To move your photography business substantially forward requires innovation. Innovation requires DEEP WORK. Get off the hamster wheel and grow your photography business.
Here's the kicker: once you have become a deep expert in one thing, you can choose at any time to take on a project or client outside your scope--on your own terms. It's the best of both worlds.
The word “investment” sounds better than “pricing,” right? It must!
But in reality, it allows every photographer out there who is intimidated by or finds unpleasant the fact they have to actually sell their products and run a business to procrastinate even further.
Imagine if a real estate agent said, “Let’s just get you into the house, and then in 3-6 months, we’ll tally up the hours used and see how much this baby costs.” Crazy, right? It’s almost never going to be in the interest of the customer to pay by the hour.
The problem with naming your business after yourself is that the business--its reputation, its successes, its failures, its personality--are forever tied to you, the founder.
Time to make 2018 the Year of Purposeful Marketing. The goal?
No more stabbing in the dark at random social media platforms hoping and praying someone will notice you. Instead an airtight marketing plan that will zero in on your ideal client like a heat seeking missile.
We all dread that moment when a well-meaning client shows us a Pinterest board of "inspiration" for their photo shoot or wedding. We all know that, if it's on a board, it's been done ad nauseum already. Do you want your website to evoke something that's been "done" already?
There are a couple of caveats: You have to invest your million in your business. You can’t just pay yourself more. And you have to spend it all in one year.
What would you do?
Instead of struggling against reality (and complaining)--which strengthens your old, bad habits--lean into reality instead.
Don't concentrate on how things "should be." Instead, be open like a vessel to a new framework of possibility.
- Do you find yourself competing with lesser brands for the same clients?
Do you sometimes feel like like you're fumbling in the dark with your marketing, and wish you had a confident and lucrative POV? Are you wondering if you should rebrand entirely or just tweak your existing brand, but you don’t even know where to start? If the answer is yes, read this post.
We've read a million and one high-falutin' and even confusing definitions of marketing. But we here at 16 Hoops only have one way to explain marketing. It cuts to the chase nicely.
The best businesses do the hard work to first uncover their own expertise, and then build a brand that expresses that expertise perfectly to their ideal customer. Effective branding is like a pheromone to your perfect customer. They are drawn to it instinctively, like bears to honey.
Saying you are a photographer is like saying you are a human. Anyone with a homo sapiens brain and a pulse is a human. Ergo, anyone with a camera and a business card is a photographer.
Invent something new (and lucrative, natch) by zooming out and enlarging. Break free of the old limiting framework that might be holding you back. The best way to do this is to look at your market and see what opportunities might be hiding in plain sight.
The problem I keep seeing over and over again with this industry is the complete lack of actual expertise in the photography market, despite more “experts” than ever before.
No one has a deep need for something undefined. People are constantly investigating their own pain points and searching for solutions. Positioning yourself means that you know the questions you target customer is asking, and your brand is publicly declaring the answers.