CHAPTER 20:

SUMMARY

Now that you've spent a little time reading this book, do you have a let-down feeling, knowing that the life of a photographer is not all hearts and flowers? Or do you have a steely resolve to work hard and meet all the challenges and rise above the competition to one day be tops in your photographic specialty of choice?

Maybe you're thinking the fantasy photography life you'd envisioned wasn't all that great, and the reality isn't all that harsh. Maybe you're thinking, “Hey, I can do this.”

I can be a businessperson: I can make projections, get a tax ID number, protect my name, get invoices out on time, and anything and everything else necessary.

I can fulfill the obligation to fully and passionately tell the stories of my subjects whether they are two-year-olds in ribbons and bows holding bunny rabbits, or war-torn refugees.

I can be my own product, my own message. I can leave my clients not just with beautiful images but with excitement about the experience of working with me and about the special understanding and creativity I brought to their project.

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A baby portrait by Vik Orenstein.

I can put my clients at ease, earn their trust and build strong, intimate working relationships with them.

I can hang on for the creative ride from the highs of learning to the thrills of mastery to the valleys of boredom — and bring myself back to the highs of learning all over again.

I can reinvent myself when the economy, the marketplace, the trends and the technological advancements dictate the need — and I can feel good about it.

THE STORIES OF THOSE WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE US

Learning the stories of those who have established photography careers can give us a context for our career choice and validate that choice. Understanding the disparate places in their lives from which these people all entered the same creative field helps us understand that we are, each of us, both more unique and less alone in our visions and our desires than we had thought.

Having the luxury of seeing the ways in which they built their careers and beat the odds gives us hope that we can do it, too.

In frankly sharing their mistakes and fears as well as their victories with us, they allow us to identify with them, to see ourselves in similar lives one day, and allow ourselves to have fears and to make mistakes, too.

HOW TO BECOME A PHOTOGRAPHER

There are so many ways to learn the craft and art of photography that any aspiring shooter should be able to find one or more that suits his personal style and that he can easily fit into his life.

He can work as an apprentice, assisting a photographer. He'll make little or no pay, but if he's observant and asks questions, he can learn it all — creative technique, technical know-how and business protocol — from the inside.

He can work as an assistant, making $175 to $250 a day, and get a bird's-eye view of an established shooter's business.

Going to a two-year tech school is a relatively quick option that allows the student down-and-dirty hands-on experience with the whole range of equipment and in a variety of disciplines. It may not hold the prestige of art school or photography school, but it sure gets the job done.

A top-notch school like the Brooks Institute offers two- and four-year programs that are intensive and expensive. Many shooters start out in liberal arts college and then transfer credits to finish their photography major at such schools.

A photographer with an art school education can do well if he remembers to consider his clients' satisfaction into his equation of how to do business.

Clubs and professional organizations, including online discussion groups, can provide a great forum for new and established photographers to network and exchange knowledge and information.

A liberal arts degree creates a well-rounded person with good general knowledge, who knows how to study and how to think — an excellent platform from which to dive into the photography business.

Many of the photographers profiled in this book are self-taught. This doesn't mean they learned the business in a vacuum, without teachers or mentors. It simply means they had no formal photographic training. If you're incredibly motivated and confident in your talent, you might be able to make self-teaching your platform into the photography world.

Working in a camera store gives you exposure to a lot of different professional photographers, intimate knowledge of equipment and a natural forum to discuss every aspect of the business with fellow employees and store patrons.

If you can get informal informational interviews with established photographers, you'll get to spend a little time in the inner sanctum and get some answers to questions that are burning in your mind.

Reading books on photography can nicely supplement any other avenues for learning you choose to pursue. Just don't read a book and assume you've learned its lessons; you need to take the lessons out into the field and apply the theories and techniques you read about to your actual shooting experience.

