Photography Business and the 80-20 Rule
By · Comments
Have you ever heard of the 80-20 rule? I heard it a few times before applied to the concept that eighty percent of your income comes from twenty percent of your customer base.
What I did not realize is that the rule is Pareto’s Principle. In his mathematical formula to describe unequal wealth distribution (he was an economist), he observed that twenty percent of the people owned eighty percent of the wealth.
The principle seems to apply to way more than the single use I heard. Consider that eighty percent of a church’s donations come from twenty percent of the members. Eighty percent of my studio sales comes from twenty percent of the same clients. Twenty percent of your work produces eighty percent of your results. It can go on and on.
So focus on the twenty percent. Advertise and your best customers, the twenty percent. Advertise your best selling programs and sessions. See if you are truly focusing on what is important.
In a class I was listening to they were taking this concept seriously. They had ten products and two of their ten products sold very well. They made eighty percent of their income on them. They discontinued the eight products and concentrated all of their marketing efforts and advertising dollars on just the two products and increased their business substantially.
Focus on the twenty percent that matters!
Photography expert Barb Gordon, Master Photographer, weekly publishes Barb Gordon Photo Coach’s Shooting For Success, a free ezine. If you’re ready to take your photography to the next level, get your FREE reports “Make Photography More than a Hobby” and “15 Ways to Make More Money with your Photography” now at http://www.BarbGordonPhotoCoach.com
Photographing Children-Part One: Bribery
By · CommentsPhotographing children can be rewarding, endearing, or awful! In this five part series, I will share my years of experience that probably could earn me a psychology degree. I have many strategies and tips that I will share with you in the next few weeks as to what I have found to be most effective.
One book that I would recommend is “The Strong Willed Child” by Dr. James Dobson. I also love all books by Kevin Lehman. His “Have a New Kid by Friday” is excellent. And I don’t even have children of my own! But I can so understand and relate to them. I have shared these books with my customers as well.
Photographing Children – Part One: Bribery
Bribery is not helpful so I do not recommend it. This is true of children and dogs! Having a treat or a snack to bribe either a child or a dog generally does not work. Oh, it might get you by or fool you into thinking you won but you truly will get better results without the treat. You need patience and a better plan.
Bribing a child is common with many parents who do not know what else to do (or maybe their parents did it to them). “If you are good, we will go to McDonald’s after we are done.” This might get the child to pretend to cooperate but it does nothing for actually changing the mood and temperament of the child. You might get one sort of faked and forced smile that way.
Telling a child to be good is not helpful. Does a child really understand the definition of what being good is? That seems like a lot of pressure to me. Adults are good at putting pressure on others.
Your job as the photographer is to be the liaison between the nervous parent and the unsure child. All a parent wants is for everything to go smoothly and be embarrassed, and of course have great images of their children.
A story I use to put parents at ease is an example of me taking my dog to the vet for a nail trim. How embarrassed I was that it took three techs to do something that should be quite easy. I think we even put a muzzle on my perfect little doggy. They must have thought I was a bad pet owner if this was how it had to be done. That is when I recognized that this might be how parents feel when their little Jimmy is not behaving like the little angel they want him to be.
So think of your own personal experiences you can use to relate to your clients. Put them at ease by showing them you understand and this is not unusual or a problem for you. Maybe a session with a less than perfect kid is more fun and challenging!
So how do you help these parents? Talk to them ahead of time. If you wait until you are in the camera room to ask them not to bribe their child it may not go over so good. They may feel like they are making a mistake and being corrected. If you can educate them prior to the session, then you are not picking on just them. You tell them that you talk about this with everyone, just in case it comes up!
Next week, we will talk about how to get a good expression without bribery!
About Barb
Barb Gordon, of www.BarbGordonPhotoCoach.com, is a Master Photographer, Photographic Craftsman, and Certified Professional Photographer with the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) to which she has belonged since 1984. She is a nationally published and award winning photographer, entrepreneur, speaker, and author including being published in the prestigious PPA Loan Collection 2006, PPA Showcase 2003, twice named Iowa’s Top Ten Photographer of the Year, 2010 Iowa’s Master Photographer of the Year, and 2010 PPA’s Photographer of the Year, Silver Level.
