TIPS60 - How to partner with friends without making enemies

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 opening up a business with a friend or partner. I'm John Harrington. When you open up a business with a friend or partner and you're starting out, let's say you're doing wedding photography and both of you are going out and building up a clientele where you're both shooting weddings together, it's really important that you have a contract that establishes that business. Now, if you're married that's one thing, or if you're in a partnership and the dissolution of that business would end up being handled if you both got a divorce completely differently than if you were just two friends, but if you're just two friends, growing a business together you want to make certain that down the line you understand that if that partnership does sour or that friendship does sour and you decide to go your separate ways, so let's say your friend decides to move to another state and wants you to buy them out, there needs to be an understanding about what assets are owned by the company, what assets are owned personally or individually and also who gets what and who has to buy whom out of what, and if there's a disagreement, who makes the decisions in the business. So it's really important that you write a contract that really takes care of all of these things, you might want to work with a lawyer.

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TIPS60 - Whatever you charge, to someone, it will be too much!

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.

(Continued after the Jump)

TRANSCRIPT:Here are a few thoughts on pricing models. I'm John Harrington. No matter what you charge for the photography services you provide, for somebody, is going to be too much. Maybe someone was thinking of spending $50 or $100 on a portrait and your portraits are $750 or $1,500. Maybe someone was thinking about spending $500 and your portraits are $2,500. No matter what, however much you charge, it's going to be too expensive for someone. I strongly encourage you to not be discouraged by this, but in fact recognize that just as there are those people who buy a t-shirt say at Kmart or Wal-mart, there are also people who buy t-shirts at Nordstroms and Saks Fifth Avenue. The clients that you want are the clients who are willing to pay a premium for the value and the quality of services you bring and the level of customer service you provide. So don't be discouraged because, as I said, you will always be too expensive for someone.

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Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.