Archive for Starting a Business – Page 8

Starting a Photography Business: Part 13 – End of Term

By Ruth Bayley
Monday, December 20th, 2010

I’ve got the end of term feeling today as Christmas is only days away it feels like when you were allowed to bring your games into school.  I was going to search for some photography games though in the end I decided to bring you games from one of my favourite animated programmes.

It comes from film makers Aardman, home to Wallace and Gromit; Shaun the Sheep is a Children’s programme for the BBC and it follows the antics of a flock of sheep and the farmers dog, with Shaun leader of the flock and full of mischief.  Although it is a children’s programme their monthly newsletter gives a list of birthdays and the majority of them are always adults.

Their antics are very human and reinforce my long held belief that animals get up to all sorts of fun when humans aren’t around.  Now when I’m out in the country taking photos I try and creep up on fields with sheep in them to see if they are up to mischief, it’s no good though they always seem to hear me coming and are watching me as I peer over the hedge.  Here are the links to the games. Have fun!   Read More→

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Starting a Photography Business: Part 12 – Checking it Twice

By Ruth Bayley
Monday, December 13th, 2010

With a launch date set for the site for January it’s all systems go to make sure everything is ready. I’ve written a list and am checking it twice, (sorry, I couldn’t resist!), to make sure that all the easily overlooked yet important things are completed. I’ve just taken a break to write this article from using the site search where I’m making sure that all the related words I can think of for pictures are bringing up the right images and adding in to the admin side of any photos that might be missing keywords. I’m also having a think about which markets I wish to move into and making sure keywords for their language although not shown in the text visible to the customer are there for search engines to register.

The list of things is endless, mainly they are just things that need tweaking to help the site run efficiently and I’ll come back to cover them as I make the alterations. Although I’ve been organised enough to write down my tasks they are time consuming jobs so I’m only a little way through them.

One thing that has come to a head this week, though it’s been bugging me for a month or so now is an internal fight I’ve been having with myself over managing my time. I’ve wanted to get on with the site yet the weather has been calling me out to take photos and with brief seasons such as autumn and then the recent fall of snow which in this country is usually short lived it’s been a real dilemma. When I’ve gone out to take photos of such beautiful scenery I’ve come to the end of the shoot and felt a little guilty for not being at the computer and when I’ve spent time at the computer I’ve felt guilty for wasting the sunshine bouncing off of the golds and browns of the autumn leaves or of trees creating perfect reflections in the snow.

I’m a great believer in everything happens in its own time for a reason so the cold I have at the moment that has made me unwilling to venture out in below freezing temperatures to take the winter scenes has given me time to sit down and work at the website. And so I’m almost certain that when I’m better the winter scenes will be ten times more impressive than they are right now and I can go out and spend as much time as I wish as the site will be in tip top shape. Read More→

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Starting a Photography Business: Part 11 – What are Keywords?

By Ruth Bayley
Monday, December 6th, 2010

Google made the news today about how it lists searches and it helped me decide to write this article now. Worth bearing in mind is that although Google has more users than other search engines we shouldn’t neglect the other search engines and their criteria, 20% of all users are working with Google’s competition.

One of the best ways to get the search engines to work for us is to have a site that is keyword ready. Keywords are easiest described as a word that a customer will type into a search engine to find a product. And luckily Google offers a free Keyword Tool which allows you to type in a list of your keywords individually so you can see how many times in the last month people have used the word in a search.  You might be surprised by what it throws up and which words you consider to be a keyword to your product that just doesn’t feature on the radar of a consumer.

Taking one of my photos for an example, I have a photo of Italy in my collection; it’s of the Faraglioni rocks off the island of Capri on the Amalfi Coast, which are two limestone rocks that rise up out of the sea. Because I know the name of the rocks it was going to be one of the keywords for not only the photo name but the write up in the homepage and the page section however the google tool showed me that no one has searched for them by name then or now as I’ve just had another look as I’m writing this piece. So I no longer have it featured as a keyword, however Capri, Sorrento and Amalfi Coast have millions of searches so I now know what to concentrate on. Read More→

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Starting a Photography Business: Part 10 – It’s Just the Little Things

By Ruth Bayley
Monday, November 29th, 2010

In the last few weeks lots of little yet important questions have come up as regards the site. Mainly what mood and ethos should the site take, what should it say? I guess by now you know me well enough to know that I’m a heart on my sleeve kind of person and that I am quite happy to wax lyrical about why I love photography and how being in the moment when I’m taking pictures grounds me and helps me appreciate the countryside and subject. Yet does my customer need to know this? Does my customer even care?

