Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Philanthropy and Small Business: A Win-Win Situation | Fox Small Business Center

Philanthropy and Small Business: A Win-Win Situation Fox Small Business Center

Saturday, January 28, 2012


To all of my Blog followers,

Today my father passed away after a seven month battle with pancreatic cancer.  He was the one who gave me my passion for business and set a standard of integrity and hard work for which I hope I can live up to in my life.  Thanks Dad, I love you always.

Stacey


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

E-mail us at stacey@itsc123.com or call 208-595-4234 to learn how we can assist you.

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.