ALJACOBSLADDER.com     

CREATE A BUSINESS

THE BUSINESS END  —  The increasingly competitive and diminishing photo marketplace requires a little planning. Too often, this planning is nothing more than marking a calendar when the next credit card payment is due on your Kaza-Mono-Flex 3000 body you just couldn’t live without and a payment is due on your Mastercard. 

• There's a lot more to this planning than making payments on time. Especially now, conditions have changed, you have to restructure. The economy has changed the dynamics of things.
  
  
• In part one we talk about the Bride, relationships, emotions and pitfalls. Mostly concentrating on what the Wedding is all about. In part two we talk about you and your world to see if you are the one that can handle part one.
  
  
• High Failure Rate  —   Believe it or not, unless you fail from the beginning,  there is a high failure rate as recorded in one of the major wedding organizations.  More and more join each year following their prescribed motif for success. "Their success”.  
  
  
• As you are the one going (and paying) for elaborate conventions, sessions, meetings and listening to speakers, paying dues, paying for seminars, and getting really pumped up. The problem is like pumping up a tire with a slow leak. If you don't, patch the tire the air eventually goes out. Otherwise you fill it again at another station.  
  
  
• The result is every year slightly less than the amount of new joiners will fall out from renewing their dues. It indicates the problems were greater than the enthusiasm. 
  
  
• Yes, these get-togethers are entertaining and a great chance to meet the celebrities. Thats why folks collect autographs. Admiration for those who do what they wish they could do, so somewhere in this process, there is a link missing that makes then at the top of their game and you are at the point of tying the shoelaces on your mountain climbing boots.
  
  
• It's their initiative and drive and the fact they get paid very well for their seminars. They are not their for their health.  So you come home ready to take on the world and you jump into things, get a few rejections and off to plan "B". Your new day job.
  
  
• I have customers who attend just about every seminar, trade show, club meeting and on-line infomercials. When asked how many weddings do you have booked for the year, I get a blank stare. I said it in the beginning this is a two part business.
  
  
• You have to handle the emotional and technical phase of the game but you also have to be a good business man or businesswoman.  It's not always lollipops and roses, there are those days of stale garlic, night blooming jasmine and petunias.  As a former trainer we are trying to make you more aware of yourself. These are the tips for survival and could be related to almost any business. 
  
  
• The amateur has just lost the battle…

MY ONE ON ONE SEMINARS TO HELP PHOTOGRAPHERS DOING WEDDINGS 

     —  GOOD SHOOTERS ASK  QUESTIONS QUESTIONS TO SOLVE POTENTIAL PROBLEMS  —  

From success to failure, some things are easily attainable by simple questioning. 

• I ask to see their bookings
• How many weddings did you do last year
• What is the average cost of a wedding in your area
• What do you charge
• What is your presentation like
• How do you dress for the shoot
• Do you attend the rehearsals
• Do you use flyers and menus
• Do you only do weddings, also Bar/Bat Mitzvahs and Quiceneras ?
• Does he or she have a good consistent following
• A clientele that is his style and artistry 
• Accepted by and most likely traditional family values; and is not limited
• They could be financially insecure
• Locked in a rut caused by the economy,
• A poor followup system, or lack of one
• Poor communication skills
• Their skill levels are not competitive. 
• They are not up to date with trends
• Nor qualified and have done nothing to better themselves.

So I ask questions, lots of questions as to why this person is either successful or not. 

• Do you only do one ethnicity, one religion, one type or for a specific church, one pastor, one wedding planner, one price range, one style. 
• The I ask how much did your business expand this year over last year knowing this is a failing economy. 
• Are your profits and volume on the rise or are things sinking. 
• What do you do for followup?  
• This is my point, to make it in this game you need to have "flex”. 
• I love when a guy tells me, he is a photojournalistic shooter and doesn't do traditional posed shots. Tell that to  Grandma.

WORK IN PROGRESS
When starting in business you ask yourself how will I promote my company.  The first step you should have done is establish a good business plan. Like Scuba diving you plan your dive and then dive your plan.

And you will ask yourself  which is better: traditional media, advertising on radio, television and print  or social media Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. Where should you place your money and effort.  In the Wedding or event business the answer is neither. 

With social media options, which are far less costly than traditional media, some of you might be questioning spending money on those pricey TV, radio and print ads to encourage business. I agree since an expensive wedding ad on thursday reaches no one on friday.   However, using both media together, as opposed to one versus the other can move your message further and reach a larger audience.

