Monthly Archives: December, 2009
THE PART WHERE I SEE YOU IN 2010
I’ll be perfectly honest with you, lovely. My life is insane right now. Lots of scurrying and hurrying, wrapping, baking, scheduling, ordering, printing, packaging, prepping, and otherwise busy-fying. You don’t need brand advice right now. You need five minutes of rest and (let’s be honest!) a six-pack of your favorite beer. So here’s me, sending [...]
THE GREAT CONUNDRUM
So, the tour was announced. 3/10 spots were taken immediately. And then the e-mails began. It’s the great conundrum of offering consulting of any kind — the people who most need your services are often the least likely to be able to afford them. If you really need the ability to get your brand off [...]
BRAND CAMP TOUR ANNOUNCED!
I enjoyed your posts and your words of encouragement more than you can know. Haunani and I crunched numbers, agreed on a budget, decided to include a Flip video camera in that budget (Dude, you would have too!), and drew some conclusions. This means that, after some tweaking, a few potential cities were axed. (Memphis, [...]
THE BUSINESS THERAPY TOUR?
I had this crazy idea. My husband looked at me like, “Whhhhaaa!???” And I calmly repeated that I had not yet fleshed out the details, but it was going to be badass. Here’s my idea: I create a roadtrip and stop at the homes of photographers who need help with their business and their branding. [...]
PORTRAIT SESSION ORDERING TIPS
I love getting questions from Brand Camp blog readers! From a lovely photographer in Dallas… Here’s the way it works for my business. I do an in-home client proofing session with projector and large screen. I post them online and give them 10 days to place their orders. I nag them if they don’t. This [...]
SALES BEGIN WITH RESPECT.
I’ve heard all the excuses in the book. My clients are awful. They don’t buy enough. They don’t buy when I want them to. They buy greeting cards and frame them instead of purchasing prints. They scan the prints they bother to purchase. They put my images all over Facebook without my permission. I once [...]
PROJECTION AND SALES MERIT BADGE IS HERE!
You may or may not have noticed the button that appeared at the top of the blog over the weekend — the projection and sales merit badge is here! Upon launching my own portrait business, I decided to start projecting my portrait sessions to increase my business’ customer service and ‘wow’ factor. I then spent [...]
PART III: GETTING YOUR CLIENTS TO BUY MORE STUFF.
We’ve talked about calculating portrait prices and about being brave enough to price your portraits for profit. You have the price of a 5×7. You’re determined to charge appropriately for your time. How do you get your clients to spend X, where X represents your happy place? Portrait collections. I’ll tell you, until I agreed [...]
PART II: WHEN YOU MIGHT ACTUALLY MAKE A PROFIT
A lot of artists base their prices on things like ‘what they think people will pay’ or what they would pay for a product. The sneaky ones just steal other people’s price lists (no, you can’t see mine, lovely, it’s been ripped off enough), while others just choose prices that sound nice. The really crafty [...]
