TIPS60 - What Exactly is a Purchase Order?

Here is another of our videos offering tips and inisights into the business of photography. a transcript of the video is included after the jump.

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TRANSCRIPT:If you're a photographer, or any business for that matter that is doing business with other businesses, a purchase order is something that you're probably, if you haven't already seen it, will likely see very soon. If you're doing direct business to consumer, if you're dealing with the general public as your clientele, if you're a wedding photographer, if you are doing family portraits of some sort or even senior portraits, you're not gonna see purchase orders. Purchase orders are when you're doing business with corporation "X" or corporation "Y" and it is essentially an approval to pay you once work has been performed. It's a document. A purchase order you'll be often given a purchase order number. Sometimes you're asked to sign a purchase order. The problem with purchase orders, if you're not careful, is that there can be contract language on that purchase order that transfers ownership of your creative endeavors, your photography, to the company as a part of their boilerplate purchase order. So you need to make certain that your purchase order language has been reviewed, make sure that none of those things are on there that are egregious, changing the rights that you have on your existing contract.

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TIPS60 - iPads and tablets as client review tools

Here is another of our videos offering tips and inisights into the business of photography. a transcript of the video is included after the jump.

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TRANSCRIPT:Here are a few thoughts on tablet computers in your photography business workflow. I'm John Harrington. iPads and tablets are great because they allow the client to see the images you're shooting when you're shooting, whether you're transferring images wirelessly from your camera straight over to the tablet or whether you're shooting tethered from the camera in the tablet, especially when you don't have a full-blown digital workstation setup for the client to see. Sometimes when you're working on the fly or working in a tight environment, you don't actually have the ability to set up a complete digital workstation so a tablet is great. In addition, especially if you're shooting wirelessly as you're shooting, as you're working, it gives the client the opportunity to review the images you're shooting, make certain that you're delivering exactly what they need, what they want, and give you requests or say, ""Hey, I this is a great, but I need you to shoot this as well."" Having a tablet, having an iPad for client review is really a great tool to make certain that the clients happy with everything you're delivering.

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TIPS60 - How to be an invaluable assistant

Here is another of our videos offering tips and inisights into the business of photography. a transcript of the video is included after the jump.

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TRANSCRIPT:Here are a few thoughts on how to be an invaluable assistant. I'm John Harrington. When you're assisting a photographer, your role is to make the photographer's job easier, to make it possible for the photographer to focus on making the pictures. That means you need to do what you're told, when you're told and exactly how you're told, and don't complain about it. If you're asked to do something, if you don't do it, the photographers going to end up having to do it or another assistant going to end up having to do it. So the thing you need to do is focus on making photographer's life easier. Carrying equipment, thinking two, three, four steps ahead of photographer, anticipating what might be happening. Make yourself invaluable, the photographer will call you again and again. But it's important for you to understand that you're not there to socialize with the client, you're not there to socialize with the photographer, you're there to get a job done and help the photographer get the job done right and make that photographer look good. Any questions, any dialogue between the client and you, you need to defer to the photographer.

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TIPS60 - The science of choice - how many packages do you offer?

Here is another of our videos offering tips and inisights into the business of photography. a transcript of the video is included after the jump.

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TRANSCRIPT:Here are a few thoughts on the science of packaging your photography. I'm John Harrington. Whether you are doing weddings or family portraits packaging up the services you provide, the number of reprints, an album, a large wall portrait, is something that you definitely want to consider offering, but the question is, how many. Well if you offer four packages, for example, most clients are not going to choose what is, Charles J. Lewis, who is a old well-regarded lecturer, speaks about called the ""whopper package"" or the biggest package. Most people are not going to choose that package, so you always wants to design a package at the top end of the scale that is something that is highly unlikely that any client will ever choose. Then you want to look, and most clients are also not going to choose the cheapest package. You put that down there as kind of the bare-bones package. So you often have one or two, probably two packages right in the middle that offer two different types of services or quantities of products in there. Understand that that is your sweet spot, those are the two packages your clients are going to choose from.

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TIPS60 - Your mobile phone number should be yours

Here is another of our videos offering tips and inisights into the business of photography. a transcript of the video is included after the jump.

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TRANSCRIPT:Here are a few thoughts on transitioning from staff to freelance and your cell phone number. I'm John Harrington. When you find yourself unexpectedly transitioning from staff to freelance one of the things that people are going to try to reach out to you and talk to you whether they are perspective future employers, friends, colleagues, or even family members, is to reach out to you and call you on your cell phone. Now the problem is if your cell phone belongs to the company, is owned by the company, and the company also owns the number, the likelihood that you can actually walk away with that cell phone number is not very high. Now it's even less if you left the company unexpectedly because somehow you're fired for whatever reason. So the key thing to do is to have that cell phone be a cell phone that you pay for, your company reimburses you for. The company may give you an option to reimburse you for your cell phone or pay for it yourself. Make certain that the company reimburses you for it and not that the bill automatically goes to the cell phone company, excuse me, automatically goes to the company itself. By doing so, that lets you keep your cell phone number when you transition from staff to freelance.

