Bev's Blog

As Bev is away from her desk due to the passing of Tim’s mother, the blog for this week is re-printed from one of our Coaching Community Workbook articles. Enjoy!

Tim and I were watching TV the other night and on the PBS channel, there was a special about the White House Photographers who worked with the last few presidents. They were recounting stories that were the highlights of their years photographing and documenting the president, his family and staff. One part stood out head and shoulders above the rest to us and it fortified our heartfelt belief that imagery needs to be printed and displayed for its full impact and enjoyment.

The documentary confirmed this when they described the changing of the photographs on the walls that occurred several times each year and said it was the HIGHLIGHT DAY out of all of the things that happened in the White House. All of the staff came from near and far to see the new images-it was like an unveiling of a famous art piece. These photographs were large, framed images that the photographer picked out to be displayed on the walls. People milled around, chatting, laughing and commenting on each image. You could see the joy and excitement on their faces. Isn’t that the reaction we want with our images?  Can you imagine if the White House photographer brought these images in on his iPhone or iPad for the unveiling? The contrast is quite stark!

So, this brings me to the same conclusion we have been living, breathing and teaching for many years and that is that images need to be printed, framed and hung on the wall for the ultimate personal enjoyment. Thinking about my own experience, I love walking through our den, seeing the images of our girls with our bulldog, Rock, who passed away several months ago. What memories! Then I walk to the kitchen and see the portrait of our girls that photographer Michael Taylor took while he was here. Megan was not married at the time and Michelle looks so young! In the dining room, we have their Senior portraits hanging in formal frames. My, how different they looked at the same age. In the living room, I remember how beautiful Megan looked in her bridal gown as I enjoy her “framed and printed” bridal portrait. Continuing up the stairs, I get to the top and see my mom and dad’s image and it gives me pleasure to see how well my dad looked as he is now in a nursing home. Memories…. in our bedroom, the images there celebrate our marriage of 34 years with images of the two of us at various times in our lives.

Each time I look at these images, the pleasure I receive is immeasurable-priceless. That is the intrinsic value of a printed piece versus a digital rendition. Do we have digital images anywhere in our home? Actually, we have a digital frame in the kitchen, rotating our snapshots of Ireland and Italy. For us, that is where digital imagery fits…it helps us display our snapshots, but it will never take the place of beautifully printed and framed portraits of our family.

We feel that the step from digital file to a physical print takes as much skill as the capture itself and is part of our artistic process as fine art photographers. We take great care in our printing process and it adds to the final image in ways looking at it on an iPad cannot even come close to doing. That is why we stress the fact that we call ourselves “print artists” again bringing the focus back to our printed pieces as the finished output at our studio.

We have taken it a step further in the studio by adding the initials “DRPA” on the bottom of any image that is digitally rendered for social media such as Facebook or our blog. When our clients ask what it means, we tell them it means “Digital Reproduction of Printed Art” thus reinforcing the message that we are a print studio, not a digital studio. We do not sell or give any of our images to a client on a DVD unless it is a business portrait and we have filled out the Copyright release form that gives them limited rights of use that we determine beforehand. We charge appropriately for them to use our imagery for business purposes only and they may not print from the disc for personal use.

Another aspect of this issue is the fact that technology is changing so rapidly that jpg or psd files that are saved to a DVD today may not open in any program in the future. Although we do the best we can to save our clients’ files in the most up to date formats, we cannot guarantee them they will open 5 or 10 years from now. However, nobody knows what the future holds in this arena. Anyone remember floppy disks and zip drives?

Note: Adobe recommends the DNG (digital negative) format as the best long-term storage option.

We had to draw the line in the sand, so to speak, on this issue several years ago. Our decision back then is still the same today. We do not offer our images in a digital format. We are a “printed art studio” and we make sure we have this message printed in our literature. It is important to layer the message via printed pieces, emails, blogs, Facebook and also, face to face. We don’t often get asked if we offer our images on a DVD, but when we do, we simply say we don’t and explain why. Our clients don’t get angry or leave. We have already established good relationships with them and they understand our position.

This is an issue we all need to resolve within ourselves and then draw boundries. What are yours? Think about how your decision will affect your business long-term!

Have a great week everyone (and hug your moms)-

Bev

Note: Tim and Bev Walden are the founders of the Walden Coaching Community, an online educational resource for photographers. As photographic educators, they realized the benefits of putting their immense knowledge and expertise online would be a way to share with photographers far and wide from their home base in Lexington, Kentucky.

