Why I do what I do... And some personal musings -

My morning routine is a little different than most people. I’m up around 5. I eat breakfast at home (a scramble of eggs, black beans, chicken, fresh tomatoes and spinach). Oh! Wait! Major tangent here ...

A little over a month ago, inspired by Kevin Swan, Chris Becker (who I actually think I’m supposed to call just “Becker” but that seems really strange to me so I’m going to keep calling him this if he doesn’t mind too much - which he actually may.. so hmmmm ... ok, seems really weird but - er) “Becker,” and a few others in the photography business as well as by the fact that I serve a world of professional photographers who insist on taking pictures of my fat self everywhere I go, I decided to try out the 4 Hour Diet. I had read the book and talked with some friends who know about such things as nutritional science and with their blessing and the promise that I could lose 20 pounds in 30 days and if I was willing to alter my lifestyle and eating choices in some very manageable ways, not only would I continue to lose weight but I would also keep it off, I set off. (that sentence is positively Faulkner-Esque!) Well, 32 or so days later I am more than 20 pounds lighter. I feel great. I am still fat in my own eyes (the only ones that count) but 200 lbs is in sight and my weekend bike rides are more fun already. So thanks Kevin and, er (still feels weird but I’ll get used to it I guess), “Becker” for showing the way...

Ok, tangent over.

Like I said, my morning routine is a little different. I eat breakfast out of a cup in my truck on my way to the gym. (I know - it’s not safe - yada yada - write the NTSB about it - there are exactly 12 other people on the road at that time and they all know to watch out for the semi erratic Ford F150 weaving its way down the road). It’s about a 35 minute drive. I get caught up on the major news stories (KNX Newsradio here in Los Angeles is an excellent source - though I have to confess I don’t like morning anchor Dick Helton’s style all that much) and listen to some country radio. Once at the gym I “ride” (I guess that’s the right verb) the elliptical trainer for about 45 minutes, stretch, do sit ups (which I hate but which are good for my terminally bad back), and then shower, change and stop by Starbucks for my Venti Pikes, no room, no sugar, before getting to the office, most days these days, around 7.

That may be TMI. I dunno. It’s what I do. The reason I got to thinking about it is because all of this time gives me a lot of time to think. And when I have a lot of time to think I spend most of that time thinking about my clients (all, I-don’t-know-how-many thousand of you). Some days I think about all of the ways I/we suck. Some days I am frustrated that there are many ways that we no longer suck that don’t seem to make a difference. Some days I think about all of the ways you suck. (oops! am I supposed to say that out loud?) But frankly most days I find myself falling into a kind of mental retrospective of inspiration.

One month in to my first year at Pictage (which was exactly two years ago today, give or take a day) someone asked me what I like the most about my job. It was a challenge then and much bigger challenges loomed to be sure. But the reason my friend had asked the question was because he’d seen a change. I was happier. I liked work. I didn’t even mind taking the brunt of so many frustrated customers (frustrated about stuff that happened long before I got here and frustrated about stuff that was still happening). What was it about this job that made me happy?

The answer then and now is an easy one. I love serving professional photographers. Now don’t worry. I’m not going to go all sappy motivational speaker on you. But it’s true. I love what you all do. I am amazed at your vision and your craft. I am amazed at your willingness to give of your time and talent. As a long time blundering student of photography myself, I know how hard many of the things you do actually are. I wish I could do them myself. Some of you have had the time and patience to try to teach me and that’s been great.

Here’s my thought for a (Good) Friday. Keep it up. Don’t get distracted by the storms. That’s such a time suck. We’ll make a deal. You keep pushing and I will too. There are a whole series of pretty amazing things getting ready to jump out of your grandmother’s old Pictage. Most of these will launch in May. What’s going to launch in your business? Why will you be different in June than you were in April? Never stop. What’s next is what’s important.

Onward!

Getting Through to Tomorrow.

