Whether it’s Black Friday, Christmas gifts, or simply clients wanting to wrap up their projects before the holidays, the end of year is  great  for product sales, and a great time to drive new business.  It can also be a time of frantic emails, tight deadlines and a few too many late nights. But it doesn’t need to be! The secret to a smoother, more successful holiday season is to START NOW. Here are five things you can do  right now  to save on hours and stress later. 1. Order your samples early Decide what products you're going to offer and order samples, so To View More >>

Whether it’s their first enquiry, the day of the shoot or the day they receive their beautiful prints, every interaction with your client shapes their impression of you and your brand.  Here’s a straightforward process to analyse and improve your client experience, step by step. 1. Understand the customer journey Start by listing all the steps your clients take when working with you — their initial enquiry, the booking, your pre-shoot communications, the shoot itself, and product selection and delivery. Any others? Identify the key moments and To View More >>

We get it — in the age of social media, digital files feel like the norm. Especially in the wedding world, they’re generally expected. Couples want to share their big day right away, and portrait clients love the idea of having “all the photos.” But if we stop there, we’re not just shortchanging ourselves — we’re shortchanging them. Here’s why: Digital is fleeting. Print is forever. Digital images are shared for a moment and then forgotten, buried in a sea of phone photos and cloud storage. Prints become treasures. Albums become stories passed on. To View More >>

Previous |  Contents | Next Download the eBook Bad taste takes a while to show up, but as soon as it does it’s embarrassing. How to avoid it? Start by keeping it simple. If in doubt, leave it out. The half life of crap In her book The Mesh, Lisa Gansky talks about “the half life of crap” – about cheap manufactured products and how long they last. Or rather don’t last. Her point is that the half life of crap products is way too short. They get boring or they break. They end up at the back of your garage or as land fill. Our poor planet can’t afford To View More >>

Previous |  Contents | Next Download the eBook Our brand isn’t a look but a promise kept — not what we say but what we do. Value Imagine if you said, “I want you to pay me what you think I’m worth.” Most people would imagine themselves out of business. We need to tell our clients what we’re worth, and live up to our rhetoric. What is the value of your work to people who don’t know you, or how much they should be paying? The value of a compelling and authentic brand is that it tells people the price of entry and helps them see it’s worth To View More >>

Previous |  Contents | Next Download the eBook "Me me me! My favourite word." — Seth Godin The people paying Here’s the key thing about social photography. Those people in your viewfinder are paying your bills. All of your bills. And the images you take are more or less worthless to anyone else. What are your customers after? Why do they want their photographs taken? Actually, do they want their photographs taken? In social photography the trick is to understand that it’s not about the print, or the album, or the photography, or Photoshop, or what your peers think To View More >>

I'm going to be a bit pushy here. Our series on selling albums talks about:  — setting expectations — making it clear you sell them, and why! — making it easy for your clients to buy — not coming across as "pushy or sales-y" etc. I think that's good, sensible stuff — I helped write them, so there's that! — but let's face it, they lack something: ambition. Sales-ambitious or sales-shy? Portrait and wedding photographers come in all shapes and sizes, attitudes and ambitions, but one of the most important things that define them is surely their attitude to To View More >>

In many markets Covid is likely to limit the size of weddings —  and therefore wedding photography — for some months yet. And with all the restrictions and uncertainty many weddings are likely to be postponed until next season. But there's an upside! Any 2020 weddings delayed until 2021 and 2022 could make those years busier than normal! Which will be a great "problem" to have, as long as you can cope with the extra work. What that means…  • This year albums will be very important as a way to maximise revenue and profit from wedding clients — both current To View More >>

Life can be frantic.  We spend much of our working day on low value tasks — constantly checking our email, picking up our phones for every notification or call — and filling the gaps with our real work, whatever that is. Then we wonder why we're not making progress. We feel burnt out, unsuccessful and overwhelmed — never have enough time, "never get things done". But there's a solution, and I believe that if you start applying it to your own life — by becoming more disciplined about how you structure your days — you'll be more productive, and feel like you have To View More >>

We’ve been thinking a lot about how we can help our community get through everything going on in the world right now. So how can we help you navigate the storm?  We’re asking you for input because we don’t know how things are for you personally. Yes we have our own ideas, but please send us an email so we can talk about yours.  For now, please scroll down for details of a  shared promotion  offer,  plus a  discount on Workspace plans  to get you into Print Shop at bargain rates. We’re not giants of the industry To View More >>