To really shorten your learning curve, you can hire a consultant at $200 to $500 an hour, to show you exactly how to run a business in your specialty area. For people who have the resources and know precisely what they want to do, hiring a consultant can actually result in a huge savings in time and money spent compared to a two- or a four-year program at a photography school or an art college.

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“A Snail at Dusk” by Connie Cooper-Edwards.

Aspiring portrait photographers can learn some of the ins and outs on the job at chain studios and photo mills. You can get a lot of practical hands-on experience dealing with clients and a variety of subjects, and learn some technical basics while getting paid.

Of course finding a mentor can really jump-start your career. An older, more established shooter who takes an interest in your career is worth his weight in gold.

People who want to learn photography but who have day jobs, families, or other pressing obligations, often find Internet classes to be a perfect solution. You can complete the lessons at your convenience and receive invaluable feedback from highly credentialed instructors, as well as from the rest of the class.

FINDING YOUR PLACE

With the fierce competition in every photography market in every part of the country, now more than ever before it is important to choose a specialty and refine it so that you distinguish yourself from the pack. Clients should be able to look at your work and know that it's yours without ever seeing your credit line.

In choosing your specialty area, you need to weigh your interests — what it is you love to shoot — against the realities of your market, i.e., what people will buy. It's important to consider your desires. The photography business is too tough to be in if you don't love what you do. But it's equally important to consider your market. If you can't make a living, you'll be just as miserable as if you're stuck shooting in a field you don't like. So you need to do some soul-searching and then commit yourself to a narrow area of expertise.

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

I love film, and I have an inherent mistrust of digital capture. But I'm gradually learning to embrace digital technology as a valuable tool in certain circumstances.

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Afghanistan, 2006 by Stormi Greener.

Simply put, digital capture is a different information storage method. Film stores visual information with grain. Digital stores visual information with pixels.

Digital technology cannot make a bad photographer into a good one or a poorly lit image into a work of art. What it can do is allow you to remove those nasty power lines from your exterior architectural shot or that blemish off the face of the model in your fashion shot.

It can give your clients faster turn-around time — sometimes you can just hand them a photo CD as they're walking out the door after your shoot. It can sometimes save you money on media, savings you can pass on to your client.

In some situations and for some methods of reproduction or distribution, digital images can look as good or better than film.

But digital equipment can be very expensive, and it becomes outdated quickly. If you already have an established film-based business, you need to do some number crunching to determine whether the addition of a digital system is justifiable financially. Will your $50,000 new equipment purchase result in $50,000 worth of increased sales or increased media savings? If the answer is no, you need to wait.

Is it really time to go digital or die? No. Is film dead? No. Digital technology is not a magic bullet, it's not Satan's little helper — it's just another tool in our belts.

NETWORKING

There are many reasons to network with your fellow photographers. You can help set industry standards, refer clients to one another when you get a request for a job that is outside of your area of specialty, find a mentor, trade secrets, and learn techniques from other specialties that you can use in your own. It's like cross-pollinating.

Places to network include professional organizations, online discussion groups and seminars and workshops.

PLANNING FOR A BOUNCING BABY BUSINESS

A business plan is a document that describes your business, your market and how you intend to position your business within that market. It projects your fixed overhead, cost of goods, and the quantity of goods you'll have to sell, and at what price, to make a profit.

Your business plan spells out exactly who you are, what your products and services are, what makes your products and services better than your competition's, and who your targeted clients are.

Your business plan will help you test the feasibility of your economic goals, thus helping you avoid ugly (and costly) surprises.

In doing the research necessary to complete your business plan, you will learn about your competition and your market. This knowledge will help you make your business more successful.

Likewise figuring out exactly what and how much you need to sell can help motivate you to meet financial goals, in the same way that quotas help motivate a salesperson.

If you intend to apply for a bank loan, or woo potential investors, your business plan is an invaluable sales tool.

STARTING UP

When you're starting up your own business, your to-do list is going to be really, really long. Don't let it daunt you. You have to be unflappable. You have a lot to do.

