Archive for Starting a Business – Page 2

Starting a Photography Business: Part 49 – More Questions Than Answers!

By Ruth Bayley
Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

One recce down, one to go for the proposed photography holidays; it’s the first time of visiting this part of Italy, and the area that I’m going to, Cilento, sits within a national park, my expectations are high. I was drawn here by my friend who lives here and runs her own wedding business, http://www.italybrideandgroom.com/ For brides, this area must be a dream; blue seas lined by beautiful beaches in a quiet intimate town with a wedding meal at a restaurant perched high above the coast in the hilltop town of Castellabate, more about this town later.

Santa Maria, Cilento, Italy

Though as a photography location or an area for Healing with Photography holidays, is it right? That’s what I’m here to find out. As the plane descended into Naples airport, after an absence for me from Italy of four years, I crane my neck to look out of the window and get a glimpse of my beloved island of Capri. As it came into sight tears pricked my eyes, it felt so good to be back after all this time apart.

I arrived at sunset so daylight the following morning was to reveal the secrets of Castellabate and Cilento. A flat coastline, long sandy beaches, lidos – wooden built cafes – lining the beaches and small harbours revealed possible photo locations.

I decide that the high hills that surround the coastal town of Santa Maria probably hold the real magic of the Cilento area. The hilltop town of Castellabate, with its castle, beguiling alleyways and views across the countryside, captured my imagination and I spent a good few hours exploring around here and taking photos. It wasn’t only my imagination that was fired by this town, a film crew were here too making a sequel to the Italian film Benvenuto al Sud. I have a real soft spot for this little town and the restaurant Belvedere, with its delicious food and wonderful views over the bay and the Amalfi coast below. Read More→

Categories : Grow Your Business, Starting a Business
Tags : , , , , ,

Starting a Photography Business: Part 49 – Sharing Knowledge

By Ruth Bayley
Tuesday, September 6th, 2011

Bright and Beautiful

This last couple of weeks I’ve taken some time to do some different things to usual and have a bit of break before I go into the recces for the holidays.  The first Italian resort to recce, the region of Cilento, it’s an area that I don’t know, though I do know it’s meant to be even more beautiful than the Amalfi Coast.  And from personal experience, I know when I’ve been in Sorrento and taken the public bus down to the beautiful city of Salerno, beyond Amalfi, you look across and you can see the coast stretching out beyond and it does look enticing.

If you are holidaying on the Amalfi Coast, do take a public bus down to Amalfi, and change for a bus to Salerno – always try and sit on the right hand side of the bus going down to Amalfi so you get the best views, though if you suffer from vertigo, stay to the left.  You’ll find the coast gets even more stunning on that section between Amalfi and Salerno.  And the city itself is beautiful and understated with a wide promenade lined by palm trees and a very modest cathedral compared to other Italian churches.  Anyway enough of the holiday blog, I’ll tell you all about the recce when I get back. Read More→

Categories : Grow Your Business, Starting a Business
Tags : ,

Starting a Photography Business: Part 48 – Read the Small Print

By Ruth Bayley
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011

Faraglioni Rocks, Capri, Italy

The last few weeks have seen a fair bit of action on the photography holidays side of my business, though none of it as I would have necessarily wished. It is though, giving me an opportunity to do things a little differently.

When my new travel partner and I first got together we put pen to paper to draw up contracts so we knew what each other’s responsibilities were and what we expected of each other which has worked well and held up. What we didn’t check into fully at the start was insurance policies and trading laws.

I had spoken to Trading Standards in the UK to find out what was expected of me as photographer running tours and what insurance cover I needed. All was well, by going in with a travel agent I was covered, however, and this is a big one, the UK has some pretty stringent consumer protection in place, and rightly so, to safeguard guests’ money. It’s not necessary for an agent to be ABTA bonded, however it is necessary for an insurance policy to be in place so that any money paid in is ring-fenced. This means if any problems arise with a company becoming insolvent, guests get their money returned to them.

It is illegal to trade in the UK without this financial insurance, however in America these consumer travel laws don’t exist, and my travel partner was based in America. I was deeply concerned about this imbalance in law between our countries and then a huge blow for my travel partner. It turns out that there are draconian state laws in place in America to prevent travel agencies trading in some states unless they pay them a large bond. This effectively limits the scope of business a travel agent can do in their own country. With all this coming to light and my concerns about financial insurance we dissolved the partnership. Read More→

Categories : Grow Your Business, Starting a Business
Tags : , , ,

Starting a Photography Business: Part 47 – Passionately Connected!

