{"id":870,"date":"2011-08-30T15:01:56","date_gmt":"2011-08-30T15:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morephotos.net\/photoblog\/?p=453"},"modified":"2011-08-30T15:01:56","modified_gmt":"2011-08-30T15:01:56","slug":"back-to-business-chapter-6-so-i-do-this-for-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morephotos.com\/back-to-business-chapter-6-so-i-do-this-for-money\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to Business Chapter 6 ~ So, I do this for Money?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Success Series for Modern Day Photographers<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"Getting<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo by Drew Warner<\/a><\/h5>\n

In last week\u2019s edition, How to Get Repeat Business<\/a>, we talked about simple but effective was to keep clients once you get them – how to not let them slip away to the often lower priced competition.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been talking a lot about getting new business lately and of course, if you don\u2019t get new business (and keep it), you won\u2019t have to worry about the financial aspects of your business.\u00a0 However, I am kind of amazed at the number of \u201cProfessional\u201d photographers who simply don\u2019t pay any attention to the \u201cPro\u201d part of their business, which means you get paid to do this.<\/p>\n

You have all gone to seminars, read articles or watched videos that will tell you that you need to charge a fair price for your artistry and work product and that you are worth every penny you charge.\u00a0 I find that many of you, maybe even most of you are still struggling with this part of the business.\u00a0 My best advice would be simply and brutally; get over it.\u00a0 And, not only that, get in the habit of getting a contract for your services and asking for your money up front.\u00a0 Believe it or not (and don\u2019t believe it at your own peril) this may be the most important thing you can do to help your business go and grow.\u00a0 Taking these simple (OK, I know for a lot of you it isn\u2019t simple or easy) steps will change the way you look at your business and the way your customers look at you.<\/p>\n

Thinking of yourself as a professional will give you the confidence you need to set good prices for your time and work product, the first step in long term success.\u00a0 Getting paid up front will make it more exciting to go to work for your customers (trust me, it will) and you will give them a better product.\u00a0 Asking for money up front will make your customers look at you as a professional that deserves to be paid, not someone who works for free and gets paid if they like what you do, which you know happens to you. Cash up front will give you the flexibility to do some extra things to benefit your business and help it grow even faster.\u00a0 You can invest in some targeted marketing and promotions, you can get more connected and join your Chamber of Commerce.\u00a0 Take a moment to think of what you could do with an extra months worth of cash flow!<\/p>\n

There are some tools that can help.\u00a0 First, we talked before about the value of joining trade associations, and all of these professional organizations have resources that are available to you either free or at a low cost which often include sample contracts \u2013 just fill in the blanks.\u00a0 These contracts have been developed over the years by photographers and lawyers and cover areas of importance in your industry that should be professionally documented.\u00a0 Using a contract makes it easier to ask for money up front since you\u2019re setting the bar before services are even rendered; you are booking your time out according to the rates you believe you are worth.\u00a0 These contracts alone are worth the price of the trade association membership fees.<\/p>\n

It is critically important that you look at your business as just that, a business.\u00a0 When you go to your local garage for auto service, there is never any question that you are going to pay for the service.\u00a0 When you order products from a website, you pay upfront and expect to receive what you ordered.\u00a0 You are just as much a business as either of these examples and thinking of yourself as a business is the first step to being a successful one.<\/p>\n

Drew Warner | MorePhotos Marketing | Connect on Linkedin!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Success Series for Modern Day Photographers Photo by Drew […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[109,110,111,112],"class_list":["post-870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-back-to-businss-by-michael-connors","tag-eccomerce-for-photographers","tag-how-to-make-money-from-photography","tag-photo-sales-solution","tag-photography-selling-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morephotos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morephotos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morephotos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morephotos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morephotos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/morephotos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morephotos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morephotos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morephotos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}