course, but as the service provider it is not my place to force a consultation on a client who obviously prefers a digital medium – hence why they contacted me on Facebook in the first place.

My personal Facebook also serves as my professional presence – most folks prefer to keep the two separate, and Facebook even has different profile setups to provide specific accommodations for each.

Once you’ve set up your Facebook page for your business, you need to maintain it, alongside your blog on your business web site.

I like to post something to Facebook daily, and update my blog with a recent photo shoot weekly.

Facebook being a casual place, you don’t have to always post your latest professional work or only talk about your photography business – share links to local news, post a photo of your cat and tell a funny story – but just be sure that what you post is something of interest and appropriate to your target market. Be creative, have fun, add value.

On my blog I stick to highlights and commentary about recent photo shoots, and photo stories of fun or interesting life events. I try to pack each post with good keyphrases, writing conversationally but with purpose while including terms potential clients may use on Google when searching for a local photographer. I try to include the names of all the locations my client and I shot at, where they went to school if they did so locally, etc.

Make posting to Facebook a daily part of your routine, and pick a day of the week (I’m partial to Sunday evenings) to update your blog with fresh photos. It only takes a few minutes, but the free exposure you get with your target market is unmatched by any other venue.

5. Be Wise – Advertise

Getting your name and art out there for potential clients to see is one of the biggest challenges photographers face as they make the transition to paid professionals.

Early on, the problem is not that your art is bad, it’s that your marketing is nonexistent. It’s not that everyone thinks you suck, they just don’t think about you at all.

Advertising to me is the paid arm of marketing – print ads in your local newspaper, postcards in the mail, a billboard out on the highway, your Google AdSense campaign, that sort of thing. You trade your hard-earned dollars for access to the eyeballs of thousands of potential clients.

Despite the fact that my day job for the past 13 years has been with a newspaper, I am a very frugal and measured supporter of paid advertising. “Any advertising” does not equal “good advertising.” Any act of marketing you undertake should have an intended result from a specific, targeted set of people. If you want to book more newborn baby shoots, don’t advertise in your local paper’s automotive section, unless there’s an article on car seats. Make sense?

Advertising is the quick and easy way to get in front of a market, but it’s also scattershot – it’s often inexpensive because it’s mass marketing. The more targeted the advertising venue, the more expensive it is.

Advertising is also a process of placement, measurement, and adjustment – it is not something you just do and hope you book more shoots. Advertising has to be done over time, the results must be measured, and adjustments should be made to make your advertising dollars more effective.

For example, at my newspaper you can run a one-column by one-inch display ad for $8 a week. The cost isn’t exorbitant, and the ad will reach around 8,000 people each week. Odds are, 400 (five percent) of those people invest in professional portrait photography at all. Maybe 20 (five percent) of those people are in the market for portraits right now. I’ll do well if one (five percent) of those people sees my ad and calls me to book a shoot. But assuming I make more than $8 on that shoot, my money was well-invested.

Unfortunately, while advertising salespeople like to suggest there’s a formula to guarantee a certain amount of business from an ad, people are infinitely unpredictable creatures. You may run an ad for a month and never get a bite from it. You may stop advertising and six months down the road have someone call you and say they saw your ad in the paper months before and finally got around to calling you. It’s almost random.

Almost.

Over weeks and months and years, you can run consistent advertising and get fairly consistent results from those ads. You’ll learn through your measurements what months are better than others, and what promotions to advertise when to get the best results. Every market is different, and unless another locally advertising photographer wants to clue you in, you’ll have to go through the learning process yourself.

It’s not an inexpensive education, but it’s fun, and almost always if you stay frugal, the return on your investment will have been worth the cost. Keep in mind that every new client is a potential repeat client – every subject with whom you shoot is worth far more than the first sale you make with them, both in repeat business and word of mouth.

That said, my newspaper also sells full-page color ads for over a thousand dollars for a single week’s placement – just because an advertising option exists doesn’t make it a smart choice for your business. Should the local liquor store take out a half-page color ad in the paper the week before New Year’s? Of course. Should you bump the size of your family portraiture ad in November while promoting Christmas card photos? Of course.

Spend as little as possible on advertising, and only spend more when there’s a clear and profitable purpose for doing so.

Salespeople will give you a million reasons why you should spend more money – that’s their job. Holt tight to your pursestrings, and only invest within your means.

6. Volunteer your talents

Volunteering with a worthwhile charity has long been one of my first suggestions to newly-minted professional photographers. It gives you great face time with potential clients, it gives you an established venue where your art can be seen, and it’s just a good thing to do for your community. Do right by folks and they’ll do right by you.

Charitable organizations often have many needs for professional photography:

• Portraits of founders
• Annual individual and group portraits of board members
• Photos to accompany news and press releases
• Photos of fundraising events
• Photos and photo stories of the beneficiaries of the charity’s work

Explore your community for a charity with a cause you support and that has some connection to your target market.

For example, we have several local non-profits that help high schoolers earn scholarships in a wide variety of fields. High school seniors being my specialty, I attend their events to provide photos for the newspaper, I set up a mobile studio and do stylish portraits at their annual prom fashion show, I donate gift certificates for photo shoots to their silent auctions, etc.

There’s always a way to help, and the rewards both social and financial are more than worthwhile.

7. Set up a photo event

Most folks don’t need professional photos, they need a reason.

This is true of almost all sales and marketing – you don’t sell the steak, you sell the sizzle. Hardly anyone who buys a new car needs a new car. They need transportation; good marketing makes them desperately want a specific car.

A photo event can give potential clients just the reason they need to invest in fresh portraits for themselves or their families.

Bunnies and baby chicks at Easter, Halloween costume contests, sitting on Santa’s knee at Christmas – yeah, I hear you, it’s cliche and done to death, but there’s a reason. It pays.

Three weeks ago my wife and I took the kids to the Bass Pro Shop in San Antonio, and there were so many families in line to pay to be photographed with Santa that the store had to use a ticketing system and offered everything from a remote control truck arena to an in-store merry-go-round to ease the misery of waiting parents.

Touching on the next tip in this list, you want to be the photographer hosting these events in your own community. Whether it’s for your apartment complex, your neighborhood, your city, your zip code, your potential clients would likely much rather spend their money with you and receive timely and personal service.

When I set up a photo event, I try to do the sales session directly after the shoot. For my Easter mini-shoot, we keep it super simple – we buy a bunch of stuffed animal bunnies in sizes from small to massive, make a big pile of them, and then photograph the kids hugging and playing with the toy bunnies. We spend 15 minutes shooting, five minutes culling, and 10 minutes selling. We book one shoot every 45 minutes for one or two days, depending on the number of bookings. If my wife and I double team, her doing photos while I do sales, we can pack twice as many shoots in a day without anyone feeling rushed.

Donate a portion of proceeds to a local non-profit, and you’ve got an instant press release for your local newspaper and radio station, both pre-event and post-event. We also do a drawing from our list of clients to give away the biggest, most expensive bunnies from the shoot, and donate the remaining stuffed animals to charity – local toy drives, the thrift store that benefits our local non-profit medical clinic, emergency services which gift stuffed animals to young children caught in stressful situations, and so on.

Photo events only grow in popularity with each event you host. I’m partial to frequent (weekly to monthly) promotions and quarterly photo events – more often of the latter if I’m targeting different markets. Even if a client doesn’t bite on your Easter promotion, they may at Christmastime.

Photo events give clients a motivational reason to finally get the photos taken they’ve been putting off for too long.

8. Own Your Zip Code

You can be somebody to someone or nobody to everyone – never cast your net too wide.

The more narrowly you can focus your efforts as an artist and business owner, the easier and more deeply you will reach within your target market.

It’s far easier to become the best baby photographer in your community when you’re not trying to be the best family-senior-industrial-corporate-fashion-commercial photographer at the same time – you dilute your artistic development and your marketing message in equal amounts.

Have you done your first paid shoot yet? If not, the entirety of your artistic and marketing efforts should be focused on that goal, that first paying client. Once you’ve shot one, focus everything on your next client, then the next, then the next. So many photographers prepare their business for shooting dozens of clients before they’ve landed their first, and they market to everyone when they have yet to make an impression on any one.

Define the kind of art you want to make (re-read item No. 2 on this list), choose a specific clientele you most enjoy working with (I love working with the energy and personalities of high school seniors), and direct your efforts toward earning the business of that clientele on the smallest reasonable scale – earn the business of friends and family first, then neighbors, then of the folks who attend your church, then the folks who shop at the same businesses you do (hair stylists, for example), and onward.

Your market can always be broken down into small, manageable, reachable sets of people. When you do so, the daunting task of “marketing your business” becomes much easier, an application of creativity to common sense in how to reach and impress those people. Own Your Zip Code – be the best in their world.

9. Get photographed

By way of arrogance or ignorance, photographers rarely have their portrait taken. Indeed, the cobbler’s children have no shoes.

Photographers will pay a thousand dollars for a “guru” to tell them how to perform a photo shoot and sale, but they won’t pay $50 to $150 to just go to a successful photographer and have their portrait taken. If you’re astute, pay attention, and write down notes after the experience, the resultant gold nuggets of wisdom will be very similar.

Soak up the experience from initial exposure through booking, shooting, selling, and delivery.

Here’s my process:

• Pick a nearby community that you don’t particularly serve.
• Go online and search for a photographer in that community. Where does their web site place in the Google results? Why? What keyphrase did you search for, and how does their web site capture that keyphrase? In the title? The domain? In the body copy? In a blog post?
• Visit their web site and note your first impressions – does it load fast? Is their art attractive? Is their site easy to navigate? Does it answer all your questions? If not, such as if the photographer doesn’t list prices online, does the site provide easy ways to contact the photographer?
• E-mail the photographer and ask any questions the site didn’t answer – pricing, current promotions, booking, etc. Study their response – how long did it take them to get back to you? Was their response friendly and professional? Did their e-mail include a call to action – did they ask for your business, or ask you to take some other action? Was their e-mail signature professional and complete?
• Call the photographer and follow-up on the e-mail. Ask a couple more questions, then if you feel good about them as a consumer (as you would with any service provider), book a shoot with them. How did they answer the phone? Did they answer at all, or go to voicemail? If they went to voicemail, was the greeting professional and helpful? Did they guarantee a call back within a certain amount of time? How long before they called back? When you did speak to them, how was their phone etiquette? Were they aggressive, impatient, or friendly and helpful? Was the booking process easy? Were they booked solid, or did they have accommodating hours and options for different days of the week?
• Between booking and your shoot, did the photographer e-mail you after the phone call to thank you for booking and provide more information? Did the photographer send a reminder e-mail before your shoot?
• During the shoot, pay attention less to the photographer’s artistic specifics and more to how they treat you and make you feel, how they elicit comfortable and natural expressions from you and your family. Watch more for methods they use when working with you as a subject than what their specific artistic choices are – the latter you can appreciate during the proofing and sales session. At the end of your shoot, did you feel the photographer did a good job? Did they tell you when your proofs would be available for viewing, and how? Did they set up a date and time for the sales session?
• Some photographers proof online, some in person. Either way, measure how you feel about the process and experience. Were their online proofs easy to view and make selections from to purchase? Did the online process leave you with any unanswered questions? Did the photographer make suggestions as to which images might be best used for what purposes (wall hanging versus wallets, for example)? If you proofed in person, was the process comfortable? Did you feel pressured to buy more than you wanted? Did the photographer explain your buying options clearly? Did they photographer ask questions so they understood what it was you were looking to buy in the first place? Did they provide guidance or did they try to sell you what you didn’t want? Did they give you a solid date for delivery? Did their sales tactics and policies leave you feeling empowered, confused, taken advantage of, uncomfortable, or well taken care of?
• When the photographer delivered your purchase, is the presentation professional? Were you invited to join an e-mail list for future sales and promotions? Were you invited to like their Facebook page? Did the photographer ask to go ahead and pencil in your next photo shoot (for Christmas, or next year, for example)? Do you feel like what you were handed was worth what you paid? Would you work with this photographer again? Would you recommend him or her to your friends?

With all of these questions, try to write down notes from your experience, how you felt about each aspect, and what you wish they had done differently. From just one photo shoot as a consumer, whether the experience was good or bad, you can write a book of policies and procedures for your own business that will shape the experience your own clients will have with you, from start to art.

10. Break out of your comfort zone

Your comfort zone can single-handedly kill your business.

Everyone gets stuck in a rut sometimes, and the longer you’re in that rut, the harder it is to dig out. Even when staying in that rut has painful consequences, or is a miserable experience in itself, it’s what you know – it’s what you’re familiar with, and familiarity breeds comfort, which leads to complacency.

Human beings can learn to put up with a lot of unnecessary crap. Most corporate cultures are built on this reality.

It doesn’t take much introspection to see where our bad habits lie – procrastination, eating too much, reading too much and practicing too little – but we’re too good at giving ourselves a free pass. “I’ll do better tomorrow,” is right there with Joe’s Crab Shack and their “Free crabs tomorrow” deal – there’s always a tomorrow.

Breaking out of your comfort zone is like jumping out of an airplane – throw caution to the wind and Just Do It.

Should I starting charging for my work? Just Do It.

Should I call up my friend and set up a shoot with her so I can practicing my location lighting and poses? Just Do It.

Should I call myself a professional photographer if I’m not sure if I’m ready? Just Do It.

Should I leave the house and go photograph some Little League games today? Just Do It.

Should I go by the newspaper and see if they need any events photographed this week, in exchange for a byline? Just Do It.

Should I go to that children’s resale shop downtown and ask to set up a co-op marketing campaign with them? Just Do It.

Should I set up my Facebook page and tell my friends and family about it today? Just Do It.

Should I walk up to that attractive man or woman and tell him I’d love to photograph them for my portfolio? Just Do It.

Should I go by one of the local daycares and offer to do their annual portraits of the kids? Just Do It.

I think you get it – you’re just a shade better off in your comfort zone than you are with outright procrastination and inaction; in fact, like a trio of thugs, they are often seen hanging out together, sippin’ on forty’s and scheming how to steal your success from you today.

Don’t let them. You sure as hell wouldn’t have read this far if you didn’t truly want to make your photography business a success, to make your artistic and business vision a reality. If you feel fear or hesitation, you’re probably on the right track.

11. Relax

With all this talk of what you should do, here’s something you should not do: stress out.

The grognards will tell you you have to do this, do that, and then worry yourself into paralysis.

Never forget: you’re the boss. You’re in charge. You make the decisions, and you can change your mind any time you want, for any reason. You don’t have to follow the rules – you are the rulemaker.

Often we start our businesses with a take-charge sense of ownership, but by the time we’re done getting shot down, critiqued and “warned” of the many pitfalls ahead by the grognards, all of a sudden we’re submissive and feel we have to do what Soandso said or else we’ll surely fail and embarrass ourselves in front of the whole community.

When you feel overwhelmed, with how far you have to go as an artist or as a business owner, just relax. You’ll do no good for anyone if you burn out before you even get started.

This is supposed to be fun. It’s supposed to be profitable. It’s supposed to let loose the creative spirit within us. It’s supposed to be a joy – that’s why we’re doing this, right?

We are consistently our own worst enemy, our worst critic, our greatest challenge to overcome on our path to success. You can choose to worry, or you can choose to act.

My father’s advice always was, “Do something, even if it’s the wrong damn thing.”

As you make this mantra a part of your professional life, you learn that all the decisions we think are so huge at the time, in the end have so little influence on the outcome. Whether you charge this or charge that, offer this product or that, go with this logo and web site design or the other one, name your business this way or another, it’s all minutiae in the long run.

What counts is what you do.

If all else fails, remember what Bob Parsons, founder of GoDaddy.com, was told by his father: “Son, they can’t eat you.”

12. Get paid

It’s time.

I’ve been telling you for over two years now, it’s time to get paid. You’re reading this web site because you want to get paid – some of you need to get paid, and you’re still resisting. You’re letting the mortgage slide and credit card payments go late while giving away more “portfolio building” shoots.

If your friends and family have been telling you a while now that your work is good enough to charge for, or you’ve been asked, “Wow, you make great photos – how much would you charge to do my family photos?,” then it’s time for you to get paid.

I am all for portfolio-building shots. I am all about trading free shoots for subjects’ time so you can practice bettering specific aspects of your art.

But you’re good enough to charge. You have been for a while. Your art has value, it is not worthless – in fact, it’s a blessing to anyone with the opportunity to shoot with you. You will never stop getting better at this, so the time is nigh to get paid for your talents.

It’s time to hang your shingle, call yourself a professional (or pro-am), and do work. This is what you’ve been working toward, and 2012 is the time to do it.

No excuses.

No fear.

No procrastination.

No inaction.

No comfort zone.

I don’t care what you charge – but get paid for your time. Scribble some notes on a napkin, figure out what you reasonably want to earn for your time, and from now on that’s what a photo shoot with you will cost. You don’t have to charge a session fee or have a minimum order to get there, but start somewhere, anywhere, and you can grow from there. My bet is that you’ll earn more money than you think you will. As you grow, as an artist and business owner, so will your prices, and your profits.

You’ve been blessed with a talent, creative spirit, vision – you are imbued with the skills of a painter with light, a photographer. You are not reading these words by accident, you haven’t come as far as you have on a whim. I write these words for you, for your eyes, to address your fears and inspirations. I can say with complete surety, as you read this, you are ready to break free from your fears and grow toward infinity.

There are no limits. No one is stopping you.

Let go.

Then grab hold tight, because 2012 is going to be one hell of a sweet ride.

Next Steps

• Pen and paper time, mates. Quickly go over this article one more time, and for each section, write down your thoughts on how you’re going to do things differently in 2012. Keep your list to one sheet, and make your plan clear and specific to address each issue. Tack this to your wall or somewhere where you can read it every single day for the rest of this year. I am not kidding – make the study of this list a part of your morning routine. You will not believe the difference in attitude and progress you will see from this simple act.
• There is a lot to commit to in this article. Start here, and just work your way down the list: Vow to recognize procrastination every time it rears its head, to stop and acknowledge it, then to power through it.
• Head forth to the Flickr and find an artist whose portraiture you really enjoy. Find someone who makes beautiful photos, but obviously something your typical family would hang on their wall – practical, but absolutely lovely. This person is your new artistic muse – study their work and learn to imitate what makes them successful. In time, you’ll grow beyond this, but for now, lay your artistic foundation.
• Look at your web site. Be honest. Start over. Begin with simple, a blog if nothing else, and let your art be the centerpiece.
• Set up your Facebook page, set a day each week to blog on your site. Stick with it. If you miss one, don’t let it knock you off track – just get back on schedule as soon as possible.
• Seek out inexpensive but effective local advertising opportunities. Start with your local community newspaper.
• Pick a non-profit, and volunteer your photography services. If they can’t come up with an immediate use for you, move on to another non-profit.
• Pick a photo-friendly holiday coming up in the next few months (Easter a good option), and plan a photo event around it. Prepare the promotion, do a couple example shoots, pick a charity to donate a portion of proceeds to, ask a friend to set aside the date to give you a hand, collect any props you may need, visit with your community newspaper about a story or press release, arrange to update your advertising in advance of the event, post preview details to your Facebook and blog, and make it happen.
• Introspect about the kind of art you want to make, and the kinds of people you want to photograph. Exclude supermodels (or any models) from the results. Adopt the mindset that your business exists to serve this specific set of people, and let that guide you in all of your decisions of how to spend your time and money this year.
• Use the step-by-step instructions above to get photographed and use the resulting knowledge to nail down how you want to run your business.
• Step out of your comfort zone every day in a small way, every week in a medium way, every month in a big way. Eventually you will move through life with complete freedom of will.
• Relax. Learn some breathing techniques. Exercise and take up yoga or meditation. You’ve got to slow down if you want to get ahead.
• Set your prices. Know that you can change them at any time. When anyone asks, state your prices clearly, simply, and with confidence. It is what it is – if you don’t make a big deal of your prices, neither will your clients.
• Brainstorm session: Enough of my advice – what do you want to change about your business or your life in 2012? Write it down, and file this in your Brainstorms folder.
• My writing at PartTimePhoto.com exists to serve your needs as an amateur photographer making the transition to paid professional. I appreciate and welcome your readership, and invite you to subscribe to my e-mail newsletter at the top of any page of this site.
• If anything in this post has spoken to and inspired you, please comment below, drop me an e-mail, or call or text me at 830-688-1564 and let me know. I’d love to hear how you use the ideas here to better your part time photography business!

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Photography Business Vision Workout: Men’s Health, September 2011

Just as you strive to improve your artistic vision as a portrait photographer, you need to develop your business vision as a professional and business owner. Consider this, my Photography Business Vision Workout series, as us hitting the gym together for some much-needed exercise. With time and practice, you’ll learn to see business and marketing inspiration all around you, just as you see artistic inspiration in everyday scenes.

The September 2011 issue of Men’s Health magazine is on the shelves at your local bookstore and newsstand. Grab yourself a copy, and let’s thumb through all 190 pages together to see what nuggets of business wisdom we can glean!

Cover: First of all, check out the cover of this or just about any other magazine – see how Aussie actor Sam Worthington stands in front of the Men’s Health logo? It’s simple, requires just a little zoomed-in time with the lasso or extract tool in Photoshop, but it has a powerful and graphic effect to engage viewers. Consider this trick for a future marketing piece, or the best of your senior photography.

Cover: Your marketing pieces should always try to speak to what your target market wants or needs. What gets the biggest play on the cover of this issue? “Strong & Fit: See Results in Record Time” – is there any man who doesn’t want to be a walking example of these attributes, and quickly at that? Consider the same focus in your marketing. When you want to grab people’s attention, speak boldly to a subject they actually care about (hint: it’s not the size of your hard drive).

Cover: Note the repetition and focus on the word “Your” – Your Nutrition, Your Health, Your Fitness, Your Money. This is good – when you ‘talk’ to your clients via your marketing, speak to them, not around them. “John Smith Photography wants to help its clients to experience an enjoyable and fun photo shoot. Clients can expect glorious, life-changing, heart-rending artistic photos from their session with award-winning photographer John Smith…” does not engage readers what-so-ever. Don’t let the About page on your web site read like an good review of a bad art house film on Rotten Tomatoes.

Cover(s) : Note the cool factor of the reversed and upside down style guide. Slip a little something unexpected into your marketing pieces now and then, give people a reason to ‘flip over’ (interact) with your business card / web site / e-mail newsletter / Facebook page.

Pages 2, 3, 6, 7: We’ll just blow past the minimalist (and completely boring) car and shoe ads…

Page 8: I like this Holiday Inn Express ad. I’ve flipped through this magazine about three times now, and it catches my eye each time. What’s a secondary aspect of your photography business that might make an interesting subject to feature in your marketing? Photographers are always blasting their portraits, their end products, in their marketing – what about featuring your post-processing touch-up skills? Your great humor and talent at making clients laugh? Your extensive collection of props for baby shoots? Your access to beautiful, exclusive locations on private property? Your location Strobist lighting setup? Your buy-what-you-love pricing? Your digital image offerings? How do these features benefit your clients, how do they improve their experience and enjoyment through working with you? Instead of pimping the obvious, your end-result art, consider picking one piece to feature from within the puzzle that makes up your overall value offer.

Page 18, From The Editor: Men’s Health Editor David Zinczenko (what a name!) outlines five adjustments you can make in your life (or business) to find Your Big Break: 1. Attack the clichés; 2. Ask why; 3. Collaborate across borders; 4. Think big about something small; 5. Step outside yourself. Great advice, with specific examples of how the magazine has applied these adjustments to better itself over the years. Study the advice here, ask yourself how each nugget could apply to your own business, and as I’ll suggest at the end of this post, add the resultant ideas to your Brainstorms folder.

Page 18, The Tweet Life: “What Winners Knows – You can’t control everything. Sometimes giving up is the best way to achieve command over chaos.” I’ve written before about how you’re going to run into bad clients over the course of your professional photography career. Shake the haters off, and sure as hell don’t let them dictate your customer service policies – don’t treat all your good clients like criminals because of a few nincompoops.

I’m a fan of almost all the health tips in Men’s Health, but I won’t touch on them here. Just keep in mind: a sound mind and sound body are invaluable tools in growing as an artist and business owner – enough so that I highly suggest you spend as much time learning about and practicing good health and fitness as you do your photography. Happiness, the arguable goal of all this work, will increase commensurate.

Page 20, Our Advisory Board, 1. Stay in great shape: – Winning is motivational. If you’re struggling to “do what’s right” with an aspect of your photography business – practicing your art regularly, talking to potential clients, discussing co-op marketing campaigns with other business owners, reducing your post-processing time, turning around proofs quickly – accept where you are, and set a goal to improve by some small measure. If you’re only practicing your art on occasion, set a goal to practice every week. If it’s taking you seven days to turnaround proofs for clients, set a goal of six days. Achieve these, then improve by another measure. Within just a few months, you will have improved your business in tangible, important ways, which you and your clients will enjoy the benefits of for the rest of your photography career.

Page 22, Ask Men’s Health: Pay attention to “What’s the fastest way to eliminate a crick in my neck?” and “I often work late. What’s the best way for me to reboot mentally and finish strong?” These tips will be immediately useful after any marathon post-processing session in front of your computer. (Takeaway: escape your desk every 50 minutes for 10 minutes, indulge in a brisk walk and deep breathing. I set a timer on my iPhone for 50 minutes, then 10 minutes, then repeat for as long as I’m working in my office. With a sort-of deadline, you’ll find yourself working faster and with more focus. Efficiency is definitely a good thing when you have a wife, kids, and/or friends waiting for you.)

Page 34: I first saw this graphic informational juxtaposition in Sports Illustrated – feature a big number, then explain what that number means. It’s like Jeopardy, where you give the answer then make the viewer wonder what the question is. Slip this well-worn but effective visual trick into one of your future marketing pieces.

Page 37: If you ever do any marketing with the word “FREE” in it, I beg of you, don’t put a big ol’ asterisk right after – you just deflated any momentary intrigue your viewer may have felt. : market on your value, your personality, your customer experience, not your freebies.

Page 38, Wake Up A Winner: Just replace “athlete” with “photographer” and you have the exact same insomnia many artists face the night before a big photo shoot. My best tip: when you catch yourself losing sleep over tomorrow’s shoot, calmly promise yourself you’ll obsess over the details in the morning when your alarm goes off. Until then, you are absolved of any responsibility whatsoever.

If You Do Nothing Else, Do This – Page 40: Want a fun challenge? Write a page of marketing copy for your photography business in only 123 words. No photos, no fancy layout, just a small version of your logo at the end (perhaps a phone number and web address would be prudent). If you had to convince a potential client to book with you based on these 123 words alone, what would you say? Now purify down to 60 words. Then 30. Then 15. Then just 10. Call your local newspaper, and place a classifieds ad featuring these 10 words, your web address, and phone number. It’s a cheap and fun experiment, and likely the best, most effective classified ad you could ever place.

Page 42, The 2-minute Office Workout: I love ‘office workout’ tips. We photographers spend way too much time in front of our computers, and often suffer pains and problems because of it. Here, Men’s Health shares that two minutes with an inexpensive resistance band can relieve tension. Add this into your 10 minute every-hour break. Office Yoga is the absolute best method I’ve found to reenergize during a long day of photo processing and Reddit…I mean, research!

