Me Being Happy!

[kgphoto]

If you get hired for $4000.00 fly me out and I will help you for half of it.

I am glad you didn't choke on that idiot remark and took it in the spirit it was intended. Sometimes these points are hard to get across on this media.

So where's my Karma?

Now get out there, do the research and report back.

[KellyL]

I gambled and believed that you said the idiot remark the way I wanted to hear it. I really did not take offense...if you only knew how many times I have thought it myself...getting up from the computer...strolling over to the window...wondering where my wife and kids are...what they are doing...wondering what other people do for fun. I work too much. Working both jobs, teaching and being a photographer, keep my hopping. Sometimes, I am just burned out. I would love to quit one of those jobs. Can you guess which one?

[kgphoto]

Believe it or not, you will want to quit the photography one if you don't fix the business end. If you want to do photography as a side, job, still treat it like a business, but add to it the fact that each second you do it keeps you from being a part of your family. So it costs you twice. That ought to make it worth something. Remember that teaching thing gets you health insurance. Real important with kids.

Streamline the business and the shooting. Test and calibrate so you know what to expect and what you are doing. Shoot and sell at the same session while they are excited. Retouch later. Show a few examples of what retouching can do AND then sell it at an extra charge!

Assuming that you can efficiently retouch, and if not, buy Ron Nichols Retouching Pallet for Photoshop, charge a 1st action charge, i.e. set up and load program and start work of X dollars and then for each type of additional work add 1/2 X. This is for the basic stuff, blemishes, shine, skin enhancement, eye enhancement, teeth whitening, etc. If they want back grounds changed or heads swapped, charge by the hour and at least $45 per. That way you can sell pre-touching. i.e., wear the right clothes dummy! and or a few more minutes with make up will help.

If you do special effects, DON'T THROW THEM IN !! Isn't your photography good enough to stand on its own? If not, improve! Upsell in your market, offer frames and folios and composites. Don't give them away. They are where you can raise your margin.

If you took a Adobe Painter class, sell that as an upsell for a lot of extra money.

Personally I don't believe in giving away all the images on a CD. You will not get a lot of extra orders and they will copy the CD. Put them up on a website for 30 days and then they are gone. You will be surprised what people will tolerate in order to save money, so hit them hard and fast and when they are feeling the emotion.

Project your images to the principals. You need to control the sales environment. If you are doing low cost quicky sales, i.e. head shots for real estate brokers, let them shoot and see and sell and then send the images to them. It is a trade off whether the time you save is worth the lost opportunity to network and sell to them again.

I say send the images and then call two days later to make sure they got them and are happy and then use that opportunity to plant seeds and collect referrals.

Finally, when my part time work at photography, equaled the income from my full time job, that is when I quit and went whole hog as a photographer. Make sure someone, a person who can talk intelligently about your business answers the phone. You will triple your business if that happens.

[heartseye]

A dash of ethics perhaps..........Keep raising prices and you will be surprised how many clients will accept the new price cheerfully.

But.....what are YOU doing?? Are you giving More VALUE.....More Quality.....More Innovation.....More Originality......and so on. Somewhere in this affair you need to decide WHAT you are. An opportunist who would sell his granny for enough money?

Or a person that beleives cream does float to the top.....but ONLY if it is REAL cream.....Something to ponder.....cheers...Bob

[KellyL]

I think this is all wonderful business discussion. I have been approaching everything very naively. I am making enough right now to cover 1/3 of my teaching salary. I keep thinking that before long, as I get more business, my teaching salary will be history. You have made me aware of now naive I have been. Not only do I have to match my teaching salary in order to make the switch, I need to exceed it by atleast 1/3 in order to keep up with equipment and overhead.

Thanks for your advice, both...all of you...and not for scorning a wannabe.

[FocusingOnFlorida]

Congratulations Kelly,

You should be getting paid for what you are worth.

I think S4tM is way overdue for a price hike. She has proven herself time and again.

Everyone needs to make that choice on their own when they are ready.

BTW, I still haven't done wedding one yet.

[kgphoto]

Kelly,

You need to make way more than 1/3 more by a long shot. Get that business book first!

[KellyL]

Well, given that I have finally realized that I am making somewhere around $5.00 on my portrait work, I need the book desperately. But...I am getting practice, practice, practice, and that is desperately needed if I am serous about a business, business, business.

I sighed the other day thinking that I had my head in the clouds. Why would I be trying to move in to a business that so many are quitting? One of the premiere senior photographers in the area quit the business because he could no longer sustain himself. At least, that is his story.

[kgphoto]

Kelly,

I just visited your site and saw that album you put together. If that is an example of the average work you do, then you definitely need to raise your prices.

For those who haven't seen it, it is worth a look.

[KellyL]

Wow...thanks. That was very, very nice of you to say. That album was my second real wedding...my first indoor wedding...and the second album attempt. The first album attempt was done online with Pictage, and I can not get a copy of it. I am going to redo the album and post it.

If I am patient, the business will come. I just don't have any business right now. Outside of babies and seniors.