There is some really inspirational articles over at the "Dumb Little Man" website. They cover ways to save you money, increase your productivity, or simply keep you sane. I've taken the first three suggestions of one of their articles and adapted it for photographers and to the profession of photography. Here we go.You must create and look for opportunities:
We must constantly do this in our business. Those opportunities can occur anywhere as simple as a random meeting of people. I once booked a wedding and portrait with a client I met on a flight back to Cincinnati. Create you own opportunities by doing the thinking for your clients. Make suggestions how your services can benefit them - think outside the box. It might be more than a portrait you suggest - what about B&W images in a special or unique presentation. How about "stylizing" the image in Photoshop to give it a different look. Be enthusiastic with your suggestions and your solutions.
Negativity will only bring more of it:
I just had dinner with friends the other evening and we were discussing photographers and how they interact with their clients. My friend was telling me about a couple who was always bickering with each other while on the job. They had actually created a reputation for this behavior throughout the community. Is this lame or what?! My good buddy, Don Blair - God rest his soul - never had a bad word for anybody - ever!
While giving a program in Florida, he was watching a news report from Salt Lake City showing a scene where a car had crashed into a photo studio and eventually exploded. The driver survived but the studio, it's interior, and all it negatives were destroyed. It was Don's own studio he was witnessing. I never heard him utter a negative comment about that horrific experience. Sure he was affected by it, but he and his family rebuilt everything and the studio continues to be successful today. Don, who was in his 70's at the time, went on to create some of his most exciting images of his career after the fire.Where you are does not determine where you can go:
This speaks perfectly to yesterday's post. Being smart, rich, energetic, etc. does not guarantee success. We have to constantly be moving in the direction we want for ourselves. Sitting on the sidelines "resting on our laurels" will never get us anywhere. I like to say, "Sometimes, we have to get out of our own way to get what we want out of life."
Hey gang, that's it for today. LaDawn and I are heading for the mountains. Have a great weekend and if you are planning to be gambling with and any pixels - remember, fold the "raws" and hold the "jpegs" :~) See you next week. --David
Another useful posts. Thanks. I thought I'd contribute something I'm trying out for my business, which has been rather slow in the last few months. Like most people who are self-employed, I've realized that it's really easy to not use my time wisely or as productively as I could. While I get lots of work done, There there are days and weeks when I let things I need to get done lag or drop by the waste side.
ReplyDeleteSo I've decided to start keeping a business goals and maintenance log where I list goals and actions that I need to accomplish in the area of marketing, photography skills, and personal/business growth.
Every week I will fill out the log and keep track of what I'm getting done. When I come across ideas and techniques like the ones I come across on your site, I'll write them in my log, to make sure I'm getting it done.
Here's a link to the pdf copy of the log if anyone is interested.