You can check out their Coaching Community at www.timandbevwalden.com. While there, visit their Store for specialty products they have produced to benefit all photographers, whether beginners or seasoned veterans.

For those who have ever heard us teach, you know that we constantly talk about the magic factor in everything we do from the Design Appointment to the final Pick-up… EMOTION…the E-FACTOR!

It plays a significant role in our photography, marketing, sales and even the final pick-up. Out of the three “styles” we offer, the one that has the E-Factor we use most to market is our black and white Relationship imagery. Because it was founded 16 years ago on emotion and telling people’s stories, it became our iconic brand to advertise in the marketplace and the most well known style we offer. Today, it is still our bread and butter as people never tire of having their personal stories told through our photography.

So, why am I telling you this? It has to do with what I want to share today-how to get marketing messages to “stick” in the consumers’ minds or how it is often referred to; share of mind.

 Marketing Impact via{Emotional Messaging} + frequency of exposures=share of mind

There are two types of memory; long term and short term. Long term is chemical and after time has passed, the memory remains. Short term is electrical and even one night’s sleep can wipe those memories clean. To acquire true share of mind that lasts, we need to cross from short term to long term memory. So how do we do that?

Short-term memory has a fairly limited capacity; it can hold about seven items for no more than 20 or 30 seconds at a time. Important information is gradually transferred from short-term memory into long-term memory. The more the information is repeated or used, the more likely it is to eventually end up in long-term memory, or to be “retained.” Unlike sensory and short-term memory, which are limited and decay rapidly, long-term memory can store unlimited amounts of information indefinitely.

People tend to more easily store material on subjects that they already know something about, since the information has more meaning to them and can be mentally connected to related information that is already stored in their long-term memory.  Events that are associated with strong emotions are usually easily recalled.   Aromas, food, songs can all trigger powerful emotional memories.  Because emotions are linked to past experiences, new experiences that are similar evoke the same emotional response.   In Teaching with the Brain in Mind, Eric Jensen (1998) points out that  the brain is overstimulated when strong emotions are present.  Emotions give us a more activated and chemically stimulated brain, which then helps us recall things better.  

Our goal is to get to long term memory in our clients’ or potential clients’ minds and stay there in order to gain share in their minds. That is why using emotion in every area of our business is vital to us!

So here are your choices when you sit down to figure out your marketing strategy.

Do you spend more, increasing frequency of exposures on a weak or unemotional message to increase share of mind? Or do you make your message stronger and more emotional so you don’t have to increase the frequency of repetition? Which is the better financial choice? If you plan on strongly and successfully branding your business, you need a memorable, emotional message and enough frequency to gain the most share of mind.

A note…The best marketing cannot help or fix a broken business. It will only accelerate what was going to happen anyway. What makes marketing impotent whether or not it is emotional?

Bad service, poor product, unfriendly owners or staff, shabby decor, bad location, lack of expertise, inconvenient hours.

So if you blame your lack of success on poor marketing, but have any of the above issues, you need to take another look.

Finally, remember this. The world outside your door is the world of the clients’ expectations. BUT, the world inside your doors or the phone call that now connects you to the client becomes the world inside your doors. What was outside is now inside…what will your client experience? Will you meet their expectations?

A weak experience can undo a whole lot of great marketing effort! A great way to see with more clarity how the experience is at your business is to ask others on the outside to give you their opinion.

As they say, you can’t read the label when you are inside the bottle.

Have a great week everyone!

Bev

http://www.timandbevwalden.com

http://www.facebook.com/Waldensed

4. Have a superior level of customer service and add a unique experience to it!

In any economy, this should be a given, but it is vital in a soft economy. Do you offer your clients a refreshment every time they walk through your doors? Do you help them in with their clothing? Do you carry their images to the car when they pick up? What about when it’s raining? Do you meet them at their car with an umbrella? Do you “stage” each appointment for maximum impression? Do you stay in touch after the sale? Do you deliver their work to their home if they desire that?

There are so many ways to serve your clients and you must have a plan so that their experience is consistent each time.

Service falls flat if it is not consistent.

What about experience? Do you have a coffee bar where the client can fix their own drinks? Do you have planned snacks for sales appointments? Is every appointment with you planned to the max so your client has the BEST experience? If not, you should.

What about your facility? Is is grand, offering a WOW experience? Is it clean and does it smell good? Is the lighting setting the correct mood? Whether your business is in a retail area or your home, your client’s experience rests on how they feel in your environment.

