Category Archives: Pros Talking Shop

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Pros Talking Shop – Small Business Growing Pains & Work-Life Balance

 

When many of my small business owner friends ask me how I’m doing, I often respond with: “Busy”.  And their general sentiment is that that’s a good thing or a good problem to have, right?  Being busy usually means you’re making money.  But what if you’re a perfectionist, like me.  You want everything to be the best for your clients.  Then, is busy a good thing?  You can say yes, you’re ensuring the highest quality for your clients, right?  But what if it’s quality but sacrificing speed and service?  Then is it still a good thing?  Maybe that’s a toss up?  Generally, you want the best quality, the best service and the fastest speed all rolled into one package.

At first, I didn’t really think this was a problem.  But when I realized that I’m staying up until 2am nearly every night and not getting enough sleep and slowly falling behind on my work.  Especially this past summer!  Between the weddings, the corporate gigs, the travel for work, trying to have at least a fews hours per week to myself, I realized that something has to change.  This summer has been the busiest that I’ve had so far.  It’s been tough for me to manage it all.  I was finding that after you take away all the costs from a wedding and then break down the remaining dollar amount by the total hours worked on a wedding, my hourly rate was not very good.

And clearly, I wasn’t exactly having a good work-life balance.  It’s been all work and no life.  And I still don’t have a good balance, but I’m working on it.

As a one man business, like many photographers out there, here’s a few things that I’ve learned:

 

#1 Set Boundaries for Yourself

For example, tell yourself that you will only work until 8pm during the week and you will not look at email on Sundays.  I’m very very bad at this.  I’ll work on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights with out blinking an eye.  I’ll answer emails whenever they come in, even at 2am on a Satruday and I’ll work 12+ hours a day, a lot.  Our phones are great and all, but if you’re out with friends, you don’t need to be checking your work email!

 

#2 Create a Working Technique or Mindset and Stick to It

So one of my fellow small business owners and I used to talk about how there is not enough time in the day and we both have a million things pulling at us at the same time.  Notifications keep popping up and distracting from making progress on a particular task.  When I worked in the Aerospace Industry, I remember hearing statistics that every time a light or notification popped up on our screen, we were compelled to check it and it would take us 5-10 minutes to get back into the flow of the previous task.

So, my friend introduced to the Pomodoro Technique.  The gist is basically to turn off or avoid all distractions for about 25 minutes or how ever long it takes for you to complete a task.  And at the end of that 25 minutes or particular task, then you can do something that’s of a personal nature.

Basically, put your phone face down on your desk, turn off social media, and close your office door while you’re working to complete a particular task.

Try It!  You’ll be amazed to see how much work you get done or you may realize how prone you are to ADD you are or how often you really check some sort of Social Media

 

#3 Set specific times of the Day for Social Media Marketing and Interaction

I know, Social Media is pretty much a necessity to getting your business out there and having people recognize your company and your brand.  But if you do some research there are peak times of the day and week when you can get the maximum return or traffic.  So why not just set your social media work hours around those times of day/week.  You don’t need to be on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram all the time.

Or better yet, hire a social media intern/associate, to take of all of that for you.  Many of the posts can be automated through applications, APIs or other tools.  But unfortunately, Instagram, does not allow you to schedule posts.

And moreover, Social Media is more about the interaction and not just posting.

 

#4 Outsource or Hire People (Part Time)

Yes, this will cut into your bottom line, but time is not refundable and your health is definitely worth it.  If your buddy or girlfriend is having a birthday party or BBQ on a Saturday, don’t miss it.  There are no shortage of talented people out there looking for part time work or willing to help out.  In the wedding industry, there are entire companies built around allowing vendors to outsource certain parts of their process.

 

 

 

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Pros Talking Shop: How Much You Should Charge For Wedding Photography?

So the other week, I met up with a young photographer friend who was just starting out in the wedding world.  After shooting the breeze for a little bit, she brought up that she just landed a wedding, but wasn’t sure if she charged the client enough. And she asked me, straight up, “How much should I be charging?” I said that it all depends on your individual cost.  And I think this is where many photographers fall short.  So many are focused on the art and aesthetic of their work that they completely forget that they are trying to run a business and not just doing this for fun or for a hobby. Businesses need sufficient revenue to pay for all of their costs and pay their employees/contractors.

