Well, today is March 2 and for most of you March is the last opportunity to get some very specific projects in place before business really picks up. So here’s a list of things to consider:

• Have you put together a promotional calendar for the rest of the year? For example, schedule one consumer promotion a quarter.  Remember, you don’t have to do this alone. Florists, limo companies, travel agencies etc. make great partners.
• What do you have in the pipeline for publicity about you and your business?
• How about a letter to all your past clients reminding them of your skill set? Maybe it’s time for a letter reminding them a family portrait is a terrific Mother’s Day or Father’s Day gift. Your best potential clients are those already in your data base.
• Prom time is fast approaching and in May just about every junior and senior is going to be heading to their high school prom. How about planting the seed for a prom portrait and working together with a dress shop, tux shop or limo company?
• Here’s one that’s just about house-cleaning: Are you using your own images in your stationery, for example, your note cards? It’s the perfect way to promote your own work.
• What programs e.g. workshops and seminars are you going to register for between now and the end of the year? It’s great you went to WPPI, IUSA, PMA@CES or your state convention, but what are you going to do to recharge your battery mid-year when you need it the most?  I’m involved in at least two programs, Skip’s Summer School and I’ll be on the road with JB Sallee in the fall. Kevin Kubota’s bootcamp is coming up in April. Sal Cincotta will be on the road. Check out your favorite photographers and see who’s on the road. This isn’t just about continuing to expand your skill set – this is about keeping your focus and networking!
• There are some terrific free seminars on line and you need to get yourself signed up. Nik is hosting a full series for the month of March. Creative Live always has something new coming up. Kelby Training has an ongoing series, along with programs from Xrite, Marathon Press and Adorama TV just to name a few.  But here’s the issue, you snooze, you lose! You’ve got to follow-up and participate.
• What are you doing to meet other photographers in your community? Personally I’m a big fan of SmugMug’s meetups, AKA Smugs. There are also local guilds and PPA chapters. Get involved and start building your local network.
• What are doing to be involved in your community? There are always things going on in photography and you need to be involved. You want your community to be good to you, so you’ve got to be good to your community.
• Is there new gear on the list you need, but don’t have the cash? Relax, it’s not the end of the world, start out by renting it and experimenting with that new lens NOW, while you have some time. Make sure you really need it, before you stress yourself out worrying about the cash! And don’t forget about leasing equipment instead of buying it outright! Here’s your chance to tie up somebody else’s assets without depleting yours.
• Have you met with your accountant? Your taxes are due soon, but don’t do this on your own! There are so many aspects of your business that are deductible and money spent with an expert is going to be coming back to you as you learn all the things you forgot that cost you money.
• Is your website all it should be? It’s too long a topic to go into it here, but there are six different posts over on GoingPro that talk about nothing but your website. March is a great time for cleaning up all your messes! I have yet to see a website that couldn’t be improved and here’s another plug for SmugMug! Yes, they’re a sponsor of some of my projects, but long before I started working with me I fell in love with what they do, the quality of their staff and their finished product. This is all about making your work look good, often better than you deserve! LOL

Okay, there are dozen different things to think about and any one of them could take you a few days to really address. You’ve got the passion for photography. Don’t let that passion get lost by missing all the opportunities to keep your battery charged, build your network, expand your skill set or just have fun!

“Fun” there’s that word again. It’s one of the most important aspects of being in business and it’s the first thing lost and buried when the flood gates open and the challenges with the economy and technology come rolling in.  It takes work to stay focused on fun and not let life get in the way!

Dale Carnegie is quoted as saying,

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.

Okay gang, time to go have some fun!

• If anybody tells me they had a pretty good year last year or sales were at least flat, the next sentence is always, “But I’ve never worked so hard in my life!”  That last sentence is usually accompanied by a four-letter expletive and a huge *sigh*!
• When exploring what activities meet the definition of “never worked so hard” it always relates to diversity in their business. They’ve started targeting some other photographic need in their community.

Another trend seems to be the younger the photographer or the less time somebody has been in business the more impatient they are to see results.  Their definition of success is just seeing business come through the door and that’s really my point this morning.

There are simply no shortcuts to success in any business today. Sure, there are stories of people who invent amazing products or concepts and skyrocket to the top instantly, but it’s not the norm. For most of us, it’s not going to happen overnight and while I hate to sound like my grandmother when I was kid, you just need to be patient, continue to work hard and trust your instincts.

The challenge with being successful is to first figure out your definition of success and second, stay focused and just keep doing the things you need to build your skill set and business.  If you wake up every morning looking for “success” as if it was a rare species of animal, you’ll never find it – in fact, you’ll scare it away!

We’re all sick of dealing with the economy, but one thing tough times do is force us to look for new ways to do business we should have been doing all along.  If you’re looking for a way to reduce your marketing costs, without cutting back on your exposure, then look for some partners to share the burden of direct mail and cross-promotions.