Page 46, Build Your Own Breakthrough: As always, you’ve got to Do the Work. Actor Sam Worthington shares wisdom learned as a hard-working bricklayer turned hard-working actor. The takeaway: work hard, and cherish the opportunity to do the work. That you’re reading this now says you hold enough talent and tools to become a successful professional photographer; be thankful for the opportunity before you.

Page 52, Your First-Date Playbook: First-date advice is almost always good advice for your first shoot with a new client. From what you wear, how you smell, where you take your client, to what you talk about – forethought and thoughtfulness will go a long way toward making a great impression. Outside our home studio is a sidewalk where my wife will write “Welcome, <insert client name here>!” in bright, bold chalk before a shoot. It’s the little things.

Page 56: That photo of a foil-wrapped brick sitting atop a grilling chicken has a ‘what the heck is this?’ effect on viewers. Add something quirky or irreverent to a future marketing piece and make your potential clients do a double take. Cultivate curiosity.

Page 59, bottom: I like the “Win This!” graphic with a photo of the prize. Try this graphic trick next time you run a contest.

Page 61: The old comparison chart isn’t a bad format for a marketing piece. If you’re feeling cocky and want to fire a shot across your competition’s bow, and you can back up your claims, use this format to highlight why your offerings are superior to an “unnamed but obvious” competitor. Just make sure your proclaimed advantages are benefits people actually care about. If you have a popular photographer in your market who has draconian customer service policies, this is where you want to highlight the differences between your business and theirs.

Page 64, Major League Muscle: Are you keeping your photography muscles trained, even during the ‘off season?’ You will multiply the rate at which you grow as an artist if you simply shoot more often. If you spend more time reading about photography than you do making photographs – practicing what you’ve learned – you’re out of balance. Pay attention to where you’re investing your time, and divvy it up evenly between learning (both photography and business), marketing, and shooting.

Page 68, Wet T-shirt Contest: Grognards act as though there’s only one respectable market or goal in the entire professional photography industry – boutique portraiture. Everything else, from their perspective, is ruining the industry, especially you. Just as this rundown of T-shirts for athletes shows, there’s a wide spectrum of clientele and options in any industry, from best bargain to best overall. And note, the best overall is not the most expensive option.

Page 68: Related to the above, look to the left side of the page; this is a great format for a marketing piece. “The Problem: … The Solution: … The Question: Are all photographers the same? …” Identify a specific, common problem clients have faced with other local photographers (especially the chain studios), then the solution you’ve created with your business.

Page 70: Great photography in this ad, beautiful dog. Strive to capture such variety in your own subjects, canine or otherwise, and watch your sales grow accordingly. Variety = sales.

If You Do Nothing Else, Do This – Page 71: Great layout and concept for an ad. Just replace the dog with one of your photo clients who has an interesting back-story (firefighter, military, police, volunteer, mom, dad, daycare Valentine’s Day king and queen, etc.). None of your clients are very interesting so far? Find someone who is, ask them to tell you their story, take notes, and photograph them. Don’t forget the model release. Tell stories, feature great people from within your community – in your marketing, on your blog, in your portfolio. “Bring out the extraordinary” in your subjects. You could put together a wonderful and buzzworthy marketing campaign with this idea alone. Ask your local community newspaper if they would be interested in running these photos as a weekly series in exchange for a byline: free, and exceptional, advertising.

Page 73, The iPad Hot Spots: I don’t know what else to say about the iPad – it’s the best, most engaging portfolio a photographer can carry. I use mine exclusively for presenting my portfolio and proofs to clients, and they eat it up with a spoon and a canary-eating grin. I picked up a first-gen 16 GB iPad for $300 used. As always, earn it before you spend it, but it’s one of the best investments you’ll make in your business.

Page 79, The Sportsman: Be thoughtful, but you don’t have to over-think your portraits. All you need is a prop and some backlighting (and perhaps a reflector or white wall behind you) for a book-cover-quality portrait of a young athlete.

Page 86, The Bulb, Three Ways: Beautiful layout. Do your price or product lists look this good? If you proof online, does your digital sales presentation look this attractive?

Page 89: Busting myths is a fun way to put a twist on your FAQ page or a marketing piece. Look back over some of the misconceptions your clients have expressed about getting professional portraits done, and do a myth-buster post for your blog, web site, and/or e-mail newsletter.

Page 94: The layout of this article reminds me of the great ‘Table of Contents’ pages Merlin Mann and Leo Babauta have on their blogs. Most photographers’ blogs are a waterfall of photos, marketing, how-to’s, event and sale announcements, studio news, and personal anecdotes. Be a good host and provide your clients a separate and obvious page on your web site which helps guide readers to the best of your blog; photo posts by category, your currently-active or pending events and sales, all of your educational how-to’s, etc. Don’t force your clients to read your blog in reverse chronological order to find what’s interesting to them. (I am remedying this fault on my own blog post haste!)

Page 112, Give Fear The Finger: Willpower. If you’re a human being, you’ve probably struggled with a lack of it. Probably today. Probably in the past hour. Especially for struggling photographers, this article will show you six roadblocks to progress and how to break through them. My tip: the best day to do the right thing was yesterday; the second best day is today. Don’t let negative self-talk stop you from doing something better today, that’s the easy way out and a poor excuse. Try. Fail. Try again. You’ll learn; you’ll get to where you want to be with time and persistence. Kaizen: small daily improvements lead to big changes over time.

Page 120, Tip No. 11: Listening really is proof that you care. With clients, as it is with significant others. Yes – even if you have to take notes. If you show your clients that you really were listening during that first phone call and during your shoot, you will enjoy the rewards in both sales and loyalty. Listen. Care. Take notes, on even the little things. Three years ago, my wife photographed the newborn baby girl of a client named Becca; last week, she photographed Becca’s second-born, and also remembered the first little girl’s name. Because of this one act of attentiveness, Becca posted to Facebook glowing praise for my wife, and recommended to all her friends that they come to Bandera for their baby and family photos. You can’t buy advertising that good.

Page 124, Upgrade Your Whole Life: Being in the startup phase of professional photography is wildly exciting, and it’s wildly easy to obsess over art and business and marketing and forget to live a life outside of your new adventure – at least until you exhaust yourself, emotionally and creatively. If you feel you’re in a rut or have hit a motivational wall, open up your magazine to this list of “little leaps of progress.” By letting your mind focus on something other than your business for a while, you’ll reboot your enthusiasm and refresh your creative spirit.

Page 136, Be a Better Buyer: Look at the statistics down the left side of this page to get an idea of how men think during the sales process. Especially take note of the following stats, and consider how they relate to professional photography: Percentage of men who studiously read reviews before buying (where are the testimonials on your web site?), number of men who say they make their family’s big-purchase decisions (are you asking that Mommy bring Daddy along for the proofing and sales session?), percentage of men who prefer making big purchases in-store rather than online (are your proofing in person or online?), number of online shoppers who’ve been suckered by limited-time offers (if you proof online, do your clients have a deadline to buy at best rates?), percentage of men who say shopping is almost always annoying (what are you doing to make your proofing/sales session more fun for male clients?).

Flipping this month’s Men’s Health to the backside Guide To Style, I won’t lie: I love good-looking clothes. I get lost in style guides like this. Besides taking inspiration from the photography here, consider offering similar style tips for your clients. Create a Style Guide similar to my Client Pre-shoot Cheat Sheet to share with your newly-booked clients.

Post a tip a week to your blog, and compile these tips into your style guide. If you have no good fashion sense, ask a friend who does to help you out. Great wardrobe can really make a photo shoot sing, so do yourself and your clients a favor by providing them the informational tools they need to look their best. Remember, you’re the expert – your clients trust you to guide them in the photo-making process. When your clients feel prepared, they’ll be more comfortable in front of the camera and throughout the shoot.

You can expand this series in your blog to also offer health and fitness tips. Talk with a local personal trainer and feature their advice on your site. Visit with a local nutritionist. Always add value to your clients’ lives. Help them lose weight, get fit, feel better, look great in great clothes, and your clients will go from appreciative photo buyers to unwavering zealots for your business.

If you’ve made it this far, bless your heart, your eyes must be exhausted. But congrats on making it through 190 pages of business and marketing inspiration with me!

Next Steps

• This post is full to the brim with over 36 tips on how to improve your photography business, inspired by the contents of just one issue of Men’s Health magazine. Don’t be overwhelmed – just pick one or two tips that inspire you, and run with them. When you’ve exhausted the benefits of one tip, reach out and grab another. Doing any one thing is far and away better than doing nothing at all.
• If you need a place to start, take action on this tip first: Scroll back up to the Page 40 tip, create that action-packed classified ad, and run it on Craigslist or in your local newspaper. It will cost next to nothing, and you could well score some great bookings with it.
• Brainstorm session: Your mind is probably overflowing with ideas for your business right now. Just start writing things down, stream of consciousness; let it all flow out onto a notepad or into Notepad. Empty your mind onto the page. File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• My writing at PartTimePhoto.com exists to serve your needs as an amateur photographer making the transition to paid professional. I appreciate and welcome your readership, and invite you to subscribe to my e-mail newsletter at the top of any page of this site.
• If anything in this post has spoken to and inspired you, please comment below, drop me an e-mail, or call or text me at 830-688-1564 and let me know. I’d love to hear how you use the ideas here to better your part time photography business!

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The longer you’ve been a photographer, the more developed your vision is.

Your vision, perceiving the world as an artist, is your talent for seeing that which others do not see.

You’ve heard the expression “to the untrained eye.” Just like an old-school gumshoe can see clues in a crime scene that the young bucks can’t, a learned photographer can see artistic potential in the play of light, line, color, texture, wardrobe, expression and pose.

Admit it, you “see the light” all the time and say to yourself or a friend, “That would make a lovely photo,” or, “This would be a great place to bring my next client.”

You don’t need me to talk about developing your vision, your third eye, your sixth sense when it comes to art – but what you probably haven’t considered is that a good business owner (as you aspire to be as a professional photographer) has the same special vision when it comes to seeing business potential and opportunities.

As photographers, we take pride and joy in our ability to see the potential for art that others miss. But when it comes to doing better business, often our untrained eyes leave us with our hands in the air, crying “I don’t know what to do!”

There are four major arenas that make up the whole of your business:

• Product: This is your art, what your clients directly pay for (beyond the great experience you provide). The better your art, the easier it is to market your services and sell your photos.
• Marketing: These are the methods through which you bring in paying customers, either new business or repeat. Marketing is a wide swath, a huge part of your business, which is why most of what I write about here on PartTimePhoto.com is on this topic. The better your marketing, the better you’re able to communicate the value you offer as a professional photographer to the people who need to know it.
• Experience: This is the next stage after your marketing has done its job – once your client is in the door, beyond producing a great product for them, the experience you provide is what earns you repeat business. These are the touchpoints, the opportunities to go above and beyond and create positive memories your clients can’t help but talk about. This is where you do all the little things that elevate a client’s experience from being a consumer to becoming a superfan. The better your clients’ experience with you, the more referrals you’ll get.
• Workflow: This is the backend of your business; not what your customers see, but the work you do behind the scenes. This is your routine, your system, how you get’er done. The better your workflow, the less time it takes you to do business, and thus the greater per-hour profit you earn for yourself and your family.

Vision is all about inspiration and where it’s found. Developing your vision as a business owner as you have as a photographer, you will see inspiration everywhere for great marketing, great customer experiences, and great ways to improve your business. It has a snowball effect – the more you develop your vision, the more ways you’ll recognize business inspiration, and the more quickly you’ll innovate in your business practices.

Within the four above arenas, here are some ways to exercise your vision:

Product

The quality of your product is the baseline for your business – the better your core product, the easier it is to market, get referrals, and charge above-average prices.

Great art multiplies the efficacy of your marketing time and dollars. Great art impresses clients and sends them bragging about you to their family and on Facebook.

But art does take time – few start out their adventure of part time professional photography as wildly impressive artists. Odds are you’re definitely better than the average Guy With a Camera, otherwise friends and family wouldn’t be encouraging you to do what you do professionally. But growing as an artist and improving the quality and consistency of your product is a long-term cycle of inspiration, education, and practice.

Again, I don’t need to talk about artistic vision here; as a photographer, you know where you find inspiration: in the forums, in photography competitions, on photo blogs, in magazines, in other artists’ great and award-winning work. You find it in a walk through the park, in a sunset, in the way light dances through a window in your home.

For inspiration in the presentation and polish of your product, look no further than Apple. Theirs is so refined that their many, many customers buy out of passion and desire as much as for the tangible usage of their products. When was the last time you saw a sexy MP3 player? A stylish laptop? A luxurious monitor? Apple has mastered the quality and presentation balance to a point where they can sell a technically inferior product with such style and desirability that folks pay above-standard prices for the privilege of ownership – they’ll even stand in line all night on release day.

Look for inspiration in any product that is highly-praised by its buyers, whether its a video game review on Metacritic or a car review on Edmunds.com – what do they say about the best products, and what’s the real takeaway from each? Often, the takeaway is to over-deliver on client expectations – be better than your brag. One boon to being an artist is that you are always getting better, especially at the early end of your professional career.

Work to bring something new to each shoot. One additional pose, one additional joke to elicit a true smile from your subject, one additional scene to shoot at your preferred location, one new post-processing method. You’ll see your repertoire grow with every shoot, and you’ll see the fruits of your learning and practice as your per-client sales averages grow accordingly.

Marketing

You can’t turn your head without being inundated by some manner of marketing: banner ads on the internet, billboards on the highway, print ads and press releases and advertorials in magazines and newspapers, radio ads, TV ads, newsletters (and worse, spam) in your Inbox, coupons in the mail, blathering boxes set atop gas pumps that harass you to buy discount hot dogs and sodas inside the convenience store…it’s bloody endless.

Most marketing is pure, unfiltered crap – it couldn’t convince a flame-engulfed billionaire to buy a five-dollar fire extinguisher.

But some marketing stands out. It’s exceptional. It’s subtle, or it’s bold. It doesn’t insult the viewer’s intelligence. You can’t ignore it. It slaps you across the face and makes you like it.

This is the kind of marketing you want to draw inspiration from. Not the late-night drivel on the network TV stations, not the back-of-the magazine ads to multiply your libido. Look for the best advertising and marketing campaigns in the world. The internet makes this dead easy.

Look to what marketing has inspired you to check out or even buy a product or service. Your car dealer, your realtor, your grocery store, your cycle shop, your favorite restaurant – how did you learn about them? What convinced you to choose them to spend your money with? Whether through a marketing piece, a story in your local paper, an ad in a magazine, a window display on Main Street, or a recommendation from a friend, it’s all marketing.

I find a lot of inspiration in reading business magazines like Fast Company or Inc. Great articles on innovative businesses, and great magazine advertising within. The content puts you in the mindset of a knowledge-hungry business owner, which primes you to be inspired by the good ideas you glean within.

Great small business marketing blogs like Duct Tape Marketing can also keep your mind open to new business and marketing ideas.

I originally read these resources to find specific ways to improve my business. Now, I enjoy both those ideas and the discovery of new and interesting ways to present my business, based on the best practices I see in use by other companies. Ever see an Apple product announcement? “One more thing…”? The associated e-mail newsletter, the associated resources added to their web site? The media buzz? It’s all on purpose. Be on the lookout, and when you separate the wheat from the chaff in all the marketing messages thrown your way, pick from the best and apply them to how you expose your business within your market.

Workflow

The gems of good workflow, of a good business system, are harder to spot. These are the behind-the-scenes practices that help keep everything running smoothly and efficiently. A good workflow lets you keep your gear ready, your backups handy, your archives safe, your photos processed, all in the smallest amount of time required to do a great job.

Pareto’s Law applies fully here: 80 percent of your results will come from 20 percent of your actions.

For example, when post-processing a shoot, 80 percent of what your client will see and care about will be a result of 20 percent of the time you invest in post. If you’re a perfectionist (as most artists are), you’ll lose a ton of time trying to achieve that extra five, 10, 15 percent of improvement beyond 80 percent.

When you’re getting paid thousands or tens of thousands of dollars each job, then you can afford to invest that kind of time in attaining near-perfection; in fact, at that level of art and clientele, it’s likely a requirement. But in the trenches, here on the start-up end of the industry, you’ll get far more return on your time investment by strictly following the 80/20 rule.

That extra hour or two (or four) spent chasing perfection in post is surely better spent directly serving your clients and marketing your services.

So where to look for inspiration?

One of the best sources for me has been to read books about businesses, about business innovation, such as business biographies, stories of business successes, and such. Online and in the forums, you can also read real-world talk from people in the trenches doing the work, like here on PartTimePhoto.com.

Study fast food restaurants. Study car dealers. Study any business that benefits from a business system that maximizes efficiency and consistency.

Have you ever experienced exceptionally fast turnaround from a business? What’s their backend system like that makes them so much faster than the competition? Find me a service station that can turn around an oil change consistently in 15 minutes or less (with washed windows and vacuumed floorboards), and I’ll gladly pay extra. As a parent, add in a small play area with clean, fun toys for kids and a big screen TV with ESPN or CNN on, and I’ll probably never even consider going elsewhere.

Photographers eat a lot of time on post-processing. Can you learn to create Photoshop Actions that will make your workflow go much faster? Could you use different software for culling and processing photos (I use Bridge and Camera Raw with Photoshop)? Could you give yourself a time limit and no matter what, adhere to it?

At its simplest, ask yourself, what would make your job easier? What would make it simpler? What can you outsource (especially web design, another realm where photographers can endlessly sink time in trying to exercise control and indulge perfectionism)?

Parkinson’s Law says that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. You may find that simply giving yourself a hard time limit for tasks that otherwise have the ability to spiral beyond control (post-processing, blog reading, hanging out unproductively in the forums) forces you to focus only on what matters most – the 80/20 rule – what gives you the most results in the least amount of time.

Watch for how others apply the 80/20 rule to their business to maximize their per-hour profits.

Experience

There’s a reason I preach about the Customer Experience every bit as much as marketing and art: it’s where most companies fail, and where you have the immediate ability to make big improvements in your business.

In seeking inspiration for how you can better the experience of your own customers, ask yourself or others you respect: what experiences as a customer stand out in your memory as exceptionally positive? When have you received great customer service or enjoyed comfort or simplicity above and beyond the norm? What customer experiences have you had that you’ve gone out of your way to tell friends or family about?

The customer experience ties into every touchpoint in your business, from how you answer the phone to the jokes you tell during a shoot to the wrapping you use to deliver your client’s purchase. A great customer experience is so rare as to be downright refreshing nowadays. It goes beyond customer service – it’s a level of thoughtfulness that shows a business both understands its customer and truly strives to delight them at every step.

Many times, it’s the “duh” moments, the simple stuff, the little things. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if all these self-serve DVD rental kiosks showed the Rotten Tomatoes score for each movie inside? How about if you could sort inventory by score and availability? What if they let you sign up for e-mail or SMS notifications of when a certain movie was returned or newly-available? What if they had a smartphone app or web site where you could go to “re-rent” a movie and save 50 cents on keeping it an extra day, just in case you didn’t get to watch it in time?

Look not only for instances of where a business does all the little things right to give you an exceptional experience as a customer, but also for those times when businesses merely maintain the status quo (which, sadly, is most often the minimum possible), doing nothing to go above and beyond in meeting your needs or delighting you along the way.

More often than not, you’ll find that these little touchpoints, all the little moments of thoughtfulness and purposeful delighting, cost little to nothing to provide, but mean so very much to your clients. Remember above where I mention my dream service station with a clean family room and ESPN on the big screen? My oil’s getting changed either way, but I’ll pay more, tell my friends all about it, and never go elsewhere.

That’s the kind of experience you want to create for your clients, and you’ll find inspiration to do so in watching for examples of it in the businesses you and your social circle frequent.

Imitation, the greatest form of flattery

In the midst of all this inspiration, don’t find yourself plagiarizing other businesses. No more than you would identically recreate another photographer’s image, would you want to straight up jack another business’ inspired marketing campaign.

However, there is nothing at all wrong with imitation, with taking inspiration from other great work. Just as you have photographers whose art you admire and try to learn from, look to successful businesses in structuring marketing pieces, incorporating the best practices of efficient workflow, and creating memorable experiences for your clients.

Don’t just look to other photographers by any means – the worst thing you can do is grow to become “just another photographer” in your market. See how excellence is on display by businesses across many industries. Incorporate the best ideas, put your own twist on them (trust your own creative instincts), and reap the ever-multiplying awards.

Just as it took time to develop your vision as an artist of photography, it will take time and practice to develop your vision as an artist of business. But it will come. Plant the seed in your mind, make proactive efforts to exercise your business vision, and savor the newfound inspiration that surrounds you.

Next Steps

• Go to Amazon.com, type in the name of a product you know people adore, and read the customer reviews. Study and learn. Take notes on what people are “really saying,” what the real takeaway is, and how you can incorporate these ideals into your product and business.
• Go to Yelp.com, type in the name of a local service business or restaurant you know folks love, and read the customer reviews. Study, learn, take notes.
• Go to Google.com, and search for lists of award-winning advertising. Study, learn, take notes.
• Make it a short part of your morning routine to remind your subconscious to be attentive to business inspiration around you. Day by day, with practice and a bit of proactive effort, you’ll find yourself inspired by new ideas to help you do better business. A quick way to do this is to thumb through a few pages of Fast Company or Inc. with your morning coffee – it’ll prime your mind for the day.
• For every book you buy about the art of photography, purchase and read a book about the art of business. Duct Tape Marketing by John Jantsch, Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port, The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk, The Dip and Purple Cow by Seth Godin, Customers For Life by Carl Sewell, The Starbucks Experience by Joseph Michelli, are great places to start.
• Brainstorm session: Consider for a moment the best Product you ever used, the best Marketing you ever saw, the best Workflow you ever read about, and the best Experience as a customer you’ve ever had. Write down each of these, the why behind these choices, and a brief brainstorm of ways you can learn from and incorporate these ideals into your photography business.
• My writing at PartTimePhoto.com exists to serve your needs as an amateur photographer making the transition to paid professional. I appreciate and welcome your readership, and invite you to subscribe to my e-mail newsletter at the top of any page of this site.
• Where have you found inspiration for your business? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

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• 36 ways to better your photography business today
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Your clients are not your adversaries.

Despite how the grognards view their paying customers, and the advice they give to gifted young photographers like yourself just starting out in the business, the people you shoot and sell to are not your enemy.

In fact, it’s in your own financial interest to educate and empower your clients as fully as you can.

One way to do this is with a Client Prep Cheat Sheet.

This is a small set of general advice for clients to get the most out of their photo shoot. You don’t want to just assume that high school senior girl knows to freshen her nail polish the morning of the shoot – you don’t want to assume Dad knows to moisturize around his nose leading up to the shoot to avoid flaky, dry skin.

You can’t force your clients to perfect preparation, but you sure as heck can give them the knowledge necessary to do so. A photo shoot of any kind is no small investment for most families, so if you can give them the tools they need to make the best photos they can, you’re providing added value beyond just your artistic talents.

I talk often about creating a better experience for your customers, something you can do today, right now – no training and little to no practice necessary. Taking the time to put together a cheat sheet for clients to glean hints and tips from is another way to go beyond the ‘book, shoot, sell’ mentality of many established photographers.

What goes into your Client Prep Cheat Sheet

The best way to build your own cheat sheet for clients is to just go back through the shoots you’ve already done and identify all the shoulda’s – shoulda told her to bring hair clips for the wind, shoulda told him not to wear a shirt with a distracting print, etc.

We photographers could use a cheat sheet for our own preparations as well – and I’ll elaborate on this in a later article.

I sat down with my wife, who does all of our baby photography and has modeled for over a decade, to put together a list of suggestions and advice to share with your clients. Take what you like, toss what you don’t, and most importantly, grow and evolve your cheat sheet to address the shoulda’s you run into as you photograph more and more clients.

General Advice

• Hair – If you’re getting a hair cut for your shoot, do so about two weeks beforehand, just in case it goes wrong – you just never know. For men, a fresh cut a couple of days before the shoot is fine.
• Hair accessories – If you’re shooting outdoors, be ready to put your hair up and make it look nice in case of a windy day. Bring bobby pins, hair clips, headbands or any other favorite accessories.
• Glasses - If folks wouldn’t recognize you without glasses, you want to wear glasses in your shoot – however, the glare on glasses can detract from your eyes in photos. You can have your lenses removed from your frames for your shoot (don’t worry, it’s what Hollywood does to avoid glare in movies), ask your eye doctor to loan you a pair of similar frames, or you can also visit an inexpensive company online like Zenni Optical and buy a suitable pair of duplicate frames on the cheap.
• Red eyes – Visine is your friend. Not getting drunk the night before your shoot helps, too. [Don't think I kid, I've shot plenty of hung-over clients.]
• Lips – You will probably wipe or lick your lips during your shoot, so bring fresh lip gloss or lipstick to do touch-up. Use lip balm for a few days in advance of your shoot to make your smoochers look their best.
• Teeth – If you want to brighten your smile, start your treatments about two weeks before your shoot.
• Breakouts – Start using African Black Bar Soap for a week in advance of your shoot to help reduce and limit pimples and blemishes. Equally important, don’t cake on a lot of make-up to try to hide blemishes – it’s almost always easier to Photoshop away pimples than to clean up overdone make-up. For fever blisters, avoid getting them in the first place, then use Abreva if one pops up anyway.
• Make-up – A subtle application of make-up can really soften your skin and accent your facial features. But make sure you know what you’re doing, and make sure it matches your skin tone, or your face may look orange compared to the rest of your body.
• Facial hair – Men, be freshly shaved with a new razor, shaving cream and a moisturizing after-shave lotion to avoid bumps and redness. Trim up your board, sideburns, moustache or goatee, especially looking for wiry stray hairs. Ladies, even if you have some light facial hair (particularly around your lip or chin), indulge in a waxing in advance of your shoot – even barely-there light facial hair will be noticeable in your photos. Men and women both, pluck and clean up those eyebrows.
• Moisturizer – Dry skin can really detract from a great photo shoot. Start moisturizing nightly a week in advance of your shoot. When you get out of the shower, dry off until lightly damp, and slather on moisturizer. Focus on your arms, shoulders, neck, face, hands, anywhere you’ll be exposed to the camera. This includes your legs if you’re shooting in shorts or a skirt. ProTip: For dry skin on your face, especially around your nose, use a sugar scrub. Mix a cup of sugar with about a quarter cup of olive oil, or just until it looks like wet sand. Scrub your face with it anywhere you have flaky skin, wash it off, then wash with soap to remove the oil. The sugar paste shouldn’t be oily, just wet enough to moisten the sugar. Also, be sure on your face to use a facial moisturizer, not a thick body moisturizer, or you could break out. [Us men, of course, are most in need of this advice, especially around the face and hands.]
• Nails – A fresh coat of nail polish will make a world of difference in your photo shoot. Pick a neutral color that won’t distract in your shoot or clash with your outfits. Freshen the morning of the shoot, then be careful not to scuff it while prepping. [I see this most often with high school senior girls, to whom half-gone nail polish seems to be a popular fad.] Your photo shoot is a great excuse for a fresh manicure, but if you can’t go to the salon, make sure your nails look tidy and clean, including the cuticles.
• Bloating – Ladies, avoid high salt and high fat foods for two to three days in advance of your shoot. Being bloated will sap your confidence and comfort in front of the camera.
• Undergarments – Bra straps won’t do anything to help your outfit look its best. Be sure you bring a set of bras and strap-adjusting accessories to work with any outfit you want to shoot in to keep those straps well-hidden.
• Sun burns and tan lines – If your shoot is booked for Saturday, don’t go to the beach on Friday. If you plan to tan before your shoot, do so at least a week beforehand and don’t get burned. Be mindful of clothing tan lines, sunglass tan lines, hat tan lines, etc.
• Ironing - If you iron, iron the night before and then hang the clothes for your shoot. If you’re wearing something that wrinkles easily, don’t wear it in the car on the way to the shoot – just change at the location.
• Shoes – Ladies, can’t go wrong in heels or wedges. Men, clean’em up! Dress shoes are best [or boots down here in Texas], but as with most things, let your momma or your wife decide.

