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Great Expectations

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If anyone else can do the same pictures as you, even an amateur with a cell phone, then you’re probably out of a job.

Every customer expects that you own the necessary camera gear and the appropriate computer and software. They expect you know what you’re doing.

Customers expect that you can do more than just take pictures. After all, anyone can take pictures.

Customers also expect that you:

• Are self-motivated and have up-to-date skills.

• Know something about the legal, moral and ethical issues surrounding photography.

• Understand picture usage and licensing.

• Have suitable people skills.

• Have project management skills.

• Can think and act in the best interest of the customer.

They also expect that you know their expectations.

As a professional photographer, you’re expected to be the expert when it comes to all things photographic. You’re expected to be more than just a camera owner and operator.

Are you marketing yourself as a camera owner and operator or as a photography expert?

An owner and operator markets what equipment they own and their technical abilities. These photographers are essentially nothing more than a human photo booth.

A photography expert markets their experience, their management skills, their willingness to be a team player, their trustworthiness and their effectiveness. This is the best way to show that you’re not just someone with a camera.

Customer expectations are about much more than just pictures.

 

Accounting for yourself

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If you haven’t learned this by now, you must have organized records for your business and these records must be kept for at least six years.

Here’s a brief, alphabetical list of software for accounting, small business management, estimating and invoicing that may be of help to photographers. Some of these are expensive and some are free.

Acclux
Blinkbid
Fotobiz and Fotoquote
Freshbooks
Light Blue
Minutiae
Quickbooks
Studio Cloud
Studio Plus
Tave
Wave
Xero
17 Hats
Zoho Books

 

Insurance for Canadian Photographers

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(Updated August 1, 2023)

It should be obvious that insuring your camera equipment and your business is very important. Some customers and some locations may require that you show proof of insurance (i.e. a certificate of insurance). In some situations you may have to increase your coverage or temporarily add a customer or venue to your policy as an additional insured. Any such additional insurance costs should be billed to the customer.

Here are some Canadian companies that offer photo-related insurance. This is not meant as a recommendation.

Disclosure: I was insured with CG&B Insurance (aka. Unionville Insurance) from about 1985 to 2016. I’ve been insured with Front Row Insurance since 2016.

For annual insurance, I currently pay about $1.22 per $100 of equipment insured, plus $260 for $2M liability insurance, plus other insurance options, plus provincial sales tax. The cost may vary from province to province.

 

PhotoPac from Arthur J. Gallagher Canada is insurance for photographers and filmmakers. Photographers may recall PhotoPac from Unionville Insurance Brokers (late 1970s to mid-1990s). Then it became PhotoPac from CG&B Group (late 1990s to 2010s). It’s now PhotoPac from Gallagher which is part of an international insurance brokerage. Note that the provided link to stepinsure.com is correct but it doesn’t always work which isn’t reassuring.
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Ninety-nine percent chance

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There’s a ninety-nine percent chance that the next potential customer who phones will ask, “How much?”

So how are you going to respond? Just hem and haw? Mumble something like, “It depends”?

Ideally a price should not be given over the phone. It’s always better to use e-mail. When you give a price over the phone, the customer will remember only the price and nothing else you said.

A customer asks “how much” usually because they don’t know what else to ask. While price may be important to them, the true reason they call is that they’re trying to figure out if you’re the right photographer for them. Do you understand their needs? Can you do the work properly? Do they feel reassured by you?

When that inevitable question is asked, you have to be ready without missing a beat. The way to do this is to have a prepared script or checklist which includes a number of questions for the customer, for example:
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Cut out the middleman

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If you’re a photographer who shoots corporate events like conferences and conventions, you may have noticed there are some online businesses that offer to connect you with customers. How nice of them.

Right now, one such European company is sending emails to photographers in Toronto, and apparently also in many other cities around the world, claiming that it has a customer with an urgent need for photo services in the photographer’s area.

If you ignore this email because of its generic nature or because it looks like spam, you’ll get more similar emails in the following weeks and months. The emails have a fake “unsubscribe” link that does nothing.

All these emails claim that this company has yet another customer with an immediate need for photography in your area. Of course, there is no customer. The oddly worded emails are often the same with maybe the name or date of the unidentified event changed.
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Diluting your photography

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A jack of all trades, a master of none.

When a photographer tries to be a jack of all trades, they may actually harm their business.

The Dilution Model [link to PDF] suggests that when a business tries to do too much, customers will have a lower opinion of that business. Or to reverse that, when a business specializes, that business will be considered to be an expert.

Which is the better inkjet printer: a machine that’s only a printer or one that’s a printer, a scanner, a copier and a fax machine?

Which has the best pastry: a bakery that sells only pastry or a store that sells coffee, soup, sandwiches and pastry?

Which is more knowledgeable about bicycles: a department store, a sporting goods store or a bicycle shop?

As a photographer, you have to do multiple types of photography to stay in business. But if you spread yourself too wide or if you’re just vague about what you do, you will reduce the perceived value of your photography.

A customer’s perception of your business directly affects how much they’re willing to pay for your services.

 

Working on Spec

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Working or shooting on spec (speculation) means the photographer does all the work first, and pays all expenses themselves, in the hope that the client will like the finished work and will then pay some sort of fee. Even then, there’s rarely any contract covering the work.

Why would any photographer agree to be exploited like this?

When a potential client asks a photographer to work on spec, it shows that the client doesn’t value the photographer’s time or expertise.

Toronto ad agency Zulu Alpha Kilo (which phonetically spells out its CEO’s first name) this week published a video about working on spec. While not aimed at photographers, it certainly still applies.

 

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