If they know this will they buy more photos? Or will they turn tail and run? Hand on heart, I was going to go in this direction; this is me, this is why I do this and this is what the photos mean to me. I’m finding it hard to take a step back on this one, a friend and I have discussed this many times and although I understand and now agree with his opinion that it’s not important for people to understand why I take photos to buy one I still wonder if I’m being authentic by focusing totally on the commercial.

Sometimes I find it hard to come away from the passion of a picture and put my commercial hat on as when I surf the internet looking at other photography sites and I read the about pages well some are just beautiful and I know when I’m in an art shop I quite like knowing about the artist or photographer, but does it make me want to buy their work? Well no, not always. Read More→

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Starting A Photography Business: Part 9 – 2+2 is 4

By Ruth Bayley
Monday, November 22nd, 2010

Yippee, it’s time to work out how much money we are going to make and how much profit we are going to get from our pictures, well gosh I wish it had been that easy.  It was as if it was a trade secret or something, how to work out costings and how to work out profit and how to work out how much to charge.  Yes sure, I’d had a look around some photography websites and been a little scared at the prices people were charging as they seemed so low.

I read an article in an art magazine that said you price accordingly depending on whether you are full or part time in your creations.  Now for me I don’t see why that makes any difference; the chances are you’ll spend the same amount of time taking a photo whether you are working full time or part time and why should working part time mean that your picture is worth any less?  And if you are working part time looking to become full time and you work on that philosophy you are eventually going to have to increase your prices so you can afford to live and maybe scare away loyal customers.

For me, it’s important to find a price that I am comfortable with and that I think is a fair price for my work and one that will support me.  I asked so many people how to do pricing, I went to my local chamber of commerce and got a very long winded answer but it never gave me the answer that I needed, it seemed like that there was no set formula, I asked everyone I could think of until finally a friend suggested I list all my costs put on my profit, take the total and divide it by the total number of days in the year to get the total cost of one unit.  It seemed like a perfectly simple idea to me so that’s how I’ve done my pricing.

Strangely enough since doing my pricing I’ve been talking to people and discovered that’s exactly how they’ve done theirs too.  I really don’t understand why it’s such a secret.  You don’t have to reveal what your costs are, you don’t have to reveal what your profit margin is but I think it’s helpful to explain to a novice like myself that this is one way of working it out, I’m sure there are plenty of others ways too. Read More→

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Starting a Photography Business: Part 8 – Listen To The Voice!

By Ruth Bayley
Monday, November 15th, 2010

I had an aha moment last week, it was a big one, it was a grateful one and it was almost, how could you have been so silly? Since having the idea of the business finding reliable suppliers has become one of the most important parts. The website was pretty much sorted as soon as I came across Smartdecat, job done; the printers were another question.

I wanted a printer and a framer in one rather than having to run between two places, and doing an internet search I came across a fantastic company, not too far away from me who just felt right from the moment I saw their site. Have you ever had that where you just instantly know, without even knowing too much about something?

I met the salesman and the owner at a trade show earlier this year and took to them both, professional, personable and friendly, yet when a fellow photographer told me they’d had small problems with this particular printers I ignored my gut instinct that was saying ‘these are good guys’ and went looking for a different company.

Printers seemed to be few and far between and finally finding one that was also cheaper than the rest I contacted them. The first meeting with the salesman should have told me all I needed to know but new to doing business on my own behalf I had so much going on in my mind I just didn’t read the signs, he arrived with just one frame moulding in two different colours rather than a bagful which was of course the most expensive. In my head a voice was saying ‘what about the other printers?’ I silenced it. When I had to constantly chase the salesman for information & samples I ignored the insistent voice. Read More→

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