What is success?
Many start-up photographers have an unrealistic vision of what success is for a professional.
This unrealistic vision is created, maintained, and promoted by professional organizations, photography vendors, and the 'gurus' of the photography industry who are all too happy to charge you $499, $999, or more to teach you how you can have a million dollar business just like theirs.
There is nothing the grognards enjoy more than telling aspiring photographers every way in which they're not 'real professionals.'
You don't have enough megapixels.
You don't have enough prime lenses.
You don't have enough years as an unpaid apprentice.
You don't derive 100-percent of your independent, full-time income from your photography.
And the vendors that serve the professional (and consumer, and prosumer) markets promote the same mentality - you never have enough pixels, dynamic range, ISO, frames per second, sharpness, clarity, power.
The gurus do it too - you never have enough talent, enough experience, enough resources, enough Photoshop actions, enough good ideas, enough professional training.
You are endlessly inadequate.
That's the not-so-secret secret of most marketing: create a need, then fill it. Individuals and companies have been making fortunes this way since the dawn of commerce.
If you listen to the photography industry and those who make money from it, I can guarantee you will never be adequate. What you have will never be good enough. There will always be someone or something better that you have to have if you're ever going to be successful.
Success.
What's their definition of success?
Better, what's yours?
And one better: what would your definition of success be if it weren't influenced by all these voices telling you how inadequate you are?
There is nothing wrong with boutique photography; it's the high-end of professional portraiture, not unlike Ferrari and Bugatti are at the high end of the auto industry.
How many folks do you know who drive a Veyron?
How many folks do you know who spend thousands of dollars a year on portraits for their home?
Of course this market exists - but to hear it told by the grognards and vendors and professional associations, there is only one vision of success: high-end, boutique photography. It's luxury or nothing, as they tell it.
Aspiring to be the Kia, Ford, Toyota, or Honda of your market? That won't do.
Your immediate goal is just to get started as the Zero Skateboard, Trek Bicycle, or Vespa Scooter of photography in your area? You're ruining the industry!
Here you are trying to better learn your camera and land your first paying client, and they're already convincing you you need more: more training, more apprenticeship, more DVDs, more webinars, more camera, more experience.
Striving to become the kind of photographer who books those $1,500-a-shoot clients on the regular is a great goal to have - but is it the only goal to have?
What do you want to do with your art? What do you want to do with your business? What purpose does your photography business serve in your life?
A creative outlet?
An opportunity to make money doing something you love?
An exit strategy to get you out of a day job you deplore?
A way to stay home with your kids but still contribute to your household income?
As Stephen Covey would, let's step back, get some perspective, and start with the end in mind: what's your vision of success? How do you want your photography business to change your life?
What do you want it to be tomorrow? What about in five years? Ten years?
What's your vision of success? Stripped of all the outside influence, all the marketing hype - what do you really want your business to do for you?
"Prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. It causes you to work not on what you like, but what you’d like to like." - Y-Combinator founder Paul Graham, How To Do What You Love
If you want more megapixels, big strobes, and a retail studio on Main Street - that's a great vision! If you want to book one shoot a week and make enough money to take your kids and family on an amazing vacation every year - that's a great vision, too. If you want to make art, make money, make better art, and make better money for it - that's just as great.
There is no wrong answer. I just want you to look at your art, your business, and your vision of success with it, and define it with clarity and purity - away from the biased influence of vendors and gurus who make their money by making you feel never-good-enough.
And how you define success today may be completely different from how you define it next year, or even next month. Nothing is ever set in stone - that's part of the beauty of owning your own business. No matter what anyone else thinks or says, you're the boss. You are in charge.
What is success to me?
Being profitable.
Having zero debt.
Earning enough in-pocket money from each shoot to leave a big grin on my face.
Having fun working with clients I love.
Getting better, a little each day - as an artist, and as a business owner.
Blessing my clients with my best work for a fair price.
Being blessed by my clients for the work I do.
Making enough profit from my business to have a tangible effect on the comfort and happiness of my wife and children.
Earning enough to reinvest in my community - through donations, fundraisers, and volunteering.
Earning enough to ensure my overhead (including taxes and repairs) is covered without stress.
Employing the expertise of others to ensure my business is legal and stress-free, so I can focus on my photography and my clients.
Being in control of my time, my bookings, and with whom I work.
It's a big picture. And, at least for me, it has nothing to do with glorious levels of fame or fortune. Success isn't big cameras, big lenses, big billboards, or a big studio - unless you want it to be.
Because of the constant distractions of chasing dreams that weren't mine, it took me over a decade to define what I truly wanted out of my art and my business. And since I gained that clarity, I've been able to focus and make incredible progress down the path that's right for me.
My path isn't your path, nor is yours mine. Nor is Vincent Laforet's or Anne Geddes' or James Nachtwey's.
Said far better than I could, philosopher Alain de Botton: "One of the interesting things about success is that we think we know what it means. A lot of the time our ideas about what it would mean to live successfully are not our own. They’re sucked in from other people. And we also suck in messages from everything from the television to advertising to marketing, etcetera. These are hugely powerful forces that define what we want and how we view ourselves. What I want to argue for is not that we should give up on our ideas of success, but that we should make sure that they are our own. We should focus in on our ideas and make sure that we own them, that we’re truly the authors of our own ambitions. Because it’s bad enough not getting what you want, but it’s even worse to have an idea of what it is you want and find out at the end of the journey that it isn’t, in fact, what you wanted all along." (from his 2009 TED talk; hat tip to BrainPickings)
It's equal parts freeing and terrifying - to know that your success can be anything you want it to be, and you are solely in control of and responsible for that success.
But what a beautiful stress, no? It's like seeing the prettiest girl in the park, knowing you just have to talk to her - and then doing it.
What happens next?
That's up to you, my friends.
Next Steps
- Click here: James@banderaoutlaw.com. Tell me what your (new?) vision of success is. Is it different than it was 15 minutes ago? What do you really want to do with your art and your business?
- Brainstorm session: You just did it! Cut and paste your e-mail to me into your notepad, and file it away in your Brainstorms folder.
- With your vision of success more purely defined, make a quick brainstorm checklist of steps you need to take to improve in each arena - your art, your business acumen, your marketing skills. Break these steps down as small and simple as you can; you're drawing a road map to reach your vision of success. You're going to take detours, have wrecks, and go off road both purposefully and accidentally on this journey, but give yourself a map to navigate by.
- Look at your check list. What step can you take today? Lace up, and lean into it!
- 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 these ideas to better your part time photography business!
Your competition can only kill you if you let them
"You have a choice. You can grasp that stone of 'best, better, good, not good enough' and let it sink you. Or you can put it down beside you and keep [shooting]. Only you can allow yourself to feel small next to someone you believe is bigger. And only you can choose to see in someone 'higher up' than you the beacon of possibility for your own [photography] life." - Sage Cohen, paraphrased from The Productive Writer
There is one way and one way alone that your competition can kill your business - and it's entirely your fault.
