There is no such thing as time management. No one can manage time. There is only activity management.

Here is a great, but simple tip, on how to sort out all the things you have to do. It’s how I get so much done.

I have multiple to-do-lists, and each one has a ton of things on them. One list is for my studio, the other is for things I need to do for the community. I am on the board of the PPGH, so that most certainly gets a to-do-list. I have a to-do-list for my family needs (here’s my boy). And I even have a to-do-list for my intern. But there is one to-do-list that I like the most. This is my 24 hour to-do-list. This list only contains three items on it, and these items are taken from the other lists. Once an item goes on my 24 hour list it stays there until I have completed that item.

I start an item on that list, and I continue with that item until I have finished it, giving that item as much of my energy as I can. If I don’t finish it, it carries over until the next day. I don’t think about the things I have completed, and I don’t think about the other things I need to do. I focus on the activity at hand until it is done, and I give it my best energy.

To be great, just do single actions in a great way every day. Keep your 24 hour to-do-list small and manageable. Keep moving forward.

Aric C. Hoek BFA, CPP, Author
PPBF Administrator
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Are you folks familiar with Garry Winogrand?  If so, then great – this will make perfect sense.  If not, click on the link at the end to a short story written by a gentleman who took a workshop with Garry.   So, how does vague and seemingly unconnected start have anything to do with Wedding Photography?   Good question…

While I was sitting in a workshop with a mentor of mine, Don Giannatti from Phoenix, AZ, he was telling us a story about a photographer named Garry Winogrand. What set Garry apart (among other things once you read some biographies) was that he never looked at images right away.  Most of the time, he waited a year, sometimes two, before processing the film.  His thought was that he should have no recollection of taking the image because it would cloud his vision on whether or not it was a “good” photograph.

Of course, there were always exceptions.  So, it was noted that if Garry felt particularly excited about a photograph – or just wanted to see it right away – he would develop it immediately.  However, as I understand it, the norm was that the film sat in their canisters for quite some time before ever being developed.

So, as a Wedding Photographer – you certainly cannot allow your images to sit there for a year before you look at them.  You wouldn’t have any clients.  But, what you can do is go back after that year and look through the wedding to see if anything jumps out at you.  I discovered this by accident.

We are working on creating a few new sample albums for our studio – and one in particular was from a Wedding in June 2009.  We had, for some reason, never made a sample album from it.  We had a few favorites from that wedding that we had used in marketing and such, but I realized that I was looking at the images in an entirely different way because it had been a year since I had seen them.

What I realized was that as my tastes changed, and I had another year of education, photography, and experience behind me – I was able to see things in the photos that I hadn’t seen before.  So, I encourage you to go back through your weddings – with a more experienced eye than you had before.  Find some new photos – you can potentially enhance your portfolio without having to do too much work.

Stay tuned to the Pro Photo Business Forum – next week I’ll be posting a workflow article on keeping track of your favorite images that way they’re easily at hand for promotional purposes.

Thanks everyone for reading – below are some links referenced in the article.

A story about Garry Winogrand
Lighting Essentials by Don Giannatti

Atlanta Wedding Photographer, Matthew Lovell

There are no constraints but the ones you make. I hope you enjoy this, and I hope it gets you thinking.

Aric C. Hoek BFA, CPP, Author
PPBF Administrator
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Houston Wedding Photographer, Aric Hoek

A man is standing in a hole.  The hole is 50’ deep and 50’ wide.  He stands at the bottom, alone, scanning the top edge for movement.  Suddenly, he sees someone standing on the edge.

The man in the hole yells to the man on the edge.  “Jump in” the man yells.  “I can solve your problem”.

The man in the hole must use language to persuade the fearful individual to jump in.  Trust must be established in a very short time.

This then is the way of business for many.  Advertising is used to bring people to the edge, and the business owner tries to get the people he/she has attracted to “jump in”.

Now lets take another look at how this can play out.