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TIPS60 - What is a Non-Compete Agreement?

Here is another of our videos offering tips and inisights into the business of photography. a transcript of the video is included after the jump.

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TRANSCRIPT:Here are a few thoughts on Non-Compete Agreements. I'm John Harrington. A Non-Compete Agreement is essentially an agreement that someone enters into with you or you enter into with someone else that says if you and I are doing business and I'm hiring you often as a photographer, for example, that you won't then compete with me for my same clients. Non-Compete Agreements are important because it preserves your ability to maintain your clientele without fear that when you hire a subcontractor that that photographer isn't going to then in turn poach your clients. The challenge, of course, is that non compete agreements, oftentimes, are un-enforceable for a variety of reasons. It's not like you're selling a widget. It's not like you're procuring a particular technological person who is capable across a spectrum of things when you're dealing with photography. Non-Compete Agreements are important, but at the same time they are often difficult to enforce.

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TIPS60 - Where do clients psychologically "break" on price points?

Here is another of our videos offering tips and inisights into the business of photography. a transcript of the video is included after the jump.

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TRANSCRIPT:Here are a few thoughts on pricing breakpoints. I'm John Harrington. When it comes to photography, frankly any business, when you're talking to clients about price they do have pricing breakpoints $500, $1,000, $2,000, $5,000, $10,000 and it goes on, but let's work with those for right now. Most clients, when you're talking to them, do have a dollar figure in their head when you're talking about the budget, but they have these breakpoints and so that's why pricing is now $9.99 or $999.00 rather than $1,000. There is a psychology behind pricing. So when you're talking to a client you need to understand what their pricing you know where they're going to react, what their breakpoints are. Get a feel from them about what they are trying to spend and understand that if you increment say above $5,000 or $6,000 that the breakpoint probably is closer to $10,000. If your break point is somewhere in the $500 range they might actually go right above $500 they might go to $1,000.

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TIPS60 - Staff2Freelance - the importance of having an archive of your staff images

Here is another of our videos offering tips and inisights into the business of photography. a transcript of the video is included after the jump.

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TRANSCRIPT:Here are a few thoughts on your portfolio and your own archive. I'm John Harrington. When you're a staff photographer all of your images, generally speaking, are archived on location at your workplace, but what you want to do also is have your portfolio samples, your best examples of your work as a professional photographer, archived in a safe place so that, should you lose your job, you're in the position where you can actually demonstrate to other future potential employers that you're a capable and talented photographer. So it's important for you to have an archive copy of your portfolio images offsite from your workplace because if the company loses their servers or decides to shutdown unexpectedly and you don't have those copies of the work offsite you're in trouble. Now of course, you need to be consistent with your workplace policy. Don't take work away from your office that you not allowed to. Check with your photo editor, check with your supervisor, make sure it's okay for you to have those copies. But you want to do that sooner rather than later so that you're always prepared for the unexpected.

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TIPS60 - Balancing shooting what you love and shooting what pays the bills

Here is another of our videos offering tips and inisights into the business of photography. a transcript of the video is included after the jump.

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TRANSCRIPT:Here are a few thoughts about balancing the fun photography and the photography that pays the bills. I'm John Harrington. When you do going out and taking phone calls for doing photo assignments, some of those assignments are exciting, a lot of fun, a lot of energy, you come back and you're like so blown away because you totally were in love with the the assignment that you did. Then there's the ones that you groan and say, ""Gosh, I wish I didn't have to go do this today"", but the reality is that you have to strike a balance between what you love to do and what pays the bills. There are a number of times I've gone out on a variety of different assignments and I gone, ""Oh, I just would rather not be here"", but the reality is that it is what pays the bills. I would encourage you if you're doing a lot of that bill paying photography go out and spend some personal time doing the photography that you love just to kind of keep your creative juices flowing, to keep yourself happy and upbeat. There is always going to be a balance of doing what you do for love and doing what you do because it has to pay the bills.

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TIPS60 - When do you just say "no"?

Here is another of our videos offering tips and inisights into the business of photography. a transcript of the video is included after the jump.

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TRANSCRIPT:Here are a few thoughts on the power of ""no"". I'm John Harrington. When you say ""no"" when someone makes an offer to you or makes a request off you that's unreasonable, that gives you a great deal of power. Now I'm not talking about power over somebody, but power in controlling what you do what you provide in the services that you are rendering. If someone's offering you or making you an unreasonable offer, you need only say ""no"" to that client. Now if you don't have any other alternatives, if you have to say ""yes"" to that particular job or that particular request because you need the money, your rent is due and you have no money in the bank, then you really don't have the power to say ""no"" then you are at the discretion of that clients request and you may have to fulfill it. But if you have other options, if you can afford to pay the bills because you have the reserve, saying ""no"" is very empowering. In addition when you say ""no"" just say ""no"" nicely, ""Gosh, I can't do it for that rate but I'd be happy to discuss with you a rate that works for me."

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