Invoicing Basics

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A photographer won’t get paid unless they send an invoice to the customer. For some silly reason, most businesses refuse to send out cheques just for the fun of it. After a photo assignment is completed, send an invoice. There’s no grace period required. It’s not necessary to wait a few days or weeks to avoid looking greedy.

Your invoice must contain your contact information, a date, an invoice number and your tax number(s). The invoice should spell out what the photo assignment was. A photo editor may not remember every assignment. The customer’s accounting department won’t know what your invoice is for.

Sometimes the person who hires you is not the person who will receive the invoice. So make sure you know to whom the invoice is sent. Always ask the customer if they require a Purchase Order number or any other reference number included on the invoice.
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Canadian GST / HST tax form

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This article was posted in 2012. Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has since made changes to the GST/HST filing process. Back in 2012, taxable and non-taxable (zero rated) sales were included together. Starting in 2016, taxable and non-taxable sales have been separated. This means that the GST/HST form mentioned below is out of date. The CRA has not published an updated form because it wants you to file GST/HST only online.

 

Back in 2010, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) made it mandatory for businesses to file quarterly GST/HST tax returns electronically. As much as electronic filing is fast and easy, the instructions were, and still are, poorly explained. Fortunately the CRA continued to mail a paper copy of the tax form so you could follow the instructions on the paper copy when filing your GST/HST electronically.

About a year ago, the CRA stopped sending the paper copy of the GST/HST tax form. So now, when filing a tax return electronically, you have to remember (or guess) each step of the tax return. For example, you’re asked to enter a dollar amount for “Line 108” – Uh, what the heck was Line 108 again?
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Photo Licensing Saves Money

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Did you know that it’s cheaper to buy a house than rent a hotel room?

A mid-range Toronto hotel room might be $160/night. That works out to $4,800 per month which is higher than the average monthly mortgage payment on a house in Toronto. But since a customer needs a hotel room for only a short time, that $160 nightly room rental is 3,000 times cheaper than the average $480,000 house.
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Risk Management

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If the pictures aren’t important then your company can hire the cheapest photographer it can find. After all, if the pictures don’t turn out, only a small amount of money was wasted. You can can hire another photographer to re-shoot the photos.

But when the pictures are important, when there’s a tight deadline, when the photos can’t be re-shot or when corporate image is at stake, then there’s risk involved. Why would you compound this risk by hiring the cheapest photographer?

Smart companies will always hire an experienced photographer who knows how to minimize risk.

Minimizing risk includes such things as being insured, having backup equipment, location scouting, anticipating potential problems and dealing with them before they become problems, understanding the flow of an event, exposure bracketing, frame bracketing, having digital backups, having alternative picture ideas, and knowing camera limitations and how to get beyond those limitations.

All of this extra time, equipment and experience costs money but they all help reduce risk to you and your company.

When reputation, credibility and money are at stake, can any business risk going cheap?

 

Public Relations Laugh

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A political party in Alberta launched its provincial election campaign by unveiling its new bus. As is popular with most political campaigns, the bus was wrapped to look like a gigantic billboard. But no one bothered to properly proof the final layout.

A photo of the party’s female leader was placed in a rather unfortunate position over the rear wheels of the bus.

After a day of negative attention and being laughed at, the party says it will replace the $10,000 wrap. That’s an expensive do-over.

(Edit: a week later, the party is still being laughed at.)
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Advertising or Public Relations

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What’s the difference between advertising and public relations?

The short answer is:

Advertising is bought from a media outlet’s sales department.

Public relations is received free from a media outlet’s news department.

Guess which one has more credibility?
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