A little while ago I published a post on the Pictage forums about trying to look up. I wasn’t really shaking my finger or anything like that, but I wanted to point out that the flow of conversation had really begun to focus on the negative. I’m not a hugely positive person. I’m not prone to seeing the glass as half full. Most of the time for me the glass can be overflowing and I’ll be griping about the waste or predicting where the glass is going to fail, when, and why. It’s in my wiring. When I let that side of me get a grip it slows me down.

I use words like ‘onward,’ and phrases like “what’s next is what’s important” as reminders, as much to myself as to my readers that I need to keep my head up. Forget about criticizing what is so much and focus on the things I need to do to be successful. I have a whole group of people who I’ve surrounded myself with who are extremely good at telling me all of the different ways I suck. An even larger group of folks is really good at telling me how my company sucks. (this group is startlingly large! I’m lucky I’m ambitious and probably a little overconfident!) Fixing these things is my priority. The time I spend griping about these things is wasted.

In response to my thread, Elizabeth Myer, a Raleigh, North Carolina photographer and frequent forum contributer posted this beautiful story...

One evening, an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said the battle is between two wolves inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride and ego.

One is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, generosity, truth, compassion, benevolence and faith.

The boy thought about it for a moment and asked his grandfather, "Which wolf wins the battle?"

The wise old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

I’ve since heard this story in a couple of different settings, but the moral is always the same. Which side of the battle are you feeding?

A pretty interesting thought for a Wednesday.

JC

Exit Strategy - Long term thoughts in a here today, gone tomorrow world.

Exit Strategy ... Such Big Words I’m Hearing Lately!

It’s funny. My world tends to be a largely financial world that sometimes intersects with photography. (I wish it intersected more but I can’t control that!) I forget that the marketplace I serve - a marketplace of professional photographers - is propagated by business people who focus on photography, but who must, on a fairly regular basis, intersect with a world of business and finance. It simply slips my mind.

Every once in a while though it comes crashing through, as it did the other day when I was in a conversation with a photographer who asked me what I thought her exit strategy should be. Huh? Your ‘exit strategy?’ It was kind of funny really. Two things crossed my mind almost simultaneously (I nearly short circuited myself as having actual thoughts is not a common occurrence and having two at once was severe overload!). One. What the hell are you thinking about exit strategy for? Two: That’s really smart that you’re thinking about exit strategy.

As incongruous as this sounds, both thoughts are actually logical. Here’s the thing. An exit strategy is a smart thing to be thinking about. But the term exit strategy is an odd one for a photography business. Are you looking to exit photography and achieve some value or are you looking to build enough personal value that you can retire? See the two things are really completely different. An exit strategy is a financial strategy employed by a company that needs to plan various transactions or events allowing investors to achieve a return on their investment. These can be public or private stock offerings or sales. (the sale of the company in whole or in part). A retirement strategy is a strategy employed by a business person that ensures income at the point at which they are no longer working, either through savings or through annuity.

I hear from a lot of people who have decided that their “exit strategy” (I don’t know where the term is being propagated but it’s out there enough that someone is obviously using it in the sector - probably in a seminar about how to exit your photography business!) is to do seminars and teach stuff to new photographers. When I ask what the role model for that exit strategy is I usually hear about one or two people. So, from the thousands of people who’ve tried it, two have apparently succeeded in getting to a point where some significant portion of their income is from seminars. But how long will this be the case? The back halls of this industry are littered with the has beens whose message is stale and who no longer offer a relevant message to anyone willing to pay. Once that dries up (and it does so with startling rapidity) where are these people to turn? Back to photography?

Here’s the thing. If your exit strategy doesn’t provide a REAL exit then it is not an exit strategy. It’s an alternative, or supplemental business. Here’s the challenge of that. There’s only one of you. If you are spending lots of time on your alternative business (teaching seminars), then your actual business (photography) is going to suffer. When your photography business suffers you will lose relevance in the marketplace. Then you will have no business. That’s a different kind of exit strategy altogether!

In these times that may be a tough message. If you can’t make money in a photography business and you can’t make money selling your knowledge to photographers how are you supposed to make money? Am I not being fair? Or am I actually just telling the truth?

