Sweat the Small Stuff

[by Judy Hermann]

A couple of years ago, I surveyed a bunch of photographers to find out what Assistants do that drives them crazy.  If you’re building a business as an Assistant, following these tips will help you win ongoing client loyalty and great referrals.

1. Be on time.  If you’re not going to be on time, be early.  If something catastrophic (and it had better be catastrophic) happens and you’re going to be late, call the photographer the moment you know you’re not going to make it on time.
2. Dress appropriately.  Most photographers are pretty casual but not all clients look kindly on piercings, tattoos, etc.  When in doubt, ask the photographer what’s expected.
3. Stay on task.  Don’t text, make or take calls or use your iPod unless you’re on a break.  Don’t sit or eat unless the photographer is doing the same or tells you it’s ok.
4. Communicate openly.  Ask the photographer what their expectations are and be honest about your ability to fulfill them – never exaggerate your skills or knowledge level.
5. Be Proactive.  Anticipate what the photographer’s going to need and have it ready.  If the photographer grabs a powerpack, have that extension cord plugged in before he or she has to ask.
6. You’re not just an extra pair of hands.  You’re also an extra pair of ears. If you overhear any client comments – about the shots or their experience of the shoot, good or bad – discretely convey them to the photographer.
7. Remember who your client is.  Your job is to make the photographer look good.  If you have ideas or solutions, that’s great but share them with the photographer in private.
8. Remember who your client is not.  Never, ever try to get work directly from the photographer’s client unless the photographer explicitly gives you permission to approach them.

The best analogy I’ve ever seen to a great photographer – assistant dynamic is a Surgical team.  Think of yourself as the scrub nurse to the photographer’s surgeon and you’ll do great.

Judy Herrmann’s Breaking into the Biz seminar covers what every student and emerging photographer should know.  Her blog, www.2goodthings.com, helps people earn a living doing what they love.

Just Pick Up the Phone!

[by Judy Herrmann]

I love e-mail – it’s efficient, it’s fast, it’s effective.  It’s great for just about everything, except when it’s not.

Dealing with a conflict?  Pick up the phone.
Chances are that e-mail’s going to make a bad situation worse.  People can’t hear tone and most people (myself included) are scanning through a lot of mail so they just aren’t reading all that carefully.  Any time I see a conflict start (or am about to start one myself) I try to get on the phone as quickly as possible.

Got an emergency?  Pick up the phone.
As wired as the world we live in is, not everyone is connected to their e-mail system 24/7 (I know, can you imagine?)  And, even if they are, it’s way too easy for time-critical messages to get lost in a sea of incoming mail.  If a deadline’s looming, I find the phone to be a much safer delivery system.  And, I really appreciate those vendors and clients who don’t rely on e-mail for critical messages.

About to disappoint someone?  Pick up the phone.
It is way too hard to convey an appropriate sympathetic tone in e-mail.  Whether you’re running late or about to miss a deadline, hearing in your voice just how sorry you are and how hard you’re trying – even if you’re just leaving a voice mail – goes a long way towards helping the other person get over it.

Really don’t want to make that call?  Pick up the phone
If you’re thinking about using e-mail to avoid having a hard conversation, think again.  When I get that feeling – you know, the one where you’d rather clean the bathroom than talk to the person? – I know I’ve got to force myself to get over it and do the right thing. Literally every time I’ve chickened out and skipped the call, it’s come back to bite me.

Want to build a relationship?  You guessed it, pick up the phone.
By their very nature, e-mails tend to be short and to the point.  We abbreviate words, drop pronouns, use acronyms all in an effort to get the message out and read faster.  Building a relationship, one where the other person actually cares about your wellbeing, takes more than that.  A periodic phone call to say hi, find out how things are going and oh, by the way, here’s that information you wanted, can go a long way to reminding people that you’re more than just a service provider with a handy e-mail address.

Now, if you’re thinking that everything I’ve written is obvious, congratulations.  You have already saved yourself a world of pain.  But if your thought bubble reads “Oh my God, I’m that person – the one who should have called!”  Let me assure you that you’re not the only one and it’s not too late to pick up that phone.

Photographer Judy Herrmann of Herrmann + Starke, www.HSstudio.com, offers seminars, consultations and a blog that help people earn a living doing what they love. www.2goodthings.com

On Your Mark, Get Set, GO!

[by Judy Herrmann]

Let me make one thing clear – I am a big advocate of pricing by the shot or project.  With one or two exceptions (event photography comes to mind), charging by the hour just punishes you for gaining skills and investing in better equipment. It also encourages the client to try to pack as much work into the time allotment as possible, leaving you pressured to perform fast rather than perform well.