It's time to make a choice: you're either going to obsess or observe from this day forward.
Are you going to obsess over your competition - what they're charging, how nice their art is, which of your potential clients they're shooting - and place your mental focus and energy outside of what you can control?
Or are you going observe your competition as another of many resources to learn from, and focus your energies on your betterment and what you can control?
Some of the most discouraged part time professional photographers I visit with are facing the challenge of two major struggles:
- Landing their first paying clients or establishing a consistent client base;
- and learning to disconnect their art and success from the art and success of other photographers.
Especially here in the digital age, we artists do not exist in a vacuum - both blessing to our muse and curse to our lizard brains, we are exposed to an unlimited amount of inspiration. This can serve to motivate us, and it can serve to dishearten us, when we see how much potential exists - and how long the road is for us to realize it within ourselves.
We are at our most vulnerable when we've finally taken the leap and put ourselves out into the world as professionals - via web site, blog, portfolio, business cards, advertising, or other means - and the phone just isn't ringing (yet).
These yin-yang balance issues never go away - surely I face them as often as anyone - but with experience and temperament, we can learn to channel these energies into ever-forward progress as both artists and business owners.
Your Clients Are Not My Clients
Market share is your percentage of the total number of dollars getting spent every year on portrait photography in your community.
You're up against the cheap chains like Walmart and Sears Portrait Studios.
You're up against the more expensive mall chains like Kiddie Kandids, Portrait Innovations, and old-school shops like Olan Mills and Glamour Shots.
You're up against other start-up photographers like yourself, inspired by the opportunities for artistic and financial success in the digital age.
You're up against established professional photographers who haven't had to market themselves in decades because of their longevity and awareness in your community.
You're up against Canon and Nikon and Sony and Olympus, all trying distressingly hard to convince your clients that, with the right camera, Mommy and Daddy can make their own 'professional-quality portraits'.
And you're up against dozens of other consumer options serving every niche and income bracket in your area.
When your phone isn't ringing, it's easy to look at how busy your competition is and lose motivation - and hope.
So where's the opportunity?
Everywhere.
Everywhere you look - in every industry, not just photography - good folks paying good money are being underserved.
The indifference of the chain studios, almost entirely staffed by teenagers and twenty-somethings who have no interest in the art of photography; only the consistent repitition of what they were taught.
The arrogance of the established professionals, whose high prices, draconian rules and policies leave their clients feeling more like parolees than valued clients.
The bait-and-switch of those start-up photographers only interested in making money - and not creating art or serving clients.
The booked-solid schedules of the truly great photographers in your area, who only can accept a few new clients a year because they know how to always give more than they get.
And not to be discounted, the deep rut of the photography industry that has done nothing to invite the non-buying remainder of the market in the door.
The greatest portion of any market - but for staples like milk, bread, and iPhones - are the folks who buy nothing at all.
You're going to find your people, the folks who are ready to pay what you ask for the art you're able to create now, in this landscape of underserved folks deseperate for a breath of fresh air.
They're out there - and they want to work with you. They appreciate and value your style and art, their budgets line up with your humble pricing, and their personalities are a perfect fit for yours. They just have to get to know, like, and trust you.
You'll win business with your enthusiasm. You'll win it with your customer-friendly policies, with the consistent art and experiences you create for your clients, with the flexibility of your scheduling, and with your efforts to reach out to the overall market that has long been disenchanted.
Recognize that the success of your competitors is proof that the market is alive and vibrant - then study where your competitors leave your market underserved. This is where your best opportunities can be found.
Maybe they charge too much.
Maybe their art is old-school and repetitive.
Maybe they force clients to pay, through session fees or minimum orders, for art that hasn't even been created yet.
Maybe they're too busy for small shoots.
Maybe they don't specialize in your niche.
Maybe their web sites are ugly, hard to navigate, don't prominently feature their phone number, and don't even say what geographic area they serve.
Maybe they're marketing to the big 3A high schools, and ignoring the smaller market of the seniors in the two little 1A schools.
Maybe they're not marketing at all to the local day cares and private schools.
Maybe they're so established, they've stopped trying.
Maybe they don't sell hi-res digital files.
Maybe they only sell packages.
Maybe they don't market to high school seniors.
Maybe they don't market to mothers of newborns.
Maybe they don't market to pet owners.
Maybe they don't do volunteer photography for their favorite charities.
Maybe they're not helping cover local high school sports and theater for their community newspaper.
Maybe you're fiesty, and going head to head with another photographer in their niche would is just the motivation you need to do your best work.
Maybe there's a lot more opportunity to break open your market than you thought.
Don't let your competitors' success deter or deflate you - take aim at your dream, take stock of who you can study and learn from, then take your butt out of that chair and work daily to improve in art and business and marketing until you are the photographer your competitors envy.
Your Art Is Not My Art
What a strange reaction we have to seeing art far better than ours: first, we're in awe, inspired, motivated to grab our camera and go be brilliant.
Then, we're struck with the reality that we can't - yet - create such art. The lighting, the pose, the expression, the background, the location, the wardrobe, the colors, the moment - all the ingredients that make this feast for the eyes, we don't yet know how to put it all together.
Creating an amazing photograph is every bit an act of preparation, intention, and preternatural timing, as preparing a five-star meal.
There is a reason there are cooks, and then there are chefs.
Just as there are photographers, and then there are artists.
The beauty in this, is the opportunity - no one ever made head chef without burning a lot of pancakes along the way.
And to become the artist we dream of, on the level of those we admire most, we'll have to shoot a lot of horsesh*t along the way.
Poor exposures, ugly lighting, unflattering poses, distracting backgrounds, confused expressions, out-of-focus blurry messes - we're going to screw it all up before we get it right.
As Kanye would say, you gotta crawl before you ball.
Poet Sage Cohen writes in The Productive Writer that allowing yourself to indulge hierarchal thoughts - who's better or worse than you as an artist - causes your lizard brain to kick into self-protection mode and stop you cold where you stand.
You have to consciously engage this feeling of being a fake, a charlatan, a joke, a rank amateur - you have to recognize this feeling for the displaced protection mechanism that it is and reclaim control over your ego from the Resistance that's battling you. Pushing through these feelings is a purposeful act of will.
"All you need to worry about (or, rather, enjoy) is your own good, better, and best, because that's what belongs to you. Do you see yourself making progress toward your goals? Can you appreciate your own tenacious spirit that simply stays focused on where you're headed? Don't distract yourself with feeling bad about what someone else is doing when there is so much to feel good about that is right in front of you." - Sage Cohen, The Productive Writer
Allow yourself to observe and study the most successful photographers in your market, and in the world - learn from them, their marketing, their art, what you see as their best methods for bringing clients in the door.
But disconnect your success from theirs - every photographer walks their own path, establishes their own foothold, and earns the business of clients who uniquely and perfectly fit their art and personality.
There are people out there right now who are ready to pay you for your art and experience, at whatever level that may presently be. The professional portraiture market is a broad one serving all incomes and demographics - through ever-better marketing, and patience, you'll find your clients.
