Ideas are Welcome
[by Leslie Burns]
The business, as if you didn’t know, is changing and that means that your business model needs to change as well. This is true for all sorts of creative-based businesses so at least photographers can know they are not alone. The impact of the shifting technologies has, in a very, very short period of time, rendered “traditional” business models in some ways quite defunct.
Now there are uses we could never have dreamed of 10 years ago, and more being invented every day. The good news is that many of these new uses are much more trackable and, thus, calculable… at least in theory.
Photographers’ clients, especially in advertising and design, are going through the same upheaval. They don’t know how to price their own services these days! I recently contacted some very old friends who are now in management positions in the advertising and interactive design industries. I asked them how their companies were billing clients now. They said that the days of marking up media and outsourced services like photography were gone, that the cost consultants were killers for them as well as their vendors, and that what they are replacing their old models with, well, they’re trying all sorts of everything… and seeing what sticks. They’re taking risks by taking less up-front but getting cuts of the sales, or they negotiate bonuses for when consumers interact with the media at a certain level (that’s the tracking thing I mentioned earlier)… they’re looking for solutions.
In other words, your clients are in the same boat as you. They are trying to balance the demands of their clients (and, often, their own shareholders) to keep costs down and to give more for less. At the same time, they need to make a profit and provide high quality products/services.
I think this means opportunity. Now is the time for photographers (and illustrators and freelance copywriters, etc.) to collaborate with their clients to find equitable pricing systems that can evolve with the technology. Maybe it means taking risks with your clients, as partners, like by billing less up-front and agreeing to a percentage, like my friends mentioned. Maybe it means evolving some sort of price per end-user interaction– although again that will mean getting paid over time. I don’t have answers… no one does. But we’re smart, let’s come up with possibilities.
One Response to 'Ideas are Welcome'
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Thanks Leslie
Your findings and suggestions are consistent with a lot of what I’ve been reading from folks in a variety of businesses but specifically photography. IE. Be a creative solutions provider
Taking risks and working with clients to explore unknown strategies might be just the ticket for an unknown artist looking to break into a seemingly commoditized market.