Here’s a prime example:  Homecoming at every high school in the country is only a couple of months away.  Why not do a direct mail campaign together with the florist in town and a limo company?   Looking for ways to promote your wedding photography?  How about teaming up with a travel agent, a local venue, a tux shop and a florist?   Vicki Taufer finds partners to help promote her pet promotion every summer for the local animal shelter.

In terms of the actual presentation to your target audience, it can be anything from a mailing with a series of independent offers, like the “Value-Pak” envelopes we all receive at our homes, to an actual cross-promotion e.g. Rent your tuxedo and get a certificate worth $__ off a portrait sitting and vice versa: get a discount on your tuxedo rental with your portrait sitting.   I know it might not sound very upscale, described in brief here, but that’s where your creativity comes in when designing the offer and the promotion.

Consumer bundling is the perfect way for you to promote your business without having to absorb the full burden of the cost.  And here’s one more idea on cross-promoting – team up with a few other photographers!  How about the combination of a wedding photographer and a children’s photographer cross-promoting each other’s work? 

Check out this post from a while back by Bruce Berg. Three competing photographic studios sponsor a children’s contest each year during the first quarter, the “slow season” in Oregon! The result is business during a time when normally there wasn’t any!

Just because the economy is tough doesn’t mean you can’t continue or better yet, increase your exposure to your target audience.  This is really nothing more than a bunch of friends going to lunch – you just need a few new partners to split the check!

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.

Whether you’re just starting out as a professional photographer or aspiring to be one, there’s very little that happens in this industry by itself. You’ve got to be proactive and you’ve got to watch out and protect your own interests, especially in terms of changing, which in this case means growing as an artist and a business person.

Here’s a prime example. So often I’ve heard photographers comment about images published in magazines. The usual comment is, “My images are better than that!” or my favorite, “I could have done that!”  Well, the point is they didn’t. Another photographer made the effort to get their images positioned so somebody at a magazine saw them and they got published.

And, one more example. We all read newspapers and magazines. There are always stories about local business people. There might be a picture in the paper of a local photographer interacting with the members of the community. Those pictures and stories don’t happen by accident either. Editors aren’t just driving by and jumping out of their cars looking for content. The story happened because the featured person made an effort with a publicity release, getting to know the staff at the local paper or being involved in the community.

So much of being a great artist and photographer is within your reach, but you have to take control of your own destiny. Kevin Kubota, Tony Corbell, Jerry Ghionis, Michelle Celentano, Doug Gordon, Lori Nordstrom, Catherine Hall, Michael Corsentino, Matthew Jordan Smith, just to name a few, haven’t become great photographers because they paid their dues and then waited for things to happen.  They chose a path and made the changes they needed to accomplish each goal along the way. They don’t compromise on quality at any level, in their images, with their gear or with their relationships.

Well, we’ve gone full circle, right back to Andy Warhol’s quote. Time will never change things as much as you can yourself!

One of the key topics of my program related to the “Big Three”, brides, babies and pets. After speaking last night it sure seems to make sense as a relevant blog topic today!

To start, I absolutely accept that my relationship with my dog is over the top, but here’s what so many photographers forget. Most pet owners are a little nuts about their dogs or cats. In fact, so much so, there are an estimated 170 million households with pets, making pet photography number three in the heirarchy of why people hire a professional photographer!

In a survey done by Kodak years ago and I don’t believe it’s changed one bit, the heirarchy went brides, babies and pets, in that order. What makes the big three exciting is they’re all related and can create a perfectly natural transition for diversity in your business.  Brides have babies and families have pets. The connections between all three couldn’t be more natural to help photographers bring diversity into their business.

Almost four summers ago, children’s photographer, Vicki Taufer launched what’s become the gold standard of community pet events. She offered a free sitting and one 5×7 of your pet if you brought in a donation for the Peoria Animal Shelter.  Vicki and her staff wound up doing over 120 sessions that day, leaving 40 people on the wait-list. It was a classic. Her original purpose was simply to get people to know who she was and see her studio. Today, in addition to her children’s business, she’s become one of the best known pet photographers in the area.

In addition, her promotion became one of the standards for partnerships with other vendors, community involvement and publicity.  I know of at least a half dozen other photographers who took Vicki’s concept and used it as a model to develop their own program, each time customizing the original concept and making it even stronger.

I’m a huge fan of diversity in your business model, especially in this economy. While there are some who feel it’s more important to specialize and stay with one category, e.g. weddings, children, family, seniors etc. I’m a believer it’s critical to never say “Sorry, I don’t do that kind of photography” to a client. I believe you need to be skilled enough to take on just about every request that comes through your door!

Think about the transition. If you did a great job on the wedding and the client loved your images and working with you, then why wouldn’t you want to be there when the first baby was born? And as the family grows, why wouldn’t you want to be there for family reunions, holiday portraits and even their commercial needs, depending on what kind of business they’re in. Brides have babies, babies grow up and become seniors and through the entire cycle their are endless opportunities for professional photography.  Along the way there are opportunities for maternity, weddings, day in the life kid’s portraiture and pets, just to name a few.

Just my two cents on diversity. It sure seems to make sense!