Here are some specific suggestions for certain types of shoots:

Maternity

• Moisturize that belly!
• Gather your props to bring along – ultrasound printout, alphabet blocks that spell your baby’s name, baby shoes, stuffed animals, flowers, whatever you’ve seen in other maternity photos that you like.
• Wear whatever you feel comfortable and pretty in – long, flowy skirts, especially solids are nice, and strapless bras that coordinate with them. Tube dresses are great for showing off your shape. Bring a pair of regular jeans, not the belly panel ones. A button-up shirt also makes it easy to transition into showing your belly.
• If you’re doing semi-nude/implied nude photos, bras and underwear will create noticable lines on your skin, so wear loose-fitting clothing to the shoot. You can add undergarments as necessary for photos later in the shoot.
• Do bring your significant other! They’ll make a great prop for your photos, and greatly expand on the number of different photos you can make during your shoot. They should bring outfits that coordinate with what you’ll be wearing, or a dark long-sleeved shirt or sweater and dark pants. The focus should always be on you, your expressions, your emotions, your personality, your joy and your connection.

Newborns and Babies

• Use a wash cloth to clean away flaky skin and eye boogers.
• If your baby has flaky skin, cradle cap, or eczema, I can highly suggest Lil’ Outlaws Rump Rub [seeing as it's made by my wife!]. It’s handmade, it’s vegan, it’s chemical free, I know exactly what’s in it, and it works wonderfully.
• Trim those tiny fingernails and toenails with appropriate baby trimmers.
• Book your shoot around your baby’s feeding and nap times, work with the natural rhythm of your baby. The perfect time to shoot is right when the baby would be laying down for a nap. If your baby normally falls asleep after a feeding, wait to feed the baby until you’re at the shoot. Baby photographers allot plenty of time for this sort of thing to set up the best situation for great photos.
• Dress up paper diapers. Cloth diapers are classy and stylish, but if you don’t use them, bring bloomers or decorative diaper covers, solids preferred.
• Nothing is the best wardrobe for a newborn – no outfit fits a newborn well, and they often look swallowed in clothes. Accessories are good, though – little hats, dainty headbands, boys in crocheted hats, etc. Bring sentimental items like the quilt that Grandma made for the baby, a baby blanket from your own childhood – they’re great for the youngster to lay on.
• If your baby takes a pacifier, bring it – if they’re bottle fed, bring an extra bottle to help put the baby to sleep.

Children

• Clean, clean, clean – clean nails, clean hair, wipe away eye boogers, clean feet (sandals on kids = black feet!), wipe snotty noses, fresh-scrub teeth. The cleaner the kid, the better their photos will turn out.
• If your child is still in diapers or pull-ups, tuck’em in or wear bloomers.
• If your child is still of napping age, make sure they nap before the shoot.
• It is perfectly okay to bring bribes to a photo shoot – given a stage and being the center of attention, it’s like our kids know exactly when to act their worst. Some cereal, smarties or other candy that won’t stain teeth can help a short photo shoot go by smoothly.
• Avoid colorful drinks or lollypops within 24 hours of your shoot, don’t let them eat or drink anything that will stain their face, teeth or mouths.
• Wardrobe – For girls, you can’t go wrong with cute dresses, rompers, and dainty hats or headbands. For boys, jeans and polos or a button-up shirt, or a T-shirt with a button-up over it can be very cute, as well as overalls on the right age and personality. For siblings, the children don’t have to match perfectly, just coordinate. You can’t go wrong with dark, rich monotones, which drive the attention in photos to sweet faces and darling expressions instead of loud prints or colors. If nothing else, pick a color that compliments your child’s eye color.

Families

• Dad – Have a fresh shave or trim, and use a new razor with shaving cream and a moisturizing after-shave lotion to limit bumps and redness. Make sure nails are clean and trimmed. Wash your hands. Clean up your shoes. Moisturize and scrub away flaky facial skin (see above General advice). When you wash your face, pay attention to eye boogers and sleep crusties. For wardrobe, go for jeans or pants, tucked polo or dress shirt with a belt, or go casual with just a T-shirt or untucked polo, button-up short sleeve, etc. In general, whatever your wife tells you to wear. Again you don’t have to perfectly match the rest of the family, just wear something that coordinates.
• Mom – Women know what to wear, but in general, unless you are extremely thin you may want to wear something that covers your upper-arms. Long- or 3/4-sleeve tops are very flattering. If you wear jewelry, aim for subtlety, and be aware of it twisting or turning.
• Kids – Same advice as above, but again, everything needn’t match, simply coordinate with the parents’ outfits. If Dad’s in a T-shirt, don’t put the kids in dress shirts – make it make sense.

High school seniors

• The biggest tips for seniors are to have an even tan, don’t get sunburned, clean and freshly-paint those nails, and moisturize and scrub away dry skin.
• Bring a variety of outfits – cap and gown, something casual, something stylish, ladies slip a dress in there to throw folks off, fellas try a formal look to impress. Wear what you think you look best in, but take the opportunity to also try a new look, just to surprise folks.
• Bring props that recall your high school years – band instrument, sports gear like a volleyball or baseball bat, your beloved (or cursed) high school car, letter jacket, sunglasses. Most of all, rep your style, whatever that may be. Your senior photo should be unique to your life and personality.

As they say, an ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure any day. Just as you educate your clients about copyright during your sales session, you can empower your clients by educating them how best to prepare for their photo shoot with you.

Again, there is no hard and fast set of advice you should share with clients. Use this Client Prep Cheat Sheet as a foundation for your own, and sculpt it to address the issues you run into most often on shoots.

Next Steps

• Why wait? Cut and paste the above tips into a text file or e-mail template so you can e-mail the appropriate set of information to your next photography client. Send out your Client Prep Cheat Sheet when your client books with you. Post your Cheat Sheet to your web site or blog. Educate and empower your clients to help you give them the best photos possible. Go through the list and reword, rewrite, remove, or add on anything you see fit so your Cheat Sheet is custom-built for your clientele.
• Do a Google search and peek at other photographers’ pre-shoot client advice posted online. If you see something you like, rewrite it for your clients and include it in your own cheat sheet.
• Brainstorm session: What are the three most common ‘mistakes’ you see your clients making when preparing (or not) for your shoots? What are the shoulda’s that your clients would most benefit from knowing? File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• My writing at PartTimePhoto.com exists to serve your needs as an amateur photographer making the transition to paid professional. I appreciate and welcome your readership, and invite you to subscribe to my e-mail newsletter at the top of any page of this site.
• What are your three most important prep tips for clients? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

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• Top 10 money-making outdoor photos of people – Your First Customer Series, Part 2
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• Your first photo shoot: expectations and results – Your First Customer Series, Part 7
• Practice because you love to perform

There are plenty of ways to spend money to try and get a leg up on your competition.

But there are equal opportunities to spend nothing and pull ahead.

One of the easiest ways to offer added value for your part time photography clients without touching your business checking account is to improve your response and turnaround times.

In case you hadn’t noticed, today’s society is deeply in love with immediate satisfaction, and consumers are willing to pay top dollar for convenience and speed – sometimes even at the sacrifice of quality.

Let’s look at the two biggest opportunities you have to serve your clients in a way the competition may be unwilling – or unable – to match.

Response Time

“You’ve reached James at Outlaw Photography – please leave a message after the beep and I will get back to you as soon as possible.”

That’s what you’ll hear if you call my cell phone, assuming I don’t answer because I’m already with a client or (entirely likely) asleep at some random part of the day.

The clock starts ticking from the moment a potential client sends you an e-mail or leaves a voicemail message searching for a return call. It’s easy to gloss over these “call me back” messages and save them for batch processing later in the day…or week… But I don’t think I have to harp on the fact that procrastination will do nothing to ingratiate you to customers.

If someone has taken the time to e-mail or call, they’re as qualified a lead as you can get – they are interested in what you have to offer and are proactively trying to give you money.

If you want to pull ahead of the competition – don’t make a buying client wait.

A lot of newbie professional photographers have, like any human being, a notable fear of the unknown. Confidence takes preparation and time to build, and in the interim, picking up the phone to call back a potential client can sometimes be curiously challenging. Sometimes you feel like you barely know what you’re talking about, and you fear coming off as a sham.

Like breaking through the first 15 minutes of a good run or gym workout, you’ve got to muscle through the discomfort so you can get In The Zone.

Some obvious, but valuable and often ignored, protips:

• If the phone rings, answer it – preferably with a big smile and introduction. If I’m calling to spend my money with you, the two worst things you can do are to sound bored or answer with a frustrating, “Hello?”
• If you can’t answer the phone – for reasons of proper or illicit nature – have a nice, professional voicemail greeting recorded. Then get back to callers as quickly as you can – within minutes is best. As soon as possible should mean just that. The sooner you call back, the less time your client has to lose interest, or worse, shop the competition.
• Same goes for e-mails – keep an eye on your Inbox and get back to people as quickly as possible. If they leave a phone number, try calling first, unless it’s after dinner hours. Just as it’s easy for you to ignore an e-mail, it’s easy for clients to ignore or simply fail to respond to yours. If you can get them on the phone, you show a real interest in their business and they’re more likely to book on the spot.
• Even if you can’t answer a caller’s question immediately, such as if they want to talk about dates and you’re cruising on the Interstate, answer the phone or call back anyway. They will appreciate just getting to consult with you about the shoot, get their questions answered, and you can ask to call them later in the day when you’re in front of your calendar. They’ll already be sold that “you’re the one” and will wait for your contact instead of shopping around.

An example of this practice in action: I was working late at the office last week and got an e-mail from a woman shopping around for wedding photographers, the typical “I’m interested in wedding photography, please send me your prices and packages,” message. So I took two minutes to shoot off a quick response. We e-mailed back and forth a few times over the next 15 minutes, and set up a consultation at the coffeehouse here in Bandera.

When we sat down and visited, by the end of the conversation, my new client told me the number one reason she met with me was because I responded so quickly to her e-mail. She said she e-mailed a dozen photographers – half took days to get back to her, and the other half she hadn’t even heard from a week after.

Unbelievable.

Actually, it isn’t unbelievable – because it happens all the time. And this is yet another of the big, hairy, audacious opportunities that your competition is leaving open for you to take advantage of. Certainly not just for wedding photography, this applies to any client need – the faster you can turn around a response or request or order, the more impressed and loyal your clients will be.

I don’t buy the manipulative grognard horsesh*t of not responding “too quickly” because you want to look busy, and not desperate. Buyers are shoppers – if I’m hungry, the restaurant that’s open now is the one that gets my money. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve eaten at Church’s Chicken just because it’s walking distance from my office.

Much as we photographers, we artists, like to pretend otherwise, most clients are not anxiously waiting by the phone for our return call, desperately wanting to shoot with us and only us – especially at the start-up end of the market.

My new wedding client drove over an hour to visit with me out in Bandera, coming out of the metroplex of San Antonio – over a million strong in population and overflowing with photographers. And she volunteered the reason was primarily because of my response time. That’s knowledge you can take to the bank.

Turnaround Time

I can talk a blue streak just about responding to client inquiries as fast as you can.

Your second opportunity to use speed to stay ahead of your competition is in turnaround time, how long you take to turn around client requests and orders.

This is especially crucial near your local high schools’ graduation ceremonies. Parents love to have great, up-to-date photos of their seniors to send out with graduation invitations. But like most folks, they procrastinate until the month or so before graduation.

I used to tell people it would take about a week to turn around proofs. I mean, that’s what everyone else does, right? Don’t want to look too desperate – and we want to make it appear that we spent a lot of time being artistic in preparing these precious proofs!

Well, that was all BS.

The real reason was that I was lazy, and I justified that laziness with the idea of trying to mindfreak my clients into thinking I was busy being an in-demand artist.

That’s disingenuous and the kind of manipulation I abhor – as a consumer and as a businessman. As with an honest mechanic, if something takes 15 minutes, it takes 15 minutes; if it takes three hours, it takes three hours, not three days or three weeks.

I’ve refined my workflow to dedicate about an hour to post-process a shoot for proofing and sales. Barring dinner or other engagements, guess how long it takes for me to turn around proofs for my clients? That’s right – one hour.

Unless another photographer moves into Bandera County and starts shooting and selling portraits like a good rodeo or event photographer (two-person team, one shooting and handing cards to a second person who processes and has proofs ready as the shoot is ongoing), nobody could beat my turnaround times even if they wanted to.

And this is the point I don’t want you to lose in this sea of advice:

You won’t start out with the best art, the most business savvy, the best marketing – but you can start giving your clients an exceptional experience right away.

Ignore what the grognards do and say, or “how everyone does it,” and ask yourself how you can do better by your clients right now – ask yourself how you’d prefer to be treated.

Stepping up to a faster turnaround is a no-cost opportunity to add value to your professional photography services. You’re just shifting processing time from later in the week to immediately after your shoot. It takes some energy, some stamina to give your all on a shoot then get on your computer and start processing, but the good word of mouth will fatten your bank account much faster than procrastination.

Next Steps

• How fast can you turn around proofs on your next shoot? Race yourself, just for fun – apply the 80/20 rule and see what 20 percent of processing you’re doing that’s giving you 80 percent of your artistic results. Try to get your post-processing time below one-hour on a one-hour shoot – this includes all post-processing, including offloading the camera, backing up the shoot, culling, processing proofs, black and white conversions on your favorite shots, and walking away from the computer ready to show and sell. No room for self-indulgent perfectionism here. Keep practicing – it does get easier and faster with time.
• Brainstorm session: Take an evaluative look at your competition, any other photographers or studios marketing to your potential clients. Look at every detail a client might consider: artistic style, uniqueness of art, personality, session fees or minimum orders, print pricing, availability and pricing on files, forced package buys, friendliness of policies and treatment, speed to turn around proofs or orders, simplicity or complexity of their marketing message and policies, social proof (are they using testimonials well?), social media, permission marketing (e-mail newsletter), keyphrase-richness and personality of blog posts, professionalism and warmth on phone calls, informative content of web site, transparency and speed of e-mail responses, speed in returning voicemails, who their coop marketing partners are, so on and so on. Some of the best marketing education you can get is in shopping your competition. Which of their strengths can you match or better? How can you maximize on their weaknesses? Where’s the gaping hole of opportunity? File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• My writing at PartTimePhoto.com exists to serve your needs as an amateur photographer making the transition to paid professional. I appreciate and welcome your readership, and invite you to subscribe to my e-mail newsletter at the top of any page of this site.
• What’s your competition doing wrong? What can you do to capitalize on it? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

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I had to swing six times before I even hit a single past short while writing the headline for this post. I promise you, coop marketing is not as dry as it sounds.

In fact, it’s one of the easiest ways to get your work in front of the eyeballs of your target market.

Coop marketing happens when you work with another local business on some project or campaign that brings in buzz and new clients for both of you.

For example:

• A high school senior photographer can partner around prom time with the local dress shop, limo service, tuxedo rental, flower shop, even the venue hosting the dance itself.
• An engagement and wedding photographer can partner with many of the same businesses, adding the local jeweler, churches, other venues for ceremonies and receptions, caterers, and wedding planners.
• A maternity photographer can partner with the local maternity boutique, obstetrician, midwife, and spa (trust, by third trimester, momma gonna wanna foot massage).
• A baby photographer can partner with the local hospital delivery room, birthing center, pediatrician, baby clothing boutique, kids resale shop, work at home moms who make crafty baby accessories, lactation consultants, car seat safety consultants, cloth diapering groups, the gym, urgent care center, pediatric areas of the local hospital or ER (I’m not sure I’ve met a parent who hasn’t ended up here at least once during their child’s first year), even the newspaper (birth announcements).
• A family photographer can partner with some of the same, adding the community center, Sunday School, Boys & Girls Club, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, youth sports leagues, public and private schools, restaurants, arcade, city government (always in need of good art for Public Service Announcements), parenting groups, theme parks and water parks, the mini-golf course, etc.

Get the idea? There are countless local businesses that serve your target market, whatever that market may be. Especially if you’re just starting out, they likely have access to far more eyeballs in that market than you do, so finding ways to benefit their cause and get your name and photography out there is a boon for both parties.

The “Who” of coop marketing isn’t too hard – it’s anyone that serves your target market, but with a different product or service. You know that high-end, way-overpriced children’s boutique downtown? What would it be worth to land the business of just a few of their clients?

Although I throw a lot of names out there as options to partner with, don’t be overwhelmed – here at the beginning, you just want to focus on landing one good coop marketing relationship with one business that also serves your target market.

A good coop marketing relationship can easily provide you more than enough clients to book solid a light shooting schedule. A great relationship can give you even better returns.

The Who’s easy – the Hows will require a little creativity.

How to make You and Who happy

I love the marketing side of running a photography business because it lets me turn loose my imagination on the endless ways to make an effective, favorable impression on potential customers. It’s fun because there’s no limits – often, the more creative the marketing campaign, the better it works.

The basic premise of a good coop marketing relationship is cross promotion. You and Who you’re marketing with should both benefit from the campaign or event.

Let me break down one of my favorite coop marketing Who’s and How’s so you can better see the inner workings.

Chie Petit Boutique resells children’s designer clothing and accessories downtown. If I am a children’s photographer, this is exactly the kind of place where I want my work and my name seen.

I would pay them a visit, shop around their store, get a feel for the place. I’d look at how they use their wall space – is there some room in there for big, juicy 20×30 portraits? Perhaps in their window display? Behind the register?

I’d then approach the manager of Chie Petit Boutique and suggest a coop marketing campaign. I’d set up a contest for her customers to fill out a little form at the register and slip it into a box, and at the end of the month, we would draw five or 10 winners to receive full photo shoots with maybe 10 hi-res digital files on CD each, an $XXX value. The best photo from each winner’s shoot would be printed 20×30 and hung on display in the boutique. The only rule: the winning children must be photographed in the outfits they purchased from Chie Petit Boutique.

(And if the manager or owner of the boutique has children, I’d sure as hell make them my first subject!)

Let’s line up the many benefits for everyone involved here:

• I as the children’s photographer get my name and work in front of every customer at Chie Petit Boutique via my attractive little display at their register promoting the contest and holding entry slips.
• The entry slips would include language that the entrant gives both myself and the boutique permission to sign them up to receive our e-mail newsletters, building both of our very valuable e-mail lists.
• I get face time with five to 10 high-value clients. Now’s my time to shine – if I give them a great experience and create for them art they can truly enjoy, they will come back to me for their future photography needs. I’ll lose my time on the front end, but I could easily gain a lifetime annual client if I do my job well. And considering the clientele, odds are I will sell some wall prints to these folks, above the free images on CD they won in the contest.
• The best of my artwork from each shoot then goes on display in the boutique – my photographs will adorn the walls of this highly-trafficked downtown business, with business cards available by each framed print or at least at the register.
• Having each winner sign a model release so their art can be displayed in the boutique, I also gain the benefit of padding my portfolio with their images.
• Guaranteed, once I’ve shot all of the winners, I’m going to write up a big blog post about the contest, about working with the winners, and put the results on display on my web site. I’ll promote the images as a Series or Collection “created exclusively for Chie Petit Boutique.”
• Chie Petit Boutique enjoys a boon of buzz and business from clients excited to participate in the contest. With five to 10 winners to be picked, each potential entrant will be more compelled to participate, because unlike most contests, they actually have great odds of winning.
• The boutique can repurpose the images into a great advertising or marketing campaign, slick magazine style, showing how stylish little boys and girls look in their clothing.
• The boutique gets to reward five to 10 of its beloved customers with free, fab photo shoots. That positive experience, provided by both the photographer and the boutique, will not quickly be forgotten by the winners. And you think they won’t be bragging on Facebook about winning? Word of mouth advertising in spades.
• The boutique will get to adorn its walls with professional photography of its very own clients and products. Those winning customers will take every chance they get to bring a friend or family member into the boutique to show off their lovely children, on display right there on the walls of the most swank boutique in town.

This is the kind of win-win coop marketing project fellow business owners will go gaga for. You may meet some resistance because true win-win partnerships are rare enough that most small business owners are very slow to get on board. But once you get that first campaign under your belt, you can use its success to show other business owners how working together can tangibly improve their bottom line.

So once I’ve got the manager of Chie Petit Boutique excited about the project, how do I get the word out?

Promoting a coop campaign

You promote a coop marketing campaign like you would any special photo sale or event you might do in your part time photography business – via blog, social media and PR.

But with a second business involved, the campaign gains the benefit of double the voice, and double the exposure.

Each business can promote the contest on their blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts.

The two businesses can prepare a joint press release and work the local media for a story about the partnership and campaign (especially likely to work if you can find a way to make the campaign benefit a common charity, cause marketing).

I can recommend to my clients that they visit the boutique and enter the contest, and provide them the boutique’s marketing materials; the boutique can hand out my business cards or brochures with their customers’ purchases during the contest period.

If we decided to try some paid advertising for the contest, we would be able to split the cost.

If you’re just starting out, the other business may have a much larger network to promote the contest to, but you’ll both benefit from having more potential clients visit your partner and sign up. In fact, the larger the network of your partner business, the better. Hard to beat going from unknown to exciting business partner overnight.

The above example is just one small, easy way to set up a mutually-beneficial coop marketing campaign. There are endless partners and variations of events and projects you can put together – again, the more creative, the better. The goal is to build buzz, get your name and artwork out there, bump traffic and excitement for your partner business, reward your partner’s customers, and end up with a long-term relationship that keeps your work on display and improves the decor of your partner’s business.

Next Steps

• What part of your photography business would you like to grow? Who makes up that target market? Where do they shop or do business? Make a list of potential partner businesses in your community. Order your list by which business you would most like to work with on a potential coop marketing event or campaign (because of traffic, location, clientele, style, personality, whatever metric you want to use).
• Get in your car and drive over there. Look around, shop around, and visit with the manager. Kick around ideas and measure their enthusiasm. If they’re excited, start working together on a project that will benefit both of you. If they’re not interested, drive straight over to No. 2 on your list. Don’t stop until you have a partner to work with.
• Look around your community and see how different combinations of businesses, services, and products work together to form marketing partnerships where the sum is more buzz-worthy than its component parts. Start looking for your own opportunities as you work in and around your community.
• Brainstorm session: Let your imagination run wild and come up with as many ideas for coop marketing partners and creative campaigns or events as you can in one sitting. No idea is too far-fetched, no potential partner is out of reach, just let your mind run and write down everything you come up with. This list will prove a goldmine of marketing opportunities over the years. File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• My writing at PartTimePhoto.com exists to serve your needs as an amateur photographer making the transition to paid professional. I appreciate and welcome your readership, and invite you to subscribe to my e-mail newsletter at the top of any page of this site.
• What’s the most fun, exciting, creative coop marketing campaign you can imagine doing in your community? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

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Occam’s Razor: To do with more what can be done with less, is vanity.

Don’t fall victim to the endless barrage of “you gotta have this!” and “you gotta do that!” and “you gotta spend money to make money!” horsesh*t you read every single time you get on the Internet.

By the time you “need” brochures and postcards and direct mail campaigns and print/radio/online/CPC/CPM/banner/TV ads and a professionally-designed web site and an iPad and a projector and a comfy sales room with framed prints on the walls and Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3 and Animoto and a hand-stitched leather 16×20 print portfolio and die cut business cards and a marketing consultant and an outsourced post processing team and studio management software and a portable studio and Profoto strobes and PocketWizards and HD behind the scenes videos and a professional logo and all the other endless BS that gets shoved down photographer’s throats (by vendors and by other grognard photogs)… My friends, by the time you “need” any or all of that, you’ll be making more than enough money with your art to invest in anything you want.

The basics, the fundamentals, the stuff that gets out there and does real work at getting clients in the door…it costs next to nothing.

Hustle. And don’t spend a dime on anything that won’t hustle on your behalf.

Next Steps

• Put away the B&H catalog, quit staring anxiously at your Amazon.com shopping cart, and go talk to people about photography. Volunteer to do photos for a local charity, hit the town and be seen with your camera, get your Facebook Fan Page up and tell your family and friends, write something fresh for your blog, or any of the many, many other simple acts of marketing that will make the real difference in your business.
• This is one of the shortest posts I may ever write for this blog, but I truly believe the insatiable “gotta have more stuff” mentality is a disease killing off the momentum and motivation of so many potentially great artists as they try to break into this industry. It’s a disservice to both the artist’s muse and the potential clients who may never get to benefit from that artist’s talents because he or she just can’t get past the starting line. If PartTimePhoto.com never does anything more, I hope it vaccinates new-to-the-fold professionals from the debilitating effects of this disease. Want to take action? Read this post again, and take it to heart. You are all you need to be successful.
• My writing at PartTimePhoto.com exists to serve your needs as an amateur photographer making the transition to paid professional. I appreciate and welcome your readership, and invite you to click the free “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this site.
• How can you apply Occam’s Razor to your part time professional photography business? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

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I love Esquire Magazine – I dare say it’s my favorite read out of the many, many magazines I subscribe to. The wit, confidence, and personality makes reading it like having a couple drinks with a buddy whose bravado is such that his mere presence makes you feel like a more capable human being.

In their April 7, 2010, slideshow, “What I’ve Learned: Secrets of the Super-Rich,” you pick up some tight one- and two-liners from some of the richest men of our time. Donald Trump, Rupert Murdoch, and the like.

Here’s my take on their advice, and how it applies to what we do as part time professional photographers:

“You have to pretend you’re 100 percent sure. You have to take action; you can’t hesitate or hedge your bets. Anything less will condemn your efforts to failure.”
- Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel

As I’ve written before, preparation is what gives you the confidence you need to get the most out of every customer conversation and photo shoot that you do.

You have to give yourself permission as a new-to-the-fold professional photographer to not know everything. Nobody knows everything about this business, and even what’s highly successful for one photographer in one market may be a complete dud for someone else, somewhere else.

Once you relax and admit to yourself that you’re not going to know it all from the start, you can focus on real preparation and applying your best at your business. If you’re even striving to improve and do a little better each day, practicing the Japanese philosophy of kaizen, then you are far surpassing the efforts of grognard photographers who have long become lazy, stagnant, and bored with their own work.