Both forms of media require planning and common sense. What you want your message to be and how do I get it to my potential customers. And just as with the government, accountability and results determine the outcome. The truths shall prevail as they say...

You might think to use Twitter and Face-Book (FB) because they are the best way to reach your customers, and for them to reach you within a social media setting.  You and fifty thousand other guys!

Learning how your audience base uses different media and meeting them at each point will make sure they are receiving the messages loud and clear. Wedding planners and Brides will surf the web endlessly to learn and help plan their event.  Thus the FB and Twits really replaced some of the forums so prevalent in the beginning days of the web. But everyone today has the door key and does the same thing.

On the other hand, the biggest contrast between hard media and the web is the contrast in costs.   It doesn't take long for print costs to add up quickly. In contrast, most social media outlets are generally free to use. You can outsource your social media efforts to a marketing or specialty agency for a price, but keeping it in-house saves money and can be done well with a basic knowledge of web design. 

Bear in mind websites and social media require daily activity and I once compared it to changing diapers, it just has to get done, when needed, on time, and sometimes frequently.  Most busy sites can require one to two hours every day for each social media outlet. One good one can be enough.

ALLIANCES

Create alliances with like-minded businesses. Exchange technology and tools, expand the overall market, cross promote each other’s products and collaborate on novel research to educate consumers. Perhaps one day, you might merge with, or acquire, your biggest competitor.

I read on another site, "Instead of focusing your energy on outdoing the competition, invest in becoming a customer-centric organization. This way, you will boost buyer loyalty and easily defend against aggressive suppliers or vendors intent on stealing your clients. At the end of the day, it is your users -- not your competitor -- who have the power to make or break your business".

And thus avoid letting rivalries turn into liquified leg spraying.  It will negatively impact your business. Invest in taking full advantage of the opportunities available when there are other companies targeting the same audience and buyer, by taking the high road and letting the other side appear to be wounded.

Watch the competition carefully. The knowledge and resources they have may be both better and different than yours. Actively learn from how they manage and grow their operation. Soon, you will discover ways to apply those lessons learned to your business.

Someone will always be better than you at something -- and that is OK. Customers deserve the best products and services to fulfill their individual needs. To build a profitable business, focus your efforts on making a smaller segment of the overall market very happy. By narrowing your niche, you develop a competitive edge that deters further competition.

1. CREATION OF YOUR UNIQUE PLAN 
Writing a plan helps you visualize. So write down the following as questions and answer them:  Example : What are my goals, financial independence etc. 
  • Goals
  • Identify the strategies for your success
  • Financial requirements of your business 
  • Assets and resources
  • Establish a clientele
  • Workable timetable
  • Comparisons in your area for pricing
  • How you will market yourself.
  
2. MAKE YOURSELF LEGAL 

• Secure a legal business identity with tax- and local licensing applicable to your location. Rules differ by state and parishes, counties and cities. Check the rules that apply to a home based photography business they may be different.
   
• Also decide if you are going to be a corporation, a sole proprietorship, a partnership etc. You will need a "DBA" if you call yourself a name other that you own. Like "Aristocrat Photography" hopefully not too many parents named their kids "Aristocrat". Tax rule state that you can only claim  business deductions from your home office if the space where you work is used exclusively and regularly for that business. 
  
  
• Kitchen tables and screened in porches don't count. this is where it pays to have a good accountant to help you establish the business.
  
  
• Open a business banking account. Don't mix business with pleasure. Separate your business from any personal finances. Most banks require a your licenses and corporate papers if applicable to establish an account. Use it to pay all your business bills and expenses. Starting on a credit card? Have a separate card for your business expenses. 
  
  
• Check zoning regulations: Some neighborhoods and neighbors like the guy next door "who your dog greeted with a message in a pile" may resent you having company over to your house for commercial purposes. Where we live requires a board of seven to handle all the squabbles that arise from neighbors being neighborly. 

3. GEARING UP — BUSINESS WISE

You should really be well equipped at this point because you will need all you finance to live on and promote the business. Large expenditures in a new company is paramount to going under unless you are well endowed in the bank.

