I’m very thankful for all the photographers who read this blog and my ebooks, listen to the interviews here, or even avail themselves of the opportunity to get coached on their business with me. However, just the other day, something happened that turned a light on in my own head, when a photographer said this to me during a coaching call:

I’m so tired of trying to get clients to hire me – when I talk to them on the phone, they seem all fired up about working with me, but then they never do for some reason…

I understood completely where she was coming from, and I totally sympathize with her feelings of disappointment – we’ve all been where she is right now.

So, we spent about 45 minutes discussing ways I could help, the things she could do, and then I asked her if she wanted to work with me to help her reach her goals. Despite her obvious need to seek help, and even though she acknowledged that she needed coaching, can you guess what she said?

Read more…

Photography Business Ideas business commitment, photography business, success

As you’ve gathered from reading this blog, I’m very passionate about educating photographers on the importance of knowing what it is that makes them unique. Being able to make your clients fall in love with what you do, and why you do it, is the single most powerful marketing force I know of.

In fact, I would go as far as to say that, without this vital piece of information, you don’t really have a true photography business.

As Aristotle said, “Well begun is half done“, and taking time to become aware of the power you hold within yourself is well begun indeed!

Hear For Yourself

Today, I want you to hear for yourself the process of discovering these unique factors in action, so that you can get a better understanding of how this works and why it’s so essential…

Read more…

Photography Business Coaching client attraction, photography business, photography marketing

Today’s interview is with photographer Michele Graves, from Northwestern Arkansas, somewhere in between Eureka Springs and Branson, Missouri. Michele spent much of her working life as a high-school English teacher, which has given her some great insights and the ability to relate well to high-school seniors, one of her favorite subjects, along with babies, weddings, children & families.

As an interesting side-note Michele also shared with me the fact that she not only runs a full-time photography business, but a restaurant as well!

Not only that, but wait until you learn just how small her local town is! The answer was so shocking, I had to ask her again to make sure I had heard correctly the first time!

I don’t want to hear any photographer, ever again, tell me that their town is too small to run a photography business!

Word Of Mouth Marketing

The subject of this particular chat with Michele is the power of word of mouth in the marketing of her photography business. In fact, about 80% of her clients are repeat customers, so it’s well worth paying attention to everything Michele has to say in this great interview.

Some of the excellent ideas Michele shared with us include…

Read more…

Photography Business Interviews MIchele Graves, photographer interview, photography business, photography marketing, word of mouth

As something of a quick experiment, I asked my Twitter followers to answer the question, “What are the top business mistakes by ‘rookie’ photographers?” Within just a few minutes I had several great responses, and thought they would make a great Monday post for the blog.

It’s one thing to be a good photographer, but quite another to be the owner of a successful photography business. In fact, I’ve seen many technically talented photographers suffer through tough times in their business, while observing others who seem less deserving sail right on by.

The difference in these two scenarios lies in the photographer’s understanding of the importance of business skills.

Read more…

Photography Business Ideas business mistakes, new photographers, photography business

Sometimes, it can be difficult to know what to do, or which way to go in our business. There are so many choices and decisions that we face every day, and not all of them are going to be of great benefit to us, even if they do look “nice and shiny“. The trouble is, how do we know which decisions are the right ones for us? One answer is to use the advantage of higher ground to look down and survey the big picture of your business, and how it fits into the commercial landscape…

The Challenge of Perspective

As business owners, we all know how it feels to be caught up in the minutiae of the day-to-day tasks of running a photography business. Sometimes, it can seem that we have a million things to do at once, many of which might be urgent, but not particularly important in the achievement of our overall business goals. However, if those jobs don’t get done, then the operation of the business can suffer. Then there are the inevitable fires to put out, and unexpected and unwelcome surprises to deal with… All of this creates quite a quandary, especially for those of us who are working on our own.

The challenge, then, is forcing ourselves to take a step back (or climb up to higher ground), in order to see the bigger picture and to determine if we are, in fact, moving in the overall direction we want to go in.

An aerial view of the Southern Alps, New Zealand

Taking the time to get a bird’s eye view of your business is a valuable exercise. The question remains, though: How do we do this? What practical suggestions can we offer to help the majority of photographers out there who have difficulty even finding time to take a lunch break?

(Read the whole post for a great opportunity at the end to get a business breakthrough!)

Read more…

Photography Business Ideas business perspective, business success, photography business

Earlier this week, I sent out a survey (see “Your Chance To Help Shape The Future“) to help me refine the direction of this blog and the membership site. After all, this website and blog is for YOU, the professional photographer, not me, and I want to make sure that I’m providing content that’s as valuable as possible in helping you reach your goals.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank each of the numerous photographers who responded, for taking time out of their busy schedule to help out, I really appreciate it!