Your people are waiting.
While you seek them out, use this time to learn, practice, and grow.
Every day that you purposefully improve as an artist and business owner - no matter how small those improvements - you're opening wider the doors of possibility and success. You're making real, tangible progress toward your dreams.
Never lose sight of the fact that your success is equally your clients' success. The better you are at what you do, the greater value you give to those you serve. Your artistry is a blessing to those with whom you share it, and as a professional, your clients are happy to bless you and your family financially.
Being a paid professional photographer never was and never will be about getting what you can out of people - but, far better, giving all you've got, and reaping what you've sown through your practice, preparation, and perseverance.
You're all that's holding you back.
Let Go - and Go Hard.
Next Steps
- Do you have a favorite photographer? An artist whose work in your niche you absolutely love, that moves and inspires you, and you would one day love to be on the same level as? Go to their web site right now. Find their e-mail address. Write them - tell them you're an aspiring professional photographer, that you're a big fan of their work, and ask if they have any tips or resources to share that helped them get where they are today artistically. If they don't respond in a week, pick another favored photographer. Keep going until you find someone willing to share their experience with you. And then keep going farther - find lots of photographers you love, and ask every one for their best advice. Grow faster as a photographer by skipping the learning curve and engaging folks who’re already where you want to be as an artist.
- Pick the top three photographers in your market, specifically within your niche, whose clients you would love to court (realistically - don't aim at the most luxurious boutique in town). Drill down and study everything about them - marketing, web site, artistic style, pricing, call and check out their phone demeanor and response time, do a shoot with them as a client if it's affordable - and try to find their weakness. If you recognize people from their portfolio or blog posts, ask those folks how they liked working with that photographer - and what they would like to have seen different. This is reasonable and warranted market research - this is how you identify competitor weaknesses and learn how you can better serve your clients (and theirs).
- Brainstorm session: get out your pen and paper and write down all the ways you can better serve your clients than you have in the past, then how better you can serve them than your competitors. Odds are, you'll recognize many ways in which you may have been underserving your own clientele. File this away in your Brainstorms folder.
- This post's inspiration comes from poet Sage Cohen's book, The Productive Writer. While specific to authors of stories and books and poetry, Sage gives great advice that can be applied to the fears, production, publication, life-work balance, struggles and successes for artists of all walks.
- 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 these ideas to better your part time photography business!
How experiments can help multiply the growth of your art and business
"We are operating amid all this uncertainty--and that the purpose of building a product or doing any other activity is to create an experiment to reduce that uncertainty.” - Eric Ries, LeanStartup.com, interviewed by Fast Company Magazine.
Uncertainty.
Man, does that one word summarize your artistic and professional fears, or what?
You're holding back. You know you are. I know you are.
Fear, most often born from uncertainty, is almost always what holds us back from really taking off with our art and business in the photography industry.
And we human beings are often illogical creatures. We fear failure. We fear success! We fear rejection more than we fear the possibility of never making our dreams come true.
Experiments, both artistic and in business, can help you chip away at the mental wall that is uncertainty. The more new things you try, the more you learn what works and what doesn't - what resonates with you as a photographer and business owner.
There are three arenas in which you can and should experiment:
Experiment with your art
We'll start with the obvious.
Growing in any fashion - artist, athlete, person - requires a little stretch - a little reach beyond your grasp.
When you first lay hands on your camera and experience the creation of art, after getting that early encouragement from friends and family, your passion burns bright. Suddenly, you and your camera cannot be separated, you're reading everything you can get your hands on, and you enjoy an explosion of fast learning and improvement.
The dopamine is just a-flowin'.
Then, you hit one of two walls:
1. You get the idea in your head, through internal inspiration or external pressure, that your art should come from a deep metaphysical well of creativity, from the whispers of the muse, from the expression of your very being.
2. You get good at shooting maybe a dozen specific photos under specific conditions, and then settle into a rut - your creative bug gets squashed, and you find yourself shooting the same photos over and over again.
Both of these scenarios will bring your progress as an artist to a crawl.
And as usual, the fire gets rekindled when you learn to balance the two extremes.
Depending upon your confidence and speed behind the camera, for each hour of shooting you should take 15-30 minutes to experiment with something new - a new scene at your favorite location, a new lighting technique, a new angle, a new pose or expression. The options are many.
For the first portion of my photo shoots, I do the tried-and-true shots - every photo I feel this client will want, based on my talk with them beforehand, how their personalities play during the shoot, and from past experience, what I know most folks like.
For the second portion, it's all experimentation.
I may have in mind a specific photo I want to practice making, something that inspired me from the Internet, a magazine, or photography book. In this case, I've studied the photo or technique, researched the methods to make it, and long before taking the photo, I have a very clear map in my mind of what I want to shoot and how I need to get there.
I may also draw upon the muse and follow where she takes me. As you grow as an artist, this method of experimentation yields far better fruit. But even as a new professional, you may surprise yourself. Even when I let my imagination guide me, it's because I have proactively chosen to use this precious time with a client to try new things.
I get my best results from this time by having a specific image to experiment with making - having studied well how to make it - and then riffing off of that idea with many similar variations.
Once I've set up the scene (found my location, sourced my light, checked my background, positioned and posed my subject, evoked the right expressions from them), I snap a few photos, study them on the camera, and make adjustments to try and best imitate the photo I had studied.
When I better understand the photo I'm trying to make, having most likely failed but gleaned what did and didn't work, I'll experiment off this base setup and try all kinds of new things. If I feel the scene looks good, the light and location and background have good potential, I'll let my imagination run wild and work the experiment for all I can learn.
For my style of shooting, this is a great way to end my shoots - the moment is fun, the energy is high, and my client can tell I'm wringing every ounce of art out of the shoot.
When you're shooting for practice or portfolio (read: for free), spend a greater portion of your overall shoot practicing new techniques, scenes, etc.
Try to keep your practice focused, though - have a specific, studied, intentional result in mind, and then once you feel you understand that photo (which may not mean you're able to recreate it, but you understand why or why not), you can begin to play some photographic jazz over that baseline.
When there's money on the table, always knock out your fundamental salable photos first - even if they're easy, even if you've shot the same photo in the same place with the same light over and over again. That repetition makes the known money-making shots second nature, and even after doing the same photo hundreds of times, you will still learn and grow from the infinite small variations and modifications that take an 80% photo to 85%, 90%, 95%.
Same coin, different side, don't skip the experimentation and practice portion of your photo shoot just because your client is paying for your time and talent. I'm a firm believer in the value of practicing on paying clients - you get to shoot something you've never shot before, and they perhaps get to see something they've never seen before.
Ask Eminem: it takes whole lot of practice to freestyle like a natural.
Experiment with your business
Change the name of your business.
Call clients back within an hour.
Offer 15 minute themed mini shoots.
Hang your art at the local meat market (as in beef, not beefcake).
Sell only digital.
Sell only prints.
Sell only canvas.
Charge a session fee.