I think, all photographers need to start with their cost of doing business analysis.  The form below will help photographers to get a better handle of how much they should be charging and not letting other local vendors dictate their price.  This is not an all encompassing, know it all calculation, but rather just a starting point for young photographers to get a handle on how to manage the finances of their business.

And if you’re a bride reading this, try inputting your own personal costs and it may make you think twice about trying to haggle a photographer down.  And please keep in mind that many of the expenses that we take for granted, such as health insurance, which is often paid for by many of the larger enterprises, is a real cost for small business owners.

And just a quick note on the first field.  If you’re a bride, I can imagine you saying, “What?  Only 30 weddings per year?  Dude needs to work harder”  You have to keep in mind that 1 wedding usually results in about 40+ hours of post production work.  In addition to that, if you’re in a northern state within the US, the wedding season is very seasonal, so there many only be 30 working weekends in a year. The rest of the year, it’s too cold and most brides do not want to have a wedding with snow on the ground. And if you’re a parent and a photographer, you’re giving up your Saturdays to work, when you could be at a family BBQ, family Birthday Party, or your kid’s little league game.  So the photographer, in many ways, is sacrificing their personal life to capture the most special moment for the bride, groom and their family.

Most photographers have to find some sort of work in the winter to help supplement the income.

I have taken the liberty of filling in what I think are pretty reasonable costs and numbers. Please notice that I have not even included any salary/pay for the lead photographer nor any sort of savings/retirement fund, two things that are pretty necessary to live or have some sort of future.  Your individual pay is something only you can decide based upon your experience and skill level.

But play around and see what you should be charging!  The results update automatically, when any of the above fields are changed.

 

 

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Pros Talking Shop – The Knot vs Wedding Wire

So recently, I’ve been getting some emails from fellow wedding vendors asking me about my experience about listing Esvy Photography on both The Knot, Wedding Wire and other wedding related websites.  So I thought I’d put together a little write up.

First, let me start off by saying that this is an account of my own experience and it may or may not coincide with the experience of other vendors.  Additionally, Esvy Photography has been listed on both The Knot and Wedding Wire for a few years, now, so while I have some experience with both, with the wedding “buying cycle”, it may not be a huge sample set.  And another thing to keep in mind is that I’m in the Greater NYC / Long Island area, so it’s a pretty saturated market and, again, may not be a good comparison to, say, a Mid-West market.

 

MARKETING PLAN & STRATEGY
So when developing your game plan to market your wedding business, it should be a multi-pronged approach, right?  So if you’re listing your wedding company with TheKnot or WeddingWire and hoping that they will be the silver bullet that gets you a ton of business, think again!  The Knot and Wedding Wire will definitely help create confidence in your brand, but may or may not be a huge game changer for you, but more on that later.  The Knot and Wedding Wire should be used in conjunction with any number of marketing and/or advertising outlets such as SEO, SEM, Wedding Shows, contributions to Wedding Blogs, listings on Wedding Blogs etc.

They say that a person has to see a brand at least 6 or 7 times before they really remember and recognize it.  Or at least that what I hear from marketing friends, so having your company/brand on multiple sites/locations will help to people to remember you, your company, and your brand.

FAQ #1 – What if I have limited budget to advertise and/or list my company in multiple places?
Answer – You have to determine which will be the bang bang for your buck.  And which best caters to your personality and/or company.  If you’re a personable person, your best bang for the buck might be a wedding show over a web listing, as your personality might become an asset to help win over some potential clients at the wedding show.

 

TARGET MARKET
Both The Knot and Wedding Wire throw out a very big net and target a wide range of brides.  You’ll get everything from budget brides to low/mid end luxury brides.  But you will not be getting true super high end brides.  Neither site really targets those brides.  They try to, but not really.  And if that’s your target, you’re probably not reading my blog/website or you already know how the game works.  So what’s your target market?  Who do you want as your clientele?  Does your work cater to a certain market?

