Wednesday Wisdoms

When bidding on a job, clients may ask us to dive deeper into the basis of the costs. Put your business mind to work by understanding what the client needs to hear from you. 

Our estimates cover us for unexpected real-life additions like grip truck availability, insurance changes, crew covid testing results, overtime, etc. 

Our bids are not as black and white as clients would assume, so get ready to explain the gray areas in ways that speak their language.

One of the best professional lessons I learned was to keep negatively emotionally charged reactions in check.

Frustration is a normal part of our business but unleashing that onto people we work with is not cool and not professional. Don’t risk it even if it feels rational at the moment. 

A promo type that will work for one client may not work for another; that is why I use all four of these methods to get my promos out.

Four Promo Types:

1. Mass email promo showing an individual project or a specific theme with one or more images. 
2. Mass newsletter email promos are a summary update sharing news with a collection of images. 
3. One-Sheet promo is an attachment on a short email not needing to be scrolled, creating a warmer, more personable email.
4. Printed mailers or leave-behinds with the hopes of being easily saved by clients come in many shapes and sizes designed to show off your work’s branded vibe.

As you may notice, I did not include a pdf attachment on my promo list as they can often be mistaken for dangerous spam materials when sent by strangers.

Every photographer can have that REP MENTALITY mindset, no matter your situation. Your job is to continuously keep your REP (Mentality) excited by actively feeding your marketing supply chain.

Negotiation points to use when clients ask specifically for a eduction in Creative Fees:

1. Scaling down any area of their usage terms.
2. Trimming amount of images, variations, and angles on the shot-list.
3. Reducing the number of final images included in usage terms,
4. Limiting shoot days hours maximum.
5. Time-saving production tasks they take over like prop shopping, producing, retouching, casting, scouting, etc.
6. Predetermined creative concepts/shot list they supply before the shoot day begins.
7. Guaranteed faster final payment and/or larger advance payment before the shoot begins.
8. Bulk discounted rate based on future projects

Photographers come from the training to be a photographer. I get it, but we must treat it as a business for this training to pay off. 24/7, you are now a business owner with a Marketing Mentality, always by your side and ready to go. What company can exist without marketing and self-promotion? We have to open up our sights, taking this where we want to go. 

BID PREP STEP ONE:

Being ready to go with a solid inventory of crew + producers based on different bidding scenarios and locations can help you (me) avoid the regretful danger zone of losing a job we didn’t need to lose. Be ready to reach out without relying on only a few contacts because it could be too late by the time we hear back. Some jobs are pressure-cookers where the fastest one wins! Building a comprehensive crew and producer list has to happen way before the bid requests come in.

What niches we fit into and what titles we call ourselves are beneficial but not the only part of our business path decision-making process.

Our business minds alone cannot always run the show. The challenging piece is where one direction or opportunity may take us, which must be the guiding force. We can’t get too stuck on our business titles when we are in a creative career like this; growth and opportunity lead the show

How do Photographers Get Started?

3 Step Formula for All Photographers:

1. PORTFOLIO RESEARCH

Regular education and research of our imagery industry will help you master the “Objective” eye, giving you the skills to edit your work. 

2.  CHOOSE THE STYLE

The constant honing-in forward growth of what your style is about will bring you the control clients can depend on. 

3.  ATTITUDE

Owning who you are, finding ways to express it allows clients to know what they get by hiring you. 

What’s out there helping you run your photo business?

Let’s share our favorite resources.

Here are My Top Five:

1. www.pixsy.com – get paid when your images are being used without your permission.
2. www.hunter.io – valuable email formats for every company.
3. www.aphotoeditor.com – loaded with today’s industry info.
4. www.adweek.com/agencyspy – find the updates on the companies you want to work with.
5. www.adsoftheworld.com – know who has worked on which ad.