One of the most fascinating dynamics I see in the marketplace is this one. I cross paths with hundreds of photographers every month. There is a loud, frustrated group who are spending a lot of time and energy trying to change the industry to get it to meet their needs. There is another group though. While the maelstrom wails around them they are quietly building businesses that are quite successful. They have no problem getting clients. They have no problem earning a living. Sure, they’ve been stressed by the macro-economic factors that influence the marketplace, but their response has been to double down and focus on the clients they serve and on making sure those clients are extremely happy. And in the middle of all of it, they’re finding success.

Want to build a great exit strategy? Build a successful business. Figure out how to serve your customers for a lifetime. Keep your head down. Keep moving. Innovate. Respond to market dynamics. Understand the macro climate. Be ready when things are hot to take advantage of looser purse strings. Be ready when things are slow to draw on your reserves. Build multiple revenue streams and never let your supplementary business take more than your supplementary time. Find a way through product and service diversification to serve everyone who comes to you for the service you provide. Build a business that is so successful that others want to come and work with you. Build a business that is so successful that you need others to be able to meet consumer demand. When that starts to happen, you’re on your way.

Stuff to think about for a Tuesday afternoon ...

JC

The most important elements in getting the phone to ring...Marketing tips for photographers.

When business is down turn to those you know.

It’s that time of year. You’re either booking up (and generally happy) or you’re not (and generally panicked). It’s the time of year when the stress starts to show up on Twitter. It’s the time of year when you begin to wonder if the market has gone away or if it’s you. In truth, it’s a little bit of both.

Many small businesses, and particularly photographers, serve a luxury segment. The products we provide aren’t a necessity. People don’t need great pictures to survive. (at least they think they don’t). $4.00 gas prices (closing in on $4.50 here in Los Angeles), and the continued stresses of the world feed angst in the minds of every consumer. ‘Should I spend this money or save it?’ Given a choice, most will choose to save until they feel better. That’s a reality and not one you can do much about. This just raises the importance of all of the inquiries and all of the opportunities that do cross the desk. It also raises the importance of your own outreach activities.

Frankly, the benefit and the challenge of running your own business is that your success or failure depends completely on you. What you are doing to grow and succeed will make that difference. What are you doing? Running a small business is an active process. Here’s a few thoughts about what you should be doing.

1). Know that your future customers will for the most part come through your network of current and past relationships. What are you doing today to remind people who you’ve worked with that you exist? What are you doing to remind them of the fun they had with you and the time you spent? What are you doing to keep them up to date with your craft and your business?

2). An ounce of personal trumps a million-billion-zillion pounds of impersonal. It takes time, but for photographers, sending along a favorite image as a way to reconnect will make the difference between invoking a favorable emotional response and being unheeded. “I was going through some past work and I tripped over this image. I wanted you to have it. I had such fun working with you and hope you are doing well. If you ever need photography services again, give me a buzz. It’d be fun to see you.” This will work so much better than, “ABC Photography services announces the introduction of family portraits.”

3). Generally speaking, the internet is not your friend. When customer inquiries slow down it is so easy to look to branding and internet marketing professionals as a way to try to increase your visibility. After all, the customers are out there. There must be a reason they’re not finding you. There is some truth to that. But it is VERY important to understand that for successful small businesses, less than 10% of the total customers come through paths other than referral or repeat. That means that 9 out of every 10 customers is someone who you are already connected with. What are you doing to encourage their call?

4). Do you have a “marketing day?” Given a choice between ranking time or money as most important to their business almost all small businesses (about 85%) choose time. This is understandable. Running a small business is a lot of work. Here’s the thing. If you don’t set aside time to market your business, and observe a discipline around how you use that time, then your business is going to struggle because you will always be reactionary. Good marketing takes thought and time. It is not something you can simply do between things. My recommendation is to take one morning a week. (and not Monday) and set it aside to purely focus on marketing activities.

