A new year.  A fresh start.  Time to rock that marketing!   But before we dig in, well, there are millions of things that need to get done first.

When it comes to marketing, most of us have a pretty good idea of what needs to happen.  The challenge lies in getting it all done. If you’re struggling to find time to update your website, refine your prospect list, put together your marketing campaigns and make follow up calls, it’s time to figure out why.

One of the first questions you’ll have to address is how big a role does avoidance play?  Are you really that busy or are you unconsciously (or maybe even semi-consciously) coming up with activities that will let you put off the discomfort of marketing?

If the issue really is time related, are there ways you could work more efficiently or manage your time more effectively?  If not, what activities can you eliminate to make time to market your business?

Or does the stumbling block lie in feeling like you just don’t have enough information, lack certain skills or aren’t sure how to move your business forward?  If so, how can you get the knowledge, skills or insights you need?

If perfectionism is getting in your way, what will it take to get you to let go?  If putting yourself out there is just too terrifying, how can you maneuver yourself into a position where someone else does that part for you?  What support systems do you need to put into place and how will you get them?

Chances are that once you’ve identified the stumbling blocks, you’ll discover countless others who’ve been there, done that and figured out a way to overcome those barriers.  So make it a priority to figure out what’s stopping you from marketing your business, then make 2012 your best year ever.

Judy Herrmann of Herrmann + Starke uses seminars, consultations and her blog, 2goodthings.com, to help photographers and other small business owners take their careers where they want to go.

Almost every time I talk about portfolio development, someone in the audience raises their hand and wails “But what if I don’t know what my vision is???”  Then, everyone else in the room leans forward, ears pricked to hear the answer.

In years of teaching of this stuff, I’ve come to realize that many photographers – not just students or emerging photographers but established professionals with long careers behind them – have a hard time seeing what “building a cohesive body of work” really means.

Cohesion doesn’t mean that you always shoot the same subject or use the same lens or lighting approach.  It doesn’t mean that all your photos have to look exactly the same.  It doesn’t mean that the collection is boring or repetitive.  Or that you have to always shoot the same stuff in the same way for the rest of your life.

A great way to really understand what a cohesive portfolio looks like is to spend some serious time analyzing other photographers’ presentations.  No matter where you are in your career, if you’re thinking about redesigning your portfolio, starting with this exercise will help.

Pretend you’re a buyer who has exactly one hour to find a new photographer.  Set a timer and click through as many sites as you can.  As you look at these online portfolios, ask yourself the following questions:

• If you had to come up with 3 adjectives* to file this photographer’s work under, what would they be?  Does all of the work fit within that description?
  *Example adjective sets: Bold-Graphic-Clean | Ethereal-Dreamy-Serene | Hip-Urban-Youthful | Elegant-Refined-Upmarket | Quirky-Playful-Fun | Authentic-Connected-Real
  

• As you click through do all the images lead into one another smoothly or do you find yourself humming “One of these things is not like the other…”?  If the latter, why do you think the photographer threw in those misplaced images? How do they affect your perception of that photographer?

• How many images do you have to see to “get” what this photographer does?  How many do you have to see to feel confident that you can imagine how this photographer would handle an assignment?

• If you found the photographer by viewing a mini-portfolio or clicking on a thumbnail in a sourcebook type site, does the rest of the presentation live up to the promise of the smaller sample?

Some great places to find a large range of commercial photographer sites to evaluate are: ASMP’s www.FindaPhotographer.org, www.Workbook.com, and www.CommArts.com.  Find retail photographers at: www.PPA.com/findaphotographer.

Judy Herrmann helps people grow businesses through evocative imagery, dynamic seminars, one-on-one consultations, her blog, 2goodthings.com and by posting her favorite resources on CameraCake.com.

One of the most important functions I perform as a business owner is paying attention to the societal trends that affect my business.  Every decision I make – from the visual approach I take to producing new imagery to the prospective clients I target and the income streams I pursue – is colored by my analysis of the Political, Economic, Social and Technological (PEST) factors that will affect the outcome.