Now is the time to go the extra mile and give that little bit of extra service that can mean the difference between dazzling the client vs. merely satisfying the client! Don’t just give them their money’s worth. NO! Give them much more!

“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.”
Mahatma Gandhi

5. Don’t pull back on aggressively marketing your business!

When things are slow, it is natural to look at what you are spending, especially in the marketing arena, and find ways to cut it. Something Tim said a long time ago has always stuck in my mind and it is this, “Fear makes its own plans.” When business slows, if you let fear creep into your thinking, it (fear) will make a plan to pull back and slow down on anything that costs money, including marketing.

In a soft economy, you must not pull back on marketing, curl up in a corner and stop. NO! You must aggressively go forward. Be creative in ways you can market that won’t cost you much (except time and elbow grease).

There are many great ideas out there and with the popularity of social marketing (which is very low cost), you will be much better off when the economy improves.

To prevent future lulls from happening, you should market consistently and strongly all year long, every week-not just when you need the business. Planning an on-going marketing campaign ensures a better outcome for your business. Marketing done today begins a cycle that will result in new business when you need it six months from now. In saying this, I am also saying to give your marketing time to work. It doesn’t happen overnight!

 What types of marketing have worked for us in this economy? 

 First, we rely more heavily than ever before on our partners to spread the word to their clients. We work with them and develop close relationships and we are always asking two questions. “What can we do for you?” and “What can we do with you?” Our current goal is to develop our partners from just being partners to being evangelists. This takes lots of work, caring, paying attention to their wants and helping them in any way we can to reach their goals. 

Another idea that has been great with our partners is to do drawings at certain times of the year such as right before Christmas or Easter. One of their clients wins a wall portrait and session fee, but we don’t stop there. We give smaller  prizes as well, allowing our partners to hand pick a dozen or so additional people (who are not current clients for us) from who signed up and then, we send them mailings and a $300. gift certificate. This dollar amount seems to be the key. Of course, we put a pretty short expiration on it as well.

Second, we are working more closely with the private schools in our area to do campaigns that raise money for their schools while sending us new clients to experience our studio. We do all of the work, including designing the materials to preparing emails that they can send out to their parents. Did I say this was easy? Absolutely not! Succeeding in this economy is not for the lazy or weak of heart!

Third, we work very hard on connecting with our clients through social media. We don’t leave Facebook or blog postings to chance or when we have the time. We assign studio staff to journal entries and think ahead. Social media only works when you are actively involved and it gets stale very quickly.

 What do we not do in this economy?

First and most importantly, as a boutique studio, we don’t do anything that will destroy our brand in the long term in order to gain in the short term. If you are in this business and hope to stay for years to come, you should not do anything that takes value away (i.e.: discounts or Groupons). Once you get a client simply because they are using a coupon, you have attracted a price sensitive client who is coming to you for that reason and not for your art.

You are training them to expect a discount and without that, they won’t come. True success, at least for us, is to attract the RIGHT client, those that appreciate and value what we do and will pay what we ask.

We avoid costly marketing such as newspaper ads, television commercials and large direct mail campaigns with unqualified buyers. These things can drain your budget and not produce measurable results.

Take some time to think about how you are approaching your marketing in this economy. You know your business better than anyone else and I am sure you will make the right decisions as we continue on our journey to success!

Have a great week everyone!

Bev

www.timandbevwalden.com

1. Contact previous clients that have not been in for awhile.

Of course, you would not call a past client and say, “Hey, I need more business. Would you be interested in coming in?” No! The approach is everything on this. Create a reason to bring them back in without putting pressure on them.

One way we do this is our “Invitation Only” idea where we invite specific clients in to fulfill an idea we may have. For example, when we receive a new background that we need samples on, we think about who would be a good fit and invite them to “model” for us. No pressure. We can then specify the exact clothing to create a beautiful portrait from that session and then allow them to purchase additional portraits. Of course, we give them a nice credit towards that purchase for modeling for us. Click here to see the movie I made on “6 Ideas to keep your calendar booked all year long.”

Think about what would work for you and a valid reason for the invitation. Our clients have loved doing this and we both benefit.

2. Grab your prospect list you’ve tucked away and think about ways to re-connect with them.

According to a study by Thomas Publishing Company, it takes 5 touch points before action is taken by a client, but very few contact a prospect or past client more than three times! The best outcome will be obtained by recent prospects (those who inquired within the last year or two) and even more recent would be better (within the past 6 months.)

