THE PET PHOTOGRAPHERS BLOG
Tips for growing a successful pet photography business
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Get started with outsourcing
You’ve heard a bunch of professional photographers talking about outsourcing and their VA’s. You can see the benefits but knowing where to start is all a bit confusing. I mean, what tasks can you start with, how much do you pay, which is best between Fiver, Airtasker, the specific sites for retouchers? And that’s just for listing an ad! Then you have the hiring process, onboarding, sharing passwords and training. Is it worth it?
I’m not going to lie to you, there is a process to hiring any new team member and it’s no different for bringing on a Virtual Assistant. But it is worth it, and it doesn’t have to be overwhelming.
The three requirements for great partnerships
We had a marketing panel discussion at The Retreat. When I asked Mareike her best marketing strategy she immediately replied “partnerships”. Of course I was super excited to hear her perspective because that’s also my strongest marketing avenue and one I teach during the marketing lessons of the Business Foundations Challenge.
Then over the weekend, one of the Retreat attendees and photographers in the last Challenge emailed me on this subject, and asked me what I’d do.
I’ve shared the story in this week’s blog, and some suggestions for working with partners.
The reason your booking calendar isn’t full
Do you know where your next clients are sitting in the buying cycle or what that even means?
If you’re just starting out, chances are, not many people know about your business yet. And if they don’t know you, how can they book?
Later down the track, you might be more known, but if you haven’t earned trust yet, your special offers won’t be booked.
Soon enough you’ll get to a point where you don’t need to take the risk of no-sales that come with giveaways, and instead, your phone will ring from enquiries who are looking for what you offer. But to get to that point- you need to lay really good foundations.
Let’s take a look at different marketing strategies, when they would work well and why!
Overcoming shiny object syndrome
There’s this common concept shared among many photographers that you should “buy the best gear that your budget allows” (and then some). Time and time again I see photographers celebrating their latest purchase while others watch enviously and add another piece to their wish-list. Now if that’s for personal creative purposes, that’s totally fine (if you can afford it!) but let’s talk about the impact on your business (and your wage!) when purchasing new gear.
Seven apps & business tools for pet photographers
Did you know I worked as a studio assistant when I first left photography school? I took that job thinking it would be an amazing opportunity to improve my shooting skills- which it was, but the biggest impact that job actually had on my career, was giving me an understanding of what goes into running a profitable photography business. And a big part of that is systems and tools!
I distinctly remember one particular task I was assigned. My boss asked me to find out how we could move from a paper-form client management system, to something digital. Now keep in mind this was over a decade ago. The countless options that are available now didn’t exist back then. There were a couple of CRM’s like Light Blue and Studio Cloud, but of course, I didn’t know they existed of that they were even called CRM’s! I remember that feeling of kind of knowing something must exist, but not understanding it enough to actually find the details. Anyway- I spent a whole week trying to work this out!
To save you from repeating my experience and losing a week of your time, I wanted to not just share my favourite CRM, but also six other apps and tools that can be incredibly helpful in running a pet photography business.
How one email blast made me $16k
Pet photographers seem to have mixed results with email newsletters! Follow these three steps to ensure your next one results in a return-on-investment you could only dream of!
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