A man is standing in a hole, and on the edge approaches an individual who has heard the call of the business owner, but something is different this time.  On the top edge of the hole, the visitor finds a ramp spiraling gradually and gently to the bottom of the hole to the expert waiting at the bottom.

As the visitor begins their journey into the hole, they encounter one delight after another.  Each delight communicates that the waiting expert understands their plight, and that help lies ahead.  Each new delight is free with no risk, and the visitor travels further, until the end of the ramp is near, at which point the visitor may choose to proceed further.

If the visitor has found their pain lessened during their journey, then they are likely to make a trade.

Welcome to the Pro Photo Business Forum.  This site is designed to help amateur portrait photographers transition into professional photographers.  During your visit, make sure to read the articles in our blog.  You will also want to download a free Podcast of our last FREE Teleseminar.  Make sure to sign up to be notified when our next free teleseminar is about to begin.

Additional delights await those that choose to continue on their journey with us.

My name is Aric Hoek, and I am the Administrator and Creator of the Pro Photo Business Forum.  How can I be of service?

Thank you for visiting the Pro Photo Business Forum.  Please come back again to download our next free podcast.

Aric C. Hoek BFA, CPP, Author
PPBF Administrator
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Houston Wedding Photographer, Aric Hoek

Are you a wedding photographer?  Thinking of becoming one?  Then here is a great tip.

Make sure to take very flattering images of every reception facility that you find yourself in.  Make prints of these images, making sure to tastefully include your company name and contact information on the image itself, and then send the images to the facility free of charge.  Include an invoice with the images.  Show the value of the images on the invoice, and then show a 100% discount.  List the reason as “professional courtesy”.

If the images are of good enough quality, then possibly the facility manager will use your images as a sales tool to reserve couples for their facility.  The facility manager in essence becomes your agent.  When you have made your vendor images, make sure to deliver them in person.  Use the opportunity to build a professional relationship and contact.  Let them meet you face to face.

Now that you have this general idea of vendor prints, put it to good use.  Send images to the florist.  Who made the cake? Who made the dress?  Who sold the wedding bands? I’ll bet they would love to show your images.

One last thing to keep in mind with vendor prints is the pecking order in which a wedding is planned.  A couple will almost always book their ceremony and reception facility first as this solidifies the wedding date.  After their facilities have been reserved, the bride and groom will begin to look at vendors that can only be in one place at one time.  These include the band, the officiant, and, of course, the photographer.

What does this tell us?  It tells us that the most beneficial people to give vendor prints to are the facility managers and the facility catering directors.  For me, referrals from cake makers are few and far between.

While photographing an event, make it a point to find the facility manager and introduce yourself.  Ask for their business card.  When you make an appointment to drop off the images to the facility, try to schedule your meeting with the manager you met.  During your meeting, ask if the facility has a preferred vendors list that they hand out to their perspective clients.  When you return to the studio, send a thank you card to the manager, thanking them for their time.  Direct them to your website so they can see the quality of your work.  This will make them more willing to add your company to their preferred vendors list.

Join our community today and let us help you create a thriving business!

Aric C. Hoek BFA, CPP, Author
PPBF Administrator
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Houston Wedding Photographer, Aric Hoek

Are you thinking about building your first photography studio?  One of the things that should be running through your head is how much it will cost you to keep the studio open every month, and additionally will the figure you come up with be less than what you make each month.

It’s a tough question to answer as you have no idea how much money you will be making once your studio doors open.  So, I would like to offer a different way for you to think.

Break things down into 16x20s.  Here at Solaris Studios, we sell our 16x20s for $500.  Knowing this, we ask ourselves how many 16×20 portraits do we need to sell each month to achieve our goals.

By thinking this way I find it keeps everything in perspective and much more manageable.  Our rent in our current location is $1500, or three 16x20s.

Knowing this, I make sure that all the wedding packages we sell come with a bridal and engagement session giving us at least two chances to sell each client a 16×20 portrait.

What new camera would you like to purchase?  How many 16x20s will you have to sell to achieve the camera?  How can you sell that many 16×20 portraits within one month?