The answers I received will be invaluable in helping to shape the future of Zenologue.

Since you were kind enough to complete the survey, I thought you might be interested to see the results. Of course, the answers also raised some additional questions, and I may send out a follow-up survey soon to dig up some further useful data to refine things further.

Here are the results…

Read more…

General photography business, survey results, zenologue insiders

Today, yet again, in one of my introductory coaching calls, I encountered a very disturbing problem that seems to be plaguing photographers everywhere. Simply put, it goes like this:

A lack of clear focus on what makes them unique in the marketplace.

The problem can obviously be clearly stated, as shown above, but the solution can be very elusive indeed. Most photographers never fully understand it, others have a vague idea, but very few seem to know with certainty what it is that distinguishes them from their competition.

The latter group of photographers are those who are doing well in their businesses, booking clients that other photographers are complaining they can’t get for reasons unknown. The rest are struggling – wondering why their bookings are down, clients aren’t buying, and profits are suffering…

For example, have you ever lost a potential client to another photographer who was more expensive than you?

Read more…

General client attraction, photography business

I honestly love my job (although I don’t really consider it as such) of writing and maintaining this blog, but for today, it’s your turn to have a say…

Balancing the need to serve my site members, while providing much-needed business information for others, can be a real challenge, to say the least! However, before I fly into action with things that people might not want, I thought I would ask the most important folks out there for their opinion – YOU.

Read more…

General photography business, survey

It’s always very enlightening to hear advice and tips from other professional photographers, and there’s certainly no shortage of interviews with some of the more well-known personalities in the photography industry to be found.

However, I believe we also have a lot to learn from the experiences of others who are with us side-by-side in the trenches – from photographers who are experiencing some of the same challenges that we are.

I also think that listening to some of the creative ways that photographers have discovered for overcoming common challenges can be both instructive and very inspiring to those who are in a similar position. Therefore, I’m thrilled to bring you this wonderful interview with newborn and wedding photographer Lisa Otto…

Read more…

Photography Business Interviews client relationship, photographer interview, photography business, photography style

It’s a real shame that the popular conception of the word “salesperson” evokes more negative thoughts than positive ones in people’s minds. We all know who the usual suspects are: The shady used car salesperson, the unscrupulous insurance salesperson, and the pressure salesperson… no one wants to be like them, right?

We speak of “sales tactics” as though we, as prospects, are engaged in a war of nerves with these people. Even the phrase “foot in the door” evolved from the early adoption of forceful techniques by some desperate door-to-door salesperson who couldn’t use gentle persuasion to help a prospect to buy from them.

We even use certain military terms, such as “campaign” or “target market” when referring to our marketing.

Are All Salespeople Bad?

Unfortunately, the minority of unscrupulous salespeople have tarnished the good profession of selling so much that truly ethical and professional salespeople are faced with the daily challenge of having to overcome an enormous amount of natural distrust in their prospects. There are many forthright and honest salespeople working every day with their clients’ needs forefront in their minds, yet they’re forced to dispel the myth that all sales people are dishonest before they can even begin to do their job.

What has this to do with being a photographer?

Read more…

Sales & Marketing photography business, photography sales, professional photography

Last week was a whirlwind here at Zenologue, with five powerful photographer interviews recorded, new ideas for the membership site coming closer to fruition, and future articles being developed.

One of the photographers I interviewed, Bonnie Velazco, put all that into perspective for me during our chat, as we discussed the challenges of juggling a full-time job and building a photography business!

If you’re in a similar position, balancing a day-job and nurturing a photography practice, you’ll love this interview with Bonnie.

Bonnie and I talked about some great advice and tips that can really help you manage your eventual transition to becoming a full-time photographer.

If you aren’t yet a member, or are still thinking about it, I don’t you to miss out completely… I have something special for you too.

Read more…

General photography business, photography marketing, photography sales, special offer

Marketing is a year round activity. As photographers, sometimes we get so involved in servicing our current clients, that we forget about the need to market our services to the next batch of potential clients…

This is a guest post by Lara White of PhotoMint, who was also kind enough to spend some time chatting with me about submitting wedding photographs for publication in order to build exposure, garner publicity, and build better business relationships with clients and other vendors. For the photographer who wants to know how to book weddings this is indispensable!

This is an area that is overlooked by the vast majority of wedding photographers.

Done correctly, and consistently, this is something that can really help to distinguish your studio from all the other photographers in your community.

Submission, as you will see from her post, and hear during her interview, is not restricted to magazines.

Nor is it confined to just the biggest and most popular publications…

Before you read her great post, members can listen to our interview here:

Read more…

Sales & Marketing guest blogger, Lara White, photography marketing, wedding magazine, wedding photography