Charge no session fee.
Change your prices every week.
Buy your prints from a different lab.
Cut your portfolio down to five photos.
Blow your portfolio up to a hundred photos.
Change your portfolio template.
Write thank-you notes to all your clients.
Put your clients on your family Christmas card list.
Turn your logo into the silhouette of a chicken.
Start making your major business decisions with the flip of a coin.
Go get your photo taken by another photographer.
Go get your photo taken by a better photographer.
Follow your heart.
Just Do It.
Savvy?
Not to sound like an agent of chaos, but I can't tell you how little all this business stuff matters.
Are you making your clients happy?
Are you growing every day (even a little)?
Are you earning enough money for your time that you grin every time a client pays you (even a little)?
This is what matters.
Everything else is just a game; a big, long-term experiment that is wholly unique to your market, your clientele, your art, and your personality. And the glorious part is, you can only get better.
I can't tell you, nor can anyone else tell you, what will work best for you.
What I can tell you, is that you need to get started today with the important things:
Make your clients happy.
Grow every day (even a little).
Price your work humbly, but well enough to earn that little grin.
Everything else that is holding you back, stopping you in your tracks - your business name, your web site design, your Facebook page, your portfolio choices, your uncertainty about almost every decision - is only delaying your success, your growth, and your satisfaction.
The only prudence I promote is to be sure your business is legal across the board - permits, DBAs, sales tax permits, etc. - before you accept your first dollar. I cannot emphasize enough the value of a good sit-down visit with a CPA, and the confidence you can walk with knowing that your business is fully on the up-and-up.
It's not just about covering your butt down the road, but giving you the security to focus your mental energy on serving clients and creating art.
Experiment with your marketing
To paraphrase the great sports photographer Dave Black, "Always be where everyone else is not."
If you're reading this line, you're already where many would-be professional photographers are not - and this line, this very blog, exists because PTP is "where everyone else is not."
I created PTP after a decade of hearing the same horseh*t from the same disgruntled grognards who have long taken a sick satisfaction from discouraging part time professional photographers like you and me.
And when you begin to walk your own road, away from the beaten path, it's no longer you versus John Doe, Photographer; versus Perfect Schott Photography; versus Happy Tails Photography; and the many others.
It's You versus Everyone Else.
When you change the rules of the game, when you change the game itself, the competitive scenario becomes a two-player field - You, and Them.
When everyone else charges a session fee and you don't, there are no longer five players in your market - there's You, and Everyone Else.
When you answer your phone and the four other photographers in town let it go to voicemail - there's You, and Everyone Else.
When you can turnaround a photo shoot in 24 hours, ready to sell, and the other guys are taking a week - two weeks - a month - there's You, and Everyone Else.
So it goes.
There are innumerable good, valid, viable, reasonable, profitable ways to differentiate your photography business from Everyone Else.
If your business card looks just like Everyone Else, and I can't find the phone number on your web site like Everyone Else, and you don't say in your portfolio what geographic area you serve like Everyone Else, and you have 13 different niches of photography from landscapes to wildlife to portraits in your portfolio like Everyone Else... I'm going to assume you're just like Everyone Else.
It's easy to get caught looking at what Everyone Else is doing - through forums online, through Google, through looking at other photogs in your market - and copycat them to the point that there's nothing left of your originality, no story to tell about why and how you're different from Everyone Else.
Experiment.
Try Craigslist.
Try small newspaper ads.
Try a booth at market days.
Try changing up your business card.
Try simplifying (always try simplifying).
Try tacking your business card to all the local billboards.
Try co-op marketing with a local business that serves your target market.
Try volunteering your services to a local charity whose cause you're passionate about.
Try volunteering as a sports photographer for your local athletic booster club or community newspaper.
Try lots and lots of different things to get your name and reputation as a photographer out in your market.
Don't let analysis paralysis set in - marketing is the last step in really putting yourself out there as a professional, so proactively getting your art, business, and message out there in the world is a big leap. Don't suffocate under a mountain of options - choose one that speaks to you and give it your best effort.
There will always be uncertainty.
You'll never know if something will or won't work until you try it. And even if something works, it might not work the right way for you - some marketing efforts are going to bring in great clients who value your work, and some efforts are going to draw the high-maintenance, price-shopping crowd.
The only way to learn what marketing methods, venues, messages, and campaigns work in your community is to give them a try. Even still, what's successful (or unsuccessful) this year may change in a year or so.
I love marketing, every bit as much as I love creating art and serving clients. Good marketing puts the right product or service in front of the right clientele, and everyone benefits from it.
With every experiment you do, you will learn, and you will grow.
Don't let uncertainty keep you too busy, too distracted, and too scared to experiment and grow - use experiments to invalidate uncertainty.
What's in your petri dish?
Next Steps
- Experiment with your Art: Find a photo that you would love to be able to make for your clients, then study in detail how to make it. Ask the original photographer how they did it, what tips they might have. Ask on your favorite photography forum how others would recreate the photo. Learn what techniques were used, what kind of lighting or light modifiers, study the subject's emotion and expression and how you can evoke the same in your clients - really dig down and learn about every aspect of how this photo is made with consistency. When you think you've got everything you need, on your very next shoot, paid or not, make recreating this photo the focus of your time for experimental work. Study, practice, fail, study, practice, fail - and get closer and closer each time until you've got it nailed. Then, play that lovely Photographic Jazz.
- Experiment with your Business: Hold on to your Starbucks! Right now, while you and I are sitting here together, finalize every single decision about your business you've been stuck on for too long. Business name, domain name, business card design, anything and everything - it's over. You're not going to indulge this triviality another day. Make the decisions here and now. As my father would say, "Do something, even if it's the wrong damn thing." Now, ready for this? In six months, change it up. Change something, or change everything. Mark it on your calendar - for six months from today - to change your business. It's every bit as reasonable and valuable to evolve as a business as it is to evolve as an artist.
- Experiment with your Marketing: I write more about marketing than any other topic here on PTP - the many, many great ways to get your art and name out there, so you can be a blessing to and blessed by an ever-growing client base. Pick something, pick anything from the many ideas here or elsewhere, and make it an awesome experiment - Aristotle had it down over 2,000 years ago: "For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them."
- Brainstorm session: Get out your pen and paper, and write down every imaginable way you can come up with to experiment with your art, your business, and your marketing. Just let it flow - it can be a trickle or a stream, but write it all out. Empty your brain and imagination of all the creative, fun, and hopefully effective ways you can become a better professional photographer through experiments. 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 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 these ideas to better your part time photography business!
How to choose the right photography products to sell
With all the Internet's photography product vendors at your fingertips, which prints and wraps and wall clings are the right ones for you to sell?
All of them!
And none of them!
Okay, okay, I swear I'm not trying to cheat here.
PTP reader Chase G. told me he was having trouble deciding what of the plethora of photography products he should offer to his clients. Between just the big boys - Miller's, White House Custom Color, and the dozen other labs that advertise in photography magazines - there has to be hundreds of product options for photographers to sell to their clients.