Tip to market your business
By · CommentsHave you stepped out of your comfort zone lately?
This week has been a stretch for me on two levels, business and personal.
First, I gave a talk at our local hospital to a cancer support group. I started a blog for cancer survivors in which I photograph them and they write blog posts on different aspects of the cancer experience. The support group chairperson asked me to share with others about the project and how it is going. It is called www.PortraitsAndStories.com if you are interested in seeing it.
As if public speaking in general wasn’t enough, the local television station was there doing a feature piece. So before my talk, I was interviewed in front of a very scary big camera.
Second, I loped (or cantered) on my new horse that I have only known for five weeks. You would have to know my background and timid personality to understand how big of a deal this was for me. It might be equal to someone else’s jumping out of an airplane. Well, sort of.
It is difficult to set yourself up for uncomfortable things on purpose. To call someone up and say, “I want to give a speech,” if you are nervous, or terrified of public speaking is highly unlikely.
The key is, for me I guess, is not to automatically say no to an opportunity just because I am not confident. Say yes and then figure out how to pull it off. You will grow from the experience and gain so much more self confidence. I know I learned a lot about how to prepare for my next television interview.
And the best part? I survived both experiences. I didn’t pass out, sweat through my jacket, or fall off my horse. It was a good week. God Bless.
About Barb
Barb Gordon, of www.BarbGordonPhotoCoach.com, is a Master Photographer, Photographic Craftsman, and Certified Professional Photographer with the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) to which she has belonged since 1984. She is a nationally published and award winning photographer, entrepreneur, speaker, and author including being published in the prestigious PPA Loan Collection 2006, PPA Showcase 2003, twice named Iowa’s Top Ten Photographer of the Year, 2010 Iowa’s Master Photographer of the Year, and 2010 PPA’s Photographer of the Year, Silver Level.
About Barb
Barb Gordon, of www.BarbGordonPhotoCoach.com, is a Master Photographer, Photographic Craftsman, and Certified Professional Photographer with the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) to which she has belonged since 1984. She is a nationally published and award winning photographer, entrepreneur, speaker, and author including being published in the prestigious PPA Loan Collection 2006, PPA Showcase 2003, twice named Iowa’s Top Ten Photographer of the Year, 2010 Iowa’s Master Photographer of the Year, and 2010 PPA’s Photographer of the Year, Silver Level.
About Barb
Barb Gordon, of www.BarbGordonPhotoCoach.com, is a Master Photographer, Photographic Craftsman, and Certified Professional Photographer with the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) to which she has belonged since 1984. She is a nationally published and award winning photographer, entrepreneur, speaker, and author including being published in the prestigious PPA Loan Collection 2006, PPA Showcase 2003, twice named Iowa’s Top Ten Photographer of the Year, 2010 Iowa’s Master Photographer of the Year, and 2010 PPA’s Photographer of the Year, Silver Level.
About Barb
Barb Gordon, of www.BarbGordonPhotoCoach.com, is a Master Photographer, Photographic Craftsman, and Certified Professional Photographer with the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) to which she has belonged since 1984. She is a nationally published and award winning photographer, entrepreneur, speaker, and author including being published in the prestigious PPA Loan Collection 2006, PPA Showcase 2003, twice named Iowa’s Top Ten Photographer of the Year, 2010 Iowa’s Master Photographer of the Year, and 2010 PPA’s Photographer of the Year, Silver Level.
How to save time in the office
By · CommentsPhotography Business Tip- Make an Equipment List
One helpful step in starting a photography business, or even if you have been in business forever, is to write down some details of your major purchases. An equipment list will become a valuable time saver. If you start your list as you buy equipment, you will not need to spend much time on it. I have a simple Excel spread sheet I just add to as I buy larger ticket items like cameras, lenses, and backgrounds.