5). Don’t get fat and happy. It is a sad truism that today’s very successful small business is often tomorrow’s failing small business. The reason is because the person who IS the business often gets distracted by the elements of success and forgets to focus on the labor that got them there. Then when the business starts to go away they will find other reasons for their challenges. “The market has gone away!” “These damn new folks are underpricing me!” Really? Or is it possible that you got so tied up in your success that you forgot that the customer relationships that were feeding new business were what was most important to getting you there?

I always say what’s next is what’s important. It’s actually a reminder to me. It is so easy to get caught up in celebrating the minor successes of the past. While it is important to take time out to acknowledge the milestones, it is even more important to make sure one is always moving forward. Always trying something new and always adapting. What’s next is what’s important. What’s next for you?

Onward!

JC

What Jim Garner and Joe Buissink Know that You Don't Know. A lesson in differentiation.

In my wanderings I have the privilege of meeting and spending time with many of the industry’s best and brightest. Every once in a while these people are also well known, as Jim and Joe most certainly are. Not only are these two guys solid businessmen and strong proponents of the industry, they are also two of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. I’ve had the privilege of hearing them both speak and I can tell you first hand that if you haven’t you are missing out on two of the best you could hear.

I must confess that I don’t know Jim all that well. He graciously agreed to come (completely on his own dime) to a free one day seminar that we sponsored in Detroit last year. (along with Joe, Bambi Cantrell - another of the industry’s real gems, -Ken Sklute and the inimitable Denis Reggie. Jim’s talk revolved around his approach to selling albums. It was brilliant.

I get to hear Joe speak frequently. He and I travel around the country and present together at Pictage’s UberPugs. Joe speaks on inspiration and photo technique and I speak on business. No one comes to see me. The tears and the hugs for Joe when his talks are over are testament to his heart and his connection to our business. Sometimes I wonder if in the middle of all of that people miss the sneaky smart things he is telling them about how his business works, among them, how he sells so many prints.

I know what you’re thinking. “You’re going to talk about Albums and Prints, Jim?” Is this talk devoted to CashCow and Dog category products? Well, no. It isn’t. Because for Jim Garner and Joe Buissink these products aren’t CashCows, they’re Stars. And that, my friends, is the real value of differentiation.

During Jim’s talk he shows several examples of really beautiful albums that he has created for his clients. These are not small books. They are long and thoughtfully wrought artistic expressions of their special days. As he shows the presentation he talks about his approach and the fact that he gets his clients to spend the whole day with him in order to create not just the book, but the experience that shines through on its pages. For the classic PJ shooter some of these words may seem like blasphemy. A day orchestrated for photography? But that’s not what Jim is doing. He is convincing his (easily convinced) clients that their day should be a full day, not a half of a day.

Why not start out in the morning with breakfast at your favorite restaurant? (just the bride and groom). Why not meet your friends at a poignant place to hang out and laugh. Why not get dressed before lunch and then head for the local hot dog or chili burger place? Why not have a blast for a whole day on such a special day? And why not have your amazing photographer tag along for the whole time?

The brilliant part of Jim’s presentation comes toward the end. He explains that his clients don’t hire him to take their pictures. They hire him to make their book. The books he creates share their special days in ways no one else is showing them. Everyone else has some pictures and ‘here’s an album with your pictures in it.’ Jim’s “Signature Art Books” & “Stories in Prints” approach turns that whole sales cycle on its ear and in doing so makes this product that is so hard for many to sell the focal point reason why clients hire him. If you get a chance to hear him speak do so. I promise that he will leave you thinking a lot about ways to improve your own approach.

Like Jim, Joe doesn’t sell photography services. He sells art. In Joe’s talks he walks people through his client consultations. The core part of the consultation is a session where Joe brings out a stack of mounted 11X14 prints, each one signed. He hands these prints to his clients and he does this amazing thing. He doesn’t talk about the prints. He tells the stories of what’s going on in the prints. He doesn’t show a lot, around 10. Each one is selected because it tells a unique part of the story. Each image is perfect. Each image is filled with story and emotion. But each image is also a signed print. Each image is art. This is really, really smart. Here’s why.