Wherever you are, whatever gear you have, whatever amount of experience or talent you have or have not, book that first shoot – or your second, or your third. Keep moving forward, maintain momentum, and with every shoot, step up to your client with the confidence that you’re going to do the best work you know how, and that you’ll only get better every time. You don’t have to be perfect, and you don’t want to be; questing for perfection is the absolute best way to kill your momentum.

As always, talent takes time, but creating a great experience for your clients is something anyone can do at any time.

“Work honestly and build, build, build. That’s all I can tell you.”
- J.R. Simplot, potato magnate

This is the core idea of just about everything I try to share here on PartTimePhoto.com. Be transparent, be honest, keep things simple for your clients, make it easy for them to book and shoot and spend their money with you.

And with each client, maintain a fluid circuit of learning, practicing, marketing, shooting, selling, and serving.

The greatest fact of being a green part time professional photographer is that you have nowhere to go but up. From the day you make the decision to do what you love and make honest money doing it, you will only get better: you will only learn new skills, grow as an artist, mature as a businessperson, earn more income, invest in better gear, expand your client base, build an ever-growing foundation of adoring repeat clients and super fans, and grow both your bank account and social circle.

Part time photography is a wonderful choice of profession, and like any other, it takes work to make progress. But it’s the kind of work you can love doing while building a successful business that benefits your community as much as you and your family.

“Love the janitor.”
- Jack Welch, former CEO, GE

While it’s always most effective to focus your marketing efforts on your target audience, never forget that everybody is somebody’s brother, son, daughter, mother, friend, etc. Your best marketing isn’t intended necessarily to draw an immediate response from the first person it touches, but to make your services ‘top of mind’ for an ever-growing audience of influencers They’ll remember your name when a friend or family member needs what you can provide.

And the ‘janitor’ mantra is no joke – I did some gratis boudoir photography for an old high school friend last year, and though their shoot was for fun, they have since referred several clients my way – boudoir photos, family photos, and even a wedding.

When the opportunity presents itself to be awesome to someone who probably doesn’t see a lot of “awesome” in their lives, take it and be both blessed and a blessing.

“If you haven’t got a hernia yet, you ain’t pulling your share.”
- George Steinbrenner, owner, New York Yankees

Notice a theme here?

If you want to succeed, do the work. Learn, practice, act, get paid, get better. Sow, reap.

This is as applicable to you and I as to the most successful business magnates of our time.

“It’s fair for people to question how much a CEO is making. But they should question the companies that fail. In the companies that have a great management team, they should understand that it’s important to compensate great executives.”
- Sumner Redstone, former CEO, Viacom

Don’t let this advice slip by you: you are an executive in your own business, the CEO, even if you’re a business of one. And one of the fastest ways to burn out as a part time photographer is to not pay yourself well.

With a business you love, it is far too easy to reinvest and reinvest all of your photography income back into the business, while never keeping any for yourself, or worse, not realizing that you’re also spending money out of pocket to grow the business.

Not that this is necessarily a problem. If a purchase you make as a business owner gives you as much personal satisfaction and enjoyment as though you had bought it for personal use, then the value is the same. Even though I may suggest that you keep your salary separate from the rest of your business expenses and investments, I’ll always advise that it’s your business and your money – if you want to do something, don’t let anyone tell you you can’t.

It may be hard to believe in these early stages when passion and motivation run high, but you may one day want to move on to another adventure other than professional photography. Don’t invest so much of your personal and business income that you have no nest egg to fund your next big adventure.

Pay yourself first.

“I was walking down Fifth Avenue with Marla Maples in 1991. This was at the peak of the bad market. Across the street I saw a man in front of Tiffany with a tin cup. I looked at Marla and said, ‘You know, right now that man is worth $900 million more than I am.’”
- Donald Trump, CEO, Trump Organization

Donald Trump knows how to make a buck or two – and he knows how to lose’em just as fast. But Trump also knows that the ups and downs of life and business make for hella good stories, and stories are worth far more in social capital than money.

Two takeaways here:

When you look with envious eyes at other, ‘more’ successful, ‘more’ popular, ‘more’ wealthy, ‘more’ talented professional photographers, what you assume may not be the reality those photographers live with. There are plenty of photographers who look like big shots but barely make $10 an hour – if that. All revenue and no profit. You don’t know their expenses, their overhead, their challenges, or their bottom line. They may have a big retail studio and beautiful marketing pieces, but if they’re in debt up to their eyeballs and are only working each day to pay off credit card bills, they’re nowhere near as well off professionally or personally as you are with your point and shoot camera and VistaPrint business cards. Stay frugal, stay debt-free, earn your upgrades.

Also, the best part of failure – disappointing a client, not landing a customer you worked hard to get in the door, getting zero return from a marketing investment – is the lesson you learn, and the story you now have to tell. Lick your wounds, but explore what went wrong, and adjust your decision making in the future so history doesn’t repeat itself. What you learn is worth far more in the long run than what you lose in the here and now.

“When you’re eighty years old and looking back on your life, you want to have minimized the number of regrets you have. That’s what should drive people. Not how much money they have.”
- Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO, Amazon.com

My senior year of high school, as the ‘nice guy’ in class, I was assigned to be both buddy and guide to the new German foreign exchange student. Over the course of the school year, he and I became best friends, and to this day he’s still the European brother I never had.

At one particular basketball game, he was scoping out the most fly cheerleader on the varsity squad, and dying to go talk to her. About five-eleven, lithe, blonde, one of those Hicks girls with the big doe eyes that made all the varsity football players swoon.

In that moment, I coined the best piece of advice I have ever given in my life, something that has since changed both our lives for the better:

“Make memories, not excuses.”
- James Taylor, owner/author, PartTimePhoto.com

(Or as Tim Riggins on Friday Night Lights would simplify, “No regrets.”)

Now I don’t pretend to place myself among the magnates and gurus quoted throughout this article, but this mantra has informed every decision I’ve made since the words passed my lips those many years ago. I hope it can bring you as much fulfillment in your life as it has in mine.

(Aside: My brother Andreas did talk to that cheerleader, and although they never dated, they became great friends. She went on to become a Seventeen Magazine model and they still keep in touch. Not shabby company to keep, and all it took was the decision to swing – hit or miss.)

Next Steps

• Pay a visit to the Esquire slideshow mentioned above and take in both the wisdom in the words and character in the faces of the business barons quoted above. There’s plenty more wisdom to glean from these good ol’ boys. Also visit their What I’ve Learned archives for more wisdom from the rich and famous.
• Pick a magazine – any magazine on any industry, but I’m partial to Fast Company, Inc., Entrepreneur, and Esquire – get a subscription, and take the time each month to flip through its pages. For the dollar a month or less these publications cost, you’ll get far more than your money’s worth in new ideas. If you study the advertising pages alone for ideas how to market your own business, you’ll walk away from each issue with at least one great idea to apply to your own business. Don’t discount the value of print publications just because of the variety and breadth of online sites like this one – it’s good to stretch your legs, and your horizons.
• For bonus points, hit the local coffee shop with your magazine, a notepad, and your camera. Spread them out on the table and start idea hunting and taking notes. Be on the lookout for interesting folks to strike up conversations with, but if nothing else, F8 and Be There. Just being seen out in your community with your camera can make a difference in building your brand.
• Brainstorm session: Think back to kindergarten and all the simple, obvious, but so often overlooked things you learned there. What are the simplest but most important things you learned? How can you apply these nuggets of life wisdom to your business practices? How can you make your business as simple and easy for your clients as kindergarten rules? Not condescending, but concise, and clear. File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• My writing at PartTimePhoto.com exists to serve your needs as an amateur photographer making the transition to paid professional. I appreciate and welcome your readership, and invite you to click the free “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this site.
• What’s the best advice you’ve been given – or biggest lesson you’ve learned – in your adventure as a professional photographer? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

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As a newly-minted part time professional photographer, it must take years of hard work, advertising, and great word of mouth exposure to get some face time with the truly influential leaders in your community…right?

Hell naw.

By partnering up with local non-profits, getting involved with their volunteers, events, and boards of directors, you will quickly make a name for yourself both as a photographer and as someone who gives back to good causes in your community.

Let’s get the ethics question out of the way: Is it bad juju to ‘use’ charities as a marketing method?

In any relationship of give and take – whether that’s money changing hands between a client and you as a service provider, or between a volunteer and a charitable entity – there is an exchange of value.

Between you and your clients, they’re handing you cash in exchange for the value of the art and experience you provide them.

Between a volunteer and a non-profit, the volunteer is providing their time and talent and the non-profit is providing a venue to help that volunteer use their talent for a good cause. The volunteer gains satisfaction, self respect, good karma, and good vibes within that non-profit group.

Donating your time and talents to non-profits – membership directories, event photography, promotional / PR photography, ‘commercial’ photography for their advertising – provides the receiver with the skilled work of a professional. The giver, yourself, gets the personal satisfaction of helping out a good cause, and the professional benefit of good word of mouth within that group.

So long as both parties agree on an exchange that benefits both parties, there is no ethical question – you’re both getting far greater benefit from working together than from the nothingness you both started with. If you do event photography for a non-profit charity ball, and you’re listed as the official photographer in the program and advertising, both parties have come away with something of tangible value – they get your great photos, you get their kindness and great word of mouth.

And make no mistake, word of mouth within the circles of volunteers and non-profits is some of the best you can get. The quality of the people is near-universally top-tier, and the folks who are a part of these non-profits from the volunteers to the directors, are the movers and shakers in their circles. Some of the most prominent (and, likely, wealthy) members of your local business community are the same people who sit on the boards of these non-profits.

When you make an impression on them, they will talk – and when they talk, people truly listen.

The guy in the Statue of Liberty suit waving a “GET YOUR TAX RETURN TODAY!!!” sign at me as I fly by on the highway won’t get me in the door – but if the fellow who sits next to me on the board of the local business association says, “Hey, you need to check out John Doe for your taxes – he’s top drawer,” my ears are gonna perk.

Non-profit partnering opportunities

Here are some ways you can partner with local non-profits to benefit your community and your bottom line:

Event photography – Most non-profits put on a variety of events like fundraisers, galas, open houses and such every year. Ask to be the official photographer for the event, and then just cover it like you would any event or wedding. Capture the important players, the memorable moments, the peak action, the smiling faces, and like a good photojournalist, really tell the story of the event with your photos. Post the album of photos on your blog and Facebook for folks to enjoy and download, and provide a CD of hi-res, fully-processed images with a license release for their PR and marketing. As always, the better work you do, the bigger an impression you’ll make.

Be a part of the event – Another angle to take on being the photographer at an event is to make your photography a part of the event. If it’s a community event, set up a photo booth / scene and take photos of attendees for a price – say, $5 donation to the charity nets a hi-res, fully processed digital file e-mailed within a day or so (here’s a good opportunity to ask for the opt-in from folks for your e-mail newsletter). If it’s a more exclusive event like a gala, don’t charge – just take fun photos, collect e-mail addresses, and make a good impression.

Donate photo packages for silent auctions – Silent and live auctions are as common as baked goods and iced tea at benefits here in Texas. Folks donate pies, art, guided hunting trips, even port-a-potty rentals. Get in on the action by donating a gift certificate for a shoot plus a set of digital files (I like to offer 10). The buyers at these benefit auctions are often from the wealthier end of the community, so besides helping raise money for a good cause, you’ll get good exposure during the event and face time with a potentially lucrative client after.

Hold your own fundraising event – Instead of tagging along on a preexisting fundraising event, coordinate with your chosen non-profit and put on your own event. Think about your holiday scene ‘events’ – photos with Santa, photos with baby chicks and rabbits around Easter – and do something with the same structure. Partner with a local high-traffic business to host the event (the local grocery store here in Bandera gets plenty of daily visitors), get the word out in advance in the local newspaper and on Facebook, have a set time period for the event, and just set up a scene and shoot. Marketed well, you’ll get a flood of folks in front of your camera. Sell flat-rate digital packages so you can just mail or e-mail buyers their images – costs you next to nothing. As always, use this opportunity to get folks to opt-in to your e-mail newsletter.

Create a simple gift certificate fundraiser program – Remember selling candy bars and other sundry foodstuffs to raise funds for some extra-curricular trip back in school? Same concept here. Allow your chosen non-profit to sell discounted gift certificates for your photography services, then split the take with them. It’s hard to beat having a team of motivated salespeople out working hard to get you new business. Again, if you stick with digital packages, you’ll limit your personal costs from the fundraiser. Also, if you only do X shoots per week, be sure you set an upper limit so you don’t get flooded with more clients than you can handle. If there are wide-eyed children involved, odds are you’ll sell out fast.

Commercial photography - Offer to create fresh, effective new photography for your chosen non-profit’s PR and marketing. This could be anything from headshots for the directors to a full-day commercial shoot to create exciting new art for an upcoming campaign. Make this a team effort with other talent in your community to put on a full-fledged commercial photo shoot without a penny of cost. Hair, make-up, wardrobe rental, props, locations, permits, models – all can be had for free when you’re working together for a good cause. Be the team leader, though – coordinate and direct the shoot yourself, take responsibility, and earn the respect and good will of your peers. Your art will be the final product of everyone’s work, so nail it, and then give everyone involved copies on CD.

However you choose to share your talents with the local non-profit community, make sure the resulting photos end up in the local newspaper – along with your byline!

Where to find non-profit partners

If you’ve been out and about in your community, or read your local paper, you’ve probably come across countless charities that could make use of your services.

Try to offer your services first to charities that speak to you personally, and whose volunteers or beneficiaries are primarily made up of your target market.

For example, I really enjoy working with my local education foundation, Optimists Club, Kiwanis, Boys & Girls Club, and 4-H groups. Just like you would partner up with a local children’s resale boutique to promote your family photography, find non-profits that serve your target market / demographic – the people you meet and network with will be like-minded folks with similar values.

Watch your local paper for announcements of upcoming benefits and fundraisers to see what’s going on now within your non-profit community. Your chamber of commerce is also a good resource for getting the scoop on local non-profits. Here in Bandera, we have a community foundation that in one way or another supports most of the local charities – if I was on the hunt for opportunities to help, I wouldn’t have to go far to find the right partner.

The main goal here is to find a partner you can be passionate about working with, a group whose cause you really believe in. Volunteering your photography services can make for long hours and plentiful responsibility, but you’ll never lack motivation knowing your time and talents are being put to good use helping people and causes you care about.

A word about taxes and deductions

With the ever-present caveat that I am neither a lawyer nor an accountant, here’s what I know about the tax and deduction side of your fundraising efforts:

First of all, whatever you think you’re worth, you’re not – at least when it comes to deducting your service donations on your taxes.

If you donate a big photo package for a silent auction, a big gift certificate for a one-hour photo shoot on location and 10 hi-res digital files on CD…you can only deduct the few pennies the CD cost you.

The only deductions you can take off your taxes are the actual, tangible, out-of-pocket costs related to your donation. If you donate a shoot and 20×30 print worth $500, you can only deduct your actual cost of the print. You get no credit for your time or the market value of your art. Your art, time and talent, in Uncle Sam’s eyes at least, ain’t worth a dime.

As always in these matters, consult a CPA or Someone Who Knows What The Hell They’re Talking About.

Next Steps

• As a newly-minted part time professional photographer, your biggest challenge is rarely bringing your art up to salable levels – the challenge is finding buyers for your art. Donating your time, talent, ideas, and inspiration to charitable causes is good for the soul, the community, and the bottom line of your business. Put a call in right now to your chamber of commerce and ask where you can find some non-profits to donate your services to. If they can’t help you directly, they will know who can.
• Jump on Facebook and put up a post asking your friends to tell you what local charities they admire and/or have worked with in the past who they think could use your services. Let their good guidance inform your decision as to who to approach and offer your help to.
• Make the call. Pick a charity, decide what ways you would like to help, then put in a call and find out how to donate your services. They will guide you by the hand so that you both get the maximum benefit from one another. Non-profits will rarely try to take advantage of you, but be sure that whatever work you do, you get a byline and credit for with any usage.
• Get at least one photo project under your belt with the charity, evaluate how the experience went for you, and determine whether you’d like to work with that charity again. You might choose to work with a different charity, play the field, or even add a second charity to work with. Unless you have a particularly bad experience, keep in mind that the longer you’re with a given charity, the more benefits you’ll reap.
• Brainstorm session: Make a top 10 list of local charities you would like to work with, based on your own research and the recommendations of peers. Which best aligns with your personal values? Which best aligns with your professional goals (exposure in your target market)? Which charities best balance the two? File this away in your Brainstorms folder.
• My writing at PartTimePhoto.com exists to serve your needs as an amateur photographer making the transition to paid professional. I appreciate and welcome your readership, and invite you to click the free “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this site.
• What has been your experience partnering with non-profits to gain exposure and goodwill within the community? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• How do I get my first photography client? – Your First Customer Series, Part 4
• The Top 16 marketing opportunities for photographers in November 2010
• 12 ways to make 2012 the year your business takes off
• How to use coop marketing to instantly build your client list
• How to earn lifetime photography customers with the perfect follow-up – Your First Customer Series, Part 10

Just because winter is heading your way doesn’t mean it’s time to let your marketing go cold.

(Did’ja like that line? Took me hours. Nah, just kidding; it slid off my brain right onto the Word doc.)

A quick visit to the Special Days page at About.com offers up a smorgasbord of opportunities to get the attention of your target market. You can look ahead to any month of the year, and if you let your imagination run, you’ll get more good ideas to market your part time photography services than you know what to do with.

Always be on the lookout for inspiration – in holidays; in advertising from other industries you see in magazines, newspapers, or on television; in sports, cultural and community events, etc. I’d suggest keeping tabs on the About.com calendar above, your local community calendar (via your newspaper, chamber of commerce, or visitor’s bureau), and at least one pop culture magazine or web site so you can stay tuned into the zeitgeist.

Here’s what caught my eye for November 2010:

(My apologies for not getting this list out sooner in the month – my daughter Athena Corinna was born Nov. 1 in Austin, Texas, so I’ve been busy falling madly in love the past week – sue me! But this explains why I don’t below cover Cookie Monster’s Birthday, National Candy Day, Hug-a-Bear Day, or other special days earlier in the month. I’m not purposely hating on the Cookie Monster, I assure you.)

1. Winter Wearables

Autumn leaves are peaking in color (at least here in Texas), so with the colder weather comes some beautiful outdoor scenery to work with on your photo shoots.

Colder weather also means cold-weather fashion: thicker clothing, sweaters, turtlenecks, fur-lined coats and boots, gloves, snowsuits for your northerners, and here in Texas, long johns, dusters and felt cowboy hats. This is a great opportunity to do a fashion article for your blog, letting readers know what kinds of winter clothes make for fun and lovely portraits.

Little blue-eyed girls in fur-lined hoodie coats? Instant riches, my friends.

If you’re not fashion-inclined, find someone who is and work with them on a blog post, preferably someone who sells clothing in your town and would not only know what they’re talking about, but have an incentive to help you out. Just get them talking about what looks great and feels great, then write what they say in your blog, giving credit where it’s due.

Now, take it up a notch: pick a client family to do a ‘fashion photo shoot’ with for this blog post. Offer them a few hi-res, fully processed images on CD for their time – odds are, they’ll buy some extras (as always, the more great art you produce, the more you earn, just as it should be).

This is a great opportunity to do some co-op marketing. Get your retailer friend with whom you wrote the blog post to let you borrow some of their featured fall fashions and dress your client family in the sweet duds. Offer the retailer a set of poster-framed 20×30 prints (on sale for $9.99 at Adorama this week) from the shoot to display in their store. On each print, put your logo prominently in one corner, their logo in the other, and have business cards handy at the register.

As always, take it yet another step further: offer the copy and images from your blog post as a package to your local newspaper for their Lifestyles section. With any marketing effort, never stop asking yourself, “What’s the next level?”

Client wins, co-op marketing partner wins, you win.

2. Child Safety and Protection Month

Doing special photo shoots to benefit good causes is a great way to get exposure and earn trust with some of the most influential people in your community – those who run and support the charities and non-profits.

Seek out a hyperlocal charity that supports child safety, protection, and/or advocacy, and donate a portion of your proceeds for the month to them. Or hold a special benefit shoot with a retail partner and donate all proceeds. Or set up a fundraising program for students to sell discounted photo gift certificates to their teachers, neighbors, friends’ parents, and parents’ friends – split the proceeds with the chosen charity.

There are many ways to combine good business with good causes and co-op marketing so that everyone involved benefits.

3. Peanut Butter Lover’s Month

You know, being a little wacky now and then can get attention and boost your likeability in your target market.

Messy food shoots can be fun. The most common is the cake smash for toddlers on their first birthday, but if this makes for good photos, why not extend the idea to a family shoot?

You could do a photo shoot featuring your client family chowing down on their favorite foods.

You could co-op with a local restaurant or bakery to do impromptu shoots with their eat-in customers. One of my favorite chow-down shots was at a local hot dog stand here in Bandera, where I caught a well-mustachioed local absolutely slamming a massive hot dog with all the trimmings. It was a hilarious photo, and everyone wanted a copy.

If you want to stick with the peanut butter theme for the month, you could do a series of weekly blog posts throughout the month with entertaining photos encouraging folks to celebrate Peanut Butter Lover’s Month. One week, a high school senior girl with a peanut butter mud mask. Another week, a doe-eyed kid grinning through a peanut butter sandwich with holes cut in it for the eyes and a big smile. Another week, stack a bunch of peanut butter cups as high as you dare, and get a cute kid to do an “OH MY GOODNESS!” face in awe of the pillar of candy.

You laugh! But this is the kind of stuff mothers eat up, pun intended. Think like a smart marketing manager for the Peanut Butter Foundation of The Universe – if you had to do a series of fun billboard ads promoting peanut butter, what would you do?

Advertising badass Donny Deutsch said that every rising-star ad agency has to have some cheeky work in its clips to be noticed.

Is your marketing mix all class with no sass?

Even venerable automaker Bentley gets its hands dirty when the time is right.

4. National Children’s Book Week

The second week of November focuses on children’s books, which opens up a bunch of great marketing opportunities.

Donate a portion of proceeds to your local library’s children’s literacy programs for all clients who book for or during this week. Make sure your clients – and your chosen library – are well aware of this effort.

Offer a perk (percent or flat cash discount, free 8×10 print or digital file, etc.) to clients who bring in a new or gently-used children’s book for donation to your library or another local charity that serves children (think shelters, children’s homes, services for abused/neglected children, child protective services).

Use your blog to bring attention to local children’s book authors and illustrators – do headshots of each person featured.

Again appealing to families, share information on local children’s story time / reading and literacy programs at your library. Work with your library to photograph one of these events – while asking parents’ permission to use the image on your blog, you’ll get face time with a nice set of potential clients.

Aside: Does this sound like an unusual marketing tactic? That’s the whole point – do you see your competition doing these things? No? Exactly.

Set up a photo event in coordination with the library’s family reading night. Have kids dress up in costume as their favorite book character and do a quick, fun portrait of each kid. Get each parent’s e-mail address and send them a copy of their kid’s image. Instant top-of-mind brand awareness with those families.

And as always, make sure the local newspaper knows about any special public event you’re putting on in coordination with the library or any local charity – both before and after, a preview and wrap-up. Double up on the positive (and free) press.

5. American Education Week

Any special date(s) celebrating education gives you the chance to work with your local school district – again getting face time with families.

Seek out your school district’s Education Foundation (or similar program that raises money to support teacher-initiated programs like netbooks for middle schoolers, etc.) and network with their board members. Offer your services as a photographer to cover their events and fundraisers – and offer to submit those photos to your local newspaper. Position yourself not just as an artist, but as someone knowledgeable in public relations and desirous to help how you can.

Set up a photo fundraiser for said foundation.

Work with local arts programs (art, music, theatre), which are almost always struggling for funding, to do class fundraisers. When I was in choir in high school, to fund our annual contest trip to Florida, we sold more candy bars than I could count – but we also sold Glamour Shots photo shoots. Offer a 50-50 split on discounted gift certificates sold by the kids – help them out with ideas on how to sell them, and to whom. You’ll dig into your profits, but you’ll curry much favor with the class, the teacher, and the families of the kids involved – not to mention lots of new clients to turn into repeat buyers.

Do a photography workshop for students. Most high schools have photography and photojournalism classes, and welcome professionals in the field to speak to the class. I recently did a two-hour portrait photography workshop with my county’s 4-H Photography Project. Never pass on the opportunity to establish yourself as the expert in your field in your community. High school career days are another chance to move from being “a” photographer in your community to being “the” photographer.

6. Veterans Day – Nov. 11

You can’t go wrong with a military discount.

Beyond the typical percentage discount, though, what can you do to better serve those who serve our country?

Offer free family portraits for active military, up to one per year. You don’t have to do a full-on shoot, just a good family group portrait, and offer the best image as a hi-res file, all for free. The 15 minutes you invest total will mean the world to that family, and endear you to their entire circle of military friends and family.

Offer to photograph one military homecoming per month, first-come, first-served. These can be incredibly poignant, emotional, eternally-cherished images, when families are reunited after excruciating time apart. You will never forget the first time you photograph the emotional face of a father holding his baby for the first time after a long deployment. I suggest only offering one or two of these each month, though, because they can be very time consuming and far from home if you live in a rural area like I do. It’s worth it, though – both for your soul, and your reputation as a professional photographer.

Offer free annual individual portraits to veterans. Have them in full dress, with medals and awards. Use dramatic lighting, deep shadows, and give them a portrait to be proud of. Again, military families are appreciative and fiercely loyal to anyone who goes out of their way to honor their heroes. You won’t find better word of mouth anywhere.

Work through your local military moms group, VFW, American Legion, and support groups to get the word out to the right people.

7. National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day – Nov. 14

This is a great one to get buzz and conversation going on your business’ Facebook page.

Blog a funny anecdote about the most horrifying thing you ever pulled out of your fridge, and encourage readers to leave comments about their own scary finds. Extra credit for photos of the offending food product. Pick your favorite and gift them with a certificate for a shoot and set (maybe five or 10) hi-res digital files on CD. Get folks talking – and sharing – and interacting with your business.

On a more charitable note, as with the children’s book suggestion above, have folks bring in non-perishable food items for your local food bank and receive a perk (discount, free print or file, whatever you like – it doesn’t take much).

8. America Recycles Day – Nov. 15

Green is the new black, as they say – reducing, reusing, and recycling are topics that are popular and can earn you respect with most people.

Use this as an opportunity to blog about recycling groups and efforts in your community, and to talk about your own personal and professional efforts to recycle – paper, ink cartridges, plastic products, batteries and their proper disposal, etc.

9. Button Day – Nov. 16

Must I even suggest it? Do button photo shoots! Give all button-wearers this day a discount or perk. Have a local shop that sells antique buttons, or a local custom swag shop that makes and sells them? Put on a photo event in cooperation with them.

Hold a Best Button Contest on Facebook – encourage folks to put on their best buttons and take self-snapshots, then share those pics on your page. Winner gets a free digital photo package (shoot plus five or 10 hi-res, fully processed files on CD).

Another aside: I love donating or giving away digital photo packages. They cost nothing but time and a CD, maybe some postage to mail it, and those images have a real value associated with them. They are worth something, and your clients know it. Unless you’re booked solid, use these to grow your portfolio and get face time with new clients in as many ways as you can use them – contests, donations to silent auctions, etc.

10. Homemade Bread Day, National Young Reader’s Day, Take a Hike Day – Nov. 17

This is a busy one! Here’s a threesome of ideas:

Homemade Bread Day – Feature a local bakery on your blog, share information on your local food bank or soup kitchen and how readers can volunteer, do a “break bread with the family” promotion with a local bakery to encourage family togetherness.

Young Reader’s Day – Same tips as noted above for National Children’s Book Week. Focus on local authors, illustrators, library, literacy programs, family reading nights. Give perks for children’s book donations for the local library and children’s non-profits.

Take a Hike Day – If you’re the outdoors type, you probably know where the best hiking trails (and associated fantastic scenery) are in your community. Ours here in Bandera County are found at the Hill Country State Natural Area, for example. Work with the entity that maintains those trails to set up a special photo hike for amateur nature photographers. Do a walking workshop and give tips on how to best capture the vistas, small details, and even self-portraits along the trail.

Protip: Show your hiking buddies how to set their camera’s self-timer, put the camera on the ground facing up at an angle, and capture a truly impressive self-portrait as they look out dramatically upon the face of nature. Camera on ground, pointed up at 45 degrees, either 45 degrees or 90 degrees off from the sun, subject in a proud stance facing the sun. Dramatic, lovely, and soaked in beautiful blue sky and clouds in the background. Flip it 180 degrees and get a great silhouette shot in front of a lovely sunset.

11. Mickey Mouse’s Birthday – Nov. 18

Offer perks to clients who bring in Disney books or DVDs for donation to the library or a local charity.

Not a bad time to add a set of Mickey Mouse ears (in both children’s and adult sizes – trust me on this one) to your props closet.

Work with a local day care to do individual portraits of the little toddlers in the Mickey Mouse ears. Compile into a collage for your blog. Wish Mickey a proper birthday. Parents will love it.

Are you seeing some ways to use your photography to market your services in ways other than the obvious? F8 and Be There, my friends.

12. World Hello Day – Nov. 21

Get out on the street and, by golly, say hello! Skip the gimmicks today and just be out amongst your community, be where your target market is. Carry your camera, shake hands, hand out business cards, visit, and if the subject seems friendly to it, do some simple and fun man-on-the-street headshots. Gather e-mail addresses (or, to be less pushy, give them your card and ask them to e-mail you) and send every person you shoot a copy of their photo.

It’s a ‘duh’ statement, but being seen with your camera, taking photos of people, is a really great way to promote yourself as a portrait photographer.

13. Stop The Violence Day – Nov. 22

Remember McGruff the Crime Dog, mascot of the National Crime Prevention Council? This is all him.

Put on a special for law enforcement and their families.

Or better yet, like for the military folks mentioned above, offer a free once-a-year family portrait.

Or better yet, talk to your local chief of police and/or sheriff and discuss doing portraits of every officer, in uniform, including a big group photo for the year. Give them a nice framed 20×30 group shot of the whole department to hang in the station (your logo in one corner, theirs in another, just like with the retailer).

Do a fundraiser photo event to benefit your area Fallen Officer Fund.

14. Thanksgiving Day – Nov. 25

Craft a nice blog post talking about what you’re thankful for in your life – open up a bit and let folks learn about what you hold dear. You’re not just a business, not just a photographer, but a real person with a real life and real feelings of appreciation for the great things in your life. Don’t hesitate to share.

About now is when you want to start encouraging folks to think about their Christmas photos. If you’re like me, you hate having Thanksgiving stuff pitched before Halloween, and even more so hate Christmas stuff being pitched before Thanksgiving. With Thanksgiving out of the way, it’s the perfect time to get folks on board with your Christmas photo offerings. Most importantly, let them know the best timeline for booking their shoot, shooting, buying, and mailing their holiday.

If you sell custom Christmas cards featuring family portraits, show and promote them. If you don’t, offer alternatives – either digital files and lists of vendors to buy custom cards from, or bulk print packages so folks can buy a mess of 5×7′s to slip inside their holiday cards to send to family and friends.

Start planning a big Christmas photo event related to family portraits for holiday cards. For example, my local visitor’s bureau always has a fun Cowboy Christmas scene set up outside their office during the holidays. I’ll set up a photo day with them to book a series of quick 15-minute shoots making use of their scene, then market it and sell as many sessions as I can line up.

Along the same lines, look at coordinating doing photos at or during special holiday events in town. Here in Bandera, we kick off December with a Shopper’s Jubilee event, including living nativity and caroling on the courthouse lawn.

What’s my take on Santa photos? Well, it’s more complication than I personally care to deal with, but is there any question they make money? Have you seen the lines for “Photos with Santa” at the mall? Mercy. You’ll pocket checks as fast as parents can write them.

If you like volume work, just copycat the mall setups, but make sure you have a good Santa and a great Christmas scene.

If you prefer a little more structure, do the Anti Mall Santa thing – do a Santa scene, but book scheduled sessions instead of having a free-for-all.

If you want to go high-end, I saw a fellow photographer once do something magical with their Santa photos.

They built a Santa’s Workshop scene from scratch, hired a great Santa, and for each and every child, went through an entire series of little moments and scenes, creating a photo story – the child entering the workshop, wide-eyed with wonder; the child playing with the toys; Santa sneaking up and peering through a window, unnoticed yet by the child; Santa knocking on the door to the workshop, and the child answering it, excitedly finding Saint Nick on the other side; child hugging Santa; showing Santa their favorite toys; the traditional sitting on Santa’s knee shot; a close-up of the child’s face in Santa’s arms; waving to Santa as the child leaves the workshop…

And then they sold parents albums of this photo story, with templates of graphics and text for each page and scene. It was the same experience for each child, exact same set of photos, exact same story told session after session. It was outrageously expensive and high-end customers bought it whole hog. The first album they sold paid for the construction of the scene, props, and ‘renting’ Santa for the entire day.

If you’ve got access to the right luxury market to pull off an epic photo event like this, by all means, don’t let me stop you – it’s money in the bank. Just make sure your clientele can handle the price tag – if not, you’ll eat a lot of cost with too few buying clients to make up for it.

15. National Cake Day – Nov. 26

Throw a big pot luck cake party. Everyone brings a cake, everyone eats cake, everyone gets a free mini photo session. Invite a select set of kids – like a daycare class, or the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts – to attend and share in the cake-scarfing fun.

Do fun free photos of everyone, collect e-mails, send everyone copies of their photos.

Events like this are fun, get great buzz, are shared well on Facebook and social media, and asking folks to sign up for your e-mail newsletter as a part of attending the party is a great way to build your subscriber list. Any time you can trade digital files and a fun experience for the e-mail address of an active or potential client, you’re going to come out way, way ahead in the long run.

This cake is not a lie.

16. Mark Twain’s Birthday – Nov. 28

Great day to offer a simple Huck Finn scene and photo event along a river or creek. Encourage clients to dress their kids in overalls and straw hats, and accessorize with cane fishing poles (you’ll probably have to provide the fishing pole as a prop).

You could also go the Mustache route and recognize fine ‘staches this day. Would make for a fun self-portrait photo contest (Best Mustache!) on Facebook, or you could do a trio of dramatically-lit portraits of the fellows you know with particularly awesome facial hair, then feature them on your blog.

Show your clients you know how to have fun.

Pick a Holiday, any Holiday

By all means, you don’t have to make use of all of the above ideas to run a successful photography business this month.

Don’t be overwhelmed by all of the opportunities you have to market your business – it’s easy to be so overcome with options that you end up doing nothing at all.

Pick any one thing that gets you excited, and do it full on, no holds barred. Let the success (or sometimes, lessons learned) from that one thing give you the confidence and experience you need to do one other thing. Then another. Then another.

If nothing else, I hope you see that there are myriad ways to market your photography and get folks excited about you – your art, the experiences you provide, the culture of your business. You can co-op with other business folk, you can help charities and non-profits, you can get hands-on involved with the community, you can make a difference in one or many lives, you can have fun, you can throw a party, you can be silly and serious and sassy and sensational and solemn and surprising and special in your market.

We are truly blessed to do what we do, my friends.

Next Steps

• Are you booked solid? If not, sift through the many ideas listed above, and pick out all the ones that really resonate with you, with your friends, with your family. Lay out a plan for how you can make those ideas become a reality in your business, and then how to get the word out to folks who would be interested. This will be the first makings of your monthly and yearly marketing plan, which will be one of the best investments of thought and time you’ll make to grow the success of your business.
• Use Facebook, use your blog, use your e-mail newsletter, and most importantly, use your feet – get off the computer and go talk to folks; get them excited about what you’re doing to better your business and your community. Approach folks with an attitude of enthusiastic opportunity instead of a sour-note sales pitch.
• Brainstorm session: If you could pick one special day this month and go hog wild with a fun and awesome photo event for it, what would it be? Where would you shoot? What kind of scene? What time of day? Who would you coordinate with? How could you get the word out about this event to the right people? How many sessions could you book? How much would you charge, if anything at all? What will the buzz and face time with new clients be worth? If this is so awesome, why aren’t you doing it? How can you overcome those obstacles? File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• My writing at PartTimePhoto.com exists to serve your needs as an amateur photographer making the transition to paid professional. I appreciate and welcome your readership, and invite you to click the free “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this site.
• What marketing opportunities are you going to take advantage of this month? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• How to use coop marketing to instantly build your client list
• How to find and partner with non-profits to better your photography business
• Top 15 Internet Marketing methods, from least to most effective, from Darketing to Arketing
• How to earn lifetime photography customers with the perfect follow-up – Your First Customer Series, Part 10
• 40 ways to help your clients prepare for an awesome photo shoot

One of the reasons I started PartTimePhoto.com was because there exists a huge canyon online between the advice established professional photographers give and the realities amateurs face as they make the transition to paid professionals.

Established photogs often speak from a position of…well, establishment – their advice pertains to the photography industry on the luxury, boutique end of the market, and it doesn’t acknowledge or solve problems the new-to-the-fold professional photographer faces.

One rabbit grognards like to pull out of their hat is the ‘longevity’ of their studio prints. They use expensive-sounding terms like ‘museum quality’ and ‘archival inks’ while railing against the sins of prints made at Walgreens or Costco, and how their cheap prints will (somehow) self destruct over the years.

Well, no professional photographer would admit it, but…those discount store prints will, in fact, still be around 50 years from now. Their longevity isn’t really in question.

And you know how I know? Because I, like most folks, have boxes and boxes of family photos going all the way back to the early 1900s. Specifically, the cheap Super S Grocery Store discount prints my parents made of their wedding and my early childhood…well, they look the exact same as they did decades ago when they were first made. If they’ve lost a pinch of color or luster, I can’t tell, nor can anyone in my family.

That doesn’t speak to the quality of the photos, of course. My father had a great talent for shooting into the air, cutting friends and family off at the waist and featuring lots of wall and ceiling in his photos.

The longevity question is moot, especially in the digital age:

• There is no more pure rendition of a photo a client can get than the hi-res file you hand them on CD, usually only one step removed from the RAW file itself. It is infinitely copyable, distributable, and reprintable.
• Even here in tiny Bandera, Texas, there are photo retouchers who will gladly take your old, worn, faded, torn home photos and restore them to glory.
• Consumers can buy the same printers and inks that we can, mates. Whether or not they’ll drop hundreds or thousands of dollars to make lifelong-lasting prints at home is another question, but there’s nothing stopping them. And that option gets more attractive in equal proportion to the stunning prices they see boutique studios charge for prints.
• Down in the trenches of the budget/value/entry level of the professional photography market, dominated by younger families, clients are more concerned with how their photos will look on Facebook than hanging on their grandkids’ walls 50 years from now.

The grognards cry “Woe, woe!” at how the market has shifted over the last decade, and will b*tch all over the photo forums about how the digital age and consumer dSLR market has ruined the industry. Just like the metro newspaper giants are b*tching about the Internet and mobile news providers, and gas-guzzling American car manufacturers are b*tching about fuel-efficient foreign cars. I bet the buggy whip manufacturers would have liked to wrap a wagon wheel around Henry Ford’s neck, too.

Well b*itch yourself out of business or be an innovator in your industry.

Are Canon or Nikon b*tching that they can no longer charge tens of thousands of dollars for Digital SLR cameras? Hell no – they’re making money hand over fist selling $1,000 entry-level camera bodies to consumers who used to spend their money on $9 disposable film cameras.

At the startup end of the market is where your opportunity as a part time photographer lies to innovate and prosper.

It’s About The Art, Not The Paper

Client education is key in the photography industry, at all levels.

The more good, useful knowledge that you can impart upon a client before, during, and after a shoot, the better results and more value they will get out of spending their money with you.

They’re buying the art you create. They’re buying the experience of working with you. They are not, however, buying the piece of paper your art is printed on.

If you’re consistently having issues with clients complaining about the price of your prints, frankly, you’re not doing your job as the expert in the room by explaining to them why what you offer is worth what you’re asking.

And, to be equally frank, if you can’t explain that value, then you need to get educated yourself.

Because of the morass of conflicting and completely generic, unspecific advice that new photographers get online when they ask, “What should my prices be as a new professional photographer?,” most photogs in the startup phase are shooting in the dark when they set their prices. They don’t really know why they charge what they charge.

That’s a dangerous position to put yourself in when a client challenges you, but it’s understandable. Established photographers, the grognards that see you as competition and the reason the industry is going to hell, aren’t lining up to help you actually set your specific prices.

Honesty and transparency will take you far with clients and help you sleep better at night. Here are a few responses to client questions that should help you out when the time comes:

• Q: Why do you charge $10 (or $100) for a 4×6 when I can get the same thing at Walmart for 19 cents? A: To be clear, what we charge for is our art, not the paper it’s printed on. I can sell you a 4×6 piece of Kodak paper for 19 cents, but it isn’t worth much without the photo that goes on it. Since we charge no session fee and have no minimum order, we rely on our print and file sales for 100 percent of our revenue. For clients who want bulk orders of prints, we do suggest they buy the digital files on CD and have prints made at less expense elsewhere – and I can suggest a great pro lab if you choose that option – but about half our clients prefer the convenience and satisfaction gaurantee that comes with buying prints directly from us. Our monitors are calibrated to Miller’s Imaging, the pro lab we use for all our prints, and guarantee that what you see in your prints will be as close as possible to what you see here in your proofs. They will be the highest quality you can buy. It’s not the paper you’re buying, it’s the art and the best reproduction that can be made of it.
• Q: Can I just buy the digital files and print them at Walmart? A: You can, but I don’t suggest it. Cheap prints usually are soft and have a nasty color cast to them – Walgreens tends to shift purple, Walmart tends to shift green. I can e-mail you the information on Mpix.com, the consumer division of Miller’s Imaging, whom we use for our pro lab prints – they will give you the closest quality to what we offer with our studio prints. Their prices are only a bit higher than the discount stores, but you’ll be much happier with the results. I can even walk you through the process right now if you’d like.
• Q: Why are your big prints so expensive? A: Just like with any kind of art, the cost goes up with the size of the print. A pro lab-printed, studio-guaranteed 20×30 print is the Lamborghini of its kind; it’s the kind of investment you’re going to hang over the fireplace in your home and enjoy for many years, and your kids will enjoy, and their kids years down the road. We offer luxury options like this for clients who want to make that kind of investment. Some clients prefer a more budget-friendly option, which is why we offer mid-sized wall art, and of course, digital files which our clients can then have printed any size they want.

You see, when you cut the horsesh*t and just tell clients the truth, it makes ‘selling’ a lot easier. There are advantages and disadvantages to buying prints or buying digital files and having prints made, and taking just a few minutes to share those truths with clients benefits you both.

I try to paint the picture for clients of white glove, hands-off, convenient, luxury versus being a Do It Yourselfer. I can cook a damn good steak on my grill at home, but that doesn’t mean I won’t drop way more money on a visit to Texas Land & Cattle for a special occasion.

Your client gets to make the final call, but never forget that they look to you for guidance as their professional photographer. Educate your client and try to help them get the most out of their purchase – not just what you want them to buy, but what would really be best for their needs.

You’re worth what clients pay you, whether that’s $8 or $80 for an 8×10. If a photographer is doing good business, I have no right to say she’s charging too much or too little – that’s between her, her clients, and her accountant. That’s capitalism, baby.

The only way to ‘force’ clients to buy what you want them to buy is to only offer what you want to sell. But you have to be slingin’ some impressive artistic chops and have good exposure in your market to dictate the rules like this.

But at the startup end of the professional photography market, be as open, honest, transparent, and consumer-friendly as you can be.

Keep in mind, it’s the draconian rules of the established competition that give you your greatest opportunity to break in and become a breath of fresh air in your market.

And if it ain’t broke, you don’t have to fix it. Even 11 years into the game, I still charge no session fee, ask no minimum order, and my prices are well below the big boys in nearby San Antonio. I beat conventional photography industry wisdom black and blue with every client that books and shoots with me, then buys at averages well above what they ‘should’ according to the ‘experts.’

There are many layers to the photography industry from budget to boutique, but there’s no need to use hyperbole to scare clients into buying what you want instead of what they need. Tell them the truth. If what you have to offer is worth it to them, they’ll be sold long before they’re pulling out their checkbooks.

Far more often than not, clients are thanking me for a wonderful experience while handing me a check for more than I expected to earn. And they’re telling their friends – who are telling their friends.

So success goes – at least by my definition.

Next Steps

• Put your money where your mouth is, and as they say up north, Prove It. Throw a dozen of your personal favorite photos on CD, head into town, and have sets of 4x6s and 8x10s printed up at Walgreens, Walmart, Costco, wherever you like. Then send the same set of files to your pro lab (or printer, if you print in-house) and wait for the prints to arrive. Lay them out and compare. Look for all the ways – color, feel, texture, quality, glare, detail, sharpness, contrast, pop – that your professional prints are superior. Keep these prints on hand to show clients what a difference a pro job makes.
• ProTip: Car salesmen are notorious for their…talents of persuasion. Dress up nice, and pay a visit to your local luxury car dealership – Mercedes, BMW, Cadillac, etc. Let a salesman give you a tour, ask you questions to determine your needs (and secret wants), and take mental notes on how he makes the connection between what you want and what he has to offer – and what the upgraded solutions are to your problem. You will learn more about personal attention and selling on value here than in any expensive workshop. Do it again next week at another dealership. Do it again the following week at another. This is an invaluable education.
• Brainstorm Session: Why do you charge the prices you charge? After expenses and overhead, are you pocketing as much money as you want for your time invested? If not, how much do you need to charge to be thrilled with every sale? What can you do to add value to your art and experience to charge those prices? File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• My writing at PartTimePhoto.com exists to serve your needs as an amateur photographer making the transition to paid professional. I appreciate and welcome your readership, and invite you to click the free “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this site.
• How do you communicate the value of your prints, files and products to clients, and justify your prices accordingly? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

P.S. Sometimes a client doesn’t realize your worth until you frame your offer around its value.

True story: A client and I had a great shoot together, she sent me her order for a bunch of digital files, and I sent her back an invoice with a nice bulk discount. She wrote back and told me she never dreamed I would be so expensive!

This, after my discount, and having long ago told her my prices.

With great gentility and kindness, I told her a happy customer was worth more to me than the money itself – I told her to mail me a check for what she thought the photos of her daughter were worth, and that I’d send her the entire shoot on CD, no questions asked, no hard feelings. And I meant it sincerely.

A check arrived in the mail for the full amount I invoiced her for – and she’s already booked her family’s next shoot.Similar Posts:

• What should I charge for my part time photography? – Your First Customer Series, Part 3
• How to prepare for your first photography client’s call – Your First Customer Series, Part 5
• How do I get my first photography client? – Your First Customer Series, Part 4
• You’re going to get screwed doing part time photography
• Your first photo proofing and sales session – Your First Customer Series, Part 9

Between the anxiety of deciding on a business logo and name, it’s a wonder photographers (and most entrepreneurs) ever get their dreams off the ground.

Paralysis by analysis has been well-covered in other blogs, and I’ll share in a future article my own thoughts on the issue and how it afflicts photographers, but it’s something that strikes us creative types with unusual force.

Many thanks to reader Bill M. for spurring me to write this post – naming your business can be a huge stumbling block when you’re trying to maintain the momentum of launching your part time photography business.

I’ll give you my Number One solution for the problem, and then offer a few other options for folks who may not appreciate my flair for simplicity.

You Are Your Business

Let me get this out of the way: The name of your business is bloody irrelevant.

Xerox sounds more like an alien planet than an office equipment company.

Google isn’t even spelled right.

If you kick ass and take names, if you better your art with every shoot while treating people right and getting your name out there, you’re going to do business – no matter what name you go by.

If you have a few million dollars in startup capital and you’re trying to establish a completely unique brand identity in the worldwide market, then by all means, pay a consultant six figures to create a brand identity for your new empire.

If you’re starting a part time photography business to serve your hyperlocal market on weekends, then cut the crap: name your business after yourself.

John Doe Photography.

Jane Smith Photography.

When people buy into your business as a part time photographer, they’re buying into you as an artist. They want your style, your personal attention, the art and experience you create for them.

You now have permission to get past the paralysis and go do something that will create results: make art and market yourself.

But Jaaaaames…

Okay, okay, naming your business after yourself is really easy, and truly my best advice for a new photographer, but it wouldn’t be a James Taylor post if I didn’t explore the issue in some depth.

If you’ve got a cool name that just screams “Brand!”, you’re not reading this article, so what if you have a really weird or unfortunate name?

Goodenough Photography might not send the right message. Slaughter Portraits could go the wrong way. Ball Photos? Just…ya know. There’s potential confusion.

But really, coming from a small Texas town settled by the Polish and featuring a host of middle European names (Kuykendall, pronounced keer-ken-doll, for example), I can honestly say I have never run into a business of any sort that I turned away from just because of their name.

If you look at the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) elite, the Waldens, Sarah Petty, their name is their brand – it carried them way beyond portrait photography and into the education and speaking sectors.

Nobody hires Sarah Petty because her name is Sarah Petty. They hire her because she can rock awesome photos.

If you’re struggling with naming your business, name it after yourself and get on with being a photographer.

After all, you can always change it down the road if you want.

…

I’ll wait for the grognards to catch their breath after that one.

…

When you talk about changing things – your prices or your business name, usually – all the fatalist advice of the grognards comes pouring in.

“Oh noes! If I change my name or my prices, my customers will hate me or forget who I am! Any decision I make now I have to stick with for the rest of my life!”

Shaddap. No you don’t.

Datsun seems to be doing just fine as Nissan. Many folks have never heard of Relational Software, but anyone who’s been on the Interwebs for a while will recognize Oracle. Even the biggest brands can change names, merge with other companies, or get swallowed whole and still do good business as usual.

Don’t be so self-absorbed as to think the name of your business – and its longevity – will make or break your business.

Your business name will have little long-term affect on the success of your business, and a name change down the road won’t kill it off, despite what you may hear elsewhere. If you have a good thing going, a recognized and beloved brand in your market, think long and hard before you change it – but if you really want to, never forget, you’re the boss.

My own business is a prime example. I started out as Taylor Photography and ran my company as such for seven years. As I began to branch out into other fields – publishing, freelance writing, web site design, etc. – I made the change to Outlaw as my overall brand, making my portrait business Outlaw Photography.

Bandera, Texas, where I’ve grown up, graduated, and enjoyed my careers in journalism and photography, is the self-proclaimed Cowboy Capital of The World. A great deal of the community’s identity is wrapped in cowboy hats, boots and spurs, and the Western experience.

When I launched the Outlaw brand, I didn’t lose a single customer – that’s not what they care about, no more than I cared when Billy Gene’s Restaurant changed to Brick’s River Cafe. I care about my chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes. Your clients care about your photography.

So why did I make the change? Because I wanted to. It made me happy.

As I’ll always advise you, it’s your business – toss my advise out the window if your head or heart tell you to go a different direction. If you truly feel your name is not the best option for your photography business, here are some other fun ideas to play with:

Everything Else

• Your Town: This is another no-brainer option. Just name your business after the town or county you do business in. Bandera Photography would work just fine here in Bandera. In most communities it’s kind of cliche, but it works, and it gives you both immediate name recognition and placement in the market, as well as the best keyword combo for local search engine optimization. A play off of this is your local school mascot. Bulldog Photography would do just fine here in Bandera. Bobcat Photography wouldn’t be out of place in Medina.
• Specialty: You guys and gals know I’m all about ‘scratching the niche,’ and naming your business after your specialty will give you instant credibility with your target market. If I want a portrait of my dog, Taylor’s Puppy Portraiture will get an automatic look from me. If I want someone to photograph my daughter’s youth soccer game, Taylor Sports Photography of Bandera will probably be my first stop. Whatever it is you want to do – weddings, pet portraits, quinceaneras, senior photos – including it in your business name can give you a foothold in that market.
• Style: If you have a unique enough business or artistic style as to be known for it, you might consider implementing it in your business name. What traits could warrant this? Maybe your black and white portraiture is to die for, so you step up and name your business Taylor Black and White Portraiture. Perhaps your work imitates the look of fashion magazines, so Taylor Fashionable Photography it is. Aric Hoek of Solaris Studios is the Master of Shadows. I’m the Outlaw Photographer.
• Local Flavor: If your community has certain flavor or overarching theme, you can play off of it for your photography business name. Bandera is the Cowboy Capital, Fredericksburg promotes the hell out of its German heritage (every third store is named Opa’s this or Oma’s that), Austin is proud to be weird, and so on. Tap into your community’s identity and sense of self for inspiration.
• Something Wholly Unique: Be the next Xerox, Google, or Flickr. Especially since the boom of Internet businesses, weird but unique names have exploded and become much more common than ‘name names’ like Ford or Trump. If you can come up with one that doesn’t sound like you’re choking on a chicken bone, turn it loose.

God help me, but I’ll say it: you can also go the cutesy, clever, or punny route. Just reference any small salon in America: A Cut Above… The Hairy Times… Hairbrained Barbershop… Curl Up N’ Dye… Stop’n'Chop… Hair Apparent… The Hair Port…

I’m gonna be sick.

But if that’s your thing – if that sort of shenanigans fits your personality and makes you giggle all the way to the bank, again…don’t let me stop you.

Legalities of Naming Your Photography Business

Alright, I hate to spoil the fun with caveats, but there’s some due diligence you want to undertake before falling in love with your new business name.

Easy: Plug your business name into Google. See if the name’s already in use. If so, do they own the domain for it? Do they claim a trademark on the name? If they do, you may still be able to use your preferred name if the conflicting business doesn’t sell in you area. If there’s a possibility for confusion in the exact same market, it’s probably best to go for something else.

For example, there are actually several companies named Outlaw Photography across the United States, and in fact, outlawphotography.com goes to one fellow’s site and outlawphotography.net goes to mine. Has it ever hurt either of us? Of course not – we are in completely different markets.

Easy: Whatever name you choose, you’ll need to visit your county clerk and file a Doing Business As with your new company name on it. As a part of this process, they’ll show you where to look to make sure your chosen name isn’t already taken in your county.

Less Easy: Do a trademark search on the appropriate web site. I may be daft, but I’ve had almost random results using this online trademark search engine. But it’s worth a visit.

If you really are John Smith reading this, there may be a heck of a lot of Smith Photography studios across the country. Frankly, who cares? If you capture just a fraction of the photography business in your own community, you’ll stay booked solid with as much work as you care to handle. What another John Smith named his business two states over from you is irrelevant.

Next Steps

• Ready? Set? Go! I’ll give you three minutes to pick a name for your photography business. Like, seriously. You’ve got three minutes to get this over with. What are you waiting for? Get out a pen and paper and start writing. Be done before you read any further.
• Now was that so hard? Okay, it can be excruciating to make that call, but congratulations on making it. You mind is now released from the torment. Take a deep breath, accept your decision, and let it be.
• Brainstorm Session: Now give yourself permission to be completely unhindered. Write down every funny, cool, or weird name you could have named your business. You’ll find your creativity is much more active now that you’re not being serious. You never know – you might just come up with something brilliant. File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• Jump on Google, do a trademark search, and go visit your clerk’s office to finalize your name check and file for your DBA. Congratulations! You’re official!
• My writing at PartTimePhoto.com exists to serve your needs as an amateur photographer making the transition to paid professional. I appreciate and welcome your readership, and invite you to click the free “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this site.
• How did you decide on the name for your photography business? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• Your source for making money as a part time photographer
• Top 15 Internet Marketing methods, from least to most effective, from Darketing to Arketing
• The legalities of starting a part time photography business – Startup Series, Part 3
• Want to make money as a part time photographer?
• 12 ways to make 2012 the year your business takes off

Here you go, mates – a complete list of all 10 posts in my Your First Customer Series:

Part 1: How can I find time to be a part time photographer?

Part 2: Top 10 money-making outdoor photos of people

Part 3: What should I charge for my part time photography?

Part 4: How do I get my first photography client?

Part 5: How to prepare for your first photography client’s call

Part 6: Your pre-photo-shoot checklist in four easy steps

Part 7: Your first photo shoot: expectations and results

Part 8: Culling and post-processing your first photo shoot

Part 9: Your first photo proofing and sales session

Part 10: How to earn lifetime photography customers with the perfect follow-up

There are three major steps to starting your new photography business: making the decision to become a part time professional photographer, doing the legwork and prep work to set your new business up right, and landing your first customers.

The Your First Customer Series offers 10 in-depth articles covering all the minute details you rarely hear about elsewhere – where to find the time to be a part time professional photographer, the top 10 money-making portraits (easily the most popular post on the site), and much, much more. This series has more content than you’ll find in most high-priced eBooks, with no filler – it’s the best advice I can give having been there, done it, and come out happy and paid on the other side.

Next Steps

• It’s a long journey, from making that life-changing decision to become a part time professional photographer, to landing your first customer and first sales. As they say, the longest journey begins with the first step. Start with Part 1 and work your way through each part in this series, and you’ll be better prepared than you ever imagined for taking on your first clients.
• Brainstorm session: What is your greatest fear about your first client photo shoot? What’s the worst that could happen? What potential rewards exist if things go exceptionally well? How can you prepare to give yourself the best odds of a great experience for you and your first client? File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• My writing at PartTimePhoto.com exists to serve your needs as an amateur photographer making the transition to paid professional. I appreciate and welcome your readership, and invite you to click the free “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this site.
• What’s the story behind your first paid client photo shoot? Were you nervous? Did they buy? Was it as fearful as you thought it would be? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• How to make money as a part time portrait photographer – Startup Series, Part 1
• How to earn lifetime photography customers with the perfect follow-up – Your First Customer Series, Part 10
• Want to make money as a part time photographer?
• How do I get my first photography client? – Your First Customer Series, Part 4
• Your source for making money as a part time photographer

Your watermarked photography appearing on a client’s Facebook profile is some of the best cheap, effective advertising you can get.

It’s visual word of mouth. It’s “Hey, check this out!”

And in the land of part time photography where saving time means saving money, efficiency is a virtue.

PartTimePhoto.com readers Liana Cosgrove and Tiffany Lombardi asked me recently how I watermark my online proofs, the same watermark you see on my photos posted with articles here on the site.

So, Liana and Tiffany, here you go!

My watermark workflow includes two things: a PSD (Photoshop) file with my watermark graphic and a Photoshop Action. Technically, two of each – one pair for vertical proofs, one for horizontal.

I’m also working here with Photoshop CS4. If you have a different version or other software, adjust accordingly.

(Check out the Comments below to see reader recommendations for other software and watermarking options.)

First, let’s get your watermark made.

THE WATERMARK

My watermark, which has evolved over the last 11 years, is a simple horizontal, semi-transparent bar across the bottom of each proof. It features my logo on one end and web address on the other.

I make my proofs 900×600 pixels in size, so for my landscape-oriented images, my watermark file is 900px wide and 30px tall. For portrait-oriented images, it’s 600x30px.

Here’s how to make your own watermark (this is for a horizontal proof – for vertical, repeat the process and adjust the width accordingly):

Step 1: Create a new file, the width to match the width of your horizontal proofs, height of 30px.

Step 2: Invert your Background layer to make it black. For good contrast and easy reading, we’ll use white text on a black bar for this watermark. Feel free to play with these if you want pink, red, green, or some other colors to match your brand.

Step 3: Select your Text tool and type out your business name on the left side of the bar. Make sure your foreground color / text color is white. If you have a logo already, copy and paste it into this file and resize it to slip into the bottom-left corner. If not, just use a nice font. I like Microsoft Himalaya myself.

Step 4: Text tool again, and type out your web address on the right side of the bar. Try bolding your business name and not bolding your web address, as well as dropping the font size a few notches for the latter.

Step 5: Go to your background layer, Select All, Copy, Paste. Then right-click on your background layer and delete it (here comes the transparency fun!)

Step 6: Go to your Layer menu at the top and Merge Visible.

Step 7: You’re almost done! Adjust the Opacity slider in your layers tab to about 50 percent. Create a New Layer. Select this layer, then go to your Layer menu at the top, and Merge Visible again. Congrats, you have a watermark file!

Step 8: Save this file as a Photoshop document so it retains its transparency. Put it somewhere safe, where it won’t be moved – this is important for when our Action opens it to place on your proofs.

Go back to step one and repeat this process, except make the watermark file the same width as your vertical proofs, and save this as a separate file.

On to the Action!

THE PHOTOSHOP ACTION

The Photoshop Action I use to watermark my proofs resizes a hi-res file to web size, applies some unsharp mask, opens and copies my watermark onto the proof, moves the watermark to the bottom of the proof, then saves the proof in a specific folder to temporarily hold my proofs.

Using a Photoshop Action lets me not only apply these watermarks very quickly, but also to batch apply them in Bridge.

Here’s how to make an Action to watermark your proofs:

Step 1: Open up a horizontal, full-size image you would like to turn into a proof.

Step 2: Open the Actions tab on your right-side menu (if you don’t see it, look under your Window menu at the top) and click on Create New Action at the bottom of that tab (tiny folded paper icon). Name your action Watermark Horizontal and click Record.

Step 3: Photoshop is now recording your every move. Let’s start by resizing the image down to web size. Since we’re working on a horizontal file, let’s resize the Width to 900px (or your preference). You’ll notice Image Size has been added to your Watermark Horizontal action.

Step. 4: Apply Unsharp Mask (under Filters – Sharpen). I like settings of 500, 0.2, 1.

Step 5: Open the watermark file we made earlier. Select All, Copy, Close, and Paste to your proof.

Step 6: Move the watermark bar down to the bottom of your image.

Step 7: Save For Web at 70 quality (or your preference) as a JPEG and click Save. We’ll need to create a folder to receive the proofs from our new actions, so navigate to where you want that folder to go, create a New Folder, and name it Proof Catch. Click Save again.

Step 8: Close your file. Photoshop will ask if you want to save the image – Just Say No.

Step 9: You’ve created your own watermark action! Click the square Stop button next to the red Record button.

Again, go back and follow these steps to create an Action for your vertical images. Just select your vertical watermark file in Step 5.

Great work! Let’s test this new action out.

Open a full-size horizontal image of your choice. Click your Watermark Horizontal action and hit the Play button at the bottom of the tab. Watch Photoshop rip through the process, then go check your Proof Catcher folder.

Is it there? Does it look right? Good!

Protip: Maximize Photoshop when you run these actions. I’ve had Photoshop misplace the watermark when I run the actions in anything but full screen. I mostly run into this problem when I’m batch processing images, which may be because I multitask while I’m waiting. I’ve even had to re-record the action after really messing things up.

BATCH PROCESSING

Now the sweetness of this process comes when you want to watermark a hundred or so proofs for the web – all at once.

Here’s how:

Step 1: Open Bridge and go to the folder of full-size images you want to turn into proofs.

Step 2: Check the lower-left corner of your Bridge window. Look for a tab called Filter – Orientation. Options here are Landscape and Portrait – here’s where we’ll select one set of images or the other and run the appropriate horizontal or vertical action on them. For now, click on Landscape to show only your landscape-oriented photos.

Step 3: Select All, then go to your Tools menu at the top, then Photoshop – Batch. In this dialog, you’ll select your Watermark Horizontal action in the drop down. Ensure your other settings are as follows: Source = Bridge; uncheck Override Action “Open” Commands and Include All Subfolders; do check Suppress File Open Options Dialogs and Suppress Color Profile Warnings. Destination should be set to None. Click OK.

Photoshop will then rip through all the files you selected and run your action on each one. For your vertical images, just repeat the process, but in Bridge uncheck Landscape and check Portrait under orientation. When you come to your Batch dialog, select your Watermark Vertical action.

Go check your Proof Catcher folder and admire how many proofs you were able to create in a matter of minutes! Create a Web Proofs folder alongside your original images and move all your proof files there for safekeeping.

Some caveats:

• The full-size files you apply these actions to must always have the same ratio – such as mine are all 2:3 since that’s how my camera shoots and how I crop. If you crop each image differently, the above action won’t work for you – the watermark will either show up too high or too low.
• If you adjust your images in Camera Raw like I do, make sure you create a set of JPEGs with adjustments applied before running these actions. I’ve found Camera Raw adjustments won’t come through when the proof is made. When I’m done post processing a set of files, I use Tools – Photoshop – Image Processor in Bridge to create a new folder of JPEGs at 10 quality with Resize unchecked. I then run my actions on these files.
• Your mileage may vary. This system works great for me in Photoshop CS4, but may not translate well to other versions. If things go awry, try repeating the steps, paying attention to what options your software offers along the way. If all else fails, hit up the support forum for your preferred software and point them to this tutorial for ideas on how to make it work in your program.
• I apologize that this tutorial comes in a step-by-step form instead of how it should, as a streaming video. I’m testing out screencasting software with little success, and I’m too stubborn to just buy the wonderful Camtasia suite…yet.

If all goes as planned, you will be able to make sets of web-sized proofs in the absolute minimum of time. As a part time photographer, your hourly rate of pay is directly tied to the amount of time you invest into each step of your workflow. Where you save time, you save money.

NEXT STEPS

• If you haven’t already, go through the above tutorial step by step and set up your own speedy watermark system. Don’t obsess too much with watermarking – just come up with something fast that gets your name out there if folks borrow your files for their social media profiles or to send to friends and family.
• If you’re deeply concerned that putting your images online for the whole world to steal will kill your sales, you can read my thoughts on safeguards and online proofing here on PartTimePhoto.com.
• Brainstorm session: How can you encourage your clients to post your proofs to their Facebook profile? Perhaps an incentive or contest? File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• My writing at PartTimePhoto.com exists to serve your needs as an amateur photographer making the transition to paid professional. I appreciate and welcome your readership, and invite you to click the free “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this site.
• What Photoshop tricks have helped you cut down on your time spent in post processing? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• Culling and post-processing your first photo shoot – Your First Customer Series, Part 8
• Sharp photos – how to get them, in camera and in post
• Response time and turnaround – how to beat the competition for free
• You’re going to get screwed doing part time photography
• Your first photo proofing and sales session – Your First Customer Series, Part 9

Here’s a compiled list of links to the full Part Time Photographer Startup Series:

Part 1: How to make money as a part time portrait photographer

Part 2: What you need to start a part time photography business

Part 3: The legalities of starting a part time photography business

Part 4: What does a successful part time photographer look like?

These articles get you prepared to launch your new venture as a part time professional photographer. My writing centers around portrait photography, which I feel is the easiest, least expensive, and most rewarding way to get your photography business launched. I hope this series gives you the tools you need to answer the question, “How do I start a photography business?”

No matter what your level of art or experience, of photography or business acumen, you can start making money with part time photography today. With some time and TLC, you can grow your photography business as large as you want it, earn as much as your market will provide, rise head and shoulders above the competition, differentiate as an artist and business, and enjoy the fun, financial freedom, and flexibility that professional photography provides.

The best time to start was yesterday – but the second best time is to start today.

Learn something new.

Act on it.

Sow.

Reap.

Next Steps

• When in doubt, make a list! Read through the above articles and make a list of To-Do’s to get your career started as a part time professional photographer. Start at the top and work your way down, one step at a time. Take one step an hour – or day – or week, but take steps with consistency. Don’t lose your momentum. Before you know it, your business will be off the ground and bringing in paying clients.
• Brainstorm session: Why do you want to be a part time photographer? Write down your basic reasons, then delve a bit deeper, and really explore the benefits of taking action and making this happen. File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• My writing at PartTimePhoto.com exists to serve your needs as an amateur photographer making the transition to paid professional. I appreciate and welcome your readership, and invite you to click the free “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this site.
• What will be the greatest reward you’ll enjoy in your life from starting your part time photography business? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• What you need to start a part time photography business – Startup Series, Part 2
• How to get your first client in a new photography business – the Your First Customer Series
• The legalities of starting a part time photography business – Startup Series, Part 3
• How to make money as a part time portrait photographer – Startup Series, Part 1
• What does a successful part time photographer look like? – Startup Series, Part 4

…but that’s a true statement about any service business.

There’s always going to be that occasional mooch looking for a free ride. You’re going to lovingly shoot them with no session fee, ask no minimum order, you’re going to begrudgingly post their photos to an online album because they desperately <insert weak excuse here>, then they’re gonna straight jack your proofs (watermark and all – maybe they’ll even cut it off in MS Paint!) and never spend a penny with you.

You know what?

Let it go.

One of the most common questions I get from new photographers is:

“How do I protect my photos from being stolen?”

This leads to discussions on proofing, watermarking, tracking, right-click disabling, copyright infringement, intellectual property law, and the real beneficiaries of such debate…lawyers.

The question is certainly valid, but the overwhelming concern – and the resultant long-winded opining from other photographers – is decidedly inverse to the real life problem and what it means to a portrait photographer.

Commercial photogs have something worth worrying about. Their images are carefully crafted, hugely expensive to produce, and they make their money through exclusivity and licensing. God bless’em, Copyright 101 is a required course for them.

But for us portrait photogs? You’ve got to get over yourself if you think you’re going to end up taking Jane Doe and her family to court for right-clicking on the proofs you posted online from y’alls photo shoot.

It’s fun to discuss the topic of copyright, to fantasize out loud to a frothing audience of fellow photogs about cease and desist letters, law suits, and reparations. We get to throw around words like infringement and punitive damages! You will even hear precious, rare stories from other photogs of successful copyright lawsuits. But for your everyday real life portrait photog, for example a part-timer like you or I, it’s just blustery self-important power-tripping horsesh*t.

Marketing guru Chris Garrett goes so far as to describe this mentality as exactly “How to Kill Your Brand in One Easy Step.” Popular Digger rsm33 sums it up nicely in reference to the RIAA’s attitude toward music lovers: “When you treat your customers like thieves, don’t be surprised if they stop buying things from you.”

Here’s what you really need to know:

Educate your client

Education (proactive) trumps persecution (reactive) every time.

Don’t stress out seeking every possible safeguard to put in place for protecting yourself from being taken advantage of.

It’s going to happen either way – you stand to lose more by wasting your time and treating clients like criminals than from any nefarious deed your occasional bad-seed clients come up with.

Most folks steal copyrighted digital works – MP3s, movies, your photos – A) because they can, and B) because they don’t liken it to stealing something In Real Life.

A good friend of mine, an educated, mature professional, asked me a few months ago where she could go online to “download movies.” I said iTunes. She said she wasn’t going to pay to download something from the Internet – the very idea was preposterous to her. I said that’s against the law. She didn’t believe me, so I showed her.

She had no idea.

Mates, if this woman didn’t “know better,” there’s a billion folks out there just like her.

Netizens like you and I are more wise to these truths than Mr. and Mrs. John Doe out there in the real world. Don’t let the curse of knowledge make you think otherwise. And don’t write your market off as slobbering boobs either, barbarians from which to protect your art – there are plenty of clients out there ready and able to drop hundreds to thousands of dollars on portrait photography who know little more about the Internet than where to find their e-mail and that skateboarding dog.

Here are some tips:

• The unequaled best way to prevent portraiture clients from stealing your proofs is to not put them online. You’re more likely to attract bargain hunters and right-click-savers at the entry-level end of the market, so if at all possible, do in-person proofing in your home, studio, or on a laptop at the cafe. You’ll retain complete control of your images at all times.
• If you must or prefer to do online proofing, get a retainer. I like to ask about half of my per-client average sale. This will ward off the worst clients, those who have no intention of spending money with you at all.
• If you proof online, disable the freakin’ right-click protection and warning javascript. It’s annoying, it’s insulting, and it just engages your client’s curiosity to solve the “problem” of subverting your safeguard – which will take about 10 seconds on Google. If someone wants to steal your proofs, it’s going to happen. Don’t treat your entire client base like criminals over a few potential thieves.
• Educate your client. When you’re talking about your digital file offerings, chat them up about how the files come with an “unlimited license for personal use” so they can legally share or print the files anywhere and any way they want. Telling them what they can do should clue them in to what they can’t do.
• If they ask about online proofs, let them know your retainer policy. “I’ve had problems with some folks stealing the online proofs and never buying anything at all. I know you guys wouldn’t do something like that, but instead of not doing online proofs at all for anyone, the retainer lets folks get online proofs if they want them. You get the full amount of the retainer in print and file credits, so it doesn’t actually cost anything.” It takes about 15 seconds to clearly explain this to a client, likely better than I’ve written it here – commit the line to memory and practice it until it flows as casually as regular conversation.
• If they scoff at paying a retainer, remind them they’re welcome to do an in-person proofing session, which of course requires no retainer. This is yet another advantage and tool in-person proofing gives you if you can do it.
• If they press the issue, listen to your gut. If you feel the client would still make a worthwhile buy if you put the photos online without a retainer, hey, you’re the business owner – exercise flexibility where you want. But if you feel the client may be trying to game you, don’t hesitate to say “No.” If they walk away, as I’ve said here before, you probably didn’t want them as a client anyway. Never be afraid to refuse a client or refer them out.

Set expectations

I’ve been doing professional photography here in Bandera County for over a decade. Between this and my position with the newspaper, most folks know me and I enjoy a solid reputation in the community. Also, being in a rural Texas market, most of the clients I deal with are right honest folk.

My market and my position within that market allow me to be casual with my business policies. I charge no session fee, have no minimum order, and if I feel good about a client, I’ll even break down and do online proofs without a retainer – but only if I feel very confident.

A few years ago I discovered that no session fee + no minimum order + automatic, ‘free’ online proofs = dismal sales, even in my normally friendly market.

Even I have to admit you can only be so casual about your policies before you’re not doing business anymore. Unless this part time photography business is just fun and games for you, there should be a gentleman’s understanding between you and your client that money will indeed exchange hands at some point.

You don’t have to be blatant, like forcing a minimum order, but subtle cues can build expectations with your client.

Try this:

• During your very first chat with a client, as you’re discussing their needs, be sure to ask questions that touch on the end product they want to walk away with. “Were you looking to end up with some digital files to print from and share on Facebook?” “What about a wall hanging, something to add a conversational centerpiece for your home?” “Wallets are a great choice for high school seniors because they can share them with all their friends, write little personal notes on the back, that sort of thing – and they come eight to a sheet!” You don’t have to be pushy about this; in fact, they don’t even have to know what they want. Having a casual chat on the topic at least plants the seed in their mind that an end product of some kind is the goal of the shoot.
• While you’re shooting, talk about potential end products for certain images while you’re making them. If I’m doing a full-length shot of a posed family, I’m going to comment that that image would make a nice portrait for the wall. If I’m doing goofy headshots of a high school senior, I’ll say something like “That’s hilarious, your friends are going to love these. They’d be perfect as wallet prints or digital files for posting on your Facebook!” Get the buzz started long before the sales session. As always, you’re not trying to manipulate them into buying something they don’t want; as their professional photographer, you’re guiding their buying experience and helping expose them to good uses for the photos they might not have otherwise considered. You should always be working to maximize the value your clients get from their experience and purchase with you.
• Chimp away during your shoot, and show your clients what you’re getting together. Here and there, mention a good use for a given image. Digital file, wall portrait, Facebook slideshow, collage, 8×10′s for grandparents, whatever would truly be a good end product for what you’re showing them.
• If you can subtly chat clients up about potential end products during the shoot, you’ll have an easier time during the sales session. You’ll have given them some ideas to think about, and when they sit down with you and you’re proofing the images with them, you can refer back to the suggestions you made during the shoot. “Here’s that group shot I said would be great for a wall portrait. Great expressions on this one, everyone looks sharp. You may like a different one out of the set, but that’s my favorite.” You’re not being arrogant or forceful, you’re guiding their experience. Again, you’re the professional – your client will appreciate your opinion and enthusiasm.
• If you’re proofing online, you have to build expectations and offer your sales advice by e-mail. When you send the gallery link to your client, include some comments about what images or sets of images you like for certain products, expose your client to interesting alternative products (like groupings, gallery wraps, collages, digital slideshows, whatever creative offerings you may have), and continue to create the expectation of a sale. I like to remind my client of the prices of my offerings, and let them know exactly how they can go about placing their order and the timeline for delivery of prints or a CD.

It can take some time and practice to become perfectly comfortable interlacing sales talk like this with casual conversation, but I guarantee you it does get easier the more you do it. It’s also very effective. I am blessed with great clients, but it’s no accident that certain expectations are made clear from the very first conversation or e-mail. Any potential mooches know I mean business from the start. And I’ve never had to be an ass about it to create that clarity.

Scaling your safeguards to fit your market

Chris Garrett views the issue this way:

1. Most people are honest, and your customers should not be treated otherwise unless there is a good reason.
2. When mitigating risks you should use appropriate, reasonable measures that do not put extra burden on brand new customers. This is a poor first impression.
3. A potential loss of a missed payment could be a better option than a severely disappointed potential advocate telling anyone who will listen their story.

Especially at the entry level, you may face some real challenges while you try to break into a target market that will both respect your work and have the innate expectation of spending money with you.

Triple these challenges if you’re doing business in a big city. I’m not trying to stereotype, but consistently I hear from photogs in the big cities who get overrun with cheap, pushy, needy bargain hunters at the first mention of having no session fee.

I suggest you start off as flexible and customer-friendly as you can, and introduce more stringent safeguards as absolutely necessary to protect your time investment. A flood of cheap clients early on does give you good practice at both your art and business, but you always deserve fair compensation for your time. As your client base grows, and as you start to earn buzz in better circles of clients, the bargain hunters will find someone else to haggle with.

Let’s play a little ‘if-then’ here:

• If you’re completely unknown as a photographer, have no paying clients, and no exposure in your market…then leave yourself wide open to being taken advantage of. No session fees, no minimum orders, no retainers, no ordering deadlines, and prices that err on the side of budget-friendly. Continue to guide your clients’ expectations, but chalk up the bad clients to portfolio building. The good clients? Shower them with love, get them on your newsletter e-mail list, get them on your Facebook friends list, and earn referrals to their friends. Focus your time this way and you’ll eventually be booked solid with only the best referrals of your best clients (file this under ‘Real Secrets of Success as a Part Time Photographer’.).
• If you’re getting lots of requests for online albums, and sales are dismal or non-existent after the shoot…then introduce a retainer for posting online proofs. Make it about half your per-client average sale. If you have no sales yet, make it something affordable but not Wal-Mart cheap – say, $40 or $50. If you’re keeping your per-client time investment down around four hours (pre-shoot, shoot, post processing, sales and follow-up), you’re at least guaranteeing yourself paperboy money. Don’t worry – keep shooting, improving your art, and growing your customer base, and you’ll step up to a better market and better averages in time.
• If you’re having problems with no-show clients (as in a one-in-two problem, not a one-in-10 problem)…then ask for a credit card number to reserve the booking. Let them know you won’t charge anything to the card – unless they don’t show up, in which case a cancellation fee will be charged. Even 10 or 20 bucks is enough to ward off the truly appointment-averse. You can even tell them they’ll get the cancellation fee back in print credits when they reschedule. I have luckily never needed a policy like this, but if I was getting stood up by half my clients, I wouldn’t hesitate to take steps to protect my time.
• If clients are avoiding a commitment to buy, saying they need to consult with their significant other, asking how long you keep the images on file so they can “buy a few now and get the rest later,” or any similar wavering…then introduce a deadline to purchase. When I set up an in-person viewing, I let the client know that after that viewing, I don’t guarantee to keep the images on file because of having to make room for current shoots. With online proofs, I like to give clients a week – certainly no less time than I asked for to process and post the images after the shoot. A gentler version of this is to introduce an archival fee to pull the images off DVD after a certain period.
• If your per-client sales averages are disappointing…then keep shooting. Only the very blessed fall bass ackwards into their ideal client base as an unknown photographer. If you can create luck like this, don’t let my words stop you. However, just about everything I write about here on PartTimePhoto.com assumes you’re starting from the beginning and working your way up the food chain. Exceptional art and exceptional marketing can catapult you right into a lucrative market, but both are skills learned over time. If you’ve already got either, you’re not waiting for my permission to get rich.
• If you’re in a brutal market that eats generous, customer-friendly photographers for breakfast…then go ahead and start charging a session fee. Have a minimum required order. You’re not running a charity, so if you’re straight up getting screwed by your market, take the necessary measures to ensure you aren’t donating your time to the benefit of unscrupulous clients. This is a worst-case scenario, a last stand against a barbaric enemy; you’re going to have to quickly and greatly step up your art and marketing to attract the kinds of clients who have no fear of session fees or minimum orders. Make no mistake, though: you can do it. It won’t be easy, but thousands of other photographers have done it this way, and so can you. Once you do break into that market and secure a foothold, you can again relax your policies and pack your schedule with good, profitable clients.

Nothing personal…but it could just be you

Don’t take this the wrong way…but if you’re consistently getting crappy clients, the problem may be that you’re marketing to the wrong people…or marketing the wrong things.

I had a horrible run on MySpace around 2006. This was when I was doing online proofing with no retainer, no session fee, no minimum order. Hell, I even threw my wife’s make-up artist services in for free!

Oh, I was busy as hell – I was downright popular, with my proofs adorning dozens of people’s MySpace profiles – but I wasn’t even making milk money.

This is when I learned my lesson about setting expectations with clients. This is when I learned that, when everything you do and say and market screams “I’M CHEAP AND DESPERATE,” you’re actively marketing yourself to the worst possible clients.

When you’re starting out, you really have to take your chances and take whatever clients you can get. Warm bodies in front of your camera at least give you the chance of making a sale and earning good repeat customers.

But if you’re overwhelmed with bad clients, start being more choosy in who you market to and how. This is tricky, but the idea is to gradually shift the focus of your proposition (what you have to offer as a photographer) away from your no-risk policies (no session fee, no minimum order, low prices) and toward the value of your art and experience.

If your web site design and content, for example, screams no session fee/no minimum order/no risk, but whispers about the quality of your art, you’re actively marketing to folks who are the least likely to have the expectation of spending good money with you. Makes sense, right?

As your client base grows and you get a good number of shoots under your belt, as your portfolio grows and your artistic talents develop, you can start tipping the scales of your marketing more in favor of the value of your art rather than the attractiveness of your policies. Less we-finance-anyone used car lot, more Mercedes dealership. Both business models work, but you’ll likely have to start at one end of the scale and work your way across to the other.

Trust your gut; trust your numbers as you compare per-client average sales to per-client time invested; trust your intuition as you judge your busy-ness versus your business… Adjust your marketing – its content, its voice, its target, its unique selling proposition – when you feel the time is right. Make small, gradual changes, and take time to measure the results. Then change again, measure again. Rinse and repeat.

You’ll know you’re top drawer when your marketing says, “If you have to ask, you can’t afford me,” and you’re still booked solid.

Until then, be flexible, show respect and love for your clients, but always maintain your self respect and self worth. If you don’t, you’ll burn out of the photography business before you have the chance to bring your art to the folks who would most appreciate and enjoy it.

Next Steps

• Get yourself a little text file going, or if you’re that kind, an Excel spreadsheet. Start keeping track of your clients and a few simple details: who are they, where did they find out about you, why did they choose you for their photos, how much did you profit from their purchase, how much time did you personally dedicate to that client from first contact to sale/delivery/follow-up. As this database grows, you’ll start to have enough information to see trends: maybe you’re getting your worst clients from MySpace, but your best clients from Facebook; maybe your most profitable per-hour-invested clients are coming from Craigslist of all places. This simple act of measurement will give you all the data you need to make intelligent, effective decisions about who your best clients are, where you’re getting them from, and how. Now go out there and get more just like them.
• Think of your Top 3 best clients this month. They can be your best because you had fun with them, or because they spent good money with you (it doesn’t always have to be about profit, ya know). Open up your e-mail and send them a heartfelt thank-you note right this moment. Just let them know how much you truly appreciate their business. Let them know you’re always happy to serve their photography needs; let them know you welcome the business of their friends and family, also, if any are in the market for good photos. Plant the referral seed and watch it grow.
• Are those Top 3 recent clients on your e-mail newsletter list? Are they fans of your Facebook page? If not, get them there. Ask permission to add them to your list. Invite them to visit your Facebook page and become a fan. Are your photos posted to their Facebook album? If not, send them watermarked proofs of their favorite images to share on Facebook if they like.
• Brainstorm session: Take a deep breath, clear your mind, and try to forgive the wrongs your bad clients may have done to you. Relax. Let go. With this calm clarity, really evaluate: How have you been wronged by clients in the past? Stolen proofs? Pitiful purchases? Wasted time? How many of these bad clients have you had versus how many good clients? What’s the ratio? Are you dealing with so many of these bad clients as to hurt your enjoyment overall of being a part time photographer? Are they notably hurting your per-client average sales? What of the above-discussed safeguards and marketing changes could you gradually implement to ward off these bad clients? File this in your Brainstorms folder (and if you feel ready, make a change today!).
• I’ll be honest with you: I do not have an exceptional knowledge of copyright law, at least beyond the basics as it relates to independent photographers, and even that I don’t make use of unless I’m calling out a client for blatantly stealing from me when I know they know better (or if I’m licensing images to a commercial client, which is just a small part of my business). I’m all about education however, so if you want to know more about copyright law as it applies to photographers part time and otherwise, just Google it. Some great resources can be found from Kodak, Editorial Photographers, and PhotoLaw.net.
• My writing at PartTimePhoto.com exists to serve your needs as an amateur photographer making the transition to paid professional. I appreciate and welcome your readership, and invite you to click the free “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this site.
• What’s the most egregious act of thievery a client has committed against you? What actions have you taken to keep bad clients from getting in front of your camera in the first place? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• Your first photo proofing and sales session – Your First Customer Series, Part 9
• How to watermark your photography proofs for the web
• What should I charge for my part time photography? – Your First Customer Series, Part 3
• Response time and turnaround – how to beat the competition for free
• Debate: Is longevity the selling point for photography studio prints (and their prices)?

It’s bluebonnet time here in Texas. Wide open fields of beautiful blue flowers can be found all around the state, and photographers are out in force recording the sweet scenery.

The ‘kid sitting in a field of bluebonnets’ photo session is as cliche as they come here in Texas. You can’t drive very far without seeing a parent pulled over to the side of the road trying to get their kid to stop squinting at the sun while traffic whizzes by.

Most photographers around here have entire seasonal promotions built around the “bluebonnet sessions.” It’s predictable, the imagery is always the same, but photogs sell it and parents buy it by the pound.

First question: What seasonal outdoor shoots could you promote in your area?

Just here in the Texas Hill Country we have springtime bluebonnets, summers at the river, autumn leaves at the state natural areas, and since there’s no snow as far south in Texas as my studio is, there’s plenty of craggy, leafless trees in the winter which make a dramatic backdrop for artsy model-style photos.

Look at the work of nature and landscape photographers in your area. Attend one of their guild meetings each quarter and see what they’re preparing to shoot. They can tip you off to some of the most beautiful locations and moments to capture the unique scenery of your area. Figure out how to stick a kid or a family or a high school senior in that scene, and you’ll throw down some very salable images with Mother Nature providing the stage.

Second question: How can you differentiate?

Odds are the obvious natural scenery shots in your area have been done to death. Even if you just rinse and repeat, you’ll probably move plenty of sales.

But as always, you want to look at what “everybody” is doing, and find a way to do it differently or the entire opposite. Let your imagination run and see what ways you can dream up to turn the cliche seasonal shots into something unique and special.

I had done good, solid, dependable, typical Team & Individual shots for a local youth flag football league for years before I saw the work of a very imaginative photographer down in Corpus Christi while I was on vacation at the coast. I had always looked at T&I photos as rinse and repeat – so long as I did the same thing each year, they’d keep hiring me.

But the work I saw posted at a restaurant in Corpus opened my mind to a new way of shooting that type of photo. This photog treated T&I shoots like a corporate or environmental portrait. Location, but with strobes and dramatic lighting, strong wide angles, and exciting complimentary elements like reflections in golf club heads, baseball bats extending deep into the image, and a shower of tennis balls around a stoic high school athlete. Really unique, interesting stuff.

You think this guy’s annual contract was secure with the teams he shot? Think he could charge more (maybe a lot more) for his prints and packages than the other photogs doing rinse and repeat?

No doubt.

Apply the same level of imagination and execution to your seasonal scenery portraits and you’ll differentiate in a way that will bring your clients back year after year, checkbooks in hand.

As with any business endeavor, the more time and layers of depth, complexity, and attention to detail you apply to a project, the harder you make it for your competition to copycat.

How can you take your outdoor portraits over the top? Rent a bucket truck to give you an angle nobody else is getting, bring a bag of strobes and shoot at night, lightpaint your subject and scene, climb trees, hike away from the roadside, go urban instead of natural, get low and shoot up or get up and shoot down, bring in props and juxtaposing elements (how pretty would a nice park bench or a couch look in that field of flowers? How about a classic pickup truck with a candy paint job?), if everyone shoots in white button-ups and jeans then get your clients to wear dress suits or swimsuits, if everyone is shooting beside the river put your client in it…

Options are limitless with some imagination and the courage to do something brave and different, something outside the box or never done before – at least in your market. Your competition will be jealous and your clients will be thrilled.

Break the mold = break the bank.

Widening your network to widen your wallet

The best portrait photographers will tell you that success in our industry is a great deal influenced by relationships – making real connections with your clients, through great service and great art.

For our seasonal scenery portraits, let’s take that idea to the back end work – relationships with proprietors of choice properties can give you access to scenery that no other photographer can touch.

Here in Texas, there are lots of big acreage landowners. Mostly ranchers, some farmers, some folks who just like to own a thousand acres here and there.

Just as I like to have a good relationship with local clergy for my wedding work and business owners for my urban senior work, I like to seek out and make friends with my area ranchers and landowners whose private property is a wonderland of outdoor portrait delights.

Babbling brooks. Waterfalls. Long-stretching white fence lines. Rolling fields of tall grass and wildflowers. Dense, lush, green forests. Big red barns! Hay bales! Cows!

If you see a spot from the road that would make the perfect location for one of your shoots, don’t be shy – seek out that property owner and work on getting their permission to book shoots there. Most are flattered and happy to let you shoot there for free, or for the price of a nice print for their wall, or even a small rental fee.

Whatever the cost, odds are that unique access will give you images that no photographer in your area can get, and each location you add to your list will be one more way you differentiate from your competition.

Landowners here in Texas are as protective of their land as they are proud. I don’t for a moment condone trespassing on private property as a smart way to expand your portfolio. I unintentionally ended up shooting without permission at a private pond one time, and I was met by two men with rifles and stern words shortly after I arrived. I may not have gotten shot, but I did ruin an opportunity to land access to a really beautiful location.

Be mindful, and be respectful. It takes one knock on the door or phone call to get permission and do things the right way.

Next Steps

• Hit up Google and research your area for its resources of natural beauty. What unique scenery pops up in your area in each season? What do the nature and landscape photographers in your area shoot and post on their web sites? Where are your parks, big and small? Where are your water features? Where are your farms and fields of crops?
• Call up a few of those nature photographers and ask for ideas on what to shoot and where. They may even offer to give you a tour of some of their favorite spots.
• Visit your local visitor’s bureau or Chamber of Commerce and ask what seasonal events exist related to the local scenery. Strawberry festivals, watermelons festivals, wildflower tours, birding and nature walks, state natural area fall foliage reports, etc. What kinds of specials could you run in concert with these events?
• Get in the car, or better yet on the cycle, and explore the highways and backroads in your county. Where’s the pretty scenery at? Any public or private locations that would make for incredible photo shoots? Take notes and reach out to whoever you need to in order to gain permission and invaluable access.
• Brainstorm session: Close your eyes and get an image in your head of the most obvious seasonal nature portraits for your area. Now, turn your imagination up to 11, and write down a bunch of creative, fun, unique ways of shooting these scenes with an attention-grabbing twist. Furniture, props, vehicles, dissonant wardrobe, different times of day and night, different angles and lenses. Jot these down and file in your Brainstorms folder.
• What are some of your best landscape and natural discoveries during your explorations? What does nature provide your area during each season that is unique and ripe for profitable portraiture? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• Your first photo shoot: expectations and results – Your First Customer Series, Part 7
• The Top 16 marketing opportunities for photographers in November 2010
• How to name your photography business
• Top 10 money-making outdoor photos of people – Your First Customer Series, Part 2
• It’s digital: go crazy! How to make great photos by accident

Outlaw Photographer James Taylor’s list of Internet Marketing methods, from least to most effective:

Darketing - Marketing without information, a target, or a plan – completely in the dark. Least effective, and by far most common, marketing method used by businesses today.

Larketing - See ‘Darketing’ – Marketing by whim without plan or purpose.

Parketing - Hanging the shingle and assuming that, by mere fact of existence, the world will beat a path to your product.

Quarketing - Invisible marketing, most often employed by those lacking any confidence at all in their own product.

Barketing - Making a lot of noise, generally annoying the hell out of everyone. Filed under, ‘Local Car Dealers.’

Starketing - Grabbing attention at any cost to your budget or brand image. See Outpost.com Superbowl Ad, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzbMcsrK-tw.

Sharketing - Always moving, always looking for opportunities for attention, but never stopping to check results. Most lethal form of marketing – big spending, no measurement.

Tarketing - Using research to aim your marketing at a good target market, your ideal customer. Here’s where we make the turn to good marketing methods.

Farketing - Marketing your brand by staying in the news with good PR. See Apple Inc., Ford Motor Company; not Kanye West, Tiger Woods.

RARketing - Sometimes it’s far more profitable and easy to market your way into being Second Best.

Snarketing - Sometimes it’s also more profitable to be divisive instead of mass-market. Being the bad boy underdog can earn fierce loyalty among customers.

Embarketing - Staying fresh and exciting by frequently having something new to share with your market. A sense of adventure keeps folks tuned in.

Harketing - Marketing by listening. Social media has given your customers a voice louder than any ad campaign. Pay attention, and be responsive.

Remarketing - Strive to make your product or service completely remark-able by customers. Then let the world know what you did. Seth Godin-style, Purple Cow marketing.

Arketing - Visionary. Have the only umbrella kiosk in a rainstorm, or the only boat in a flood. Beat the game by staying three steps ahead of the other players. See Facebook, Twitter, PartTimePhoto.com.

Cross-posted with love from a comment I made at Jeff Walker’s Internet Marketing blog.

Next Steps

• Brainstorm session: On the above scale, what best fits the marketing you’re doing now? What can you change to move up the scale of effectiveness? Touch on each point from Tarketing to Arketing to answer the question, “What could I do to act on this marketing method?” File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• Aren’t you proud of me? I managed to write a post less than 3,000 words – less than five hundred, in fact! If you like what you’re reading here, feel free to click on the “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this web site.
• What marketing traps have you fallen into that left you with sub-par results? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• Sharp photos – how to get them, in camera and in post
• How to earn lifetime photography customers with the perfect follow-up – Your First Customer Series, Part 10
• Vision: as a photographer, as a business owner
• How to name your photography business
• How can I find time to be a part time photographer? – Your First Customer Series, Part 1

(Click here to visit the summary post for the Your First Customer Series!)

If you’ve completed the previous nine parts of this series, I commend you – you’ve read a small book’s worth of articles meant to help you get on your feet with your first customers.

As they say, the hardest moment in any journey is taking that first step. If you’ve read and followed along with this series, I hope that you’ve gained equal parts knowledge and confidence.

Here we come upon the final article in the Your First Customer Series. I’ll discuss what you can do beyond the art and experience of your photo shoot to keep clients coming back for more while referring their friends and family with reckless abandon.

A word about touchpoints

Waco, Texas, marketing guru Jay Ehret first turned me on to the concept of touchpoints – all the moments where we have an exposure to or interaction with our clients. All of these little touchpoints, from your advertising to your web site to your e-mails, phone calls, consultations, and follow-up contacts, are rich opportunities to add another layer of awesome sauce to your customers’ experience.

In any touchpoint, you can do what is expected – which often translates to mediocrity. Where the opportunity lies is in breaking expectations and giving clients something remark-able to experience.

Just as you want to answer your phone with a smile and be warm and encouraging during your photo shoot, you want your follow-up activities to reinforce your client’s great experience with your company. Continue to show your client appreciation and respect after they’ve already given you their money; it shows character, which is sorely lacking in most consumers’ buying lives these days.

Quality assurance = repeat business and referrals

Pick up the phone (or voice activate your Bluetooth, to be with the times) and give your client a jingle a few days after they’ve received their order.

Know your delivery times and methods. Know that if you place a print order with your lab on Tuesday at 2:45 p.m., your client will receive their print order sometime Thursday via FedEx Overnight shipping. Know that if you place that order at 3:15 p.m., your client’s order will most likely be delivered Friday. Pay attention and be aware, both so you can share this with your clients and so you know when to make that first follow-up contact.

When you call your client, your goal is the same as it has been all throughout your time with them: understand their needs and meet them to the best of your ability, with your best art and the best experience you can provide.

Here’s your checklist for the follow-up phone call:

“How are you enjoying your photos?” – Ask a few relevant and specific questions based on what your client ordered and what they talked about during your sales session. If a client buys a 20×30 piece of wall art, ask if they’ve had the chance to hang it; if so, ask where they went for framing and if they’re happy with that vendor. If a client buys a CD of digital images, ask if they’ve shared them with family yet, or ordered prints from their lab. Show an interest in how your clients are using your art.

“Did your order arrive on time and in good condition?” – Make sure the shipping times you are quoting clients match what’s being delivered by your lab or through the mail.

“All of the prints came out to your satisfaction?” – Give your client the opportunity to share concerns or problems with you. Don’t market a satisfaction guarantee if you aren’t willing to stand boldly behind it. Don’t beat your clients until they find something to complain about, but if they have a real concern, be sure they understand you are receptive to hearing it.

Those are your quality assurance questions. Be prepared for clients who may express dissatisfaction with some part of their order. Be ready to explain why an image looks different in print than on your laptop (ink vs. LCD), why their prints don’t have the same colors as what they see on their monitors (color calibration), why the print they ordered is “cut off” (cropping, image ratio vs. print size), why one print looks grainy and one looks clear (ISO noise, outdoor/studio lit vs. indoor/low light), etc.

Answer your client’s questions honestly and clearly. Most clients just need a bit of education and they’re satisfied. Be ready to stand by your guarantee, though – if a client is still not happy, offer to fix the problem if you can, or offer to refund that part of the order…

“Sure, I understand what you’re talking about. Because of the lighting, those indoor images do have more noise or grain in them. If I didn’t bump up the sensitivity of the camera once we moved inside, though, the images would have come out really dark.”

“I understand why you’re not happy with that print. If you’re not happy with it, I would be glad to do some Photoshop work on it and get a replacement print sent out from the lab. Would that work for you?”

“I understand why you’re not happy with that print. Because of the poor light, I’m afraid there isn’t anything I could do to fix that in Photoshop. If you’re not happy with it, I would be glad to refund your money for that print and you’re also welcome to keep it. Would that work for you?”

If you’re working with decent folks, and most clients are, they won’t ask for a refund or replacement if you explain why a print or image didn’t turn out the way they expected. If they ask anyway, you have to assume they are truly dissatisfied with that part of their order, and your best long-term choice is to cheerfully fulfill their wishes. Deal with the situation in a way that, if you were on the other end, would make you tell a friend, “I had a problem with one of my prints, but they took care of it, and quickly. No hassle. I’m very happy with them.”

If, for whatever reason within your market, you see too many requests for refunds or replacements (to the point that you’re losing an unacceptable amount of money), you may have to be less accommodating in order to run a profitable and enjoyable business.

“I understand why you’re not happy with that print. I would be happy to refund or replace the print for you, but I would need you to return the bad print. Is that alright?”

Some folks just like to complain. Some folks are happiest when they get something for nothing. By the time they get their order and complain, you probably saw it coming. But when you ask that kind of client to put in some time or effort to get their ‘freebie’ (as little effort as putting a 5×7 print in the mail to you), they’ll often just pass to avoid the bother. While I advocate above-and-beyond customer service, in no way do I suggest you should hurt your business to satisfy unreasonable clients.

A future article will address firing your worst clients, but in short, don’t be afraid to lose the business of a bad customer. And don’t fear losing their potential referrals – birds of a feather flock together; do you really want more clients just out to rob you blind?

That said, be realistic when evaluating how much damage your worst clients do. You don’t want to change a policy which hurts all of your clients, good and bad, when only one in 20 clients causes real trouble. Don’t overreact if one client now and then takes you for a ride. The many, many other good clients more than make up for that one loss.

But if your current market is overrun with foxes, don’t be afraid to guard the henhouse. Within a few months to a year, your client base will probably have upgraded by a level or two, and your ratio of BS to good business will have improved commensurate. Reevaluate your policies then.

Building long-term relationships

After the first half of your follow-up phone call where you ensure satisfaction, next work on the future of your relationship with the client.

“I’d like to stay in touch with you guys if I may. We have a fan page on Facebook and we send out a monthly e-mail newsletter with our latest specials, events, coupons and tips for clients to get the most from their purchase. Would it be okay if I add you to our list?”

If you haven’t already made this request during the sales session, make it now. Give yourself every opportunity to maintain a relationship and presence in your clients’ lives. When they or anyone they know are in need of a photographer, you want to be the first thought in their head – you want to be ‘top of mind.’

If they approve, befriend (befan?) them on Facebook (or MySpace, or Twitter, or whatever you use) and add their e-mail address to your newsletter list.

The referral engine – planting the seed

The referral engine, the processes you use to turn existing clients into your best marketing tool, has many small parts that make up the whole.

The first step is to simply plant the seed of referral in their minds:

“I like to ask all my clients, do you happen to know anyone who might be interested in our photography services?”

Referral incentive programs are worthy of their own set of articles, so I won’t go into them here, but if you have one, mention the benefits at this point.

You just want to expose your client to the idea of sending their friends and family your way. If they had an exceptional experience, they will likely do this anyway, but it doesn’t hurt to pose the question and help the wheels start turning.

Depending upon your sales methods (harder or softer), when a client does have someone in mind, you can either ask for that person’s contact information and permission to namedrop the referring client when you call, or you can simply offer to send your client a special e-mail to forward on to interested friends and family. Again, if you have a referral incentive program, mention the benefits.

Either way, let your client know that you’ll drop them a couple of follow-up e-mails in the next two weeks to make sure they get the most from their purchase.

The survey and the referral

Next up are a pair of e-mails to send to your client: a survey and a referral reminder.

I’m a big fan of the two-question survey:

“How would you rate your experience with our company and products on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being a perfect experience?”

“If less than a 10, what could we have done better to make your experience a 10?”

Shut up and get out of the way. Don’t obsess over controlling the direction of your client’s response with loaded questions meant to elicit specific responses about specific areas of your business. Let clients tell you, in their own words, exactly what comes to their mind that would make your business a better one.

You’ll be surprised how much difference there is between what your clients think about and what you think they think about. Give their thoughts the consideration they deserve. Often, it’s the little things that count.

Send out your survey e-mail one week after you talk with your client by phone. Begin and close it with some copy reminding your client that you’re always available to answer any questions they may have, and that you hope they’re enjoying their purchase.

Your next e-mail will provide your client with all the info they need to easily refer their contacts to you.

Send out this second follow-up one week after your survey goes out.

In this e-mail, provide in brief your marketing message, and ask your client to forward the information on to any of their friends, family, or others who may be interested. This is a nice, soft way to ask clients for a referral. It also educates them to your business’ talking points – the best reasons why clients choose you over the competition. Let them know what to talk about and they’ll be ready to share when the opportunity arises.

Staying top of mind

A good e-mail newsletter is a wildly powerful thing. It is so easy to collect opt-in e-mail addresses from clients, and then for pennies, send them newsletters packed with great marketing – news, offers, coupons, contests, etc.

Facebook and other social media provide you another, more personal and interactive way to stay top of mind with your clients. Here you can keep up with clients’ lives while sharing your own professional life for fans to read about. Once a person or family becomes a paying customer, they become a part of your client community. Treat them as you would a neighbor – chat over the fence with them. Be yourself.

To be exceptional as a one-to-one marketer, which I feel is far more effective and lucrative than mass media for doing business as a part time photographer, you want to cultivate a very thoughtful, individual relationship with each client.

Should you dive into their personal lives? Share your own personal life with them? Unless you are one of those rare people who can pull off that kind of involvement and interest without creeping people out, I’d say again, treat clients warmly, but as a neighbor or professional contact.

Consider the ol’ Clip-and-Share.

Assuming you keep a handy customer database (as simple as a text file with a lot of notes about your clients; ages, birthdays, anniversaries, pets, jobs, hobbies, interests, what photo art and products they like or don’t like…), you can maintain a certain level of awareness about your clients’ needs and interests outside of photography.

When you come across something that would interest one of your clients, because of its relation to their job or interests (or their spouse’s), clip it and send it to them – e-mail a link, share a tweet, snail mail a magazine article, etc.

For example, one of my clients is involved in fundraising here in Bandera for Project Graduation, a non-profit event that gives high school seniors an alcohol-free place to party on graduation night. When I come across an article that highlights a new service or innovative project for fundraising, I forward that information on to her.

I have another client whose son has Asperger syndrome. I’ve sent her items weekly at times – news articles, book finds, blog posts. Another client had to cancel a shoot because her baby went into the ER with a high fever. You bet I called her the next evening to see how that baby was feeling.

Thoughtful gestures like these are far more effective than farming your client base for birthdates, then sending out a generic, mass-produced set of “Happy Birthday!” postcards each month. My gym and insurance agent both do it. I don’t even warrant a hand-initialed note. I’m worth “Thank you for your business,” signed, “The Soandso Staff” in Times New Roman.

Yeesh. Ain’t I special.

Whether in an e-mail, hand-written note, via an e-mail newsletter or on Facebook, be attentive, thoughtful, and ready to share things with your clients that will benefit their lives. Don’t spam, don’t hard-sell and upsell, just maintain a positive presence in their lives. The word-of-mouth referrals will flow.

Be real: care, and the clients will follow

Personal attention is the new black, in photography and just about every other industry. People want to be respected and treated as individuals.

The way you handle your follow-ups with each client helps lay the foundation for a lifelong professional relationship. Become ‘their‘ photographer. Establish loyalty when they’re a high school senior, for example, and you’ll be shooting their engagement, bridal, wedding, maternity, newborn, baby, children’s, and family photos for decades to come.

Carl Sewell in his book Customers For Life talks about how a single car sale is only worth a few thousand dollars to a salesman or dealership. But once you add in service, maintenance, repairs, swag, trade-ins, returning buyers and referrals over the course of a lifetime, any given customer is worth over a million dollars.

Take the time to treat every client like they’re worth a million bucks.

Personal attention in the form of thoughtful gestures sprinkled here and there will set you apart from your competition and give you a special place in the entire spectrum of a client’s consumer experiences.

When’s the last time someone with whom you spent $5 or $5,000 bothered to send you, you personally, a link they found for an interesting article on photography?

There lies the big opportunity, my friends.

Whether you’ve read just this final article or followed along with the entire Your First Customer Series, thank you so much for your readership. If it has proven a benefit to your entry into the world of part time professional photography, I am truly thrilled. I am blessed to have the opportunity to share my experiences with you.

I have pages and pages of notes for articles and projects I’m excited to share here on PartTimePhoto.com – these two initial series just scratch the surface of what’s to come. I hope you’ll visit again. You’re invited to bookmark the site and/or click on the handy-dandy free “Subscribe” button at the top of any page of this web site.

Next Steps

• Whether you’ve already shot one or a hundred clients, if you don’t have a customer database going, get started now. Start with your most recent shoot and go back from there. Write down names, family member names and ages, contact information, and everything you can remember about them that could be useful later on: jobs, schools, interests, hobbies, groups and associations, charities, supported causes, etc. Add as many clients as you can remember details for, and then as you gain new clients, add their names and information to your list. Study this list once a month to keep fresh in your mind the many opportunities to share beneficial discoveries with your client base.
• Brainstorm session: What’s the best follow-up from a business you have experienced as a consumer? How many great follow-ups can you recall? Do you see the opportunity here for your own business? File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• We have only just begun, mates. PartTimePhoto.com will continue to grow with new articles, videos, and other great content to help you make the transition from amateur photographer to part time professional. If you like what you’re reading here, feel free to click on the “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this web site.
• What have you discovered is your best way to stay top of mind with clients? What have you experienced as a consumer that made you say, “Wow, that company really goes above and beyond for its customers”? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• How do I get my first photography client? – Your First Customer Series, Part 4
• How to prepare for your first photography client’s call – Your First Customer Series, Part 5
• You’re going to get screwed doing part time photography
• How to get your first client in a new photography business – the Your First Customer Series
• Debate: Is longevity the selling point for photography studio prints (and their prices)?