Having a detailed list of your equipment purchases will be helpful for many reasons. It will be a big time saver if you need to find out any information about a purchase.
Some equipment purchases can be depreciated so for accounting purposes you will want a list of those yearly purchases.
My equipment list was a big time saver for me when I had a camera break down. The first question was, was the equipment still under warranty? Well, I couldn’t remember exactly when I bought the camera. I was not sure which vendor or supplier I bought it from either. I could spend a few hours going through every file folder of receipts from the time I think I bought it or pay staff to dig for it. But I was most relieved to be able to refer to my equipment purchase list and know in one minute all of the information I needed. Then I knew who to call for repair assistance. And it was under warranty!
If you ever want to sell a piece of equipment you will have a start on deciding how much you want to sell it for.
If anything is stolen or you have a fire, you will need to know the total value of all of your equipment including backgrounds and major props. The insurance company may want serial numbers and maybe even copies of receipts. By having the list of dates you purchased items on, going to the file cabinet to retrieve them will be so much faster.
Here are the key columns of information I have on my equipment list spreadsheet.
- Date of purchase
- Make and Model
- Price I paid
- Vendor I purchased it from
- Serial number
- Any repair notes and the date of the repair
By having all of these pieces of information readily available will prove to be helpful and time saving in the future. If you have not started your equipment list, today would be a great day to begin.
Photography expert Barb Gordon, Master Photographer, weekly publishes Barb Gordon Photo Coach’s Shooting For Success, a free ezine. If you’re ready to take your photography to the next level, get your FREE reports “Make Photography More than a Hobby” and “15 Ways to Make More Money with your Photography” now at http://www.BarbGordonPhotoCoach.com
Study Photography all the time.
By · CommentsCan 15 minutes can make you smarter?
Do you do a lot of commuting? Even a fifteen minute drive is enough time to pop an educational CD or an MP3 recording in your car and learn some valuable material.
It is no secret that I enjoy learning so car time is a great time for me to continue my education. Time goes much faster when I am engrossed in a program instead of music. The problem lies in taking notes! I do not recommend that. If you have transcripts available to refer to later is a safer route.
I am constantly burning CD of MP3 programs, you can do with mine too! The monthly calls from the F2.8 Protégé Club are formatted as MP3 files that you can download to your computer.
So use your time wisely and pop in a lesson, you will be surprised how much ground you can cover in adding up all of those small increments of time together.
What are Catch Lights?
By · CommentsYou have all seen them. But you may be unaware of them or the term we use for them. Catch lights are the reflections in the eyes of your portrait subject from the light source that is lighting their face. This reflection is what gives the eyes their life and sparkle.
This reflection can come from the sun, the moon, a flash, any light source at all.
Different light sources create different catch lights.
A catch light is going to reflect the light source you choose. If you want a certain look, then consider your light source selection. Look into people’s eyes and notice how the light reflects in them.
A reflection from a window is going to look softer and be shaped like the window you are using.
A star shaped, octagon shaped, round soft box, or umbrella is going to give you a the same shaped catch light.
A parabolic reflector around your flash tube will give you a crisp very round catch light.
You may notice a ringflash is a very different kind of catch light. It is used mostly in commercial work and television commercials. A ringflash creates a catch light that is a circle of light right in the middle of the eye around the iris. You can see what a ringflash looks like at http://www.adorama.com/Als/FAMRFNK.html?sid=1282234929182028 This is not a product recommendation by the way, I have not purchased a ringflash yet.
Outdoors will give you this natural look in the eyes.
How many catch lights should you see in the eyes?
This would depend on your preference but I am convinced that for portraits only catch light is acceptable.
The logic for this comes from the fact that there is only one sun– one light source.
Many professional photographers who photograph with a secondary fill flash tend to take the secondary catch light out of the eyes in post production.
I prefer not to use a fill flash in most of my work and use a reflector as a fill instead thus eliminating the need for any additional post production work.
