Archive for Starting a Business – Page 7

Starting a Photography Business: Part 19 – First Night Nerves

By Ruth Bayley
Monday, January 31st, 2011

I almost didn’t make it today; I’ve been so busy having a mini meltdown with the site, and if you follow me on Facebook you’ll understand, that I almost forgot what day it was!

On Monday I decided that I didn’t like the front page, I took it apart, rearranged the text and then finally started working with different templates to alter the look. By the time I’d finished and made a real mess of it I decided that actually I really did like it the way it was! By that time it was a case of calling help to my web designer. I’d altered some of the design that had already had been done and now it not only looked messy I’d just created some extra work for him.

I felt a bit like when you go to a clothes shop, sorry I guess I’m only talking to the female population here, try on many different clothes and then decide after walking around a hundred shops that the very first thing you tried on was the right one! So a very big thank you to my wonderful web designer who didn’t tell me off just simply understood that I was just having a little meltdown.

I think it’s just first night nerves, the closer the site comes to launch day the more things I want to change and fiddle with. And oh gosh it is the fiddling that causes the problems; its how it started with the homepage; “I wonder if that would look better there?” It’s that very preserve I thought I’d banished from my psyche, the hunt for the non existent perfection. I’m comforted though that if the dress rehearsal is having hiccups the launch will go to plan. Read More→

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Starting a Photography Business: Part 18 – Mastermind

By Ruth Bayley
Monday, January 24th, 2011

The other day a fleeting memory of photo frames suddenly came into my mind of how when starting out with the idea of this business I suddenly realised it was going to be more involved than simply putting up some images to sell on a website.

There were so many questions I had like where to find suppliers?  I didn’t have anyone I could ask or bounce ideas off – it was learn as I go along.  And so when the vision of frames came to me the other day I breathed a sigh of relief, I made it!

However maybe if I’d used a tip I read earlier on in the process from business coach Jack Canfield’s book ‘The Success Principles’ I could have had immediate support: though I have to confess, wasn’t brave enough until now to do it.  One of his principles is mastermind groups; gathering four to six business people together to meet via phone or Skype weekly, fortnightly or monthly whichever works for you all.  Mastermind groups are routinely used by many millionaire business people to help drive their business forward. Read More→

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Starting a Photography Business: Part 16 – Design Changes

By Ruth Bayley
Monday, January 10th, 2011

The site is coming together so fast now which is wonderful though over Christmas I have had a break from it but would keep having a wander through it to see what my first impressions were each time, does the font need changing?  Is the colour of the banner right?  Do the galleries look well laid out?  Is it easy to navigate from page to page photo to checkout?

So much has changed from how I originally envisioned the site design and much of that change is for the ease of my customers despite the fact that I wanted it to look different.  For instance I have a side navigation whereas I was only going to have a top navigation so my photos could take up the full width of the page, which incidentally they do on zoom.  The benefit for my customer of this and as a knock on effect for me is to get easier sales and give more visible access to my galleries.

By having only a top navigation if people were at the bottom of my page to get to other pages they would have to scroll all the way back up to the top, it would make it less customer friendly, less self promoting, and if people can’t remember what else is in your navigation when they are at the bottom of the page then they might easily get distracted and head off to a different site.

By having a side navigation it means people are never that far from my page lists and just to be certain they are also in my footer.  I know I myself have scooted away from a site that hasn’t had side navigation forgetting until a few days later that there was another page I wanted to look at and even then I’ve not necessarily gone back. Read More→

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Starting a Photogrpahy Business: Part 15 – The Blueprint

By Ruth Bayley
Monday, January 3rd, 2011

As the first few days of 2011 are upon us I have to confess that any New Year’s resolutions I have made in the past rarely last beyond a couple of weeks for me so I stopped doing them a few years ago and instead I take time throughout the year to add things into my life that help make the day flow a little easier.

Last year I started 2010 with a method that was completely new to me; and I must credit Jennifer McLean at http://www.masterworkshealing.com for these questions and putting the idea into my mind. I sat down and wrote out in detail what I wanted to happen in 2010 as if it had already happened and I focused on several key questions:

  • What do I want this year in my personal life?
  • What do I want this year for my financial life?
  • What do I want this year for my business life?
  • What do I want this year for my spiritual life?

I would read it every so often over the year to remind me what I was aiming for and reading it again just before writing this article it was uplifting to see how many of things I’d written about had materialized and in a far greater way than I could ever have expected. Read More→

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Starting a Photography Business: Part 14 – Remember the Wins

By Ruth Bayley
Monday, December 27th, 2010

With the end of the year fast approaching I took some time on the winter solstice to sit down and think about how the year has been for me professionally and personally.  I quite like taking time to assess the year rather than just rolling straight into the next one without thinking and feeling grateful for the achievements of the one I’m moving on from.

As well as looking back at what’s gone it’s also an exercise in looking to the future and setting some goals for what I’d like to achieve next year; not necessarily huge goals there were both personal and professional, big and small on the list for me.

I find doing this helps to bring positive energy to the end of the year and take it with you into the new one.  It’s good to have this clearing period and to remind yourself just how much good has happened in your life, all the things you cherish and all the things big and small that you achieved, learnt and had fun doing.

This year I used a list of questions to review the year from the blog of business coach Jack Canfield, they cover many different areas of business and personal life without making it heavy, I found a quiet place and sat down and started writing by the end of it I was in a place of happiness and gratitude for all the good things that I have experienced this year, all the hunches I followed that came up trumps and I am now looking forward to ushering in 2011 knowing where I want to get to, what I want to put into my life for me and where I want to take my photography business. Read More→

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