By Ruth Bayley
Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

Meazly Muzzle

I was watching Dragon’s Den the other night, a series where entrepreneurs stand in front of multi-millionaire business people and pitch their product or business for investment. Featured were a couple of women who are doing something very special with music to help children get involved with music and deejaying rather than getting into trouble on the streets. As they were being questioned about their product and how it could be copied, one of them said quite forcefully, it doesn’t matter if people try and copy the format; they can’t do it in the way that we do it and with the passion that we do with it because it’s our passion, our idea.

And it’s the same with Healing with Photography. It’s something I guess that could be replicated, but it’s not something that can be replicated with the passion I feel for it or the energy or love that runs through me when I think about it. It comes from my own experiences, something that I went through and it’s now evolved into helping others.

And this week I’ve been very much putting Healing with Photography out there into the business community to find potential sponsors for the courses. I want to run the courses through MIND, the mental health charity centres, yet funding is an issue for the centres at the moment, so I have decided to go down the route of private sponsorship. Essentially the private sponsorship fees will pay for the website costs, course costs, and my wages. It will also launch the teleseminar series which I hope to be running by the end of this year or the beginning of next at the latest. Read More→

Categories : Grow Your Business, Starting a Business
Tags : , , ,

Starting a Photography Business: Part 46 – Art Wins Again!

By Ruth Bayley
Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

I have been taking my time deciding what type of photo and logo to use on the new website for Healing with Photography. For me the lotus flower has been over worked and it isn’t unique now to associate it with healing, and beyond anything, the core role of the courses are photography and I wanted it to reflect some beautiful photography too. Yes I know, a little bit of ego creeping in there!

I browsed the templates of the web design company at SmartDeCat and was very taken with one that had a photo of the sea; and it was easy for me to take a similar photo. Yet on looking around on the internet, a calming sea is also pretty much well used in the healing genre, and did this truly reflect the photography element other than it was a photo of water.

Also, to take this scene involved a two hour journey to get to a coast, which has blue sea water, rather than the brown estuary water which is closest to me. Do you know it wasn’t until I went to the south coast of the UK on holiday a good few years ago that I realised that blue sea water actually existed in this country.

The fact I kept putting the trip off suggested to me that it wasn’t quite what I wanted, I wasn’t connecting with it. So the other day quite by accident I came upon the ideal banner photo and an image that I can use on business cards and all marketing material for Healing with Photography.

Having a relaxing afternoon in the garden with my drawing pad and charcoal I sat down to draw the star gazer lilies, my favourite of all my lilies, though I don’t tell the others that; I tell them they are all beautiful! The fragrance that comes from these lilies is just hypnotic, I could inhale them all day. I took a break from my drawing and looked down at the page and realised how beautiful they looked, how again, just as I did when I drew the Faraglioni rocks of Capri, I was connected heart and soul to the image.

Healing with Photography logo

Read More→

Categories : Grow Your Business, Starting a Business
Tags : , ,

Starting a Photography Business: Part 45 – A Creative Bubble

By Ruth Bayley
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011

It’s a funny old bubble that we creatives inhabit isn’t it?  We are so many characters all with the one aim, to share our talents with others yet some manage this with va va voom and others do so more reluctantly.

Take last week, I was at a flower show and after finishing my photo session I made a beeline for the art tent. Earlier in the morning I’d seen an artist heading over to the marquee head down shyly, hoping no-one approached. We met last year as we have our web designer in common. As I approached his stall last week his back was to any customers with his head down. I empathized with his shyness and walked on by without reacquainting myself.

A couple of stalls along I found a collection of stunning lamps, when you’ve read this check out his site.  http://www.christianwallis.co.uk/ The shapes just made me want to reach out and touch them and run my hands over the smooth curves. In fact I did when Christian’s head was bent writing down some information for me.

Here is the difference, one artist sharing his work with the world whilst his body language said ‘beam me up Scotty’ and the second, was full of enthusiasm and ideas. Even taking the trouble to walk me around the marquee to point out the merits of each stand should I decide to exhibit in the future.

Where do I fall? Somewhere in the middle, give me an inch and I’ll enthuse about my photos, how and where they were taken, mainly the where. Yet I’m always reluctant to offer my photography talents to my friends in case they feel I’m criticizing their work. Read More→

Categories : Grow Your Business, Starting a Business
Tags : , , , , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »