Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Never confuse the improbable with the impossible: Burke’s Law.
I started the concept of Farace’s Laws when I was Contributing Editor to ComputerUser magazine before the dot-com bust. Shortly after starting to use this gimmick, a CU reader emailed that he had “heard about these Farace’s Laws for years” and wanted to know what it was all about, so I told him: The idea was based on the TV show Burke’s Law and with my tongue firmly in cheek, I continued using it in all of my writing about photography too. There are many Farace’s Laws about the business of photography as well but one of the most important ones is: Your clients don’t care if you go out of business.
A Photomethods reader once e-mailed me asking, “How can I make my clients love me?” My answer to him was simple: Cut your rates in half. They will love you but you will go out of business and they will have memories of that love as they search for another photographer to do the work that you used to perform. Because like it or not, the work is going to get done, the only question that remains is by whom? So what should you do? Here’s a few thoughts:
- Keep in touch. A photographer’s fundamental job is to educate their clients and make them aware of all of the services you can provide to help them do their jobs better. You can keep in touch with clients by creating a client-oriented blog but don’t lose sight of the “oldies but goodies” and mail postcards featuring work you’ve done for other clients that can be produced by companies such as www.4over.com and Moo.com . You will be surprised how long clients will hang onto photo postcards, especially those that have images of people on them, or, better yet, they may pass them along to other potential clients.
- Forge a partnership with your clients. Make yourself invaluable by doing the little things that may not be extremely profitable to your studio but help build client loyalty. You want to make yourself so indispensable to their operation that when a client thinks “photographer” they think of you. Being available, being flexible, and being fair are all part of the package.
- Don’t loose sight of what business you’re in. We’re imagemakers, first and always. The tools we use to create those images are unimportant to our clients. What they want is images, when they need them and delivered in a timely manner and at a fair price.
It may be that all of the client education in the world won’t change the mind of somebody who has already made it up but you can apply some of these suggestions to other, less close-minded clients who just want the best job possible at a fair price.Remember, that keeping clients is a less expensive than finding new ones. Sure, it’s a lot of work, but that’s what the business of photography is all about—work.
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