Three Little Rules

No Comments

A recent book, The Three Rules (link to PDF), written by Michael Raynor and Mumtaz Ahmed confirms that competing on price is not a successful business strategy.

The two business authors spent five years studying more than 25,000 companies, in hundreds of industries, covering a 45-year span. They narrowed down the list of companies to 344. These were companies whose long-term success was not due to luck but rather to specific business decisions.

They found that these companies did three things in common from which the authors formulated their three rules for how successful companies think:
Continue reading →

How Not To Run A Photo Business

No Comments

Many photographers struggle with their pricing. This is normal. The best way for a photographer to establish their business is to understand how their business operates. They also should learn how any business operates.

A photographer learns to price according to *their* location, *their* business plans and *their* market positioning. This takes time and effort and mistakes will be made along the way.

And then there are photographers who like to take shortcuts.

Pretend Professional

I got a phone call today from someone claiming to be an office manager. She said they needed some business portraits. She asked how much I charged, how the pictures would be shot, whether I use softboxes or umbrellas, what type of backgrounds are best, how the photos are selected, what amount of retouching I do, and how the pictures would be delivered. After I answered all her questions, she suddenly hung up.
Continue reading →

More than just cost

No Comments

It seems that the mantra of most businesses is “cut costs”. Many companies are not just concerned about controlling their costs but also about reducing costs to the absolute minimum. These companies want to spend less but still, somehow, earn more.

Most companies view a professional photographer as an expense. So they immediately think that photography is a cost like any other and it has to be minimized. This is the barrier that a commercial or corporate photographer has to get around. There are two ways to do this:

1) Be the cheapest photographer in town.

2) Stop being seen as an expense but rather as an investment.

Continue reading →

Consistent Business Portraits

No Comments

A potential corporate client reached out, requesting a photographer who could replicate the look of their previous business portraits. Their new employees needed headshots that matched the style of the existing ones.

Matching previous portraits is a common request, and it reflects a company’s understanding of the importance of consistency in business messaging. Consistency fosters a sense of stability, which in turn builds trust.

Trust is built with consistency. – Lincoln Chafee, US state governor

It’s typically easy to match the style of existing business portraits but I asked the company to provide samples of the previous images, just to be sure.

Oiy!
Continue reading →

Failing A Class

No Comments

It’s not even necessary to read the news story. The picture says it all.

In a Grade 2 class photo, all the students are grouped together in the centre. Except one. A student in a wheelchair is off to the side. The child’s father said he cried when he saw the photo.

The picture is not just thoughtless, it’s also bad photography. It shows how not to do a group photo. The picture is what you get from an inexperienced photographer. School portrait companies, in this case, Lifetouch, are notorious for having a high turnover of photographers.

Lifetouch says, “Our school photographers take their role in preserving memories seriously” and “Our school photographers are committed to making each child feel special and valued.” It seems the company failed this class.
Continue reading →

Prisoners or Pictures?

No Comments

When did “photograph” become a bad word?

When writing online about their pictures, some folks will use statements like, “I captured this on…”, “this was captured at…”, “my favourite capture of the week”, “sunset captures from my vacation”, “holiday captures”, “best wedding captures”, “creative pet captures” and “candid kid captures.”

On sites where viewers can leave comments to posted pictures, people often write things such as “Nice capture!”, “Cool capture!”, “How did you capture that?”, “Lovely detail in that capture” and “I love the feel of this capture.”

There are many sites that offer tips on how to capture a winning photo, how to capture the perfect picture and how to capture your children.
Continue reading →

Fear Photography

No Comments

As a photographer, which would you prefer: lots of low-paying customers or only a few high-paying customers? For example:

Photographer A shoots three business portraits every week at $100 each. His annual gross revenue is 3 X $100 X 52 = $15,600.

Photographer B does only one business portrait every other week at $600. Her annual gross is 1 x $600 x 26 = $15,600.

Which is better: low price with high volume or high price with low volume?
Continue reading →

css.php