By showing his clients these prints, Joe is establishing the idea in their mind that this is something they can get from him. And because they are signed, this is something they can get ONLY from him. Too many photographers today spend too much time counting on online galleries, iPad slideshows, strangely iPhone slideshows etc., in their selling process. Then they wonder why their clients never think to buy prints from them or want to go to Costco to get them made cheaply. He has two price points. One for prints and one for signed prints. People actually pay more for his signature. They should. He is a treasure and his work is art.

It is important to understand that neither Jim or Joe are coercing these purchases. They are giving their clients an option to buy products that their clients will deem special. Their clients deeply appreciate the opportunity to work with them and in many cases they end up doing so BECAUSE of these products. If you think about it, how many of your clients hire you because of your products? To be sure, they are also hiring a great photographer, and someone they know they can connect and feel comfortable with. (all are important elements of the commercial decision). But most consumers are really unable to tell the difference between one great photographer’s work and another. Differentiation then, must be on the basis of something else. By giving their clients something tangible, something they can name and actually hold in their hand, these two smart guys are also giving their clients an objective reason to choose them. In a business of intangibles, that is pure gold.

Don’t copy their approach, but figure out what you can glean from it that will work for your business, in your region, and with the clients you want to shoot. Not everyone can be as successful as Jim and Joe, but everyone can and should learn from what they are so generously willing to share. The day a client chooses you because of something you have that no one else has you’ll know it has been worthwhile. That is true differentiation.

A Conference That Works ...

A conference that works ...

As a part of my job I get to (and sometimes feel like I have to) attend a lot of conferences. I’m not an enormously social person so to be completely honest I try to avoid them. Recently though I attended one that really worked. I thought I’d devote today’s blog to InspireBoston. A conference that works because of the people there, the people who plan it and put it on, and also because of it’s purpose.

InspireBoston isn’t organized by an association, a magazine, a company or a group of authors. It’s organized by a group of highly qualified photographers whose life business is to be photographers. They aren’t interested in teaching seminars or follow ons. They’re there to help each other be better. They teach each other (and the other lucky folks who get to attend).

About 200 people get to go. Then it’s sold out. Most of the folks there have been in business for a while. Per capita the highest qualified gathering of wedding and portrait photographers I’ve had the pleasure to spend a day or two with. Everyone is mostly packed into the inn, so everyone eats together, drinks together and talks from early AM (like around 10 - the crack of dawn for most photographers! ;-) The information exchange is frank and honest. People discuss real problems and get real answers or real commiseration. Even the teaching is sharp, no nonsense and practical.

But the reason I love this conference so much is because it is so relevant to its own community. Nearly everyone there was from the Northeast. The teachers were from the northeast. (Am I supposed to be calling that New England?) There was an element of practicality that permeated the content. It can’t help but build community. It can’t help but strengthen ties.

I didn’t get to spend as much time this year with the attendees as I would have liked. I got busy with work things and I was actually also using this as a form of personal retreat this year. But even so, I was grateful for the time I was there and grateful for the organizers, Matt and Enna, Krista Guenin, Paul McNerney and Krystal Prue, Mark Andrew, Carla Ten Eyck and Richard Esposito.

I left thinking about what would happen if people in communities around the country started doing this kind of thing themselves. In every community there are photographers who could teach and photographers who could attend. In every community there is a great little place that would pack people in and make them feel warm and comfy. This model works because the content of the conference matches the needs of the community. The connections are real and useful and lasting. It also works because it’s small. You can’t help but interact with just about everyone.

Great job Matt, Enna and team. Your conference is aptly named, not just for the attendees but for the model. Let’s hope some others are inspired to pick up the torch in their areas and do great things themselves!

Making Your Products Fly, An Exercise. Part III of my Business Basics series.

Today’s post is an exercise. I’m not doing this for me and I don’t think learning is a passive pursuit, so today you’re going to need a pen or pencil and a piece of blank white paper. (I know! Old school, huh?) I got some questions on how to use the BCG Matrix that I included in my last post. That’s great! It isn’t just a picture. It’s a tool. It can be used in any business and using it can make the difference between whether or not a business succeeds over time. As a refresher, here is the Matrix again.

