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 you five minutes and virtual beer of beverage of choice. I’ll return when the new year has arrived, and I hope you’ll rock 2010 with me.

Happy happy happy holidays!

(P.S. I was forced in front of the camera for a local newspaper feature, and my business partner Haunani nabbed this bio shot in the loft.  Yay Haunani!)

Want to read it on the blog? THE PART WHERE I SEE YOU IN 2010

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 last part feels like babysitting and drives me crazy and is a waste of my time. I tell them there is a $25 fee if I have to re-post their web gallery.

I don’t like the “pressure them at the slideshow so they’ll buy right then” method because I don’t expect everyone to make $700 decisions on the spot. I used to offer a 10% discount if they order at the slideshow viewing but now that I’ve used Easy as Pie, I don’t want to lower my prices by offering yet another discount.

How do I get customers to get off their asses and place their orders?

Dear Dallas: A few simple tips can change your clients from feet-dragging to downright spiffy order-placer-people. (That’s the very technical term for them. The Latin? Spendmoneyicus-nowicus.)

Call your session an ORDERING session.

Not proofing, previewing, viewing, or revealing. Straight up, cash-taking, money-talking, order-placing ORDERING.

Take portrait orders on the spot.

I absolutely expect people to make $700 portrait-purchasing decisions on the spot. I don’t have the time to hold 2 or 3 ordering sessions to get one order, and I’ll bet you don’t either. I’m not into high pressure sales, but you’ll find that simply having the expectation of ordering yields…orders. If we’ve designated Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. as our ordering session, we’re going to order, dammit!

Offer portrait collections only at the time of your ordering appointment.

In other words, if you’re going to inconvenience me by ‘talking it over’ for three days while your order total drops by 40 to 60 percent, you’re going to be paying a la carte pricing. If you’d like to enjoy the discounts of collection pricing, you’re going to have to order at our convenient and ridiculously awesome in-home ordering appointment.

Narrow the online gallery window to 72 hours.

If your clients absolutely, positively cannot make a decision and are willing to defer to a la carte pricing, let them choose the 72 hours when they’d like to have their order online. If they choose that window, there’s no excuse for a baseball game or concert or cheerleading practice keeping them from placing their order.

Charge a higher gallery republishing fee.

A $25 fee is inconvenient, yes, but if it’s $75 or more, it’s downright profitable! The higher the price, the more likely that this fee will never have to be charged and your orders will be placed on time.

(If you need more tips like this for rocking the sales and projection with your portrait photography clients, I recommend buying the Projection and Sales Merit Badge.    Shameless, I know.)

This has no reason, but it makes me happy.  Stressed about clients? Christmas? Orders? Bills?  AGH?  Just watch.

If you’d like to submit a question for the blog, use the contact form to hit me with it!

Want to read it on the blog? PORTRAIT SESSION ORDERING TIPS

I once had your problems. I spent two years working in a MotoPhoto, which is now closed.  The franchise model is part high-volume, low-end portrait studio and part film-processing lab.

It was while trying to sell the VERY EXPENSIVE $65 Single Pose Package to total strangers that I learned to sell stuff.  If I could just get them to buy three portrait sheets — a sheet being 1 8×10, 2 5×7′s, 3 4×6′s, 4 3.5×5′s, or 8 wallets — I would meet my sales goal.

I laugh at the $65 goal now, but it was very real!  I had to convert people who were given a free sitting and a free 8×10 print into paying customers.  During that conversion process, things often got ugly.  Many customers attempted to bully, cajol, and/or demean me.  They did whatever they thought would get me to lower the price or add some free stuff to their order.

I was new to photography, happy to have a job, and unsure of my skills.  I let people tell me my work wasn’t worth spending $30 on. I let them alter portrait packages, make deals, and generally make me feel like poo in the name of getting a few more dollars in the register.

And then something happened.  I began to respect my work.

When I began to respect my work, others did, too.

Yes, they still tried to heckle me into giving them free stuff, but I could say no.  I could defend my lighting skills, my focal points, and my choice of composition as I grew.  I didn’t apologize for cutting off the top of a child’s head because it let me get closer to their eyes in the shot.  I didn’t apologize for my choices in shooting or in editing.  I stopped apologizing, period, and took charge of the sales sessions that were taking place.

The average sale went from under $65 to over $300. (Remember, it’s a low-end chain!  This was extraordinary!)  I created portrait collections that made sense and that were based on what my clients wanted.   I began to offer retouching as a matter of course and raised prices accordingly.  I asked clients to trust me, and they did.

I expected clients to trust me as a professional, and to pay accordingly for my professionalism.

(Was this enough to save the business?  No.  Out-of-control overhead expenses and diminishing film-processing habits were beyond my reach.  Anyway…)

If you’re still encountering people who refuse to respect your work, your time, or your policies, I’ll bet you’re not respecting yourself first.  It kills me to see individuals on forums who are still griping the same gripes as two years ago without having changed their policies or their pricing to reflect a respect for their own artwork!

