What's the best thing you can do for your photography business RIGHT NOW?
Read this newsletter in its' entirety.

Here's a great idea for fast and easy referral cards that we use in our
studio....
An email from James....
Rob,

I got an idea from listening to your tapes on marketing and reading the
marketing manual. Once again, thanks for making such great information
available and also taking the time to read letters like this. The idea of
mine is still in it's infant stage, but i'm hoping to develop it soon. I
wanted your opinion on if you think it's a worthy idea or if it's been used
before with successful or unsuccessful results. Anyhoo, here it is.

I'm basically going to start a recommendation program to all my current
clients. What it consists of is when I give them their final prints, I'm
going to ask them to fill out a customer care form, to which I can then add
them to my database. I'm also leaving the option open for them to take part
in the James Zedd Photography Recommendation Program, which (very basically)
gives them the oppertunity to recommend up to 3 people to receive a photo
session. I'll send the recommendations a sales letter using the tactics
you've given me, and maybe because their new customers, i'll offer them a
discount on their first session. Now, if I get a sale based off one of the
recommendations, the original customer will get 'rewards,' such as a free
8x10 for one recommendation turning into a sale, then one 8x10 and two 5x7
for two recommendations, etc. I would offer the recommendation program to
all my customers after delivery of their prints (even old ones that have
already recommended me some) and hope that I can reach out to new customers
after every photoshoot.

Do you think this is a good idea? I've included a copy of my customer care
form and recommendation program form with this e-mail. Other than that, I'm
still a great student of NoBS and am working on a newsletter to get out
there to my target market. I have a small team of friends who're helping me
get recommendations, and my business is slowly crawling up there. Thanks
again for your time Rob. Take care.
James Zedd

********
James, this is an awesome idea. We give out biz cards to all our clients,
with their image from their shoots on it.THEY LOVE THIS.
Here's a sample:
http://www.profitablestudio.com/ref.html

the first letter is good. you may not need the second one. Simply give them a promo referal
card,with their names on it, and they can hand them out to who they wish.
when the recipient calls, and redeems the card, the originating clients name
is on, so now you can reward them with a gift. cool? simple??

you could get very agressive with this and gather names maybe 5-10
right away and call all those people. that's more suited for a tightly run
higher volume scenario...

we get three cards up on a 4x6 printed at costco,
fast and cheap.....

I say you should RUN WITH THIS.... keep me posted

Rob
yours in photography,
Robert Provencher

********************************

How is your photography business managed? I've included some free tips on studio management later in this email, but first......

Good management is essential for success and profits. My wife Tina and
her associate Dana spent a year creating a management manual called
Photo Studio Boss.

Recently one of their clients had this to say about it:
"Hello Tina and Dana,
I have read through the 'Studio Boss' and have to say that I am very
impressed with all the information you have put together for studio owners.
I love the fact that its well organized, meticulously edited and
spell-checked, and very simply presented. I have been in business for
about 20 years and found many useful ideas and tips on organization and
management that just never occurred to me before. I have been a one-person
operation until three years ago, and sort of made things up as I went along.
I will pass much of this info onto a new employee that will be managing the
studio--what a great, concise handbook to equip her with as she attempts to
make sense of the business and correct the mistakes I have been making for so many years.

I purchase a lot of educational materials for photographers and found yours
to be well worth the purchase price, and then some. You should consider
expanding on this and offering a hardcopy (forgive me, maybe you do and
I just didn't notice) I know many studios would appreciate this kind of
education and would really benefit from the wisdom you have complied
and packaged.

Thank you!
Diane Maehl"
*******

My wife runs our studio and even though I occasionally call her the
studio nazi, I COULD NOT achieve anywhere near the success I enjoy
without her input. She is essential, and if you are not managing
your studio properly, you be asking for trouble!

I asked Tina if she would kindly offer up some Cash Flow Tips.

If you want more I suggest you consider getting the manual. It's a bargain
at ten times the price. When you buy it, print it out, or have it printed
out for you and have it cerlox bound.

Now you have a great reference tool.