You need to choose the type of entity, or business structure, that's right for you. You need a professional to guide you. Kids, don't try this at home! Consult a CPA or a tax attorney.

You need to choose a name for your business, and you need to protect that name by getting a trademark for it, unless you're simply doing business under your own name — you don't need any protection for that.

You need to file for a tax ID number; you can't do business without one, and you need it so you don't have to pay sales tax on items for resale.

You need to learn when to charge your clients sales tax and when not to, and when to pay sales tax and when not to. This can be trickier than it seems.

You need to establish a record-keeping system that works for you and get into the habit of keeping meticulous records.

Figuring your own taxes and filling out the 1040EZ form are now a thing of the past for you. You need to hire a CPA.

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“Corn” by Leo Kim.

You need to choose a location for your business. Do you want to work from your home? Open a point of destination or a retail studio? Share a space, partner or rent on an as-needed basis from another photographer?

If you sign a lease, you should understand rent plus CAM (common area maintenance) charges.

Considering the purchase of an existing studio or a franchise? Learn the pros and cons of each.

Recognize the difference between employees and contractors, and hire the one(s) that are appropriate for your business needs.

REJUVENATING YOUR EXISTING BUSINESS

Just when you think you can coast, it's time to start pedaling again. Sure, your business has survived the treacherous start-up stage, and you've experienced some real success. But now is not the time to relax.

Keep up your marketing. Keep your portfolio up-to-date. Use that phone — it's still your most valuable customer relations tool. And speaking of customer relations, keep those up, too. Don't start taking those people, who are the very reason for your success, for granted.

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“Shepherds Crossing a River” by Stormi Greener.

Some photographers find this stage of their business life to be a time of disillusionment. They've come, they've seen, they've conquered — and now the excitement is gone. Fight this pitfall with a variety of tactics: Take a vacation, volunteer, do some test shoots or pursue your personal work with extra ambition. And count your blessings — remember, you're one of the lucky ones. Explore alternative careers. You might find one you that you're more suited for, but the more likely result is that you'll reaffirm the choices you've already made. Finally, vent your spleen! Do some good old-fashioned griping. Get it all out.

Having more business than you can handle is another dangerous milestone in the life of a small business. You have to decide whether to grow or whether to contract — and possibly turn business away.

You need to examine your role — it will change if you expand. You'll become more of a general and less a soldier in a foxhole, supervising rather than doing. Some photographers like this; they naturally find their own management style and they don't mind delegating. Others like to stay on the front lines. Which one are you?

Ask yourself: Am I making enough money right now? Because if you are, it might not be worth the risk of the added liability and exposure to expand. Sure, a larger well-run business will pay bigger dividends during a good economy, but bigger isn't always better. Profit margins are smaller, and when the bad times come (and there will be bad times), your risk is greater.

There are pros and cons to this stage of business life. As someone once said, being old is better than the alternative. But you're not growing anymore, you've topped out. The thrill is gone. You need to recharge your creative batteries. Maybe you need to find greater satisfaction and excitement outside of work. Or maybe this is a good time to explore new niches within the photography industry.

EXPLORING NEW NICHES

There are a host of reasons to change your niche or add one at every stage of your photography career: a market shifts, your personal preferences change, you get bored, you lose the physical stamina for location work and come home to the studio.

Changing niches can be extreme (from outdoors/travel to studio portraits), or it can be slight (editorial architecture to commercial residential interiors). It may involve a total shift in technique and subject, or it may involve doing the same work but marketing to a different client.

Making such changes can be done at any stage in your business life. When you're just starting out, you're hungry and you're flexible, and you'll do whatever is necessary to succeed. When you're middle-aged, you might resist making changes because you're comfortable in your habits, but on the other hand, you've mastered photography and you have resources to make the transition easier. When you're in the later stages of your career, changing niches could be a godsend or a heartbreak, depending on the reason for the change. If you're going back to the subject matter you always wanted to shoot, then the change is a godsend. If your market dried up and you are forced to change to survive, that's the heartbreak. But then again, you might find you like the new challenge. It might bring back some of the thrill that you were missing.