• Cameras and Lenses 
• Tripods  — 
• Electronic flash units, studio lights and stands
• Seamless paper and other backgrounds
• Office Equipment such as a desk, chairs, lighting and pleasant surroundings 
• Computers and PRINTERS, both for business (laser) and prints (Ink jet or dye -sub)
• Telephone system with outside call ins for recordings
• Faxes and Scanner
• Storage Areas and lockable are for equipment and privacy 
• File cabinets for client files
•  Stationary and business cards 
• Flyers about yourself and business
•  Contracts and forms with Logo
• Protect yourself with liability insurance 
• Protect clients going to your in-home studio, or they might wind up owning your house.
• Equipment indemnity, (If your gear is stolen, if your home is broken into, fire-bombed, flooded) Some homeowner's or renter's insurance do not cover these items. But they might have a rider, ask your agent, be forthcoming, a few bucks in the right place can get you back up again. 
• Health and disability insurance in the event that you cannot continue working in your business and you quit your day job. Wait till you see what that costs. 
• It's important to join the local chamber of commerce
• Various photography associations
• Professional organizations like Rotary, Moose, etc. Today they call it networking, in the past it was a place to get a few beers and look for business, compare notes, swap a few lies, brag about your golf game and collaborate with other photographers in your area.
  It seems the most important function it serves today is to add a few initials after the name of your business or icons on your business cards.
• Business Associates: Having a good backup in equipment is important, having a good shooter as a backup if you get double booked or sick is essential in avoiding things like lawsuits. etc. 
• Also you must know thy labs and printers.  You'll need a working relationship with your providers, the internet has made the industry very cold. About as cold as being on the internet. You'll need a good lab.   Many of the Wal-Mart  and Walgreen's shooters don't hang around long or are destined to the low budget arena. Used by low-end frugal shooters.
  
• Sam’s and Costco no longer do processing.
• A lab you can make or break you. You are looking for quality, timely delivery, and get first strike or right the first time. 

Accreditation By Professional Organizations  —  Winston Churchill, the great cigar chomping Brit once said: "I would never join a club that would have me as a member”!  

Actually it was an American Will Rogers who said it first and it was also used by Groucho Marx and Woody Allen. What a club!   I would have loved to be a fly on that wall.  And regardless of what they are called, basically organizations are clubs. We all want to be part of something. It all goes back to our primal days when we shared the same cave. It's “ Belongs-manship”.  And someone is making MONEY on it. Thats just fact, Jack!

We all wanted to be recognized and accepted as peers and occasionally dodge the rain and a few roaming saber-toothed tigers. It's tough today to sort the good from the huge amount of professional organizations that simply merit the individual for such great achievement in the magazines chosen field for accomplishments such as "dues payment". 

The simple act of "checking the box for automatic checking or credit card deductions" for dues payment brings accolades of thank you notes and emails plus pats on the back. The usual stickers for your car, business cards with identifying logos and the monthly magazine mostly filled with pages of ads from other guys trying to sell you something. The requisite baseball cap and lapel sticker pin lets the world know you are part of the tribe.

If this sounds like the NAPP, not exactly, close enough, advertising pays the bills but generally their content is balanced, thats how you stay in business.  It's an excellent magazine, well written and really does open the mind to creativity. They have several good tips per month worth the price of admission.  About 99.00 per year but by using the discounts at vendors they offers, really costs me nothing.

Some organizations allow special privileges for "lifetime achievement". You paid your lifetime dues up front. Some even have names mentioned at lavish yearly gatherings of the lemmings called conventions. Conventions are like vitamins to club membership. You have peers, bonding, booze, demonstrations and vendors. Lots of vendors. And great speakers. 

Hollywood, Tv Reality Shows  And Organizations  —  One prominent speaker with decades of recognized personal achievement in HOLLYWOOD turned in a horrifically dumb act of bravado playing the crowd.  

Actors do that, they steal the moment. Charlton Heston, once a hero of mine got suckered into the NRA and claimed he'll give up his flintlock when they pry it from his “ Cold dead hands". That’s cool, great advice… the morons loved it and more kids died.  REMINGTON ARMS 2022 lost a 73 million dollar lawsuit for selling Military gear as Sporting Arms and killing children. 

Some idiot one day will do just that.  I could see some moron facing ten ATF team guys telling them, I dare you. It almost happened to me.  A while back, I covered PRESIDENT BUSH along with a hundred other guys for a special event with six thousand guests in a relatively large indoor,  HANGAR THREE at MacDill. It's a regular large  maintenance hanger and they can fit a KC-135 in it. 

Having the Commands High Profile Credentials, proper press and SS venue badges issued by the authorities, I had top level open coverage.   I also did the usual front or 3/4 shot with long glass from the press stands.  

I wanted more. I ran behind and underneath the stage to get to the other side to get a shot that wasn't shooting direct into the sun. Thats how I got (luck) this profile shot I used for my spoof on GWB and his gaffs.

