I find myself asking for business tips more than photo or editing tips. This is because the business side is where I find I lack like many other creative people. As I have mentioned before and other photographers have also mentioned on my blog, often it is the better business person that gets the job and not the better photographer.
This can be disheartening. It is hard when you know your work outshines other photographers that are really doing well but you know full well its the marketing and business skills that are getting them ahead. This is why next year I am taking a month to completely overhaul my marketing ideas, get a plan in place and spend some decent time and energy on pushing my business. As I would expect to wait at least 2 months for this marketing to take effect and possible start seeing results, if you too are thinking of this then start early.
Anyway, this Foto Tip Friday is based around business and as I have already admitted I am not business savvy at all so not really equipped to provide you with suitable advise. Therefore I have written below a few things I do know work and also recommended some great sites or literature that I have found useful in the past. If you know of anymore and want to share, then please feel free to leave comments and keep the motivation going!
Some links:
- Take care of the customer and they WILL take care of you. Always exceed expectations and make sure that you communicate with them. Do not be scared to pick up the phone and just see how they are doing.
- Just keep working at it! I do a lot of cold calling so get out there and pick up the phone, and follow up those calls.
- Get a good 30 second speech together about your business. A quick intro that you can give to people if needed that briefly but precisely says what you do, who you are and why your different.
- Research your competitors
- Put yourself in your clients shoes. When you are shooting really think about how the client is using the images, what they expect and how to best illustrate their project or brand within the photograph.
- Use google Adwords for your site or blog - I am going on some training to effectively use Adwords next year so I will let you know how it goes.
- Ask your friends and family and use the resources you have around you. I already know that I don't do this enough and have recently made an effort to pull my marketing back n and closer to home. There are many opportunities staring you right in the face and it took a friend to point this out to me. Remember those who can help you who you already know.
- Take a step back and look from the outside. Its far too easy to get over involved and not see things from the outside world. Ask a friend or take a few days out and look at your business critically as you would look at someone else's.
- Have the resolution and determination to keep going. Self motivation is vital.
- Keep working on your portfolio. Weather it be personal or more for business just keep doing work. There is no reason you cant do some free shoots here and there to experiment with new things and get some exciting fresh imagery in your portfolio that you may not have had the chance to do before.
C x