BUT, in order to charge by the shot or project profitably, you still have to know how long it takes you to do things. That’s where a lot of photographers’ pricing models really fall apart.   Most photographers, especially those with less experience, grossly underestimate how much time they actually spend on client projects.  A phone call here, an e-mail there, a little extra retouching – it all adds up to time on the job and if you’re client’s not paying for it, then, well, you are.

Try this experiment. Get yourself a bunch of stopwatches – the kind that will track cumulative time.  Assign one client project per stopwatch and every time you do ANYthing related to that project, on goes the stopwatch.  The moment you’re interrupted or move on to something different, hit stop.

If you’re like me (and pretty much everyone I’ve ever assigned this to) you’ll be shocked by how much time each of these projects actually took.  And, if you do this for 10 or 15 projects, you’ll get a whole lot better at estimating how long it really takes to do everything associated with a given job.

Judy Herrmann’s new blog, www.2goodthings.com, focuses on helping people earn a living doing what they love.

Stock ROI

[by Judy Herrmann]

Yeah, I know.  These days, it seems like the photo stock market and the other stock market have far more in common than their names.  The return on investment [ROI] in both markets has plummeted and just when you think it hit rock bottom, it manages to fall again.

Like any other low margin business, the key to protecting your ROI when licensing stock imagery is to really watch the “I”.

Obviously, controlling costs is key.  Investing in lavish production shoots with an eye to licensing the results profitably is extremely risky.  A better move would be to invest in research.

Images that sell over and over, netting five or even six figures over their lifespan still exist.  The checks my studio receives each month are smaller than they used to be but those high-selling images are still selling. The challenge is figuring out ahead of time, which images are most likely to sell well.

Researching which types of images are still commanding higher licensing fees, which genres are less saturated with imagery or which new trends have not yet been extensively covered isn’t easy but that’s the kind of knowledge that will increase your chances of producing imagery that earns you a profit.

The bottom line?  Supply is up, fees are down and the number of dollars going into the creator’s pocket has steadily declined.  Licensing stock imagery profitably is still possible but so is losing your shirt.  My recommendation sounds remarkably like Vanguard’s credo: keep your costs down and perform due diligence before you invest.

Oh, and don’t forget the small print: past performance is no guarantee of future returns.

Acclaimed advertising & editorial photographer Judy Herrmann conducts seminars and one-on-one consultations that help people grow their businesses and build more satisfying careers. Judy@HSstudio.com

Emotionally Intelligent Marketing

[by Judy Herrmann]

A last minute gate change at LAX and I’m caught in a crowd stampeding down a long narrow corridor from Gate 1 to Gate 2 (which appear to be about half a mile apart, go figure) when I spy a lone figure in a pinstriped suit swimming against the current.  “If you’re flying to Phoenix,” I call, “there’s a gate change.”  The man notes he’d already passed at least 50 people, none of whom had said a word, and falls in step with me.

I quickly learn that my companion is a big investment guy, working with families whose net worth is greater than 100 million dollars.  That’s $100,000,000.00 minimum!  I ask him how he promotes his business and he says “I’ve always had a good story.”

He launches into his pitch, delivers it with charm and panache and I find myself thinking, ‘ya know, if I had that kind of money, I’d probably hire this guy.’  Not because of his credentials – which I’m still ignorant of – but because his story made it clear that he gets what parents worry about, is sympathetic to bizarre family dynamics and passionately believes in what his business does.   Since I don’t have that kind of money, I settled for proffering my business card along with some insights on how the right visual communications would support his efforts.

Dan Pink, former white-house speechwriter, author and contributor to Wired, Fast Company and the New York Times would like this guy, too.  In his book A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, he notes how the forces of Abundance (consumers have too many choices), Asia (anything that can be outsourced, will be) and Automation (anything that can be done through technology, will be) have led to commoditization, fierce competition, price undercutting and a loss of customer loyalty throughout nearly every industry in this country.

And we thought it was just us.
The solution, he argues, lies in creativity and emotionally intelligent communications, which lead to increased value and effective differentiation.  He identifies 6 lenses for exploring creativity and differentiation:  Design, Story, Symphony (big picture thinking), Empathy, Play and Meaning.

First published in 2005, the book rings startlingly true 5 years later.  Reading it has definitely expanded how I look at my work as a visual communicator and how I approach my business.

Judy Herrmann uses skills gained over 21 years as an award-winning photographer, small business owner and creative problem solver to help companies grow. Judy@HSstudio.com

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