Fabulous portrait sales begin with respect for yourself, your time, and the artwork you create.  I can teach you the sales process, but the respect is up to you.

Want to read it on the blog? SALES BEGIN WITH RESPECT.

Consider this your permission.

If you adore something, use it.  Show it.  Embrace your love of plaid, your preppy side, your polka dotted background.  (Keep your clients in mind, of course, but don’t let anyone tell you x, y, or z is awful if you find it remarkable.)

If you hate something, don’t do it.  If you loathe blogging, find another way to reach your audience.  If you are nauseated by traditional portraits, don’t show them on your website.  If you abhor color photos, shoot only black and white.  If you retch at the thought of digital photography, shoot film.

Consider this your permission.

You are good enough.  You are brave enough.  You can treat yourself and your artwork with dignity.

Consider this your permission.

Get out there and fail without beating yourself up about it.  Get out there and make a friend, work with a business, hold a contest, try out a promotion.  If it fails, minimize it.  If it succeeds, pat yourself on the back.

Consider this your permission to succeed.

Be the fullest, bravest you on the planet.  Learn and grow, certainly, but celebrate your progress as well.

Consider this your permission.

I was twenty years old and completing my degree in English before someone told me I didn’t have to read a book simply because I’d started it.  It’s so simple, right?  I just needed permission.

Let this be your permission.

Want to read it on the blog? CONSIDER THIS YOUR PERMISSION.

For God’s sake, the snowman has a unibrow.

horrid photos courtesy of my iphone

This is also, I have to remind myself, a first attempt.  I’ve never piped icing from a bag or assembled a house made of gingerbread.  The fact that it’s still standing is a testament to my progress in the happenin’ world of gingerbread houses.

The same principle applies to business.  If this is your first business, and particularly your first few years in business, you’re a work in progress.  It’s easy to say you’ve effed up your application of royal icing or your snowman is leaning precariously to the side.

For a moment, though, let’s consider your progress.  This year, have you:

• seen an increase in web traffic?
• created a blog?
• maintained a blog?
• learned about search engine optimization?
• learned about marketing?
• expanded your e-mail marketing list?
• learned about topics critical to your business through books, blogs, or workshops?
• grown your client list?
• marketed your business through another business?
• launched a new website?
• tweaked an existing website?
• tweaked your pricing for maximum profit?
• made a photographer friend?

Your gingerbread house of a business may not be perfect, but I’ll wager that it IS making progress.  Take a moment to remind yourself of your own accomplishments.  And even if you’re following a gumdrop master in the ways of business, take heart.  NO ONE has it all together.  No business owner’s past is free of mistakes and failures.

Want to read it on the blog? CELEBRATE YOUR PROGRESS

You see, my old website was built entirely on trying to one-up other photographers in the U.S.  (Not my region or the state, mind you, but THE COUNTRY.)  And to one-up the whole country, to ‘do what’s never been done,’ well…

You have to pull out all the stops.  You have to have bells and whistles.  Flying chandeliers, tweeting birds, blinking text, the works.

Photographers went NUTS over my old website.  Seriously.  Batshit insane. Just today, someone told me it was their favorite photography website of all time.

But clients?  You know, those people who hire me and pay the bills?

They weren’t big fans.  Inquiries dropped.  Web traffic dropped.

To potential clients, I was the kid at the holiday concert who plays air guitar and stagedives during the class rendition of ‘Silent Night.’

The kid who’s oblivious to awkward silence.  The one wearing Grandma’s reindeer sweater while rocking the imaginary mosh pit.  That kid.

(Or I was Smelly Cat. The jury is out.)

I was too busy looking sideways to see my clients.  I was so worried about other photographers that I forgot to be worried about my clients’ needs.  The current Essential Imagery website is a result of sincere reflection on my part.  It educates them about my brand, outlines the needs I can fill, and provides only a dab of personality aside from the portrait images.  In other words, it’s exactly what they’re looking for.

How have you been held back by looking sideways?  Who do you compare yourself to, and how can you stop the comparisons?  How can you fulfill the needs of your clients today?  How can you get yourself on the road to looking forward — right into the eyes of new clients?

Want to read it on the blog? LOOKING SIDEWAYS

Yesterday’s grocery excursion wasn’t that bad, though, and here’s why: I rearranged my to-do list.

Generally, I just choose to do the tasks on my to-do list in any order, but yesterday I rearranged them from LEAST to MOST desirable.  It’s not rocket science, but it made all the difference in my mood.  Instead of having enjoyed an hour shoe shopping and then trolling for carrots and sale-priced spinach, I rolled my cart through the aisles at a record pace to get to trying on scores of lovely leather boots.

I challenge you to do the same!

Order your to-do list from icky to awesome, then start with icky.  Your days will only get better, and those tasks you always put off doing will actually get done.

(The shoes in question…)

Want to read it on the blog? INCREASE YOUR PRODUCTIVITY WITH ONE SIMPLE CHANGE

The bad thing about being an artist is, no formal education is required.  So if we know someone, somewhere might have the knowledge we need, we can end up paying a king’s ransom to get it.

