For Photographers

A Taxing Situation

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It’s tax time and many folks are at least thinking about doing their income tax. Professional photographers might want to refresh their knowledge of allowable business expenses.

This list of business expenses should provide a starting point for completing tax form T2125.

This is only a starting point because “you can deduct any reasonable current expense you paid or will have to pay to earn business income.”

“Reasonable” is not defined in (tax) law but it has been shaped through Canada Revenue Agency rulings and technical interpretations. If your tax situation is even slightly complex, a good accountant can come in handy.

 

Life in the Slow Lane

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Most photographers go through a slow period, or two, during the year. Perhaps it’s the time from Christmas to the end of January or maybe it’s during a summer month. It depends on what type of photography you do. So what should a photographer do during a slow period?

What not to do

• Don’t panic (too much).

• Don’t use a slow period to catch up on your TV viewing.

• Don’t buy new gear. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that if you buy a new camera or lens, you’ll get more business. New gear won’t help.

• Don’t have a fire sale. Unlike a retail store, photographers don’t have marked-up merchandise on their store shelves that can be discounted. You have only time on your “store shelf” and, unlike a tangible product, time can’t be restocked.

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Violins and Marketing Photography

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When you play a violin piece, you are a storyteller, and you’re telling a story.

– Joshua Bell

You can replace the violin in that statement with a camera and it would still hold true.

A decade ago, The Washington Post did an unscientific social experiment where Joshua Bell, a well-known classical violinist, dressed in jeans, t-shirt and ball cap, performed incognito in a subway station. The newspaper wanted to see how many morning rush-hour commuters would stop to hear classical music being perfectly played.

On the morning of Friday January 12, 2007, Bell set up inside a Washington DC subway station and placed an open violin case on the ground for donations. The unannounced event was recorded by a hidden camera.

The Post was worried about huge mobs gathering and the possibility of needing police for crowd control. You can probably guess what happened.
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Point me in the wrong direction

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Thinking of starting a photography business?

Your first photography web site and your first business plan will fail. Guaranteed. You will have to make changes and try again. Then more failure and more changes, and more failure and more changes.

If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you won’t get anywhere important. And you won’t know if you’ve arrived anywhere important until you know where’s not important.

You must have a good answer to each of these questions or else you’re in the wrong place:

1) What problem will your business solve?

If your answer is that people want photography then you’re wrong.

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Worth Every Cent

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When someone asks you to work for free, they want photography that’s good enough, pictures that are better than nothing, photos that are worth what they’re paying.

When someone hires you to work for pay, they want photography that’s good, pictures that are better than anything, photos that are worth what they’re paying.

 

 

 

Pre-invoices and Prepayments

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If you need a deposit or a prepayment before the photography takes place, you simply ask the customer for it. Easy, right?

With retail customers, this is a straightforward process. But with some corporate customers, it might require slightly more paperwork.

Some companies can’t, or won’t, issue a prepayment based only on a photographer’s estimate or quote. They may need an invoice. An invoice is a legal request for payment, a quote is not.

How do you invoice a customer for work that hasn’t been done?
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The Wronged Customer

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“The customer is always right” is a well-known saying. But contrary to popular belief, it’s neither a law nor regulation of any kind.

That phrase seems to have gotten its start at least 112 years ago as part of a customer service policy of Marshall Field & Company, a Chicago department store.

A 1905 US newspaper published an article about Marshall Field & Company in which it seemingly quoted what Marshall Field taught his employees, namely that the customer is always right.

Harry Selfridge, a department store executive who worked for Marshall Field, moved to London in 1906 and soon opened his Selfridges & Company department store. He, too, used the phrase “the customer is always right.”
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