Think in 16x20s.

Aric C. Hoek BFA, CPP, Author
PPBF Administrator
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Houston Wedding Photographer, Aric Hoek

I’ve been using ShootQ now for about two months, and I am absolutely hooked.

ShootQ is a tool made especially for photographers to manage their studio. It was created by photographers that know the difficulty of managing a studio while trying to concentrate on their core business of photography. It’s a web based system that works like a software program on a business computer. This system organizes work flow from the first client interest phone call all the way through until the customer receives the ordered photography and completes payment. It’s a great tool to have for any professional photographer and works very well for wedding events.

This studio management tool will be able to follow a client from their first phone call through their whole process of working with a particular photography studio. It allows the photographer to enter in information in one area instead of having interest books, appointment books, billing lists, and calendars to keep up with. ShootQ even sends reminders of when a customer needs to be billed which is an advantage from trying to remember or keep organized records on paper. A professional photographer can spend more of their time on what they do best, taking portraits of people.

The system gives reminders of what a photographer needs to do next, which is very helpful when trying to keep up with the wedding production and to keep the important client, the bride, content and feeling secure and informed.

With ShootQ, less time is spent on the administrative side.  Foe me, the studio management system acts as an extra employe. Furthermore, some photographers lose money by not billing on time or following up to receive earned payments. Cash flow is the name of the game, and ShootQ keeps me on track and allows me to see  a projected cash flow for the entire year.  My photography studio runs so smoothly using this tool that the photographer’s life will have more quality and their clients will feel as though they are working with a well managed business. Many photographers get work by way of word of mouth and having clients happy will prompt them to distribute a studio’s name.

Multiple members of The Pro Photo Business Forum are now using ShootQ, and we have begun a forum which will allow the sharing of custom workflows.  Come and join us!

Aric C. Hoek BFA, CPP, Author
PPBF Administrator
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Houston Wedding Photographer, Aric Hoek

The Business of Marketing your Business

Written By: Houston Wedding Photographer Scott Villalobos

It’s a short yet not so simple statement, infact it’s probably the most complicated aspect of any business and it is especially true of photography. Fact of the matter is it’s probably the first thing that came to mind after I decided to become a professional photographer. How in the world would I make any money with my photography and who would buy it? There is no shortage of information on this topic, to be sure, but with good reason.  If you’ve found yourself struggling in the current economic climate or worse are just starting out in the current economic climate you will benefit by reading the rest of this article.

Identifying the problem – this is easy. You either need to bring in clientele or you need to bring in MORE clientele. Simple right? Not so much. You need to make sales to those clients. Before I go any further I need to give credit where credit is due, many of the ideas I’m about to expound upon are merely the arthritic echoes of those who have come before me.

There is an old proverb which holds true for every aspect of life, and for the sake of this article I’m going to apply it to the business of wedding photography. “There is salvation in the multitude of counselors.“ – Proverbs 11:14. That being said, in my meanderings across the information super highway I have encountered some profoundly interesting personages with much to say on the subject of marketing and success. Rick Brewer is one and his website, getmorebrides.com, is dedicated to the marketing aspects of wedding photography. Another would be Keith Lee of American Retail Supply, Denis Reggie of, well, Denis Reggie, and finally Mark Victor Hansen – coauthor of Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Now that I’ve mentioned the above I can say the following with unobstructed clarity – FOCUS PEOPLE! Over the top, maybe, but keep reading you’ll get the point in a minute. Focus is essential to becoming successful. I like this statement because we are, after all, photographers and we understand how important focus is to our images. However we’re not talking about taking pictures here, we’re talking about bringing business through our doors. So lets focus our imaginary cameras on the inevitable fact that you must become your biggest cheerleader, the star quarterback, the great American hero within.

