Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
Welcome to the shark tank!
So, you want to make a living at photography?
You
have chosen an over-saturated, under appreciated market to try to make money in,
so now how are you going to make it work?
With
so many competitors and so little market you need to find a way to set yourself
apart.
Who are you?
What sets you apart from every other
photographer? What is your niche? Have you established a brand identity? These are questions you need to answer if you
are going to survive in photography.
You also need to consider:
Are
you priced appropriately and profitably?
Are
you offering the right products to maximize sales?
Do
you know your market and how to get the most from your client base?
Let us help! With our thirty-five years of industry experience
We can do a review of your profit and loss statements and provide
you with a written summary of your revenue and expense lines. We will also give you a written analysis of
each line item and where modifications can be made to improve your cash flow
and your bottom line. We can help you
create a profit and loss statement if you do not have one.
In addition, we will review your price lists to analyze
profitability and suggest ways of increasing profits. Often times this means restructuring and adjusting
the way products are offered and does not necessarily mean prices need to be
increased.
In this ultra-competitive market we can help you create an
identity and product line which will set you apart from the masses.
Managing your business finances can be tedious, overwhelming and
frightening. Making yourself stand out
in the crowd can also be difficult. Let us help you build your business
profitability and create a plan to set you apart from the competition.
Save
50% on our Business Sustainability Package
Offer ends February 28, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Image files--to share or not to share
Ah, to sell or not
to sell, that is the question. When it
comes to selling digital files of the images created it becomes quite a dilemma
for many photographers. There are
probably as many schools of thought on this as there are professional
photographers.
As the
photographic industry has transitioned from film to digital capture the
consumer has become much more astute to the process involved in creating the
final images sold to them. Here a couple
of suggestions to help photographers deal with this often times misunderstood
process.
First, let’s
consider the business side of this decision.
The fundamental question is the photographer’s profitability. In other words what does the photographer
need to make from each session to maintain the profit level they need to stay
in business?
Understanding and
knowing where the sales average needs to be on each job and pricing
appropriately to achieve that average will assure you are profitable. So now the question becomes how to make the
image files available to our client once we have met our threshold of
profitability. Once it is met it
probably begins to make sense, from a pure business perspective, to allow the
client to purchase the image files.
With this in mind,
once the client has reached a certain investment level with the studio it may
be alright to sell them the image files for an additional fee. Creating additional incentives, bonuses and
minimum order requirements are all ways to get the client to the purchase level
the photographers needs them to be.
The photographer
can also consider allowing the client to purchase reprints from them at a much
reduced price once the minimum order requirement is met. This way they are still on control of the
quality of prints which are being made.
The client may
decide it is simply easier and better for the photographer to maintain the
files and get additional prints from them if and when the need arises.
Secondly, and more
fundamental to most photographers is the idea of giving up control of their
image files. Losing creative control can
be frightening and the products created outside of that control can put sub-par
images on the street.
This should be a
decision made by each photographer as a reflection to their desire to maintain
creative control and the overall mission and vision for their business. Also, if the photographer wants to keep the
image file it will require a system of file management, backup and storage.
Either way,
consider only offering the image files which the client placed orders. If they did not like an image well enough to
purchase an image originally why would they want the image file?
In summary, set
your prices and create a structure which assures your profitability. Consider the pros and cons as they apply to
your business and your desired ongoing relationship with the client and finally
how you want to be perceived in your market area.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
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