Start studying people’s eyes and play with different light sources. You can achieve different looks to tell your subject’s story.
Photography expert Barb Gordon, Master Photographer, weekly publishes Barb Gordon Photo Coach’s Shooting For Success, a free ezine. If you’re ready to take your photography to the next level, get your FREE reports “Make Photography More than a Hobby” and “15 Ways to Make More Money with your Photography” now at http://www.BarbGordonPhotoCoach.com
Looking for the Light
By · CommentsDo you know the absolute best time of day to photograph? There are two actually. It is called Sweet Light.
The hour before sunset or the hour after sunrise is called Sweet Light. The sun is so low in the horizon that the shadows it creates are long and the light is soft. When you shoot at this time of day, there are many more places you can probably photograph that maybe are not suitable at other times of day when the sun is more direct.
By photographing in the Sweet Light you don’t have to keep your subjects deep under the trees for even shade for nice lighting; you can pull them out into the world.
In this example of the couple and their dogs, the highlight on the man’s face is direct sun. I did not use a translucent shade or have to keep them in full shade. The beauty of that hour before sunset is that the light is soft and not as directional and hard as mid-day.
To have nice light in their faces and catch lights in their eyes, I wanted to be sure that the sky was open in front of them. No trees to block any light, no buildings, just open sky.
Time out a moment, you all have seen catch lights but some of you may be unaware of them or the term we use. Catch light is the reflection in the eye of the light source. This reflection is what gives the eye life and sparkle. I require a catch light in all of my images that the eye is showing.
Pose your subjects so you are shooting into the sun at an angle; be sure to use a lens shade so you don’t have any flare into your lens. Sometimes I also use my hand or a piece of cardboard to further shade my lens if the actual lens shade is not enough.
By having the sun over your subject’s shoulder their faces will be shaded. In my diagram (please pardon my drawing ability) you will see that I am not shooting straight into the sun that would be blinding and totally wipe out the sky and make halos around their heads. I am not shooting with the sun over my shoulder either, that would create flat lighting and that is boring. I am shooting at an angle for a nice lighting ratio and that makes the image more interesting. The purple lines in the diagram show the approximate angle.
(c) 2010 Barb Gordon Photo Coach
Does the exact angle matter? It will change the look of the image as it will change the lighting pattern on the face. Test it out. Set up your subjects and walk around them. Shoot an image at different angles to the sun and see what it looks like and what you like. Sometimes the scene itself restricts the choices you have but teach yourself to take the time to look for the light.
To find Sweet Light in the evening, face west and find nice scenery. In the early morning, if you can get up that early, face east. A Farmer’s Almanac, or a Google search, will help you in determining actual sunrise and sunset times. Then try about an hour from each is a time to start. Practice. Your selected location may look better an hour and a half or two hours difference. Be sure to allow your subjects ample time to arrive, prepare, and get comfortable. You don’t want to miss your limited lighting opportunity!
Photography expert Barb Gordon, Master Photographer, weekly publishes Barb Gordon Photo Coach’s Shooting For Success, a free ezine. If you’re ready to take your photography to the next level, get your FREE reports “Make Photography More than a Hobby” and “15 Ways to Make More Money with your Photography” now at http://www.BarbGordonPhotoCoach.com
The Art of Being Indispensable
By · CommentsHow do you Define Art?
I just finished the book “Linchpin” by Seth Godin and he has some definitions of the word art that I had never read before.
He is not discussing art as we typically think of art, as a painting, a photograph, or a sculpture. He says that art is “a personal gift that changes the recipient. The medium doesn’t matter. The intent does.”
The art of connecting with people, to bring them joy, to make a difference is the critical part of building relationships that make you and your place of business memorable. Stand out from the rest by going farther than taking pictures, to building a community.
How many photographers are in your town? Do you stand out from the crowd or are you a commodity?
