freelancing

Let’s make it a date

1 Comment

Sometimes a potential client will ask a photographer, “What day is good for you?” or “When are you available next month?”

The photographer should never answer with something like, “Oh, any time is good for me” or “I’m open on the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 20th, 21st, 25th and 28th of next month.”

Both of these answers suggest that the photographer is sitting around doing nothing. While this may very well be true, there’s no need to broadcast that business is slow. If a restaurant has no customers, something must be wrong with its food, right?
Continue reading →

Telling not selling

No Comments

Most photographers don’t want to be a salesperson selling photography. Many hate to advertise or promote themselves. Most don’t want to call attention to themselves by yelling, “Hire me!”

Photographers generally just want to go out, make some nice pictures and then have a cheque magically arrive in the mail. Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way. You must show loud confidence in your business. If you’re not confident about you then the customer won’t be confident about you.

In the previous post, I wrote about advertising, marketing and being remarkable. In that post, it was suggested that advertising isn’t always the best option when marketing a business. But other forms of marketing are possible and even required.

Continue reading →

List of ingredients

No Comments

Many years ago, professional photographers would often state that they used Nikon, Hasselblad or Sinar cameras. By pointing out that they used these highly-regarded brands, the photographers were hoping to be seen as being more professional than photographers who used other camera brands.

If a commercial client knew the photographer was using a Nikon, Hasselblad or Sinar, that client would be more confident that the photo assignment would be a success.

“Ingredient branding” is when an ingredient or component of a product or service has its own brand identity. An ingredient brand adds its own brand value to a business, product or service. Ingredient branding can help differentiate and elevate a business or product from its competitors. This can influence customer preference and help support higher pricing.

Well-known examples of ingredient brands are Gore-tex, Intel, Teflon, NutraSweet, Shimano, Lycra, Kevlar and Dolby.
Continue reading →

Eight days a week

No Comments

If a photographer wants to gross $100,000 per year, all they have to do is:

Make $50/hour, forty hours per week, fifty weeks of the year.

Or, do just one $275/day newspaper job every day of the year.

Or, shoot just one $1,925 corporate assignment per week.

Or, just one $3,850 wedding every other week.

Or, complete just one $8,340 advertising job per month.

Or, shoot just one $100,000 international marketing campaign per year.

Easy right?

 

Stop me if you’ve heard this

1 Comment

What’s the definition of an optimist?

A freelance photographer with a mortgage.

 

What’s the definition of an optimist?

A freelancer who opens a savings account.

 

What’s the difference between a freelance photographer and a savings bond?

One of them eventually matures and earns money.

Continue reading →

Photo Scam Warning

10 Comments

There are several e-mail scams aimed at photographers. Most start with the sender of the e-mail saying that they came upon the photographer’s web site and they love the pictures. The person will have some sort of urgent photo assignment in the photographer’s area and wants to hire the photographer right away. The person will offer to pay in full in advance.

If the photographer falls for this, the scammer will send a payment cheque for far too much money. When the honest photographer points out this “mistake,” the scammer will apologize and ask the photographer to refund the excess money as quickly as possible. The trusting photographer will be told to wire the money asap. The scammer’s original cheque will later bounce and the photographer will lose whatever money they sent to the scammer.

Another version of this scam is that after the scammer has sent a (fake) cheque, they will say the event has been cancelled and they need the money wired back to them as quickly as possible.
Continue reading →

Better than nothing?

No Comments

Earlier this week, British journal Occupational Environmental Medicine published an  article with the catchy title: “The psychosocial quality of work determines whether employment has benefits for mental health: results from a longitudinal national household panel survey”.

This Australian study looked at the relationship between the mental health of 7,155 people and the quality of their employment. The study suggests that a bad job may be worse than no job at all:

Overall, unemployed respondents had poorer mental health than those who were employed. However the mental health of those who were unemployed was comparable or superior to those in jobs of the poorest psychosocial quality.

The study concluded:

Work of poor psychosocial quality does not bestow the same mental health benefits as employment in jobs with high psychosocial quality.

Of course, most photographers already knew this.

This is why professional photographers don’t accept bad contracts or ridiculously low-paying jobs. It’s never wrong to turn down a bad deal. Bad deal => bitter photographer => stress and poor mental health.

Photographers, who love what they do, must respect their profession by charging proper fees. Doing anything less harms the photographer both financially and mentally.

 

css.php