A couple items from my current PEST analysis:

• The Attention Deficit:
  As Tom Kennedy points out in his excellent ASMP Seminar, Understanding the Changing Media Landscape, we used to live in a world where businesses could use blunt force to imprint their messages on their target audiences.  Media outlets were limited and audiences congregated around advertising driven sources like broadcast television and print magazines.  Today, however, distribution channels abound and audience attention has become the most precious commodity out there. This observation has me thinking hard about how I can increase the share of attention my prospects are willing to give my business by offering a wider range of services that will help them capture the attention of their audiences.

• The Social Disconnect:
  Talk to anyone pitching companies on social media and you’ll hear words like Authenticity, Engagement, Dialogue, and Transparency yet the images these companies use frequently haven’t kept pace with this new approach to building a customer base (or readership).   For me, this translates directly into an opportunity to help organizations bring their visual communications into alignment with their social media and branding goals.

If you’ve never conducted a formal PEST analysis, it’s a very worthwhile exercise.  In a nutshell, it gives you a framework to examine what’s happening in the world around you and how it might affect you and your business. As illustrated above, the conclusions you come to may be long-term and abstract or immediate and concrete. Either way, though, they will always be useful.

For most of us, there’s no need to do a formal PEST analysis very often – once a year or any time you’re thinking about diversifying your business should suffice.  But if you take the time to really familiarize yourself with the process, it becomes pretty easy to start looking at every piece of information that crosses your path a little more strategically.  From there, your ability to anticipate and respond to trends will improve dramatically.

You’ll find a list of the factors I use when performing a formal PEST analysis at http://2goodthings.com/the-pest-analysis.

Judy Herrmann of Herrmann + Starke uses her understanding of societal trends and business to help people grow businesses through distinctive imagery, seminars, consultations and her blog, 2goodthings.com.

I just found out that The Agile Photographer, Jay Kinghorn’s acclaimed program from SB3, is traveling to Nashville tomorrow (11/2) and St. Louis on Wednesday (11/3).

A photographer, technologist, futurist and one of the most well-read people I’ve ever met, Jay shares strategies for how you can take advantage of existing and coming technologies to better serve your existing clients, attract new clients and grow your business.

I’ve known Jay for years and you will not find a more knowledgeable or generous speaker.  If you can get to either of these cities, you owe it to yourself to attend this inspiring and informative program.  You’ll find complete details and registration information here.

We hear a lot about how photographers should use good paperwork and that’s true.  ASMP offers great resources on model & property releases, business forms (e.g. estimates, invoices, change orders, etc.) and terms & conditions.  But let’s face it. At the point where you’re relying on paperwork, you’re either suing someone or being sued.  Something I think we’d all rather avoid.

The key to staying out of court is to communicate – as clearly as you can – what your expectations are and what you believe your client (or your subject in the case of a model release) expects as well.

This seems like common sense and yet I meet so many photographers who’ve landed in hot water because it was easier to slip terms quietly into their paperwork than have the tough conversation and potentially lose the deal.   But if you don’t talk, clearly and directly, about the terms of the deal – your policies, your expectations and how those photos really can (and can’t!) be used – then what you have isn’t really a deal.  It’s just a potential conflict.  And you’re better off losing a potential deal, than doing the work and not getting paid, getting bad-mouthed by the client or subject, or worse, winding up in court.

Follow the golden rule.  Think about how you’d feel if someone failed to mention something because they knew it might upset you and then went ahead and did it.  By addressing issues of potential conflict directly  and you’ll not only dramatically decrease the chances that you, your client and/or your subject will wind up in court but you’ll also build a reputation as an honest and trustworthy resource.

So use good paperwork – after all, if things get to the point where you’re relying on your paperwork it had better be good  – but make sure your paperwork is really just be a written version of what you, your clients and your subjects have already discussed and agreed to.

Judy Herrmann will present Breaking into the Biz, an ASMP sponsored seminar at the Photo Plus Expo in New York on Saturday.  Take advantage of her PPE 30 minute consultation special (live or by phone) – email info@2goodthings.com for details.

©Jonathan Mak, http://jmak.tumblr.com

[by Judy Herrmann]

Follow your dreams.  Imagine.  Be true to your vision.  Do what you believe is great work.  Love what you do.

Follow your passion.  Demand more of yourself.  Work hard.  Set high standards.  Meet them.

Follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path.  Keep looking.  Don’t settle.  Trust that it will all work out ok.

Follow your curiosity and intuition.  Believe in yourself even when others doubt you.  Reinvent yourself.   Reinvent your company.   Become a beginner again…and again.

Made on a Mac by Judy Herrmann • www.2goodthings.com, www.HSstudio.com, www.CameraCake.com/herrmann

We live in a world where a search for “How to Copyright Photo” brings up 1.1 billion results, “Audio for Video” yields just over a billion and “Marketing Photography” clocks in at a mere 233 million.  No wonder finding great stuff on the internet takes so much time.

Seems I’m not the only one who’s noticed this trend.  “Search Science” is all over the media – Smart Search, Filtered Search, Human Search – the race to index the web has ended.  Providing valuable results is the new frontier.

Enter CameraCake.com.  ASMP’s new resource sharing website where you can find resources on photography, video and multimedia that have been submitted, approved and reviewed by people you trust.

I’ve already discovered all kinds of resources that I never would have found otherwise because I just don’t have to the time to sift through all that chaff, to find those few grains of wheat.  Sharing the burden of identifying good information buys us access to a wealth of knowledge with minimal effort.

Some of my favorite finds so far:

On Marketing:

The Future of Advertising & Marketing posted by Jorge Parra is a 10 minute interview featuring marketing guru Seth Godin who discusses how the internet is revolutionizing media and messaging “If you’re doing average stuff for average people, I can get it cheaper…what you have to do really well now is tell stories.”

The Most Dangerous Threat to Your Online Marketing Efforts posted by Alex Lippisch – a fascinating read on “Digital Sharecropping” and the importance of making sure you put as much effort into the digital marketing vehicles you actually own as the one’s built on other people’s real estate.

On Creativity:

Exclusive Interview of John Jay on Creativity posted by Luke Copping, a beautifully filmed rhapsody from Wieden + Kennedy’s executive creative director.  “Sometimes in our industry we get silo’d to death…our job is to never let anyone define who we are by their terms.”  Great advice for all photographers today.

On Inspiration

Key Words: Photographers on Photography posted by William Sawalich offers inspiring, beautiful and insightful quotes by photographers about business, creativity, process, in short, everything it takes to produce great work.

I hope the next trend I see is more photographers sharing, liking/disliking and reviewing resources  on CameraCake.com – together, we can build the best resource of all.

Judy Herrmann loves helping people grow businesses through evocative imagery, dynamic seminars, one-on-one consultations, her blog, 2goodthings.com and by posting her favorite resources on CameraCake.com.

I feel like I’m about to jinx us but in 22 years of business, my studio has collected on virtually every invoice we’ve written without ever once going to court.

We do a lot of the same stuff already mentioned this week and a few things that weren’t:

• We ask new clients how they like to handle billing.  Who should get copies of our invoice?  What’s their normal payment cycle? Who should we follow up with if there’s a problem and do they prefer phone or email follow up?
• We send new clients a completed W-9 form with their first invoice so they have everything they need to enter us into their system.
• Until proven otherwise, we assume payment delays are unintentional and we always end each follow up contact by setting a date for when they’ll hear from us again if the payment’s still missing.
• If they’re having cash flow problems, we try to find a solution that works for everyone; we remind them that we take credit cards and we’ll even accept installment payments if necessary.

All of the approaches mentioned this week are good business practices that are worth following but I don’t think they’re why we’ve had so few problems with collections.

The secret to avoiding problems with collections is choosing your clients carefully.