If you were asked what business you’re in how would you answer? Your first response might be something wild like; oh I don’t know – wedding photography… And this is where you’d be wrong. The correct answer if you want your business to be successful would be the business of “marketing” your photography business”. This is why you must be you’re your biggest cheerleader. Who else cares as much about your business as you do? Who else is going to put in the blood sweat and tears that you do? Who else besides you is willing to sink all that cold hard cash into your baby while its still in diapers? Nada…

So this is where focus really comes into play. All the talent in the world doesn’t mean squat if you can’t make a sale, and you can’t make a sale unless you can attract customers. It’s a lot like fishing; you won’t ever catch fish in a lake where there are no fish. So move to a lake that not only has fish, but also the type of fish you want to attract.

One way to attract the right clientele is by getting people to advertise for you. I recently shot a wedding at an amazing venue, a venue that attracts the type of clientele that I wish to work for. I was invited to send them an album from the shoot and they in turn would show that album to their potential clients. Two great things are happening here. 1.) I’m getting great referrals from an amazing venue to people that can afford me. And 2.) I’m not competing with the 509 other wedding photographers that show up in the Google search for Houston Wedding Photographers. These are qualified leads that are interested not just in wedding photography, but in me personally.

Here’s a well-kept secret that you should already know but that bears saying for those of you who are unaware of it. If you’re not on page one in the web search engine you might as well not exist. Potential customers rarely go past page one when searching for a product or service.  (This is a whole other topic so let’s not go there for now.)

Save yourself allot of frustration and money and make sure that you market to a targeted, qualified audience. Set clearly defined, realistic, short and long term goals for yourself and have them written down somewhere you will see them every day. Think about those goals every day and figure out how to achieve them progressively. You might even write them down on the back of a business card and put them in your wallet to look at during the day. Meet with and befriend people who can help you achieve your goals, weather they be with venues or organizations that cater to the clientele you wish to attract.

Remember Newton’s third law of physics. “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” This law applies to the business of marketing your business. If you’re not exerting force or action there can be no reaction. Force yourself into action. However resistant you are to the idea of marketing, learn to embrace it and it will embrace you. But remember marketing is a process not an event, it doesn’t happen overnight, it may be months before you see results. Think of it as planting seeds, sooner or later something’s bound to grow. Plan now to succeed in the future.

Avoid negative people and negative thinking at all cost. There are no positive side effects to negativity. Instead direct that thinking into creativity. Seek out positive, creative, successful people and allow your thinking to imitate there’s. Be like Thomas Edison when a young reporter who boldly asked if he felt like a failure interviewed him and if he thought he should just give up. Perplexed, Edison replied, “Young man, why would I feel like a failure? And why would I ever give up? I now know definitively over 9,000 ways that an electric light bulb will not work. Success is almost in my grasp.” And shortly after that Edison invented the light bulb. He did not allow negative people to prevent him from attaining his goal and neither should we.

You are 100% responsible for your results. Evaluate yourself from a third person standpoint. Imagine that you’re evaluating a paid employee. Would you be happy with your results? Do you show up for work on time? Do you go the extra mile and are you creative and innovative? Are you bringing in sales or are you unknowingly pushing them away. Take a good hard look in the mirror and be honest with yourself. If you were working for someone else would your job be in jeopardy?

Brides are a lot like Gazelle. If you’ve ever watched animal planet you’ve seen Cheetah stalking Gazelle. Oh occasionally you will see a Gazelle wondering about the tall grass paying no attention to the Cheetah hiding in the tall grass only a few feet away, that never works out well for the Gazelle, but for the most part Gazelle are somewhat paranoid because they know that there are Cheetah near by and they know that Cheetah eat Gazelle. So they tip toe around looking for grass to eat, but they never take their eyes off the tall grass and they are always ready to bolt at the first sign of danger.

