Something that I didn't really realise on this adventure is how much of my waking thought it would take up! There's at lot to think about to be honest. From actually doing photography to meeting clients, to marketing, sales, production. The list seems to go on and on.
So here's the thing. Some how you've got to balance things out. Time for relaxing, family, whatever you need to get through the day. It's been a little harder to manage than I thought it would be. After so many years working for others, it was easy to go home at the end of the day with the work done, and not worry about if the business will survive tomorrow?
In my limited and made up experience, so far, you have to get good at compartmentalise things. It's easier to say than do. Will a young toddler in the house I find it difficult to get the this to work for me. My little one is very daddy centric at the moment which sucks up a lot of my time, leaving not much in the afternoon and evenings for the business or me. It's great being a full time photographer, father, husband and then some where along the line a person too.
I have tried some time management solutions, such as set times for set tasks. Emails in the morning, phone calls after 9:30, to give clients and potential clients time to get settled in to their day and have the first or second coffee of the day. Afternoon is planning or post production, and by the time it's 4pm I have to think of getting dinner started. It's a down side to working from home. The line between home tasks and house tasks is never an easy thing to balance. My wife often gives me a long list of stuff to achieve, and it is hard to explain that this gig is a full time thing. An hour during the day doing a choir is an hour not doing the business. Since there isn't anyone else to pick up the slack, that means it just doesn't get done.
Still part of this post is to help me map this out in my head, figure solutions, and make it work. At the end of the day, above all else, this has to work. The spectre of working at retail, or hospitality scares the pants off me so I HAVE TO MAKE THIS WORK, 'cause there is no way you're going to get me to give up photography.
So for anyone that's listening, comment below, put up your two cents worth and let me know how you deal with this dilema, I'd really like to hear and try something new that might just help me out.
And yes.. I know I have to take a concrete pill and harden up.
Tuesday, 31 March 2015
The endless phone calls.
It's the old thing, you don't market, no one knows you're there.
SERIOUSLY, it's no joke, the very moment you stop making the effort to be on the business stage in your community, you disappear. Unless of course your world famous, read Anne Getties, Annie Leibovitz, David Hobby, etc etc.
So you jump on the phone, call someone, reach out and make a contact. Offer your service, and hopefully some magic comes!
But more often than not it's a no, or wrong time. (No but you need to hire me now .. I often feel!!)
Dig in feel the pain and lean in. Keep going, things will happen. Work hard and do the best you can on each and every job. You'll get there.
It's the mantra I keep telling myself everyday.
Having said that, things make up for it when you get the yes, come and talk to us. It's like the sun came out from behind the clouds after 12 weeks of rain! The other day I jumped out of chair and danced a little dance in my little office. Very excited. Meeting booked and I was very happy for the rest of the hour. Until I picked up the phone to call someone else and .. no thank you. Bugger. Still you get that and you have to cherish those times when things are going your way.
To quote someone .. "Gnothi seauton" ~ some Greek Philosopher. You might recognise it from such films as The Matrix, where Neo goes to see the oracle. It means "Know thyself".
But it's a quote and famous because it's true. Business is something that if you want to succeed, at you have to commit and when you commit, you tend to find out a lot about yourself. For me I'm a very good photographer, but not so strong at the books (read really really crap at it, and I hate doing it). But I schedule in that special time of the month in to the diary when I lean into the pain and just do it. (Nike reference there).
So at this point the parts of the business I hate and suck at are .. not in any order ..
SERIOUSLY, it's no joke, the very moment you stop making the effort to be on the business stage in your community, you disappear. Unless of course your world famous, read Anne Getties, Annie Leibovitz, David Hobby, etc etc.
So you jump on the phone, call someone, reach out and make a contact. Offer your service, and hopefully some magic comes!
But more often than not it's a no, or wrong time. (No but you need to hire me now .. I often feel!!)
Dig in feel the pain and lean in. Keep going, things will happen. Work hard and do the best you can on each and every job. You'll get there.
It's the mantra I keep telling myself everyday.
Having said that, things make up for it when you get the yes, come and talk to us. It's like the sun came out from behind the clouds after 12 weeks of rain! The other day I jumped out of chair and danced a little dance in my little office. Very excited. Meeting booked and I was very happy for the rest of the hour. Until I picked up the phone to call someone else and .. no thank you. Bugger. Still you get that and you have to cherish those times when things are going your way.
To quote someone .. "Gnothi seauton" ~ some Greek Philosopher. You might recognise it from such films as The Matrix, where Neo goes to see the oracle. It means "Know thyself".
But it's a quote and famous because it's true. Business is something that if you want to succeed, at you have to commit and when you commit, you tend to find out a lot about yourself. For me I'm a very good photographer, but not so strong at the books (read really really crap at it, and I hate doing it). But I schedule in that special time of the month in to the diary when I lean into the pain and just do it. (Nike reference there).
So at this point the parts of the business I hate and suck at are .. not in any order ..
- The books
- Marketing
- Getting going on my own projects
- Cold calling!
So nothing that wouldn't sink the business then, much. It's good to know and being aware makes it easier for me to work on. When you get to work on things like, it does make it easier to solve the problems. Here's where my military training kicks in, with the old four D's.
- Do.
- Dump.
- Defer.
- Delegate.
Do it because, well sometimes you need to learn from it, or just plain old have to.
Dump it, because.. it's not right, it doesn't work, you don't need it, whatever. Just make sure that you're not doing this, whatever it is for damn good reasons.
Defer it until you can, whether that's time, ability, affordability, access to resources, whatever.
and here's my favourite
Delegate... in my case, to the accountant. The specialist that does this better than I ever could and gets my business, how I run, and what I want to achieve. Delegate to give you time at the things that work for you. For me that's photography and video. I don't earn money learning how to be an accountant. Don't get me wrong, I do my cash book, I know where every cent goes, and why (yes I kick myself on those extra coffees that I shouldn't have put on the business account!). But the moment I stop taking pictures or doing post production work is the moment I stop earning money. It's a balancing act and often you have to do something simply because you can afford to pay someone to do it for you.
It could be to an assistant, a gaffer, editor, colour grader, whatever. Just make sure you're delegating for the right reasons, and be sure that you don't let go 100 %. You still need to manage the result, to get what you want and what you're paying for. Delegation is not abdication of responsibility.
One day when I'm really rich .. I'll have a staff to do all the shitty jobs I don't like. One day.
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