WEBINAR WARMUP
With a background in Marketing and "all things creative," accounting and numbers have always been my least favorite part about entrepreneurship. However, I quickly realized while I was exhasted, feeling defeated, and not being fair to myself, learning how the numbers worked was sucking my creativity dry.
You can't just be fun, creative, and hard working to be a successful photographer.
To be a professional entreprneur, you have to consider taking care of YOURSELF, the business, and looking for success opportunities with just as much just as much as you do your clients.
YOUR BALANCE SHEET
COST OF DOING BUSINESS
Is one of the most sickening, yet relieving things I've learned about from my CPA last year. Yes, I said last year. I was operating with the "guess and check" method for years- setting pricing and packages referencing competitors sites and from feedback from others. I couldn't understand why I had burnt out so quickly and still not making what I should to allow my business to be profitable.
How else are we going to save up for a new camera?
EXPENSES & TIME COST
Who is shelling out a discount for me? I associate discount giving to strangers equivalent to just writing checks to random people on the street.
Paying ourselves accurately for our time, talents, and expertise while understanding the expense of giving discounts cost us more than just time.
Do you know the difference? What does that do to our brand, our reputation, and how is this setting ourselves up for growth?
MARKETING
the problem you are solving
is the number one quetion to understand if you are trying to find the best way to add value and separate yourself from the rest. A lot of us are doing the exact same thing as photographers- but do we really know who needs us?
YOUR AREA doesn't matter
Understand that just because we are conducting business in a particular demographic, we are not limited to pricing our services with the assumption that people can't afford us. If you are targeting your services properly, you WILL find your clients ready to work with you at your price point who also live in areas you deem to be inopportune.
JOIN ME TONIGHT AT 6:00 PM PACIFIC
my vision
for the future of photography is that we, as photographers, to continue to respect this art to be a luxury experience that is accessible, tangible, and sharable for all those who need it, not just want it.
<< photo by Meg N Photography
ABOUT DANA
I have been sharing my experiences & resources with fellow photographers since I was a camera salesman in 2011 and began teaching photography basics to students. From there, I've relocated from Chicago to San Diego and had to build my brand and business over again in a completely different region of the United States.
I've been in instructor at Helix Camera in Itastca for both marketing and photography basics, along with coaching one-on-one for many different studios on how to build basic business concepts for photographers.