When we talk about products like this - print sizes, coatings, frames - my mind immediately goes to the laminated price sheet so many photographers hand their clients during a sales session and then say, "What do you want?"
"What do you want?" is a great question to ask.
But you should have asked it two weeks ago.
You should have asked it as part of your very first discussion with your client.
It can be hard to steer the conversation that way initially - almost always, the first words out of a potential client's mouth are, "What do you charge?" Or even more fun, "What do you charge for an 8x10?"
Bless their hearts, the vast majority of your market has no idea what they want. They have an inkling of what they think they're supposed to want, but as my friend and fellow photographer Jessica says, they don't know what they don't know.
No more than I knew what I really wanted or the questions I should have asked the first time I walked into an Indian restaurant, a bubble tea lounge, a car dealership, or a swinger's club.
Okay, I've never been to a swinger's club, but I've drifted into some bars that surely left me wondering about the patronage.
But I digress!
When a client asks, "What do you charge for an 8x10?", they aren't really asking what you charge for an 8x10. They are, in the most ego-protecting way they know how, telling you they are lost souls in need of a gentle guiding hand.
And honestly, that's your job. That's why they're willing to pay you - not just for your talents behind the camera, but to be their go-to expert for all things photography.
You need to be a photographer. You need to be a consultant. You need to be a social media guru. You need to be an interior decorator. You need to be a tech support dude or dudette. You need to be a psychologist. You need to be a teacher.
Want to earn clients for life?
You need to be a friend.
You need to be that friend who is better versed in photography than anyone they know, and always gives the best advice - who to work with, what kind of wardrobe to wear, what the photos should look like, what to buy, where to hang it or upload it, how to get the most out of their professional photography experience.
How do you do that?
Throw out your price sheet
There are three levels of sales experience:
- Purely passive. You let the client lead the whole experience, ask all the questions, and make all the decisions.
- Passive aggressive. You hand the client a price sheet and say, effectively, "Here, I'll give you this much - now you do all the work. I have very little confidence in my own understanding of what I sell, I've never even seen most of these products in person, and I'm nervous, and oh gosh why didn't I just upload the photos to SmugMug and let you order from there?"
- Compassionate. You start with, "What do you want?", and you take the time to listen, ask more questions, understand, and apply your expertise to help your client get the most out of their experience with you.
It’s the difference between the McDonald’s clerk who asks, “Do you want fries with that?”, and the waiter who can ask you three questions to give you a perfectly suggested meal from the menu, down to the sides and specific preparation. And when you take that first bite, you never could have dreamed how much you’d love queso on your chicken fried steak (a revelation I experienced just last week at Lulu's in San Antonio).
Guess which level I'd suggest you aspire to?
It's hard, I understand - especially if you haven't done it several times before, it's hard to sit down with a client, show them your art, and then rely wholly on your compassion to guide them down the path to the perfect photography order.
That order can look like anything. Some clients will want a lot of small prints. Some will want big wall hangings. Some will want frames, some will want wraps. A whole lot will want digital. And even then, what can they do with those files on CD after you hand it to them?
What would a friend do?
What would a part time professional photographer do?
Know your products.
Don't talk out your arse.
If you're able, experience a given product first-hand before you try to sell it (have you ever seen a Wall Cling in the wild?).
Barring this, at the least call your lab and visit with them about the products you want to know more about - most pro labs are exceptional at this, because it's in their best interest for you to be better able to sell their products. Ask if they can send you a sample package, or offer a studio sample discount. Ask if they will be at any trade shows in your state this year.
Be an advocate on behalf of your clients - do the research before you try to sell them something you have no experience with.
Picking your products to sell
The first step is to know what products are out there.
The second is to research, experience, and ask lots of questions about those products, so that you're best able to match your clients' needs with the options out there.
The third step is to introspect.
What do you like?
How do you experience photography?
What's hanging on your walls?
What's your computer desktop wallpaper?
What photos of your family are you sharing on Facebook?
Do you like digital or prints? Framed wall hangings or gallery wraps?
It's important to understand that, as an artist and a business owner, you're going to mostly draw in clients who are a lot like you (if you're marketing yourself authentically).
When a client asks me, "What do you charge?", I surely tell them - and then I ask, "What kind of shoot are you looking for?" ... "What kind of look are you going for?" ... "What do you want to end up with after the shoot - files to share on Facebook? Prints to send to relatives? Prints to hang on the walls?"
Over half my "selling" is done before the end of my first conversation with a client. If I'm doing my job, I should have a very good idea of what my client wants to end up with, both artistically and tangibly.
I'm a big digital fan - I love sharing photos on Facebook. I love the Likes and the comments from friends and family when I post a new photo of my kids or wife. I love flipping back through all the photos I've posted and seeing how much the kids have grown, and remembering our great life experiences together.
In my home, I love big gallery wraps. I love the pride and joy I feel when I look at the beautiful faces of my kids on those wraps. I love how often I look up from the living room couch, see those wraps, ever present, and smile. I'll often stop in the hallway to study the wraps hanging there, just admiring my family, and being grateful for them.
For me, for James Taylor, these are the two primary ways I experience and enjoy professional photography. I would never buy an 8x10 - too awkward, takes up table space, too small to hang for me. I would never buy a framed portrait - too stuffy, too expensive; get that ornate carved wood pretentiousness out of here. I would never buy a coffee mug or mouse pad with my kids' faces on it - that's just silly.
But that's just me.
I can't tell you how many 8x10's, framed portraits, coffee mugs and mouse pads I've sold over the last 14 years.
But those don't make up the majority of my sales - not even close.
Know what does?
Digital files, mostly for sharing on Facebook.
And gallery wraps for the home.
Your personality shows in your art. It shows in how you conduct your business. It shows in your marketing, in your smile and handshake, in your business card, and how you carry yourself with a camera. It shows in every decision you make about your camera, your post processing, your sales session, all of it.
It makes sense then that the people you shoot are quite often going to be a lot like you. Not all of them, not even close, but the majority will have the same sensibilities you do.
Sell products that you love.
Sell products that excite you.
Be well-researched about as many other photography products as you can be, even if you would never buy them yourself.
Know what you charge for the products you offer, especially the ones you plan to recommend to a given client. You should have a good understanding of what your favorite vendors charge for most common products, so you can make up a price on the spot if a client throws you a curve ball. Don't worry about getting it wrong - you can't get it wrong, you are in charge!
Your job as a salesperson - as a friend - is to connect the dots between what your clients want, what their budget is to that end, and which products will give them the most long-term enjoyment of the art you've created for them.
This is another one of those ways to out-do your competition without spending a dime. It's another way to create value for your clients out of thin air, and give them a great experience they can't find elsewhere.
Next Steps
- Do your research. Visit your preferred lab(s) online or in person and study their product offerings. Recognize that what they're pushing may not be what your clients want, or what you want to sell. Find products you love, study them, call the lab and ask questions about them. Request samples. Study the costs. Get an idea in your head of what you feel you should charge (4x to 5x cost for most products, excluding inexpensive prints). Learn everything you can about a variety of photography products so you can be an educated advocate on behalf of your clients.