I had two brand new right from the box D3 and D3S Nikon Digitals, two days old,  state of the art and both dropped dead period  (Thats another story)  and a few years later went to SONY. I pulled out my Backup D100 ancient warrior and shot the job.

I actually had run smack into the "A TEAM", several “ A Teams, Presidential, State, and Local SWAT teams were behind and underneath their  staging area,  out of public view and on edge in KumBaYa mode.

I will define the term "LOSER". Thats a tap dancer in a mine field. I felt like Sammy Davis Jr. and the Nicholas Brothers working our way across the Sudan or Bosnia. 

Let me tell you, they could pry any damn thing they wanted from me.  My G-d, they are fast to respond to stimuli like me, a simple guy turning a corner in dimmed light with a 300mm on the shoulder at the ready. I haven't stared at that much hardware since Nam. Lots of red dots greeted me. OOOOPS!  I went the long way around inches at a time, smiling a lot.

No Free Press Passes, No Pass Go  —  Some organizations make it tougher to join because they realize so many have the wrong reasons for joining. Free press Passes.   The sportsshooters.com now have a voucher and            letterhead system. Some of the better Wedding groups jury your work and don't just give things away. Few fail most of those tests at the lower levels, you have to work to get to the top.  And thats good.

Groups And Insurance —  To join a group, just to get insurance for theft makes no sense. You'll do better with a combined plan for theft and liability. Theft only tells me you are gear related, your toys are the circle of your thoughts. A better mantra is "I'm building a business, related with the proper total coverage’s" is part of a good business plan. 

A wedding photographer who thinks,  “ If he fails to get image and the Bride gets nothing. He just smiles and say I'm sorry, here's your money back and thinks that’s the end of it is foolish".  We liver in a "sue-er" world and if you don't watch Bridezilla, you are naive.  

Even those who thought they covered their butts found out, in Florida the judge thought differently. With written contracts and all signed very nicely, thank you. They lost. One was in Broward , one in Tampa. Large payouts. In both cases a little tear shedding and it was all over. Off course the drunken/high/medicated (pick one) photographer was neatly captured on video and cameras by the guests.  A mere 25,000 dollar judgment had a sobering effect on his life.. There are associations you have to join.

The Clubs  —  Many states, counties, parishes, planets and galaxies require some kind of business permit to conduct a business. They call it a License. Even if you launch it from your home . Now you have zoning restrictions. To check into. The other club, called the IRS requires additional income being reported when it exceeds a certain amount like 600 dollars. 

Certain sales tax organizations require a small form to be filled out and if you don't charge sales tax...”WHY NOT” they ask with the Alfred E. Neumann look on their face. Damned if you do charge damned if you don't report it. In some areas the sales tax people are more feared than the IRS people. 

One enterprising individual aka sales tax trooper took all the cards at a Bridal Fair and ran the names across the county tax records to see who was a legitimate business. Surprise! In Florida again, they went after everyone who filled out a tax exempt card on film and was not paying sales tax. Gotcha! 

Are you a member of any photo associations be it... wedding specific or just a photographer association? Like PPA or WPJA? Do you find it helpful or useful in anyway. Do you think your clients even care? Or is it just to stay in the loop?

I've been tinkering about joining some for a few years now. Just wondered if anyone feels like they get their money's worth for joining… You will get out of it WHAT you put into it. What will joining an organization do for you? Look at your own situation. 

• Am you averaging two profitable Weddings a month?
• Is this your primary source of income.
• Do I attend on-going seminars or training.
• Do I have all the proper licenses and permits? 
• Does the IRS know me as a business.
• Note: It might even be a deduction, dues paid to a association for business practices
• Ask yourself, Do I do mail-outs, solicitation's, shows of my work at lobby's banks etc 
• Would it benefit me to show I belong to the Better Business Bureau, another fine club to join but only if you get involved at the meetings and organization levels. One photographer I know shoots all the new businesses that join the BBB and does a portrait of the owner (for nothing).
• He has an open invite into 1000 businesses to find work. All new fresh blood in town.... To join to impress your clients is not a good answer. 
• You need clients to impress. Someone who has not contracted with you is not a client. He is a referral or prospect. He becomes a client when he pays you and you perform services.
•  For some of you newbies in the game, working with a PRO will make you a PRO quicker and pay close attention to the business side of the business. Generally that’s where most of the failures in this game take place. Taking the best shooter in town to a good lunch might teach you more in one hour than years of magazine reading. Bottom line....you'll get out of it what you put in....