Reality Check… You have to be honest with yourself, right now.  You may think that your work is the greatest and you should take pride in what you do, but where does your work fit within your local market.  It may be a harsh reality that you may not be as high end as you think.  Look at your competitors and see how your work compares.

FAQ #2 – Which site has a higher end market, in general?
Answer – If you want a slightly higher end clientele, go with The Knot.  If you’re pretty budget oriented, you can really go with either, but The Knot tends to be a little more expensive over Wedding Wire, so there may be more value there for you.

 

PLACEMENT ON THE SITE
This one is pretty easy, at least in my book.  When you search for something on Google, Yahoo, or Bing, how often do you go to the 2nd page of results.  I’d probably say maybe 1 out of 10 searches, right?  Same goes for The Knot and Wedding Wire.  Brides want what they want and they want it now.  They are not really going to go to the 2nd page.  So I would recommend shelling out the extra cash to be listed on the 1st page, at least for a year.   Yes, they can sort the listing, but that brings me to the next topic… Reviews.

 

REVIEWS
If you’re just starting out or started your business within the past couple years, you’ve got an uphill battle.  You’re competing with experienced vendors who have probably around 75-200 reviews and you have 0-15, if you’re lucky.  So the name of the game the first few years is to get as many reviews as possible.  If you do a small engagement shoot, ask them to write a review.  The more positive or 5-star reviews you have, the more confidence the bride will have when contacting you.  Plus, when a bride is visiting The Knot Or Wedding Wire, she may sort by the number of reviews, so you have to make an effort to get higher on that list.

FAQ #3 – What if I literally just started my business yesterday and don’t have any clients, yet?
Answer – Shoot a couple portraits, engagements or small events to get the ball rolling.  Start off with friends and family members. You may have to offer a small discounted rate to get things going, but at least you get the reviews and most likely those people will post the photos to social media, thus getting more traction. There’s always a friend of a friend looking to get great photos for something.

FAQ #4 – Is there a magic number of reviews that I should target?
Answer – You should always be collecting reviews, no matter what.  And generally speaking, you want more reviews than your next competitor.  If they have 15, you want 20.  But in general, it seems that if you have more than 30, particularly for weddings, you’re in an OK spot.   It shows that you have enough experience.  But in the more saturated markets, like NYC, LA, etc, I’d imagine that you want at least 50 reviews.

Side Note –  I believe, Wedding Wire has a low cost or free listing, where you can still collect reviews.  For The Knot, you still have to pay to get the starter or low end package for listing.

 

BANNER ADS OR SIDE BAR ADS
I’ve tried this once or twice, but never really found a quantifiable return on that investment.  So I can’t really say much about them.  Yes, they will increase visibility of your company/brand, but if you’re marketing budget is limited, you might be better served investing somewhere else.

 

NUMBER OF LEADS
In the years that I was listed on the 1st page of The Knot and Wedding Wire for either NYC or Long Island, I received more leads from The Knot.  In general, for every 7-8 leads from The Knot, I received only 1 from Wedding Wire.  And this is a result of me just asking them in the Contact Form on my website or when meet/speak with them.  But this also, so does not address the secondary sources.  So, for example, a bride might visit multiple sites before contacting you through either The Knot or Wedding Wire.  But they have seen you on the other site, so there still may be value there, but it’s tougher to quantify.

 
LISTING FEATURES
As far as the design and layout goes for the sites, I find The Knot to be more visually appealing, but I think Wedding Wire makes it easier to display photos.  Their interface is not as cumbersome.  Over the past few years, both sites have been making an effort to improve their design. so things will be constantly changing.

UPDATE: (December 2015) – I have been in consistent contact with the Knot regarding the design of their website.  I have expressed what I feel are shortcomings in the general design and they seem to be open to hearing my thoughts.  From what I understand, some of the suggestions that I have made have been received and will be implemented in an update in 2016.

 

BOTTOM LINE
So all in all, which one is better?  From my experience, if I had to pay/invest in one or the other,  I would say The Knot.  But I would still set up the free listing on Wedding Wire and collect reviews.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to leave a comment below or feel free to ask me.