Some of the photography workshops I’ve attended have been less valuable than, say, reading a chapter of a business book on the fly in Barnes & Noble.  The good ones have made me a smarter business person and a better artist.

So, how do you know which workshops are worth your time and cash?

First, what’s my return on investment?

If you spend $600 to learn to paint better, when will you get that money back?  Can you afford to attend a workshop focusing on creative growth?  How about one focused on helping to build your business?

Having a magical, moonlit experience complete with twice-daily full-body massage and magical elf bodyguards is great if budget is no option.  But the rest of us need to weigh the costs and benefits of attending a workshop.

Is the workshop selling hopes/dreams/promises/unicorns or practical  knowledge?

If the sole purpose of a workshop is to get me revved up about all that hypothetical money I could be making, well…no thank you.  Those fantasies of living on an island sipping pina coladas are FREE if I have them at home, but cost thousands to enjoy at a workshop.

Be sure the workshop website lists clear objectives for the content that will be covered during the workshop.  Further, be sure those objectives are vital to the success of your creative business.

Are the results of the workshop speakers repeatable?

Did the workshop speakers catch a lucky break (having a millionaire father to fund their first few years in business, for example), or did they build their business from scratch? Are they promising to teach you how to sell $250 8×10″ prints (not necessarily repeatable), or are they promising to show you how to price your work confidently for your market (totally repeatable!)?  The former is a strategy that may or may not work for you, but the latter is of the utmost value to your growth as an artist.

Do the workshop speakers practice what they preach?

If the workshop focuses on great branding and high-end design, do the speakers’ websites exhibit these principles?  If a photographer is teaching the basics of off-camera lighting, are they demonstrating this knowledge in their portfolio?  Speakers looking to make a quick buck vary greatly from those who legitimately want to help other artists learn.

That said, I wholeheartedly endorse:

One-Light.

Shootshops.

And the now-defunct Learnfest.

Want to read it on the blog? HOW TO KNOW WHICH WORKSHOPS WILL WORK FOR YOU

So I bought the audio from a very well publicized call-in teleconference last week.  And, don’t get me wrong, a lot of it is excellent and I consider my money was well spent.

Would have liked to hear more people who have started a business in the last couple of years in a busy market.  Marketing for an unknown person is different from marketing for someone who has been around forever.  Plus, with the economy, it’s a whole new game.

My humble food for thought, for those who haven’t been in business for 10+ years? (Note: I actually do these things.  And I’m working on the patience thing.)

1.) Start a referral program.

Get off the computer and make friends. Real-life, in-person friends.  Service-based regional businesses like portrait photography are based largely on word-of-mouth.  You can advertise with Google AdWords for 6 years before getting your perfect client, or you can ask your previous perfect client to refer people to you and offer a sweet reward for doing so.

One client referring three clients = four clients, who refer three clients = seven clients!  You’re building a base!

2.) Make friends with a business owner.

Many of my clients come from, of all places, a display in an award-winning bakery.  Not a children’s boutique or a children’s spa — the natural businesses to align with mine — so think outside the box.  If you frequent a business and enjoy both the products it offers and the owner, why not ask if you can display with them?  Offer free artwork for their business, and use their services as often as possible.  Exchange links on your websites, and build one another up.

3.) Throw a pity party.

Allow yourself a brief pity party that goes something like, “I HATE IT AND WANT TO QUIT AND IT’S STUPID AND I DON’T WANT TO RETURN THAT CLIENT’S CALL OR BALANCE THE BOOKS OR UPDATE MY WEBSITE OR EDIT ONE MORE MOTHER ‘EFFIN PHOTO IN LIGHTROOM!!!  THIS!! IS!! HARD!!”

Truth be told, I do this once every three weeks.  Allow yourself to feel what you’re feeling.  Acknowledge that this business thing isn’t easy, then move on.  You can do this.

4.) I’m serious about items 1 and 2 — offline support for your product is utterly essential to your survival.  Go make friends!

Want to read it on the blog? WHAT ABOUT THE NEWBIES?

Truth is, branding is a constantly evolving process.  Yep, evolving.  Like, it’s never done.  Ever.

An example:

In March, my portrait website got a makeover.  Holy CRAP, I thought it was the best thing ever.  It was ‘unlike anything I’d ever seen before’ and fresh and funny and a bit witty.

Unfortunately, it’s a bit tricky to navigate, a bit cluttered, a bit heavy on the transition effects, and a bit lacking in the usability department.  It also has the SEO-optimization of your Grandma’s knee-high stocking collection.

So basically, this website that was TOTALLY THE SHIZZLE TO ME six months ago is mostly embarrassing to me now.  And by mostly, I mean…I’m surprised anyone has hired me with it in place, ever.

This is because as my knowledge evolves, my brand evolves.  And as my brand evolves, elements have to be reworked.  It’s a process that never ends…though if you do a really good job, you get more of a shelf life between re-works.  Take heart.  Keep working on it.  And celebrate with a keg stand at regular intervals, of course.

Want to read it on the blog? IT'S EVOLUTION, BABY!