(Click here to visit the summary post for the Your First Customer Series!)

Home stretch folks! With this article on the photo proofing and sales session, we focus on the second-to-last article in the Your First Customer Series.

If you’re an ethical and honest businessperson, trust me when I say that showing and selling your photos is far less stressful than most beginning professional photographers believe it to be.

You don’t have to dress things up or make your art out to be something it’s not; you don’t have to hard sell or upsell or practice salesman chicanery; you don’t have to do anything that makes you squirm in your seat or leaves you reaching for the Pepto-Bismol.

Your goal when proofing photos for clients and “selling” them files, prints, and products, is simple and noble: do everything within your power to help your client get the most long-term enjoyment possible while staying within their budget.

You don’t have to try and convince your client to buy something they don’t want, but you do want to expose them to options they may not have considered.

For example, I always tell my clients…

“I’m a crappy salesman, I’ll tell you that from the start. I have no interest in selling you something you don’t want. I want to make sure you end up with something you and your family can enjoy for years and years. Let me give you a few ideas to think about as you’re picking out which images you want to buy…”

I then give them information on the products I really, truly feel they will get the most enjoyment from. Wall art for families, wallets for high school seniors, digital files for digital-native families, 8×10′s for elderly relatives, whatever suits that client’s situation.

So take a deep breath, feed the cat, stock food and drink nearby, and let’s dive into the ways you can best present your photos to a buying client and turn them into lifelong customers and referral-makers.

Presentation: Online vs. Live

The vast majority of photogs present proofs to clients in one of two ways: via online galleries or in-person live viewings on a monitor, big screen TV, or projection screen.

I’ll tell you right now from bitter experience: live outsells online every time.

Especially when you’re starting out, you’re likely to be selling to a lower-level buyer – they hired you because you were inexpensive, and they’re interested in getting the most value for their dollar. These are folks who are more interested in value than convenience; they’re more likely to “borrow” your online proofs, print them out regardless of quality, or just post them to their Facebook profile and never buy anything.

It’s no insult to your client to simply recognize trends like these. Even when your client does something that doesn’t strike you as fair (or sometimes even legal), you still want to respect them as clients and people and understand that they are coming from a different perspective than you.

There are ways to meet clients like these in the middle so they don’t become timesinks with no commensurate payoff in the end, but that’s a topic for another article. Today I’ll relate these clients to your photo sales session.

Putting images in an online gallery and letting that gallery of photos sell to your client on their own time and turf is a perfectly valid method to move product; but let’s be honest, it’s not the best way to present your art, educate and help your client get the most long-term enjoyment from their purchase, or build rapport.

A live sit-down with a client gives you face time, lets you build on their overall experience with your business, and lets you play expert adviser. Clients are bound to have questions, and if you’re not there to answer them or even help them know what questions they should ask, you’re doing a disservice to your art and to their ultimate enjoyment of your art.

That sounds more harsh than I mean it to; I know that most likely your inclination is to use the ease and convenience of online selling to do the heavy social lifting for you. A live proofing and sales session requires that you have a location to meet at (your home, their home, Starbucks) and a method to present your art (Apple iPad, laptop, projection screen) – these technical details come on top of the pressure to impress the client and not come off as a used car salesman. Add in the struggle and inconvenience of trying to match schedules with your client so you can get together and proof images for an hour or so, and online selling takes on a shiny veneer.

You’ll gain some time and take a bit of pressure off yourself, but there is a trade-off that I’m not sure balances out: no face time / experience-improving time with the client, no opportunity to educate and assist the client, and because of this, I can guarantee you will get a smaller sale from your shoot.

Clients, especially at the starter level, lean toward buying several small prints of their favorite images – a handful of 4×6′s. They’re cheap and because of one-hour photo labs, they’re familiar to the client. Clients often don’t think in terms of wall art, or groupings, or albums, or Facebook audio slideshows.

If you do find a client who buys these kinds of higher-end products from an online gallery, it’s most likely because a previous photographer already educated them. If you can avoid it, don’t play lackluster second fiddle to a more proactive photographer who came before you. Be that photographer who teaches their clients the value of higher-yield products – show them once, and they’ll be better buyers forever.

For years I did online viewings only, simply because it was easy and convenient. But I was consistently disappointed when my clients would buy strings of 4×6 prints, destined to languish in confinement within a dusty album or wooden box, deeply-tucked on someone’s bookshelf. My outlook fell to the point where I was just thankful when a client bought anything at all instead of stealing the dang proofs for their MySpace pages – forget about wall art or lay-flat coffee table books.

When I upgraded to live viewings projected on a 10-foot screen, the difference was monumental. I started moving some 16×20′s and 20×30′s for the first time, started feeling like I was using my expertise to help clients get real value from their buy, and most importantly for my business, revenues and profits both went way, way up.

There’s something about a scheduled proofing session where a client shows up, checkbook in hand, that creates the expectation of a notable purchase. It’s not as convenient as online, but that’s a good thing; it puts the client in the mindset that you are putting serious time and effort into helping them make a smart buy, and they’re going to reward you for that with a better purchase.

Online proofing and selling is cheap and easy; what mindset does that put your client in?

It won’t bankrupt your business, but online proofing is not going to do you any favors, either. When weighing your options, just be aware of the trade-offs – if they’re worth it for your situation or client base, don’t hesitate for a moment to go with online. Only you know what works best for you as a person and you as a business.

There are more than plenty of successful photogs who do proofing solely online – it’s by no means impossible. But I personally feel there’s more to be gained from the personal touch of live proofing, especially for a newly-minted pro photog in desperate need of repeat clients and all the word-of-mouth referrals they can get.

Whatever venue you choose, let’s explore how to maximize client adoration and personal profits at the same time – easily and ethically.

Proofing online? Get a retainer

I gladly offer online proofing to clients who prefer it to a live viewing. Sometimes folks just don’t have the time or inclination to drive out to the studio a second time. Sometimes they’re only in town for a short time and coming back to do a viewing isn’t possible.

We have a lot of dude ranches around my town and I pick up many family reunion shoots from their visitors. It’s not feasible to ask 12 groups from one big family to come in and view proofs when they’re only in town for a weekend – online is by far the better option for all involved.

I’ve found a simple and fair way to make sure I get paid for my time, run off potential right-clickin’ proof bandits, and give my clients an option to view their photos online at their convenience.

First, get a retainer. It’s this simple:

“We prefer to bring our clients into the studio to view their proofs on our big, color-calibrated monitors, but in your situation it may make more sense to put the proofs into a private online album so you and your family can look at the images on your time and make your purchase from home.

“We do ask for a $100 retainer to put your proofs into an online album, but you get 100% of that back as print and file credits, so there’s no extra charge.”

Then shut up! Let the wheels turn in their heads, and they will either agree that the online album is their best choice, or they won’t. If they prefer to drive back out for a live viewing, that’s their prerogative. If they balk at the retainer, stand your ground – let them know that because of problems you’ve had in the past, if you didn’t collect the retainer, you couldn’t offer online proofing at all. If they still balk, and it’s a deal breaker for them, let them go – odds are real good they’re just looking for a free ride.

I’m a big proponent of very customer-friendly policies, but again – you are a professional and you deserve to be paid for your time. Wild and woolly online proofing combined with my suggested pricing scheme of no session fee and no minimum order just draws too many digital proof bandits.

For the retainer amount, I like 10 times the price of your smallest regular print. If you charge $10 for a 4×6, ask for a $100 retainer. If you charge $40 for anything 8×10 or smaller, ask for a $400 retainer. Scale your retainer to match your print prices and your market – a part-time photographer averaging over $1,000 per client shouldn’t have the same online retainer as the startup averaging $50 or $100 per client.

A word about watermarks and copyrights

If you’re going to do online proofing, you’re going to get right-click proof bandits. The “it’s digital therefore it’s free to copy” mentality of netizens hasn’t waned much, despite the fine efforts by iTunes and company to create attractive alternatives.

I for one love it when my clients “steal” their proofs. Hell, retainer in hand, I encourage it. I tell them…

“You’re welcome to ‘steal’ any of the proofs from your album for your Facebook, MySpace, or to e-mail to friends and family. If you have any favorites that could use some touch-ups, just let me know, and I’ll do some custom Photoshop work on them at no charge.”

(at least a half dozen grognards just clutched their chests and reached for the Bayer aspirin…)

“The only thing I ask is that you keep my framing on the image with my logo and web address on it.”

Never – I repeat, never – have I gotten into a copyright fight with a client over ‘stealing’ proofs with this practice. If you just take a few minutes to educate them as to what they can and can’t do, then find ways to help them do what they want legally and fairly, they’ll do the right thing. As always, anyone who doesn’t is in the vast minority – don’t stress about them.

As with my philosophy on session fees and minimum orders, don’t treat your clients like criminals. They’re paying clients who love your art and experience and are willing to trade their hard-earned money for it. They’ve trusted you to do good work – trust them to do right by you. The few who don’t aren’t worth worrying about to the point that you degrade the experience for all your other clients.

As for how to watermark your images, you can see at the top of any post on this site an example of how I do mine. A semi-transparent thin bar across the bottom of the image with my logo on one side and web address on the other.

I don’t write PROOF in massive half-opaque lettering across the center of every image, nor do I put a massive © dead center on every proof, nor do I write DO NOT COPY all over my site and images. Do you think your clients feel respected and valued when you take every blatant precaution to guard against their stealing your photos?

If your default impression of your market is that of a bunch of thieves and criminals hell-bent on pillaging your business into bankruptcy, I’ll tell you now, you’re in the wrong business. Go into IT security – you’ll do great, kid.

Letting my clients post their watermarked proofs on their MySpace and Facebook pages has multiplied the volume of my business. There’s little better endorsement marketing you can get than a senior or family using one of your images as their default profile photo for all their hundreds of friends to see.

Educate your clients in a respectful way, then give them credit that they’ll do the right thing. They’ll respect the fact that you’re one of the rare few photographers that doesn’t treat them like bank robbers. It’s an easy way to differentiate yourself from your competition.

In a future article I’ll cover the wide, wide variety of venues you can use to do online proofing. You’ve got self-hosted, third party-hosted, full-service options and more. I use a self-hosted gallery with a shopping cart plugin. You may prefer to start off with a service like SmugMug to handle your online proofing and sales. You might use a combination of Flickr and e-mail to take orders.

Whatever you use, try to make the experience for your client as pleasant and simple as possible. Don’t let the service, technology, or process get between your paying clients and the art they want to buy.

The hardware – Live Viewing and Sales Session

Want to improve your per-client average on sales? Find ways to improve their overall buying experience.

The quality of your art is the first factor in how much you’ll earn per client, and what you can charge clients for your work. Second, though, is the experience your clients enjoy while working with you such as, during a proofing and sales session, how you present your art for their perusal and purchase.

Assuming you’re starting at the bottom and working your way up, you may do your first in-person proofing session on a slow little laptop in the middle of Starbucks. With time, clients, revenue, and investments back into improving your clients’ purchasing experience, you will eventually do live viewings in your own home or studio; on a big screen monitor, projection screen, or perhaps even in a dedicated viewing room with comfy couch, your art on the walls, and a waterfall in the corner.

Or perhaps not – you may prefer the privacy and free-spirited nature of doing location proofing sessions at the local coffee shop or in clients’ own homes. I’ve met photogs who do well with laptops and portable projectors to show full-size proofs right on a client’s wall. As they say in car sales, behind the wheel seals the deal.

From my experience, the larger you show your images, the easier it is to sell large prints. Most folks think an 8×10 is a big print, easily large enough to mount on their walls – at least until you show them how glorious their photos look as 16×20′s and 20×30′s.

Don’t discount using prints to sell prints. Many photogs for years have printed 4×6 proofs from photo shoots to use as sales tools. An investment of $10 or $20 on a set of printed proofs, including a few of your best shots as 8×10′s or larger, is a smart one.

Consider the benefits of printed proofs: equally effective for proofing on location or in your home/studio, no need for a laptop or computer monitor for display, no investment in new tech or equipment needed, tactile for clients to touch and handle, as mobile as a good laptop with no worries about dead batteries or technical issues, and probably best of all, they’re immediately available to sell: consumers pay better for convenience and immediate satisfaction. You can even offer the set of proofs as a single product for a discounted price. What you don’t sell you can use as examples for future clients.

However you show proofs to your clients, do so with confidence. Whether it’s on a 10-inch netbook or a 10-foot projection screen, feel good about the art you’ve made together and share it with enthusiasm. Your attitude, as much as your proofing tools, will help you sell your art.

The software – Live Proofing and Sales Session

Any computer you use for proofing is going to come with the software you need to show your art. Windows, Mac and Linux computers all have built-in image viewers that work great for displaying your art full-screen and zoomable.

Upgraded photo viewers, like the Bridge viewer that comes with Photoshop (which is what I use), add some helpful features like being able to tag or otherwise mark images as you view them. This is vastly convenient when you’re flipping through photos clients and your client says, “That’s a keeper… That’s a maybe… Oh, definitely no.” Two stars, one star, no stars – then you can sort and segregate accordingly. Easy peasy.

Most photo viewers include a slideshow option, which combined with some nice music, is a great way to initially present a photo shoot to your client. You can do this with your basic viewer and a separate music player like Windows Media Player or iTunes. Some advanced, sometimes expensive, photo viewers can do pretty fancy things to show off your photos. They often include royalty-free stock music that eliminates the legal complexities of what you can and can’t play during your presentation.

One of the most popular new photographer services is web-based Animoto, a slideshow program that makes very impressive slideshows easily – and importantly, for you to sell to your clients. A slideshow your clients can easily purchase and share with friends by e-mail or on Facebook is an attractive product that digital-friendly folks will pay well for. Animoto and similar purpose-specific software makes this an easy addition to your product offering.

For your hi-res digital file sales, you’ll also want some CD burning software, and if you have a decent printer, good label-making software. I use the freeware CDBurnerXP with the SureThing CD/DVD Labeler software along with the dead easy unitasker Avery CD/DVD Label Applicator to provide impressive CDs to my clients.

I also include a little “Copyright and License.txt” file on each CD which includes my contact info and in layman’s terms outlines what I ask clients to do or not do with their images. When I’m sitting with a client and burning their CD, I tell them about the file and what it’s for. Again, educate your clients and they’ll do right by you.

Location, location, location

There’s a great deal of talk and sometimes money put into where photographers hold court for their proofing and sales sessions. Some photogs do so in their clients’ homes, some do it in Starbucks on a laptop, some have beautiful and elaborate sales rooms.

While I believe in creating the most positive and memorable (as Seth Godin would say, ‘remark-able‘) experience possible for your clients, I’m also mighty frugal. I don’t think having a professionally-decorated sales room is overly beneficial if you’re selling to a low-end market. Does Wal-Mart have leather couches and fountains in its bathrooms? No, but The Madonna Inn of California sure does.

Scale your presentation to your market. Most of us want to end up in the fancy sales room with the projection screen and canvas prints on the walls, but that in no way means you have to or should start there.

Wherever and however you do your proofing and sales, be confident and comfortable. Don’t be ashamed if the best you can do is a set of 4×6 proofs laid out on your client’s dining table. Don’t be ashamed if you’re showing images in Windows Photo Gallery on a 10-inch netbook. Focus your energy on helping your client get the most enjoyment from their purchase and you’ll quickly bypass any imperfections in your presentation.

As an aside, I’ve always loved coffeehouses for client meetings. It’s modern, it’s artsy, it smells fantastic, the atmosphere is light and friendly, and four bucks is a great deal to ‘rent’ a table for a couple of hours.

Preparing To Proof

Okay – you’ve got a location and method for showing proofs to your client. Let’s get ready to make some money!

Regardless of where and how you present your proofs, be prepared:

• Dress nice and smell fresh. Don’t go overboard on the cologne or perfume. Remember, you’re still making an impression – present yourself as professionally as you present your art.
• If presenting on location, make sure batteries are charged and carrying case or bag is clean and organized. If you’re nervous, do a run-through of the entire process before your presentation. Software should be working great, your slideshow should look and sound good, photos all where you expect them to be and looking their best.

If you’re meeting a client at their house:

• Smile a lot, accept any hospitalities your host extend (drinks, snacks, tour of the house or property). Don’t take anything you don’t like, but allow your clients to be gracious hosts.
• Take control – find a great spot to present your art. A kitchen table is usually a good neutral ground where everyone can snuggle up and get a close look at the images together. Everyone should be comfortable and able to easily see the proofs.

If you’re meeting a client at a middle ground like a coffeehouse:

• Needless to say, get there first and get set up. As with an in-home sales session, find a great place to set up where clients can be comfortable and see your art. Try to find a quiet corner so everyone can be heard easily.
• Make sure your waiter or barista knows your name and that you’re meeting a business client. Let them know your client’s tab is to go on your bill, no question. Show forethought and preparation – your client will be both gratified and impressed. Consider a couple cups of coffee, glass of wine, or cappuccino a very worthwhile business investment.

If you’re meeting a client at your home:

• Be set up and ready to roll when your client arrives. Make sure the room is comfortable in temperature and light, that everything is clean. tidy, and dust-free, and that you have drinks and snacks available. For adult clients, it’s not inappropriate to offer a glass of wine. Having coffee brewed or brewing can also create a nice aroma and show your consideration of your client’s potential needs. Spray a light air freshener if you like – as with cologne and perfume, don’t overdo it.
• Make sure distractions are limited. Turn off the phone, TV, and radio unless it’s providing the soundtrack for your sales session. Have your spouse take the kids outside to play, out of earshot, and let them know not to disturb you during your session. Same with pets – a barking, jumping, scratching, whimpering dog will only annoy your client. You have control over your home, your domain – design as pleasant and delightful an experience as possible.
• Don’t forget to clean the yard and entry to your home. A great sales room only does you so much good when your client steps in dog poop or trips over your son’s bicycle on their way into your home.

Presenting & Selling

This is the moment that many new photogs worry about so much – showing art to a client and taking their money for it.

But if you’ve done your job – listened to your client, conducted an attentive photo shoot, and prepared your images and environment for presentation – this is one of the easiest and best parts of being a professional photographer.

Be confident. Feel good about getting to share the custom art you made for your client. There’s nothing to fear, so don’t let fear bog you down with nervous thoughts like, “What if my art’s not good enough? What if they’re disappointed in my photos? What if they think my prices are too high?”

Listen – your clients already want your art. If you ethically marketed yourself, your clients knew what they were buying before they booked with you. If you took your shoot seriously, did your homework, practiced, and then performed to your best ability, you’ll likely deliver art and an experience far beyond their expectations.

I like to start my proofing session with a slideshow. Often just a fade transition with some select tracks (legally licensed) playing in iTunes. It may take a few minutes, but a good slideshow with music can set the mood for your entire session.

As soon as the slideshow ends, let your clients share any comments of admiration, then be sure to compliment them on the shoot – tell them how much you enjoyed shooting with them and feel free to share an anecdote about one or two select images from the shoot. If you exude positivity and enthusiasm, so will your clients.

Here’s my general process (and as always, philosophy) to help you help your client get the most out of their art purchase:

I start, as noted above, by telling my clients I’m a horrible salesman and that my intention is only to help them buy what will give them the most long-term enjoyment and personal value.

“With that said…” I tell them what kinds of products I think they would get the most enjoyment from. Depending on the buyer (senior, senior parent, newborn parent, family of four, family reunion, 50th wedding anniversary, etc.), I’ll suggest different products that I feel they will enjoy. I always encourage clients toward more visible and sharable products like wall art for the home, wallet prints for friends, 8×10′s for close family, digital files for Facebook profiles, etc.

I tell clients that although most folks lean toward lots of small prints like 4×6′s, those tend to end up in boxes and albums that just collect dust and aren’t enjoyed daily. Wall art, for example, will become a centerpiece for daily enjoyment by family and a conversation piece with friends and guests.

Clients may ask for a reminder of your prices and a pad to write notes on; have these ready.

Flip through images first to last with your client giving a Yes, No, or Maybe on each one. Let them know this process is to cull down the overall selection and show only the best images they want to consider for purchase.

Once you’ve primed your client with some ideas and concepts they might not have thought of, tell them to start with the bigger pieces and go down from there, whatever they want to buy. “Start with what you really want to have and enjoy for a long time, and we’ll add in the rest as we go.”

After your first pass, clients will usually have cut down the selection by 50-percent or more. Keep in mind what I’ve said in previous articles – as your art improves, so too improves your ratio of must-have’s to good shots to leftovers. As you grow as an artist, clients will have a harder time not buying more and more of your art. You’ll see your per-client sales averages grow with every measure of style and experience you gain.

Separate out your No shots from your Yes and Maybe’s. Move the Yes and Maybe images into a separate “Best” folder, or if you use a program like Bridge with built-in rating and sorting features, filter that way. Separate the wheat from the chaff so your client can more easily peruse and purchase.

After the initial slideshow and the culling pass, your clients should now have a pretty good idea of their favorite images and what they want to buy. Bring up their Yes and Maybe images in a thumbnail view and make those thumbnails big enough to easily tell one from another (I tend to go for 8-10 on the screen at a time). Slowly scroll through the set, and ask your client what they would like to start with.

At this point, unless your client asks for advice, get out of the way. As they peruse images, slowly scroll through their options, and let them know they can ask you to scroll up or down, or to see an image full-screen. You’ve primed them to make an educated purchase, so give them control here and hush – let them consider and buy what they love.

If your client does ask your advice, give your honest opinion. If you have comparisons to offer from other clients, give them. If you have a personal opinion, give it. Just be honest, don’t try to upsell or be a salesman. You’re not trying to make money – you’re trying to help. Give advice as you would to a close friend. Treat a client as such, and they will respect you for it – and buy more because of it.

Let clients go down their mental list of what they want and need to buy. As they wind down or seem to get to the end of their list, ask if there’s anything or anyone they’re forgetting – desktop prints for the workplace, hi-res files for home or office computer wallpaper, prints for grandparents or extended family, prints for close friends or godparents (that’s one that is often forgotten), etc. Again, you’re not trying to make more money – you’re trying to help. You should never have to convince a client to buy something – your role is to present, advise, and facilitate maximum enjoyment.

When your client does finish their purchase, glance at your notes (you were taking notes during your presentation and proofing, no?) to see if there’s anything they mentioned wanting that they forgot to buy, then tally the purchase.

The grognards say you should never tally in front of a client. They tell you to go into a separate room to do the adding because, as the numbers climb, so will your client’s blood pressure. Walk back in, hit them with the total and without pause say, “How would you like to take care of that?” Don’t give them the chance to back out or have second thoughts, they say!

Here in Texas, that’s called horses***. Straight-up, hard-selling chicanery. If you have to trick and trample your client into buying beyond their wants or means, your business model is flawed, to say the least.

That said, when you do give your client a total cost, shut up! Photogs new to selling and not yet confident in the worth of their art are all too ready to start offering discounts and concessions, even before the client says a word.

“Well, umh, uhh, geez, ehh, the total is $254.42, but that’s a lot of money…how about $200 even? Is that okay? I can throw in some free 20×30′s, would that be alright? Or I could just give it to you for half off, err, uhh, how about just $125? Is that too much? I’ll throw in FedEx overnight shipping for free…”

To quote The Interwebs, “STFU!”

“Your total today is $254.42,” said with an adoring smile.

“Alright, will you take a check?”

“Certainly.”

Easy peasy.

Is that what you were so scared of?

If a client does balk at your prices or the total of their order, don’t devalue your work by providing discounts and concessions; offer to help them reduce the size of their order. Never negotiate or start discounting just because a client doesn’t want to pay your prices. Your art is worth what you ask, probably even more, but there’s no reason you can’t help a client identify where they can trim their order and still get great products to enjoy.

No matter what a client buys or how much they spend, treat them all with the same respect and enthusiasm. If a client buys one $10 digital file on CD, don’t scoff or insult their purchase. If a client buys $2,000 in massive prints, don’t fall out of your chair or become star-struck and gushy. Whatever the purchase may be, show humility, gratitude, and professionalism.

And don’t ever feel guilty for taking someone’s money. I’ve spoken with plenty of new pro photogs who expressed guilt for taking a hundred or so dollars from a client. Again, your art is probably worth more than what you’re asking, and it’s every bit the client’s right to buy what they want and can afford. If you sell to them ethically and honestly, you never have to feel bad for taking clients’ money. Most clients will hand you a check while thanking you for doing the work you do – it’s a good profession we are in.

Remember: just because you wouldn’t pay your own prices or couldn’t afford them, doesn’t mean your clients won’t or can’t.

Finishing Touches

Take your client’s payment and thank them for their business and the opportunity to work with them.

If you didn’t at the photo shoot, have them sign your model release right after they sign their check. Ask if you can send them your e-mail newsletter and/or add them as a friend on Facebook.

Explain what happens next; that their print order should arrive from the lab within 3-5 business days, or their CD will be available for pick-up in 15 minutes, or whatever is appropriate for their order and your delivery policies.

As soon as your client is out of sight, perform a well-articulated fist pump.

Soak it up – you’re a money-making professional photographer! Truly, from me to you, congratulations!

There’s one more article to go in this series: The Follow-up. I’ll share with you some hints and tips to make a great impression with your clients after the sale, and how to maintain a positive presence in their lives so you get the most and best word-of-mouth marketing possible.

As a side note, thanks for sticking with this article beginning to end. Six-thousand-plus words is a beast of an article to read online (roughly equivalent in size to 17 pages in a novel), but I hope what I presented here will greatly benefit your photography business. With a pinch of confidence and a lot of respect and love for your clients, you’ll soon have to hire people to count your money.

Next Steps

• Educate yourself on what royalty-free music is and where you can get it. Photogs don’t want people violating their copyrights, so don’t violate the copyrights of your fellow artists.
• Brainstorm session: Unless you’ve been hanging out in Tibet all your life, you’ve probably been a pretty regular consumer of commercial goods. You buy food, cars, electronics, toys, clothes, etc. What are some of the best sales / buying experiences you remember? What made them special? What about those experiences can you emulate in your own sales sessions? File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• From tasty tidbits to long-form journalism, I do my best with PartTimePhoto.com to share my experiences as a part time professional photographer so you can confidently make your transition from an amateur photographer to a paid professional. If you like what you’re reading here, feel free to click on the “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this web site.
• What was your best-ever proofing and sales session like? How about your worst? What tips have you picked up that have helped you better thrill your clients and sell your art? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• Culling and post-processing your first photo shoot – Your First Customer Series, Part 8
• How to watermark your photography proofs for the web
• What should I charge for my part time photography? – Your First Customer Series, Part 3
• You’re going to get screwed doing part time photography
• Your first photo shoot: expectations and results – Your First Customer Series, Part 7