- Put a shout-out on Facebook to your friends and ask them to tell you what their professional photography experiences have been, and what they ended up buying. If you have a nice following of fans for your business, post a contest asking folks to upload and tag you in a photo of how they enjoy their family portraits - as wall hangings, desk frames, wallets, even a picture of their Facebook photo album. Pick a random winner for a free photo shoot, and enjoy the fruits of both good market research and a new family to add to your portfolio.
- Brainstorm session: Get out your pen and paper, and make a Pro-Con sheet for all the photography products you can think of off the top of your head. Write down every Pro and Con you can think of for every product you can remember. Be extensive. Think realistically how people view, interact with, and enjoy (or don't enjoy) every product on your list, and write those thoughts down. This will let you really put into words what you like and don't like about all the products your clients could want, and it gives you an easy list of talking points for those products. 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 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 these ideas to better your part time photography business!
How to turn epic failure into business success
Getting started is the hardest step in becoming a paid, professional photographer.
The second hardest?
Rebounding.
Let me start your day with a stomach ache:
- You wrap a photo shoot, plug your card into your reader, and see...nothing. No files, no nothing.
- You're sitting at home in your PJs and your phone rings at 6:15... "Hey - yeah, we're here at the City Park; we were supposed to meet at six o'clock, right?"
- You go to delete an image in-camera and instead format the whole card.
- You are just starting out a shoot and your battery dies...with your backup sitting at home on your kitchen counter.
- You're in the middle of processing a dozen youth soccer teams worth of individual and group photos, and your hard drive grinds to a halt.
- You hear the sickening thunk of your shutter breaking, mid-shoot, and your camera just says... "Error 99"
- You show proofs to a client and they sneer. "This isn't what I wanted at all."
Shudder.
Did your stomach flip too?
Mine did every time these professional nightmares became a reality for me. Indeed, I've seen and survived every one of these horrors, and countless more over the last 14 years.
These are the kinds of nauseating experiences we photographers fear the most. That fear can be paralyzing, especially in the start-up phase when you feel the most vulnerable.
So many photographers - perhaps you, too - have never even hung their shingle out to go pro because of these fears.
Many good photographers have pulled pulled their shingle and boarded up the windows because of these fears becoming reality.
It's a damn shame. They had so much more to give. You have so much more to give.
One guarantee in life and business is that something, at some point, will go wrong.
But there's an equal and opposite guarantee: you can and will survive, move on, and thrive, if you choose to.
You can rebound.
Every time LeBron, Kobe or Carmelo miss the game-winning shot, they hit the lockers, lick their wounds, and prepare to bring their A-game the very next day.
They study what went wrong. They practice and prepare for next time. They shift the odds as much as humanly possible to make sure what went wrong never goes wrong again.
When The Going Gets Tough...
Let's be real about two things:
1) Human beings have survived wars, gunshots, dismemberment, torture, atrocities beyond understanding - any professional or personal embarrassment you could endure as a photographer doesn't even rate on the scale of suffering others have experienced and from which still successfully moved on.
2) Every person's experience is unique and their own - just because others have suffered far worse, that doesn't invalidate the gut-wrenching you experience when you screw up.
I can't help you skip the gut-wrenching part, but I can assure you that if you just keep moving forward, the stress will subside and be buried under a mountain of good experiences.
Most clients will be gracious.
Angry clients will move on.
I've made a lot of clients (and grognard photographers) mad over the years. People love to vent; they may even get a few hallelujahs from their friends, but the drama is wholly forgotten within days - if not hours.
If you keep moving forward, serving clients above and beyond the call, creating great experiences for them, the chorus of glowing testimonials will outshine any negative attention. Even four-and-a-half star products on Amazon have haters - do good work, and the bad is drowned out by praise.
...The Tough Get Going
The steps to Damage Control are:
- Accept - Don't let your ego multiply the negative effects of a bad situation. Accept that you screwed up (or accept that's what the client truly believes, if it's debatable). Don't make excuses. It is what it is.
- Apologize - Don't duck your head inside your shell and pretend it never happened. Be the first to point out the mistake and how you should have handled the situation.
- Ask - Here's a powerful tool, courtesy of advertising bad boy Donny Deutsch: "What can I do to make this right?" Empower your client to tell you exactly what they want to happen.
- Act - You now know what to do to remedy the situation, at least as best you're able. Do it. Go above and beyond to please your client. Give them the same great experience you'd give any client. Often just doing what you say you're going to do to fix the problem erases every negative feeling the client has.
Rebound
Now here's the hard part.
And here's the tool you need to get through it:
Failure = Opportunity
Making a mess of things is a beautiful opportunity to provide a level of service far beyond your clients' expectations.
Has a restaurant ever screwed up your order?
Did any of them handle the situation with such humility, grace, and generosity that you actually liked them more because of it?
Did you share in amazement that story with friends, family, coworkers, even strangers?
Failure is a stepping stone on the path to success.
Unless you live a charmed life, you will stumble and fall - with regularity - along your road to becoming a successful part time professional photographer.
As soon as you can accept that Failure = Opportunity, you will remove a boulder's weight off your chest.
Failure is an inevitable and valuable learning experience, and failure will happen with or without your fear and worry. Shift that energy toward practice and preparation.
Starting a business is terrifying, especially for us artists, ever prone to sensitivity. Then we step forward as professionals and ask to be compensated? The internal dialog is murderous:
"Charlatan! Deceiver! You're not worth it! You don't know what you're doing! People will mock you! You will disappoint every last client! You will fail in the most public, embarrassing ways possible!"
The demons of fear are particularly harsh - and convincing.
Add the boiling embarrassment of an actual face-plant into failure, and you may as well call the gravedigger.
That's the feeling we artists often default to. That's how we think failure is supposed to feel. That's what our parents taught us. That's what school taught us.
Horsesh*t.
Let's create a paradigm shift, right here, right now:
Failure can feel good.
Know why?
Because failure is good.
Failure is learning.
Failure is progress.
Failure means you're trying.
Failure means you're taking risks.
Failure means you're doing work.
Failure means you're lapping everyone still sitting in front of their computer wondering what life would be like if they weren't scared.
Failure = Opportunity.
Internalize that truth - the truth that failure is not a death, but a rebirth - and you will approach professional photography with a rare and powerful confidence.
That confidence enables success - it enables you to focus your energy on bettering your art and business instead of fruitless stress and worry.
Learn to Rebound - with confidence going into every shoot that you will learn and grow from it, come what may - and you'll holster one of the most powerful professional tools you can wield as a photographer.
Next Steps
- Write down this piece of sage advice from Bob Parson's dad: "They can't eat you." Stick that where you can always see it.