Whatever you do, hedge your bets. Give yourself a safety net. Don't quit your old specialty until the new one has firmly taken root. Don't rob Peter to pay Paul; taking resources away from one to put into another is dangerous and foolhardy. And don't follow the crowd — if there's a mass migration out of your specialty area, wait it out. You may find yourself surprisingly and happily alone.

PULLING NUMBERS OUT OF THIN AIR

Sometimes that's what it feels like when you're trying to determine what to charge for your products and services. But there are standard fee structures and price ranges for every industry. You need to research the standards in your area, and there are several ways to do this. You can join a professional organization for photographers in your specialty, such as ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers.)

Within your industry there is a range of price levels in which to compete. You have to decide where to position yourself within that range. If you're just starting out, you probably want to be somewhere in the middle of the range, between bargain basement and carriage trade. If you charge too little, you're competing with the masses and your work may be perceived as shoddy. Charge too much, and you limit yourself to a very small portion of your market.

Remember to consider your costs of goods (COGS) and fixed overhead when setting your prices.

And consider price-point appeal: $19.99 sounds a lot cheaper than $20. Don't ask me why, human beings are funny animals sometimes.

Small, steady price increases over the years will serve you better than sporadic, sudden increases. Your clients will be happier and you'll cover your inflationary expenses better in the long run.

THE PHYSICAL REALITY OF A BODY OF WORK

You probably thought your biggest job was going to be making your images, silly you! Actually one of your biggest jobs is going to be keeping track of them: organizing, archiving, distributing, showcasing, packaging and just generally handling your originals and prints.

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“A Boy and His Dog” by Vik Orenstein.

Presentation is everything! When you're showcasing your work, whether it's on the wall, in your portfolio or in its package, do it right. The way you present your work tells your clients how to regard it. Great work can look like terrible work if it's presented poorly.

Organizing originals is a huge task all by itself. But a mislabeled or lost original may as well not exist at all. You need to know exactly where every image is, all the time.

Storage is another big deal. You need to have adequate archival storage containers and cost-effective, fireproof and waterproof storage areas for your originals.

Some photographers purge their negatives or originals after a period of time has passed and the likelihood of the client reordering has passed.

GET OUT THERE AND TELL YOUR STORY

The ability to be a good marketer is more important to your ultimate success than your ability to make great images — you probably don't want to hear this, but it's true. You could be a fantastically talented photographer, but if you don't get out there and spread your message and show people your work — and your face — you won't be in business long.

You don't just find a client base — you make one. You may not realize it, but you are on commission. You are essentially a commissioned salesperson, just like the one who sells you your clothes at the mall or sells you your waste-management services.

You have to know what makes you and your work stand out from the crowd. Make up a clear and recognizable story about it, then get out there and spread your rap.

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A nature shot by Lewis Kemper.

Be persistent. It takes more than one contact with you before a client will hire you. Even if your contacts don't result in jobs right away, keep going back. It's like planting seeds. It can take a while for germination.

Target your audience. Market to the people who are likely to use your products and services. You don't have to get your message out to everyone, just the right ones.

Set goals, so you can track your progress.

There are many different marketing methods. Some are hard, some are easy. Some cost nothing, some cost a lot. You'll probably benefit most from a combination of methods. Direct mail, websites and cold calls are just a few.

Have a marketing plan and a marketing budget. It's even more important than your business plan. If you have clients, you have a business. If you don't have clients, you're out of business.

SELL IT, BABY

Sales is like marketing, but instead of selling a potential client on using your products or services, you're selling a person who is already your client your products or services. I look at marketing as outside sales (going out and getting the clients) and sales as inside sales (selling your clients your stuff).