Brides are much the same, they are ready to bolt at the first sign of danger, but what are the signs of danger to a bride? There are many, but one of the biggest is when a photographer won’t let them speak. It may be totally unintentional, the photographer may just be really excited to be selling to a bride and telling her all about his new gear or his – dare I say it – photojournalistic approach.  And really there’s nothing wrong with that, nothing that is unless the bride wants to say something and you don’t give her the chance. This is like spots moving among the tall grass to the potential bride. She could care less about your dual digic IV processor or the difference between L series and consumer grade glass. All she’s hearing is that you don’t care about what she has to say. You may not even notice it, but her eye’s have glassed over, she’s checking her watch and is wondering about the studio she passed on the way to see you.

Learn when to speak and when to keep silent and listen. Really pay attention to what your bride is saying and respond positively. Learn what works and what doesn’t. Learn to put out the right message, and learn how to shorten the process by understanding the process in which brides buy. If at all possible never ever say no to a bride. Saying no to a bride is like saying no to opportunity. You never know what good things might happen by saying yes.  Don’t believe me, go out and rent “Yesman” staring Jim Carrey. Although the movie may be an over dramatized example the principle still applies.

Ultimately you want to dig your well before the drought comes, plant your seeds before the harvest has arrived. By doing the marketing you will ensure your continued success. And when the inevitable disappointments come look at them like Thomas Edison. Not as failures but as learning experiences of how not to market your business. In the end you will become what you think about becoming if, and only if, you put those thoughts into actions.

Houston Wedding and Portrait Photographer - Scott Villalobos www.rsvpstudios.com

Welcome! In this article we will examine album image selection as a value added service. I’ll preface our conversation by noting that there are many ways to approach image selection, such as letting clients select their album images, and there is no right or wrong way. It is about what works best for you, your business and your clients. The views expressed here are generated from my many conversations with photographers over the years.

Furthering the thinking from my last article, which can be found by clicking here, leads me to an organic conclusion that image selection is a value added service you provide for your clients. It will add more value and prestige to your business that ends with a high level of customer satisfaction, which in turn leads to an increased bottom line. To achieve that end result, keep the album as a treasured item for your client and a mobile marketing piece for you, the selected images must be a limited amount of THE BEST OF THE BEST.

Your clients picked you for their photography needs! They truly paid for your art, products and services. Consider these questions; does the typical bride know how to pick out a limited number of your best pictures to produce the most amazing album possible? Is the groom going to be able to help her? Are they going to consider how the images will look on the page? Will they be overwhelmed trying to decide between the pictures you show them? Will they want so many images that you will have to make a collage page? Will a collage page highlight your photographic art? Will a page like that actually be dramatic enough to capture their moment? Is she going to want to slide in pictures from a friend’s point and shoot? How much time will you spend retouching all these images for them?

With a limited amount of your best pictures you are making your album designing experience better. This is because you will not have to retouch “x” number of images, and you will also be able to deliver a higher quality album for them in a quick turnaround time. For instance, when a couple returns from their honeymoon are they ready to take care of their post-wedding photographic needs immediately? Or do they need to write a whole lot of thank you cards? How long will it take them to pick their images? How much time will you allow them to decide on their images? By letting them pick their images you are actually allowing the perceived value of your work to diminish day-by-day. The importance of the album goes down along with opportunities for print sales. Therefore, by providing image selection as a service, you will have the album designed by the time they return from their honeymoon and delivered before they finish their thank you cards.

As a professional photographer you provide the best possible customer experience backed with great services and products in order to ensure repeat business. If they pick their images, how stressful will all this be for you as the photographer and for your client? Is your client going to abide by your rules and regulations to must have and additional images? Forget about all this nonsense affecting your business’s growth. Make the overall album experience easier on you and your client by selecting the images as a value added service. The key to true profitability is efficiency, higher quality products and services, decreased waste, well managed operations, increased perceived value and increased client satisfaction levels.

By providing album image selection as a service, you heighten your service value and prestige, lead to true profitability, take the stress out of image selection, gain back your marketing piece, wow clients and their friends and you will have a great time while doing so, especially since you did not have to retouch 200 images for the album! Next time we will be talking about the relationship between image selection and album design.

Jay Michael Stevens
Forbeyon's Customer Care Manager
Forbeyon is the photographer's sole album destination
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