New Beginning

So, I started from a scramble in 2006 with $0 to my name and $30,000 in student debt. Now I've spent the last 3 years pulling photography part-time at an average of $15k a year to build up my equipment and supplies base; yes, I did reinvest all of that money minus my raw materials for client orders on new gear and travel for landscapes. I have 2 Nikon SLRS, 4 lenses, 3 bags, filters, a tripod, 15 or so samples of my products, a website/shopping cart, and portfolio to show for it. But I am back at square one with $0 again, because I let this slide to focus on building my other business. But I'm back, and with a vengeance!

Rebuilding a business up from the bottom is undoubtedly hard. A lot of long hours and work must go into it for it to succeed; but most importantly to me, prayer will too. With God, all things are possible!

So I am sort of 'starting over' again with the studio. I have so many ideas whirling around in my head, and big dreams for where this could go, but (prayer), effort, opportunity, and my talent have to collide to make it happen.

So let's begin with what I'm doing. This whole blog will be set apart as a journal of rebuilding a business, and the events that are going on throughout the process. I've started by listing out all of the things that need to get taken care of immediately between this photo life of mine, and my other work life. Most of those have been wrapped up. Then, I dreamt up a list of everything under the sun that I could have and do with the money generated from this business, and put it into a Pugh Matrix with my husband (he's an engineer, so he's good at this stuff). We listed out every item (new gear, new software, trips, travels, insurances etc) and ranked them against their effectiveness on marketing, customer service, business efficiency and business protection. Each of those categories was weighted for how important I felt they were to the business at this point in time. Then, each dreamt-up-list-item got a ranking, 1 to 4, on how much I thought it would affect the different categories. This spit out a logically prioritized list on where I should spend what little startup I have ($500) to be the most effective at getting this ball rolling.

Outside of free items like facebook pages, twitters, and this blog, I invested yesterday in email software, Outlook for Contact management systems, and magnetic business cards. Why magnetic you say? Because I intend to network through face to face contacts. Why does that matter to have magnetic business cards, you ask? Because let's face it, you and I both throw away or lose any one's business card we receive from anywhere. But a nifty magnet? Well that's useful! It would be a waste to just throw it away. Might as well slap it up on the fridge! And Wa- lah! You have a semi-stable fixture with your business name on it in someone's home or work place. Then their guests or customers see it, and it spreads. It's a lot more resourceful to pay the 10 cents extra per magnet to not have them trashed all of the time. Or lost for that matter!

So the email software. Hmm.. This is crucial to success because people don't buy things unless they're constantly put in front of them. So unless I plan on spending hours on the phone (which I do, but hopefully a lot less because of the emails!), I need a way to remind people that I exist. Since this is a visual business, sending samples of my work out every two weeks should be a great way to touch base; in addition, of the recipients, I know who opened them, and when; woot! Hopefully this will be a good referral network too.

Lastly, the outlook system is not only for my calendar (seriously, I need organization!), but also to remember the folks I've met and talked to. I can't reconnect if I don't have their information, and since it's a digital age, digital records and notetaking is another crucial step for maintaining efficient business practices.

So the next steps...building my facebook page, some of my professional affiliations (at least research what membership costs with them), calling my brother to find out if he's done with my new splash page (he's a web designer, so if you need someone, let me know! I'll send him your way), harassing my mom for new music ( yes she's a professional pianist and singer, all of the songs on my site are hers and they're for sale!) and learning my email software...then building my email templates and thank you cards (yes, I am planning on thanking everyone that does business with me!), as they'll need to be customized to my work and my business. I will need to reorganize my digital file system, as well as my physical file system, and look into getting new legal docs for model releases, prop releases, and session agreements. Lastly, I will need to build my referral card templates too, so that those are ready for drag and drop action after every shoot. In case you're wondering what 'referral cards' are, they're also going to be a 10-set of magnetic images with my biz info on them for my clients to hand out to their friends and family for referrals. I offer a $50 per referral print credit for anyone who sends them my way!

There's a lot to building this up, but it excites me in an overwhelming way. If you pray, please pray for my husband and me to grow in this, to be successful in this, and to bless many, many lives through my photography.

More next time, as the biz grows!

Blessings

Kel