Check it out: PhotoStudioBoss.com

Excerpt from Photo Studio Boss:

6.5 CASH FLOW TIPS SUMMARY
a) Use credit cards to pay your business expenses - this not only defers
payment for up to a month but also reduces the number of transactions in your bank
account and helps to create a credit history. Some credit cards also offer
points or airmiles; this is a good way to earn free bonuses.
b) Pay the entire amount of the credit card off each month - if you cannot
do this then don't use them. If your credit card statement balance is $2,000 and you
only make a $1,900 payment then you are charged interest on the entire
$2,000 for the month. If you pay it off in full there is zero interest.
c) If a supplier offers you credit - take it, this defers payment for up to
a month, creates credit history if you need to apply for accounts with other
suppliers and you will only have to issue one cheque a month to the supplier.
d) If a supplier offers early payment discounts - take them.
e) Pay invoices only on the due date, not before (exception is point above)
f) Collect enough of a deposit on client orders to ensure that they will
return to pick up their order.


That is a mere drop in the bucket. Get the whole story HERE

yours in photography,
Robert Provencher

**************************

I recently had a meeting with a friend who is putting together a business plan. He's been stalled for about 2 years now and wants to get it going. My advice was to just get started, forget this, that, etc,....the main things creating roadblocks and to FAIL fast.

If you are failing along the way, making mistakes, you are progressing! But c'mon, failure, Yeeshhhhh!! Failures' "not an option" you say?

That may be so if you are flying a space ship back from the moon, but failure is essential as part of your journey. The trick to success is to have the ability to learn from each failure and to 'get back on the horse', as they say.

The trouble starts when we are paralyzed and don't even get out of the gate. We become frozen, afraid our plan won't work because it ain't 'perfect'. The truth is we are suffering from an age old affliction called human pride and ego. We don't want to look bad. It's a social disease.

Solution: swallow your pride and kick your ego out the door. And say these very simple words: "I don't care."

You don't care what others think nor do you give a rats' pitoot about their opinion.
What freedom! Get this, put this into your life and watch the failures start. But, watch the progress you will make.

I wrote about this in another article in No Bs Photo Success's August newsletter. People have been emailing me telling me fear is a huge detriment. Welcome to the club. I am equally afflicted with fear everyday. I simply do it anyways and say to myself: "I don't care."

Read that article here:
http://nobshome.com/newsletter/aug2007/

The one on "creative juices".

yours in photography,
Robert Provencher

PS. last week I sent you some valuable management tips from The Studio Boss ( a manual every photographer should own!). I goofed on the link so here it is again:
http://www.photostudioboss.com/

"No man ever achieved worth-while success who did not, at one time or other,
find himself with at least one foot hanging well over the brink of failure."
Napoleon Hill

**************************

I've been harping on what works and doesn't work in photography, besides
my ever droning marketing message, well, in the real world, where if you
don't get the sale and make profits you don't pay the mortgage scenario.

Know what I mean? The trenches. The bottom line. Happy clients.
Happy wife. Happy life. Bankers happy, mamma's happy, clients keep
coming back again and again and again.....

Theres a huge diference betwixt this and the academic, theoretical
universe.

Here's a guy who appreciates us. And he's a teacher! Whooo, oooo:

'Hey Guys,
A friend just sent me the link to your 'Six Lies Tutorial'. In addition to being a
wedding photographer, I teach digital photography at the Univ of Tennessee in
Knoxville. When you talked about the lies, I was going crazy... I have been
teaching the same thing for years. I get so tired of even my lowly students so
enamored with RAW. I read the Tim Grey newsletters of people writing in with all sorts of RAW questions and then admitting they don't understand aperture, shutter
speeds, ISO, light, etc. But by announcing that they shoot in RAW, they think that they have now be validated. What a hoot.

I would like your permission to show this video to my students and obviously
recommend your site, newsletters and instructional information. My only problem is that it appears the only way to play this video is to be connected to the internet.
I do not have an internet connection in my classroom. Would you be kind enough to email me the video or a link to a version of that video that I can copy?
Sincerely, Tom
Tom Geisler Photography
www.tomgeislerphotography.com

COOL? Or what.... in case you never watched this video, here it is:
PC:http://www.nobsphotosuccess.com/tutorial/introlieswmv.html

MAC: http://www.nobsphotosuccess.com/tutorial/introlies.html

Worth checking out!

yours in photography,
Robert Provencher
Author of 'Exposed: The naked uncencored truth to running a
successful photography business'
available at: www.digitalphotographybook.com

www.ProfitableStudio.com

 

***********************

Thanks! Robert Provencher

www.ProfitableStudio.com

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