Within three years of starting our studio, we realized that working with people who didn’t treat us with respect was ruining our business and our lives.  Since then, we vet our clients as much as they vet us.  It’s hard turning down work but not as hard as working for nightmare clients who treat you badly and don’t pay enough (or at all!).  Over time, we’ve gotten pretty good at sussing out the losers and politely declining the job.

The best thing about this approach, though, is that I genuinely like and respect every single client that I’ve worked with over the past 15 years or so.  And I’m pretty sure that mutual respect is why none have ever stiffed us.  This is a relationship business so finding people with whom you can have a really good relationship makes good sense.

And yeah, if you’re one of our clients and you’re reading this – well, you must be a pretty great person ‘cause otherwise we wouldn’t be working with you.

Judy Herrmann helps some of her favorite people in the world grow businesses through evocative imagery, seminars, one-on-one consultations and her blog, 2goodthings.com.  You’ll find many of her favorite resources for imaging professionals in ASMP’s new social bookmarking community, CameraCake.com

In Googled:the end of the world as we know it, New Yorker Magazine columnist, Ken Auletta, describes Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s first pitch for substantial funding.  They were asking for $25,000,000.00 (yup that’s 25 million dollars).

Auletta writes:

…[they] made a brief PowerPoint presentation to establish the most telling facts: by the end of 1998 they had indexed 26 million web pages and were now doing half a million searches a day…Instead of a long-winded explanation of their mission, Page and Brin made a high-concept pitch consisting of eight words:

“We deliver the world’s information in one click.”

We can all take a page from their book (no pun intended).   Before you attend your next networking event, dial your next prospect or go on your next sales call, take the time to think about how you can achieve this kind of clarity and audacity.

A good place to start is by defining what you do as clearly and succinctly as possible.  Why did you start your business?  How did you start it? What are your primary goals for your business? What do you do better than anyone else?  How does what you do help your customers?  What do your customers say about you?  What do you want the person you’re pitching to do?  Why do you want them to do it? Why would they want to do it? What could you offer that would make them want to do it?  How will them doing it help you?  How will it help them?  What is the core value of what you do for your clients?

Look at the phrases or ideas these questions conjure for you.  What can you change about how you approach your targets so they’ll immediately grasp why they need to work with you?

Judy Herrmann helps people grow businesses through evocative imagery, seminars, one-on-one consultations and her blog, 2goodthings.com.  You’ll find many of her favorite resources for imaging professionals on ASMP’s new social bookmarking site, CameraCake.com

As those lazy days of Summer draw to a close, I’m starting to prepare myself for the crazy days of Fall.  Shorter days usually mean longer hours for this working Mom, but do they have to?  As the demands of my business and my daughter’s preschool grow in tandem, I’m using what’s left of my slow time to reevaluate what’s really important to me.

Prior to having a child, I was one of the busiest people I knew – buzz, buzz, buzz, always moving, always doing, busy, busy, busy.  And that was ok ‘cause I had nothing but time.

Now that my work hours are limited by my tolerance for having other people raise my child, I’ve discovered that all that busyness wasn’t necessarily productive or valuable or even necessary.

Business and busyness are not the same thing.

Before you find yourself juggling more balls that you can count, take a moment to question whether they really all need to leave the ground.  Put some thought into what you’re taking on and why.  Look closely at the commitments you’re making and ask yourself – why am I choosing to do this?  What’s the value to me?  How will it help me accomplish my goals and get where I want to go?

While you’re at it, examine your goals and expectations, too.  Are they still a good fit?  Do they need to be adjusted? Have your priorities or values changed in any way?

One of the most powerful gifts you can give yourself is to be selective about how you spend your time.  Make sure the demands you place on yourself make sense for you and your business.

Judy Herrmann helps people grow businesses through evocative imagery, seminars, one-on-one consultations and her blog, 2goodthings.com.  An obsessive collector of valuable resources for photographers, you’ll find many of her favorites on ASMP’s new social bookmarking site, CameraCake.com