Archive for Business – Page 19

Starting a Photography Business: Part 31 – Who am I?

By Ruth Bayley
Monday, April 25th, 2011

Before I start to meditate, I always ask myself, ‘Who am I?’ along with ‘What do I want?’ and ‘How can I serve?’  The answer to, ‘Who am I?’ is never I’m a photographer, it’s a much more heart based answer that I give and it goes to my very core.

Yet ‘Who am I?’ has been on my mind a lot this last couple of weeks as I’ve launched the business.  What with marketing, and thinking about the business every moment of the day, when the weekend has arrived I’ve struggled to make it a proper weekend; free of doing work on the computer or out taking pictures.

And being in the vibrant season of spring it’s so easy isn’t it to pick up a camera and whizz out to capture the new colours, and life unfolding?  There’s so much going on that I want to have my camera with me.  A couple of weekends ago I decided to have a complete break from my camera, however I ended up taking it with me on a walk, as I knew better than to leave it behind, and got involved in quite a long shoot.  I got some really lovely images, which a week later in the same place the opportunity had gone; the blossom was past its best.

So I was right to have taken the camera, but the walk had suddenly become about work; taking from different angles, waiting for the sun to come back out to get the shadow effect on the leaves.  Last weekend I took the Sunday to go to a local castle, where there is a beautiful lake and picnic beside it whilst reading a book, I had a complete day off and it was so reviving; it was wonderful. Read More→

Categories : Grow Your Business, Starting a Business
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Starting a Photograhy Business: Part 30 – Mentors

By Ruth Bayley
Monday, April 18th, 2011

Well this past week I’ve been slowing down a little and stopped chasing my tail. I’ve reigned in my time spent on social networking, written yet another timetable for day to day tasks, which, yes, unlike new year’s resolutions I am sticking too!

The freeing up of some time, meditating more, and generally just looking after me a bit better is starting to pay off. My concentration is heightened and I’m starting to get back to working through my list of goals for the year.

Setting up a mastermind group was a big one, and if you haven’t started one yet, do consider it. Ours is working really well; the support is great between us. We come together regularly and have a catch up, brainstorm, share business products and courses we’ve found useful and also do a little bit of business with each other. Oh, yes ok then, and we have a bit of a chinwag, but building relationships is what’s it’s all about.

This week, in fact just yesterday, I set about achieving another business goal. I have contacted an international businessman to ask him to be my mentor. Like the mastermind groups, it’s straight from the book of business coach Jack Canfield. The mastermind group helps you to support each other and set goals, whereas a mentor helps you by passing on advice, probably giving you a swift kick up the backside when you dilly dally on projects, but ultimately, you have someone to talk to who has been there done it and can help you to avoid the pitfalls.

The idea of a mentor is to speak with them for around ten minutes a month, enough time to ask any questions that might be bugging you and get a reasonable response. Read More→

Categories : Grow Your Business, Starting a Business
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Starting a Photography Business: Part 29 – Half Time

By Ruth Bayley
Monday, April 11th, 2011

This past week I’ve answered a few business questions and I wondered if it might be useful to you if this week, I did a recap of some of the important areas to think about when starting out.

  • Research. After the initial idea of your business do some research on all areas; suppliers, web design. Go to the library or buy some books on web design, understand what keywords and meta tags are. It’s like taking a car to a garage if you have basic understanding of what’s going on under the bonnet you can’t be easily fooled.
  • Websites. When you look at website companies please make sure that on the admin side you will have boxes where you can add your keywords and meta titles for that page. If there aren’t any I’m sorry to say you’ll be wasting your money on their services, you need to be able to add and alter words, at will, to make your site as productive for search engines as possible. When you are up and running check your keywords are the best ones, monthly with Google’s free tool
  • Chamber of Commerce. Go to your local chamber and fill your boots! They will give you free impartial advice on everything, from whether to be a sole trader or a registered company. You’ll be able to ask about your tax obligations, business plan advice – if you need one and copyright info though keep an eye on this one yourself too. In the UK the government is doing another review of online copyright laws www.bjp-online.com, a trade journal, is a good place to keep up to date with the news. Read More→
Categories : Grow Your Business, Starting a Business
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45 Minutes of Daily Social Media Marketing

By Michael Shilling
Friday, April 8th, 2011

Social Media marketing is still very much in it’s infancy and one of the questions many people ask me is how much time they should spend on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

My answer is normally something like “how long is a piece of string?” but of course that isn’t very helpful. The key to success in regards to social media is keeping things social and to always remember that you get out what you put in (eventually).

There’s no quick fix solution or magic tool which will get you thousands of followers overnight. In fact anything claiming to do such a thing is certainly worth steering clear of.

This week’s marketing campaigns for photographers is designed to help business owners manage their social media time more effectively.

45 minutes of daily social media marketing

What would happen if you dedicated 45 minutes a day to social networking?
Would 45 minutes a day be less time than you already spend on social networks?

Here’s what you can do in 45 minutes Read More→

Categories : Grow Your Business, Social Media Marketing
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Starting a Photography Business: Part 28 – How Can I Help You?

By Ruth Bayley
Monday, April 4th, 2011

At the weekend I went to my local drug store come beauty and perfume shop and when talking to the shop assistant, as I made my purchase, she told me that the shop is moving to a retail park out of town; which will make it far more difficult for their day to day customers without transport to get to.

It got me thinking more about something that had already been on my mind; how can I meet the needs of my customers?  Here is a company that isn’t thinking about it’s customers in town, as when it moves it’s closing the town shop; making life difficult for their regular customers.  I started to have a serious think about my business and other businesses in general, where do we make life difficult for people because it’s easier for us?  Or because possibly, there is a greater profit margin in it?

In essence, how I can best serve the community in which I’ve become a part of by being a photographer?  How do I make a product that people can use, and one that everyone has access to?  So that people don’t have to physically come to me to get this product, they can have access to it right from the computer in whichever country they are in.

Is there something in your business that you are doing that is mainly for your convenience that isn’t working because your customers aren’t receiving the benefit of it?  I think more and more as social media becomes an important way of building a community, and a customer base, and we establish a good rapport with people, we can begin to ask them what they need and how best we can provide it.  My customer is the best person to tell me about my business, what could I be doing differently? Does the photo arrive with my customer by courier on the day my supplier tells me it will? Read More→

Categories : Grow Your Business, Starting a Business
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Marketing Campaigns for Photographers – Wedding Venues: Part 2

By Michael Shilling
Friday, April 1st, 2011

This is the eleventh in our series looking at different marketing campaigns for photographers.

Also in this series:

Marketing Campaigns for Photographers #11 Wedding Venues
(part 2)

Last week we looked at one way to associate yourself with local venues using your blog. Today’s post is something you’ll want to do in addition to last week’s post rather than instead of it.

The venue video

 

Simply create a 2-3 minute slideshow style video using a selection of your images that show the venue at it’s best. You’ll need to have shot at this venue before so you can include interior images as exterior shots aren’t going to cut it. Read More→

Categories : Grow Your Business, Marketing Campaigns
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