Wait .. what?!?!?
Yeah that's right. After nearly a year in business for myself I can say in all honesty that I spend the majority of my time working on the business, and don't taking photos or videos. It's not what I pictured myself being when I started this journey. So lets be honest with ourselves, we are business people first and photography is the icing on the cake.
So what does this mean? We'll quite a lot actually. It means that you have to approach your photographic life with that in mind. It means that you have to be able to switch from creative mind to business mind, and sometimes do that quickly. I recently experienced that when I was on a project and a client, in the middle of the shoot, started talking about a completely different project. I was not in the right mind set of that, and it showed. I was asked to talk about pricing for this new task and in a little bit of a panic said, "Can we talk in detail about this when we get this part done?" They did say yes and sorry and we got on with the project at hand. It was good that I did, the new project was complex and time consuming. If I'd given a quick estimate then and there, I would have seriously under-charged. I would have not been happy shooter.
Now this was a little off putting, however the client was in that head space. They wanted to talk, and talk now. So I had to change. Let's not get into why they choose to do this, second guessing peoples methods or motivations is just counter productive. We did talk about the project after the one we were completing was nearly done and I was able to focus on what they were saying.
So as a rule, I don't do quick quotes or even estimates. It's a recipe for disaster, you rarely get enough information to make effective decisions on how long it might take to do the project and what it might involve. Still you're there, the current project is happening and you have to think in a business like manner so you don't say something that commits you to a course of action that doesn't work for you.
So what else does it mean? It means that you need to know what your business is doing, i.e. the books, and how much does it cost you to run your business, provide for you and your family. This cost will vary from person to person, and you can't charge your rates and what someone else does. Maybe they're happy eating instant noodles every night, I know I'm not. I want to pay the mortgage, get my kids in to a good school, and invest. So there has be a cut off on what jobs I take and which ones I don't. I do know, down to the cent, how much it costs me to run my business, on a week by week, and annual amount. This gives me a really strong goal, how many jobs I need to do in the year, and how much I need to earn to achieve my goals. I can look at a given month and know that I have reached my target, or if I'm short, or I've kicked it out of the park (I like those months).
If I have had a good month, I can say no to the small jobs that the client wants to pay nothing for, and is incredibly difficult and demanding. This is just such a wonderful feeling, to say no. Liberating and empowering. Having said that, knowing your monthly goals sometimes means that you know you're coming up short and you need to hustle, get out there, network and get things going. I've talked about this before here, and here. In fact I have a few more ideas on marketing (or letting people know you exist), I should do another post about it.
So realising that you need to be business-person, is really a mind shift you need to make. Without it life can get really hard. More than that, you can loose money, the business, friendships, family.. the consequences are real. Just think of all those kids getting out of photographic schools these days, how many last more than two years? How many are still going, or flipping burgers at McDs?
So I'd like to impart a piece of free advise.. get a business mentor. For over a decade I've had a photographic mentor, and he has always been great. He was my wedding photographer all those years ago. We hit it off and he's a good friend now. He's very straight up with me and calls me on things that I do that aren't right. I always try to buy him a beer when we meet up.
This year I got the chance to get a business mentor and I jumped at it straight away. It's been great so far. The guy is on the same wavelength as me. We seem to have hit it off and talk the same lingo. I was a little nervous when we first met, but I feel relaxed enough to show him my books. He's outside my trade so I'm not sharing information with my competition, and he's a paid professional business mentor, so I know that he knows what he's talking about. He's able to look at the business from the outside, see what gaps I have missed, give friendly advise on what to do and what not to do.
Family is great, but more often than not they aren't business people, and because they know you or have invested in your business, or have other motivations, won't give you good objective advise. If you're lucky you have someone that can, and good for you.
The thing that I have really appreciated is the suggestions and even the homework. Yep, I asked for homework and assignments. The reason I did this was that I am a goal focus person. I achieve when I get clearly defined goals. It's a real driver for me. I feel good when I complete the goals, it gives me the reason to buy a coffee to reward myself. It picks me up when I feel a bit tired or down, hey I did achieve something this week!
Look around and find a professional mentor group, or association, whoever.
Good shooting and good business.
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