- (April 29, 2013, update: Thank you to my wise readers - after enough good advice that this recommended Next Step is just too foolish to responsibly suggest as an actual method to beat your fears, I've struck it from this list. I leave it here for posterity. Thank you to readers Hiep, Amy and Jason specifically for providing a professional compass directing readers away from this advice. Jason speaks truth: Murphy's Law will ensure that every aspiring professional photographer has the opportunity to fail, learn, and grow from their experience.) ***
Want a trial by fire? Book a photo shoot. Do the photo shoot. Then go home, and delete the photo shoot (I'll give you a moment to absorb that one). Call (don't e-mail) your client and tell them your card had a malfunction, and you're so sorry, but the photos were lost. Apologize. Ask them how you can make it right (most likely a free second shoot, a free CD of processed photos, and a promise to back-up everything directly after the shoot). Act on it. Your client may tell you to kiss off. They may say no problem, let's try again. No matter what, you will learn first-hand that failure is temporary, often preventable, and wholly survivable. This is extreme, but if purposely screwing up a photo shoot is what it takes to get you past the fear that's paralyzing you, then do it. This is madness? This is Sparta! (February 2013 update: Let me add a few words of clarity: My friend and fellow photographer Hiep challenged me on this idea, and deservedly so. Let me be very clear: this trial by fire isn't for everyone. Almost every photographer I visit with is stuck on a specific fear, and the fear of completely bombing a photo shoot is one of them. This is some high-powered medicine: only take it seriously if you are truly stuck on the fear and worry that screwing up a photo shoot will be the end of your career. Take my word for it if you can, that you're going to fail often, and every failure is a blessing that takes you one big step closer to success. But if you're paralyzed by this specific fear, then truly, face that fear head on. You'll find it's like pulling off a bandaid - temporarily sharply painful, but once you deal with the problem professionally and with grace, you will immediately realize it is what every failure is: a learning experience. Hiep wisely advises moderation: "Purposefully screwing something up to 'test' out different ways to deal with it is just wrong. Not only are you wasting your time, you're wasting your client's time. I would rather wait until something happens beyond your control, and deal with it then. There's no reason to intentionally mess something up, then go and lie to your clients and see how they'd react." - Put yourself in the middle of other situations of failure, even if just mentally. Role play with a family member or close friend. It sounds cornball, but it makes a difference - it helps your brain build the neural pathways that bridge the gap between what could go wrong, and how you'll react if it does. The best sales trainers in the world role play, role play, role play, with their proteges before they call on their first client. Give yourself the benefit of that same preparation.
- Brainstorm session: Get out your paper and pencil, and make a list of ways you could screw up a photo shoot, from forgetting the shoot completely to accidentally formatting your memory card. Get it all out of your system, every last spoken and unspoken fear. Now make a list of ways you'll deal with each of these failures if they occur. And last, make a list of ways you can prevent these failures from occurring. This act alone should purge you of the majority of the fear that's holding you back. 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 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 these ideas to better your part time photography business!
Make 2013 your year of Inspiration
This is a call to action.
Action that makes a difference.
Your procrastination is killing your business, and it's killing your ability to benefit and serve your market.
The time you're spending doing anything but something important is time you'll never get back. You're not just standing still - you're putting distance between where you are and where you dream of being.
I know how it is
Over the last 14 years I've been a professional photographer, I don't even want to tally how many hours, days, months and years combined I have spent doing the things that didn't matter.
I poured over reviews of the latest lenses, bodies, gear and gadgets. And I lusted and pined.
I read fiery argument after argument on the discussion boards about sharpness, pricing, the apocalypse of the industry because of the "noobs." And I was flush with secondhand indignation and anxiety.
I read a thousand photo and Photoshop tutorials. And I even attempted doing a few of them.
I photographed flowers. So many flowers. And ants. And sunsets. A few bees and butterflies and interesting leaves and puddles of water. And I eventually learned that flora and fauna don't buy photos.
I paid my annual dues, and my meeting dues, and my entry fees, and for the gas to drive into the Big City to attend my professional association meetings. And I always felt inadequate, only discovering years later that their goals and mine were completely incongruous.
I took as sage wisdom the words and advice of grognards - professional photographers who were too angry, bitter, jealous, lazy, stubborn, stagnant and broken-hearted to offer a single word of encouragement, much less actionable advice. And I was poisoned, distracted, disenchanted by their sick counsel.
I read books and I didn't act. I read blog posts, e-books, and magazine articles and I didn't act. I watched YouTube videos and I didn't act. I attended workshops and I didn't act. I attended meetings and meet-ups and I didn't act. I attended national conferences and I didn't act. I asked questions of photographers more successful than myself, and I didn't act. I learned things, so many things, of such great insight and value, and I didn't act.
Worst of all, I was inspired - and I didn't act.
Inspiration is the most potent fuel for the engine that makes you run as an artist, and as a business owner.
Inspiration gets you out of bed an hour early in the mornings.
Inspiration gets your phone out of your pocket and a friend in front of your camera as often as possible to practice your art.
Inspiration gets you through another chapter of a good small business marketing book, and pen to paper as you plan how to make use of what you've learned.
Inspiration gets you off your arse and taking action.
It makes progress.
It creates value.
It enables Kaizen - the small daily improvements that create amazing change over time.
Tim Ferriss has a quote on his desk by chef Bobby Flay that reads:
"Take risks and you'll get the payoffs. Learn from your mistakes until you succeed. It's that simple."
Don't let 2013 be your year of inspiration.
Make 2013 your year of inspiration.
Next Steps
- Brainstorm session: Whip out your paper and pencil. What are you spending your time doing that doesn't matter? File a copy of this in your Brainstorms folder, and tack a second copy on your wall - this is your professional Not To Do List for 2013.
- Another Brainstorm session: Whip out your paper and pencil. When do you feel the most excited about your photography business? When do you feel the most inspired? Where? How? Why? Are you inspired right now? What can you do this year to make yourself a more valuable photographer for your clients? File a copy of this in your Brainstorms folder, and tack a second copy on your wall - this is your professional To Do List for 2013.
- Every morning when you wake up, define the three MITs - Most Important Tasks - for the day that will make a difference in your life. Individual, specific, reasonable, progress-creating tasks that each take you one step closer to the art, business, success, and life you want.
- Then, in the words of the Goddess of Victory - "Just Do It."
- 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 these ideas to better your part time photography business!
How to multiply the value of your donated dollars
If you're only donating money to your chosen cause, neither you nor they are getting your money's worth.
I'm a proponent of tendering 10-percent of your business income to local non-profits, assuming you've reached the point of profitability in your part time photography business. Even just a few dollars here and there make a difference in your community, and non-profits are purpose-built for multiplying the value of donated dollars.
But as a small business in need of more clients, just writing a check every month to your favored cause is a limited investment and will show limited return. Minor donors rarely get enough recognition for their contributions to make the giving worthwhile for their business.
Don't think me a bloodthirsty robber baron - I don't mean to suggest that charitable donations should only be valued at the new business they bring in. But as a small business owner, you can't afford to hide your light under a basket, nor to let the left hand (your market) ignore what good the right hand (your business) is doing.
