Zenologue

It’s a new year, a new decade in fact, so perhaps we should start out with a new attitude – a mindset designed to win. Let’s forget all the negativity and depression that came to a head in 2009, and start afresh with a new outlook.

Think of your favorite successful brand for a moment.

They probably have a CEO, numerous vice-presidents, departmental managers and front-line workers.

Photographers, on the other hand, are usually one-man bands – we have to do everything from opening up shop, managing the accounts and cleaning the bathrooms.

Often, that’s the root of most of our problems…

We get lost in the everyday tasks of running the front line of the business that we forget or don’t have the time to consider the vision, mission and strategies that define where we want our business to go.

Instead, if we consider that we have various roles in the business, from the CEO to the divisional vice-presidents, on down to the front-line operatives, we might have a better chance of making the correct decisions to operate the business more successfully and efficiently.

This is where time management and planning really come into play.

For example, we could spend the first hour of our day planning and working on the vision of the business as the CEO of our company, not really considering the strategies or operational procedures needed to carry out those plans. We can then move the company forward towards achieving our goals. In this sense, the CEO is not concerned with the how, only the why.

Next, we switch hats as divisional vice-presidents of the departments affected by our musings as CEO in order to develop the strategies needed to accomplish the goals we’ve set for ourselves. Our job as strategists is concerned with the how of achieving the goals, the route we’re going to take so to speak.

The managerial tasks are up next – taking care of the tactics and the tools required to fulfill the strategies we’ve developed. This level of thinking deals with the methods, tools and systems we’ll use to accomplish tasks.

The final level – front-line operations – is probably the easiest to deal with. We simply need to come up with fixed procedures to carry out the tasks needed to do the job at hand.

It’s going to take some time and practice to get used to this segmented way of thinking but I believe it’s critical to the success of any business, no matter how small.

business business, professional photographer, professional photography, success, time management