The BCG Matrix was developed many many years ago by the very smart folks at Boston Consulting Group, a premier strategic consulting firm used by large enterprises all over the world. Luckily, it also works for small businesses. I’ve used it since the day that Dr. Roy Adler taught it to me when I was a junior undergraduate advertising major at Pepperdine University. Unwittingly, it got me my first job running a company at the ripe old age of 26. I still use it today.

Remember, any new product is plotted into the top right hand, 'ideas' (?) corner. As that product starts to grow it will usually move into the ‘stars’ category where your clients’ favorite products are. As star products start to lose their sheen, they will fade into the cash cow category, these are products that people still buy, and may buy in volume, but they are not products that people get very excited about. Finally, as sales of cash cow products decline those products will slide into the dog category.

The thing I love about this model is its simplicity. Quite literally anyone can use it. You should(!) and to encourage that I’m going to give you a little home work. Go ahead. Take a break from the computer. Find a quiet corner and a blank piece of paper. (yes - paper - not an iPad or any other electronic device). Draw a square and then divide it into four equal parts (or ‘quadrants’ in model speak). Right a small question mark in the top right corner, a star in the top left, a dollar sign in the bottom left and a sad face in the bottom right. See? Wasn’t that tough? Anyone can do that!

Now. Think about your different products and services. (I would actually suggest that a photographer should do different versions of the model for products - prints, canvases, books, etc., and services, weddings, portraits (by type), commercial, etc.)

Stars and Cash Cows are usually the easiest to fill in. Remember, a Star Product is something you lead with or talk about when you are selling. It is something you know (or hope) clients will get excited about. Typically it is something that makes your business different from someone down the street. If it is a product that is growing (you’re selling more or making more this year than last year) put it in the top of the box. If it is a product that is waning (like the setting moon) put it in the bottom of the box.

Cash Cows on the other hand are products you usually don’t talk about except to mention. They are products that your clients will negotiate price on (knowing they can also buy them down the street). They may be products that are a pain for you to maintain and fulfill. However as their name implies, a cash cow will also generate cash. From a business strategy perspective, their purpose is to be ‘milked.‘ They may be a pain, but your business benefits from their existence.

Ideas are products you have thought of, but that you may have just launched or are thinking about launching. Their soul defining characteristic is that they generate no cash.

Dogs are products you may still have in your catalog, but which generate no cash. The idea of a dog is that you want it to go away. (Not like your fuzzy little happy dog at home!)

A healthy business will have products (and if applicable services) in all four quadrants. Take some time now and map your products into these quadrants. Are their cash cows you want to get rid of? Are you sure? Are they generating money? The strategy with a cash cow is to make them yield as much money as possible with as little work as possible. How can you make them take less work but still yield a healthy contribution to your bottom line? (Also remember that less work isn’t no work. Sometimes the right thing to do is bolster a cash cow with a little thought and energy so it can go back to generating cash for you). Dogs are products that you simply need to bite the bullet and remove from your catalog. Even though you don’t sell them much, they take time, any small business’s most valuable commodity. Do you have at least three or four entries in your 'ideas' category? If not that's a big problem and something you want to work on fixing...

And speaking of time, here’s another way to look at the model. You should be spending the vast majority of your time on the products and services in the top two quadrants. You want to give good ideas a real chance to succeed (and you want to be coming up with new ones). And, you want to continually bolster your star products.

It is an interesting fact that one person’s star may be another person’s cash cow or dog. The difference will sometimes be in the way a product is marketed. We’ll talk about this concept tomorrow - but it’s an interesting thing for you to think about. Are there products in your cash cow or dog categories that you KNOW are other business’s stars? What is the difference between you cash cow and their star? Differentiation. We’re going to talk about that tomorrow.

Feel free to drop me a line here in comments or via email at my first name at pictage.com. Your questions fuel these posts.

Now - model away! (And if you’re courageous enough, send me a picture of your model!)

Onward!