Фотографии для малышей by Elena Ch.

О фотографии... и маркетинге

Ср Апр 28, 2010 15:52

Хорошая статья правда на английском

1. Your time is valuable, and you deserve to be compensated for your time.

2. Most of us don’t factor in our own time invested in doing our work and don’t factor it into the final cost to the client. All of those hours of retouching, learning, researching, calling, emailing, etc. need to be accounted for.

3. Don’t work for friends – it rarely works out in anyone’s favor and someone always ends up angry and disappointed in the end.

4. If you do work for friends, at the very least be compensated for your time as you normally would be with clients. Are you working LESS hard for them? Likely not, so why should you be paid less for this job? It is, after all, taking time away from another job who WOULD pay you in full.

5. Don’t look to your family for praise in this work – they don’t understand it, nor do they understand how you could ever fathom charging what you do for what you do. Ignore it, and push ahead.

6. Family and friends will undervalue your work more than you could imagine. Don’t place any weight on their beliefs or let it influence how you feel about your work. You’re awesome, and they simply haven’t ‘seen the light’ yet (wink, wink)

7. Don’t work for free – ever. You aren’t a slave.


Оригинал: http://www.photographercafe.com/?p=907
Я нашла здесь: http://galunya.livejournal.com/79897.html#cutid1



8. Don’t undercut your fellow photographers thinking that it will help you get ahead by attracting you more clients. It will only attract to you those clients who are seeking a deal, or who want to barter and negotiate on price.

9. Don’t negotiate your price. You are worth more than you have probably set your prices to reflect. If your clients can’t afford you, release them and make room for those who can.

10. Keep a file of all of the responses that you write back to clients on tough issues because you will be faced with them again, and it pays to have a well-written response at the ready.

11. Raise your prices at the very least once a year. Many of us raise them twice a year.

12. Keep an email folder for saving client emails that you think you may need reference later. There is something to be said for having things in writing. You don’t need to do this for all clients, but you will know when you have one that you do need to do it for. Trust me J

13. Take some time to think about various client scenarios that might cause you discomfort when you come upon them, and practice your verbal response so that when the opportunity comes up, you are ready. i.e. “We’ve referred many friends to you, so I am wondering if you can adjust the price on this for me”. My response: “Thank you so much for referring your friends, I really appreciate that! The mere fact that you’ve referred your closest friends tells me that you place a great deal of trust in me, my product, and the experience of working with me. Your recommendation to your friends also tells me that in your eyes, I am doing a good job. Hopefully you will also agree that I deserve to be paid for a job well done, and I am sure you wouldn’t want to reward my hard work by asking me to compromise my income. I would love to express my thanks to you for your referrals in a way that makes us both feel good, and so I propose _______ (complementary gifts with their order, additional prints thrown in, etc)

14. Treat clients the way that you would like to be treated – with respect and genuine appreciation.

15. Make it a point of learning something special about each of your clients such that the memory sticks with you. People find nothing more flattering than you remembering a seemingly benign fact about them, their kids, or their family, and it really makes them feel special.

16. Be prompt in your replies to clients, and if you can’t reply straight away with the information they need, at the very least reply letting them know that it may be a few days. Keep them on the same page, not in the dark.

17. If you feel strange touting the virtue of your work to clients, you need to hire someone else to do your sales. If you can’t sell yourself, you won’t sell your work effectively. Having a third party talk you up may be all that you need to get those larger sales. Clients may be picking up on your discomfort and interpreting it as a lack of belief in your own worth.

18. Don’t put anything online – ever. (editor’s note: we had many questions about this point and Heather sweetly elaborated in comment section “I should clarify that sneak peeks to blogs are ok as long as it is 1-5 only and they are watermarked. You’ll notice I rarely sneak peek because I want a cient’s first reaction to be with me. What I mean is proofing galleries and leaving images up a week or more. No no no please no.” Thanks Heather!)

19. Make it a point of meeting with clients to take their order. A couple of extra hours can easily increase your sales by more than what you would ever expect to be paid hourly. It is worth the time, and clients like having their hands held knowing that you are invested in their artwork too.

20. Make it a habit to shoot for yourself during your sessions too once you’ve captured your client’s wishes. Doing so helps you broaden your repertoire and your skills.

21. If you don’t want to shoot a particular thing (babies, weddings, events) just don’t. YOU dictate what you shoot based on what you enjoy. Show only on your website what you want to attract business towards.

22. Become a member of your local camera club, and get to know other local photographers socially.

23. Don’t look at other local photographers as your competition. They are your colleagues, and are a tremendous resource.

24. Know that your spouse really doesn’t want to know about F-stops and exposure as much as s/he pretends to want to know. It is about as interesting to them as watching paint dry. Join online forums or arrange to get together with the above-mentioned colleagues for a social gathering to talk shop….we love it, and our spouses will appreciate it.

25. Approach every session seeking to see the beauty in your subjects, and it will appear for you.

26. Don’t look to emulate your favorite photographers by copying their style, their websites, their pricing or their imagery. If you do, don’t call it “inspiration”. It isn’t flattering to those being copied and isn’t a constructive use of your time. Devote your time instead to finding a new way of seeing something, or a new approach to something commonplace. Endeavour instead to become someone worth being copied.

27. Find the comfort zone for your pricing and then increase it slightly above that.

28. Don’t stagnate yourself into doing things the same way as others, or the same way you’ve always done them. Growth and change are imperative.

29. Become aware of when you are burning out and take steps to remedy the problem. Hire staff, reduce your hours, or increase your prices. Don’t let the art you love become the job you hate.

30. Be thankful for the gifts that you’ve been given, and be humble at the same time.