The book “Linchpin” has the subtitle “Are you Indispensable?” The author explains: “The only way to be indispensable is to be different. The only way to get what you are worth is to stand out, to exert emotional labor, to be seen as indispensable and produce interactions that organizations and people care about.” Become a hub for information, for connecting people. Recommend a good book, clip an article of interest to share, blog about a inspiring photography session, or send a client a link to a website you know they will like.
“If you give the gift of art, insight, initiative, or connection they are less likely to shop around looking to replace the commodity or work that you do, because the work you do does not have to be a commodity.” Do you provide pleasant service? Is there a connection between you and your subject? Do you respect and enjoy people? Go beyond what is expected and become remarkable.
Get Seth’s book, “Linchpin” and find a whole new definition to the word art you can apply to your life and successful business. Remember that people, the clients you seek, have more choices that ever before so you need to become a studio that is remarkable.
Increase your Photography Sales with no More Work.
By · CommentsFocus on Business
I am not one for offering discounts or having sales. However, I think I have discovered a great way to increase sales with no more work involved that I can be very happy with.
I decided this year to offer a duplicate price on some select digital products. Since all the time consuming part is done on the first image why not have complete profit in selling a second one at a reduced rate?
I have many great digital products I offer to my clients. The most popular one for high school seniors is an 11×24 of eight images collaged into one digital image, framed under glass. Why sell only one final product that you worked so hard on when you might entice them to buy a second one at a reduced, yet profitable, rate? Now, don’t get me wrong, I have a nice profit built into the first product price that does cover my time in designing and I am very happy to sell only one. But, if I could coax them into getting a second one, that is even better.
A duplicate product is perfect for the graduate to keep when they go to college, or for grandma, or for the office. Of course you need to share this great news with them at the sales presentation, don’t just list it on your price list. Suggestive selling is the best way to get this add on sale because they were probably planning on getting grandma just a 4×5. Be helpful and make suggestions, and add to your profitability.
I am pricing the second image at about 40% off of the first print price. Keep in mind that if your product includes a frame, that you are still paying your original purchase cost of your second frame, so be careful that you are not discounting the frame, just the image.
Remember the second image must be exactly the same! If you let the client make changes, you have put time back into it and it should be full price.
An easy $100 on a duplicate product is a great profit, especially if you can do it on each order placed! I know this works for my children’s portrait panels. Some of the moms have ordered duplicate copies for grandma so I am excited to see how this works for the high school senior market this year.
About Barb
Barb Gordon, of www.BarbGordonPhotoCoach.com, is a Master Photographer, Photographic Craftsman, and Certified Professional Photographer with the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) to which she has belonged since 1984. She is a nationally published and award winning photographer, entrepreneur, speaker, and author including being published in the prestigious PPA Loan Collection 2006, PPA Showcase 2003, twice named Iowa’s Top Ten Photographer of the Year, 2010 Iowa’s Master Photographer of the Year, and 2010 Photographer of the Year, Silver Level at PPA’s International Print Competition.
Busy Season is in Full Swing
By · CommentsHow are you doing in this busy season? I found I forgot to update my computer with the price list changes I made a few months ago. I am staying a few extra hours to get that changed and double checked. I found a typo on my price list that was a hundred dollars too low also.
This is one of those jobs that should have been done before busy season hit. If you have been photographing long, you know that January through May are typically the slowest months for us professional photographers. Make the best use of the slow time so you are ready for busy season and it runs more smoothly.
As you go through busy season, jot down things you need to tweak or update when things slow down again in January. Make a good list so you don’t forget a big piece like I did this year.
- Take note of any price list changes, tweaks, or updates you want to make.
- Make a list of props you want to find or make.
- Is there any training or new things you want your staff to do?
- Are there any procedures or systems you want to change?
- Start an idea folder for marketing pieces.
- Create a list of things you want to research like frame companies, office supplies, or vendors.
Most of all make sure you are socking money away in your studio savings account while business is booming now through Christmas to help carry you through those slow months at the beginning of the year. Oh, and be sure to schedule some well deserved time off!
