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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