I know that more than a few readers of this blog and my books are aspiring professionals, so every now and then I like to present a few business-related tips that you might like to try for the rest of this year and maybe into 2027.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Everyone constructs their own path. The important thing is to follow your heart. Find your niche, is my best advice. If everybody is doing it one way, there’s a good chance you can find your niche by going exactly in the opposite direction.—Carol G.
Most entrepreneurs start a business because they’re passionate about something. Book lovers open book stores, art lovers open galleries or design studios and shutterbugs start photo studios , which is my own story. But you’ll need more than passion to be a success starting with the need to set yourself apart from other, competing photographers. Here’s a few thoughts on this subject:
Setting Yourself Apart from the Others
Be original. Don’t be like everybody else. Look at your competitors and make sure you have nothing in common. If the only thing that separates you from the competition is the name on your front door and the color of your website background, you’ve reduced your services to a commodity and all commodity purchase decisions are made based on price.
Look for a gap in the marketplace, then fill it. It may seem unlikely that there could be anything new but these days the opposite can be true. Look for any kind of new technology and develop products and services around it. If you think the Internet is finished growing you are wrong. The Web is a toddler taking its first, halting steps and you can leverage Internet technology, along with wireless communications and hand held devices to offer new photographic services and products as well as a way to market what you already do.
How I Made this Photograph: Some people are surprised to learn that the Air Force Academy Chapel is the number one tourist attraction in the state of Colorado but if you’ve ever seen it, you’ll know why. Built in 1963 and designed by Walter A. Netsch Jr., the chapel’s design is as fresh and modern today as when it was built. This image is just a part of the chapel’s front and gives some idea of its soaring design. The photograph was shot with a Pentax K-01 and a 40mm f/2.8 XS lens with an exposure of 1/1000 sec at f/9 and ISO 400
Don’t practice on your clients. Your should know what you are doing before you hang out that shingle or launch;that website. Don’t confuse a Facebook page for a website because there you’re lumped into a pile with millions of others and can easily get lost. Knowledge of your craft and the technical skills needed to perform must be a given. Over time, you’ll also need to develop policies and practices that enable you to do a better, more efficient job for your clients while remaining profitable but enthusiasm alone will not sustain your enterprise: You have to know what you’re doing.
Treat clients the way you want to be treated. These days bad customer service is the norm and one way to set yourself apart from your competitors is to treat clients like the gold they are. The temptation with start-ups is to worry about cash flow and the thought of refunds or even giving a client “something for nothing” sounds suicidal but customers are the reason you’re in business. When Mary and I had our studio, everything we “gave away” to satisfy a client’s concerns was returned to us ten-fold. Everything. Most clients were astonished that instead of giving them a load of grief, we were understanding and did something extra for their trouble.
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