Remember that sales is all about customer service and relationships. People buy from people they like.

Don't be shy about taking control of the sales meeting, design consultation or any other client situation. Your expertise is not an intrusion, it's a service. It's added value.

One way to take control is to set the tone. Often we unconsciously mirror the behavior of the people with whom we are dealing. If the client comes in flustered or defensive, we reflect this back to them. But instead of just reflexively taking the clients' lead, you set the tone. Demonstrate a relaxed, positive attitude and the client will relax and become more positive, too.

You should learn the little tricks of the trade: selling up, meeting objections, repeating the client's concerns in your own words. But ultimately you have to develop your own sales style, based on your own personality and the specific things that motivate you.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

Public relations is all about community. By creating a presence in your community you foster goodwill and make your own story a part of your community's story.

You can do your own public relations work, writing and sending out press releases and drumming up opportunities for public speaking, or you can hire a PR firm.

Other ways to establish a presence in your community include getting involved in charitable activities, joining professional groups and doing pro bono work.

LAWYERS

There are a lot of lawyer jokes, but they're only funny until you need legal advice. Then you stop laughing.

There are a lot of reasons photographers need lawyers. More than ever, we need help protecting our intellectual property. We need help deciding on what type of entity our businesses should be. We need help trademarking our names and understanding employment law and tax law — both areas where a misstep can cost you big-time.

Find a good lawyer by asking for referrals and interviewing potential candidates. Look for a generalist in a small firm or a sole practice, who has the integrity to refer you to a specialist when it becomes necessary.

ACCOUNTANTS

The first professional you hire should be your CPA. He will be the director of the team of professionals whose services you will use to grow your business. Your accountant will not only do your taxes, he will act as a financial and business advisor, and help you put together your team. You'll need a banker, bookkeeper, insurance agents and lawyer.

To find a good CPA, look for one in a small firm that specializes in small businesses like yours. Ask people who have similar businesses (and that you know and trust) who they use, and just as with the attorneys, don't be afraid to ask for an interview with potential candidates.

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“Nude and Pool” by Kathleen Carr.

CRADLE TO GRAVE

The life cycle of a small business goes something like the life cycle of a person. Gestation is an exciting and scary time. You're full of hopes and yet full of fear and doubts. What if something goes wrong? Will I be able to handle this new responsibility?

Infancy is hard — there's no joy in Mudville. You'll be working long hours, and often every day of the week. But you'll be able to see the payoff coming.

Toddlerhood is a dangerous time: You have some mobility now, and you've built up some momentum, which is the good news and the bad news. If you go toddling off in the right direction, you'll be okay. But if you toddle off in the wrong direction, you'll make the business equivalent of smacking your head on the table edge — investing your resources unwisely or focusing your energies in the wrong place.

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A portrait by Vik Orenstein.

The preteen stage is awkward. Sometimes you'll feel like the new wunderkind on the scene, and sometimes you'll feel like an impostor impersonating a photographer.

Young adulthood is great — you're feeling secure but still challenged and engaged, and you're still growing a little.

Middle age arrives and the thrill is gone. You need to consciously find ways to charge your creative batteries.

Our golden years might not be as golden as those of other entrepreneurs. Unlike other businesses, which are conceived with the intention to one day sell them, we might come to retirement stage with nothing to sell.

LIFESTYLES

Some people seem to think the lifestyle of a photographer is glamorous and easy. Others seem to think that if you decide to be a photographer you just have to accept that you'll always be poor and never quite make it financially. The truth tends to be a little of each. There is some glamour — but the work isn't always easy. In many specialties, you wind up working nights and weekends. Often the work is physically demanding. The work can be seasonal or sporadic, so at times you'll be working eighty-hour weeks, and at other times you'll be wondering if you'll ever have another client again. You have to save for a rainy day, because just as the work comes in spurts, so does the money.

But if you can handle uncertainty, the payoff is big: You get to make pictures.