This was a big leap for me in understanding how the success of my business was good for my community: I cannot afford the time freedom or monetary generosity needed to make a difference in my community if I don't build a successful business.
Sometimes that means taking a grip-and-grin photo of yourself handing over a check to the local animal shelter and sending it to your local newspapers and news blogs for publication. Sometimes that means blogging about the photo package you donated to the high school senior class auction.
There are myriad creative ways to multiply the value of your donations of time and money, for both the giver and the receiver.
Be A Crusader
The most effective path is to become a crusader for the cause.
Pick a local non-profit that serves a specific cause that you are really, truly passionate about. Children, animals, poverty, hunger, whatever it may be. Adopt this cause in full and become a champion for it in your community - for a month, for a quarter, for a year.
Let's say you throw your support in for the local animal shelter. Here are some ways you can go beyond the checkbook to benefit both your chosen non-profit and your business:
- Animal Photos - This is a no-brainer. Most shelters I've seen take snap shots of their animals with their cell phone cameras. When photographer Teresa Berg began doing pro bono pet portraits for the Dallas-Fort Worth Dachshund Rescue group, adoption rates doubled. I'll say that again: doubled! You can help create a 100-percent increase in animals placed in good homes, saved from the euthanasia table or life in a cage. And that's a story worth telling on your blog and to the community.
- Staff Photos - If you look like a professional, folks perceive you're a professional. Professional staff portraits can improve and solidify that image in the community, and the community responds best to the businesses or organizations that they Know, Like and Trust. Your portraits can improve all three of these metrics for the shelter.
- Event Photos - Shelters often hold public adoptions at local events and businesses, free spay/neutering clinics, sponsor pet parades, host dog walks, and other events to grow awareness in the community. Your photos of these events make for a great record of the shelter's work, and help tell the story of the shelter in the community. Your photos can also help the shelter attain grants from philanthropic foundations.
- Press Releases - Working at a community newspaper for 13 years, it's always stunned me how few organizations make use of press releases. The small weekly paper I work at has over 10,000 weekly readers in a community of just over 20,000 people. That's the equivalent of 10,000 people paying to read what you have to say. It's a powerful venue. You can use your photography for the animal shelter to help craft press releases and photo stories to submit to your local papers and blogs, and to share on Facebook. And don't forget the grip-and-grin photo handing over a check - it's good press for you and the shelter both. Whether you realize it or not, as a business owner, you are a leader and influencer in your community. Folks who see you doing good in the community will be inspired to walk the same path.
- Photo Stories - Photojournalism can powerfully tell a story in a way that is often lost in the written word. You could do a photo story on a specific dog, from the day he was brought in injured and mangy, through his recovery, and to the day he found a loving home. You could do a photo story on the love between an adopted animal and their new owners, photos that show how much joy an adopted animal has brought to a family's home. These photos can be a powerful tool for the shelter, and a tour de force of your talents as a professional portrait artist. Local newspapers and blogs, even television news shows, love this kind of content.
- Your Blog & Facebook - You can promote the shelter through your own venues as well. Regardless of how many Likes you have, or how many people visit your blog each week, you do have an audience. Sharing the photography work you've done with the shelter, and helping to promote adoptions and shelter events, you can really build a relationship with the non-profit and members of your community who also support the cause. You can even create a Facebook group for like-minded folks to work together to benefit the shelter and other animal-related entities.
- Co-op Marketing - While promoting the shelter, the shelter can also promote you. Such as if you put together a special Pet Portrait package with a portion of proceeds benefiting the shelter. Or donating a portion of proceeds from a given month to the shelter (perhaps in concert with a pet-related holiday). Or offering a free mini-shoot to anyone who adopts an animal from the shelter. You grow your client base, and the shelter adds even more value to adopters.
- Co-op Events - How about hosting Pet Portraits In The Park day with the shelter? They could set up on location with some of their featured pets and take donations, and you could offer free pet portraits to attendees. You and the shelter could cross-promote the event, and share it with your local newspapers and blogs to build buzz leading up to the event. Add in 'door prizes' and a drawing to win a full pet portrait package, and you have a great co-op event. Don't forget to share photos from the event with your local news venues.
- Contests and Drawings - Speaking of drawings, you can host a contest for folks to win a pet portrait package via your web site and Facebook. You can promote that anyone who likes both your Facebook page and the shelter's page will be entered in the drawing. Or folks who sign up to receive both of your e-newsletters. Or folks who make a donation of any size during a certain month to the shelter. Or for every client who purchases a pet portrait gift certificate during a given month. Or you can have your Facebook fans tag you with funny photos of their pets to enter the contest. Keep in mind, you can award a grand prize, then a 'consolation' prize to everyone who enters, such as a free mini pet portrait shoot, or an exclusive invitation to a private pet portrait party - again, getting face time with good potential clients and growing your client base.
I've written before about how co-op marketing can instantly build your client list and partnering with non-profits, as I've found they are the quickest ways to build a name for yourself in an influential market.
There are many ways you can work with your chosen non-profit to both grow your client base and benefit the community. As always, the best way to start is to start right now.
Next Steps
- Brainstorm session: Whip out your pen and paper and list the problems in your community that you most dearly want to see addressed - from playgrounds to classrooms to women's shelters to animal shelters and everything between. What pain in your community do you most want to help alleviate? Narrow your list down to 1-4 causes that you are truly passionate about. Now, write down the whys - why are these causes important to you, personally? File this away in your Brainstorms folder.
- Choose one of your favored causes, and seek out a local non-profit that serves that need. Study their web site and marketing materials, then brainstorm a list of ways you can help them through promotion and fundraising. Flesh out these ideas, look at your calendar, and consider when and how you can help make these ideas happen. Non-profits have plenty to do before you walk in the door with great ideas and no manpower to make them happen. Don't over-extend yourself - refine your ideas into specific projects that you have the time and inclination to take the lead on.
- Contact your chosen non-profit and ask if you can attend a board meeting or visit with a volunteer or public relations coordinator. Bring your ideas and an open mind, and talk through what you have to offer to the non-profit. Then ask for their feedback, and what they feel you could best do to help them. Don't make any immediate commitments - take the time to consider new ideas and feedback, then determine what projects excite you the most. This is where you want to focus.
- Do not, under any circumstance, work with a non-profit whose people give you bad vibes. Where there's smoke, there's fire - you have to believe in whatever group you choose to work with. If you don't like the people, your passion will disappear, and you'll burn out fast. It's okay to walk away from any group or project you don't feel good about - in fact, it's far better to walk away then lose steam and do half-ass work. Be discerning. When you get with right people, your excitement and commitment will only multiply.
- When you make the commitment to a project, to become a crusader for a cause, you need to be all-in. You can't allow yourself to become distracted halfway through and let the fruit die on the vine. Whatever project you take on, stay enthusiastic about it and see it through to the end. Beyond being healthy for your character, you'll only build momentum with consistent progress - just as true for a crusader as for an artist or a business owner.
- 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 these ideas to better your part time photography business!