3. Mix the above efforts with direct mail campaigns to highly qualified leads.

With the high cost of creating, printing and mailing direct mail pieces, we make sure that we have the best mailing list by creating it ourselves and not buying it from a big company. After all, we know our town better than anyone and though it takes some elbow grease, we feel the results are worth it.

For example, we buy our local newspaper every Wednesday as that is when the new births are listed. Combing through that section, we extract the names and then do a little detective work to see who might be a good fit for us. Sometimes we get 3 each week and sometimes as many as 10.

Once we decide on this “prospect” we start a 4-part mailing campaign focusing on the baby at different ages and then, we send the final piece when the baby is one year old. Yes, this takes work and diligence, but it has been worth it. We track the mailings through our studio management program and journal the details and results through evernote.com. Layered with our other efforts above, it has proven a plus for us.

Stay tuned for Part 2 next week!

Bev

www.timandbevwalden.com

This week’s blog is inspired by a cupcake bakery in Ft. Collins, Colorado, called the Butter Cream Cupcakery. Why, you ask? First of all, I love cupcakes. However, more than that, my brother was telling me a very special thing about this bakery that I have been thinking about since he told me. He lives in Ft. Collins and mentioned a friend who owned this cupcake bakery and how good the cupcakes were. What was intriguing to me was the extra special prize inside of her bakery…Princess Story Time!

What, I asked? What in the world is Princess Story Time? And what does it have to do with a bakery? With that, he explained that the store has one of the staff dress up like Snow White (or other princess-type characters like the Little Mermaid) and right in the store, she reads stories to the children that attend. This event draws children and their parents into the store for a different reason than simply to buy cupcakes, but guess what? They buy cupcakes while they are there…who wouldn’t, right? And more than that, it builds good will in the community and creates BUZZ, that all-important aspect of marketing we all need in today’s overrun environment.

This past winter, we hosted an event called “Coffee, Camera and a Chat” in our studio where we invited some of our clients in to learn more about how to take better snapshots, taught by Tim. We also invited the manager of our local camera store to come and look at their cameras and answer any questions they might have about them. We structured the evening to be small and intimate (invitation only) and had some nice refreshments afterwards. It was met with great success. Each participant left with a goodie bag from us containing a gift certificate for a Session Fee along with a gold CD (we talked about how to preserve their images on gold CDs) and the camera store handed out goodies as well.

Fast forward to last week where we had our second Coffee, Camera and a Chat.

We had a full house with a waiting list and customers messaging us afterwards that they had already heard from those there that it was awesome and they wanted to sign up for the next one. As we handed out the gift packets with the Session Fee gift, I spoke to four women who mentioned they wanted to book a session and had been procrastinating, but would now book. It has built more good will than almost anything else we have done.

Do you see the correlation of the Princess Story Time and Coffee, Camera and a Chat? They are both like getting the prize inside of a box of Cracker Jacks. It is the little extra gift that keeps them coming back. All it takes is a little time and effort to create an event your clients will appreciate and then tell their friends.

What can you do in your business? Get a group together and brainstorm…maybe you could do an event with a partner in your town that would draw from both businesses. Your imagination is the only limitation!

Have a great week, everyone.

Bev

www.timandbevwalden.com

Going back to when I started working with Tim and his father in the studio, I remember being proud of NOT doing planning sessions. Other studios required them, but we didn’t. The clients that were attracted to our studio were the ones who were not serious about their upcoming session. Translated, that meant they didn’t care that much and were never the good spenders!

Fast forward to today and we would not dream of doing a session without a planning session! What is new, at least to us, is that we now do the majority of these in our clients’ homes. Until we started closing on Mondays, we just could not fit it onto our calendar. Now, we use many Mondays for these appointments. From the success we have experienced, I would say to you to fit them into your calendar, no matter what! They are that pivotal in these times, where so many have flooded the profession, in creating a higher and more professional level of experience for the client. We can create very customized Sales Suggestions when we are armed with the additional knowledge going into the home provides.

Reason #1:

Putting THEIR image on THEIR wall in THEIR home through the magic of ProSelect is AMAZING! 

As many of you know, we created the concept of the Sales Suggestion many years ago when we were shooting film. The concept was to start a sale at the “end” of a typical sale, pre-selecting the images in the sizes and products we wanted our clients to purchase and pitching it to them, letting them say yes or no or tweak it. We called them Sales Suggestions. Of course, that is an entire other blog or two to explain it in total. Now, when we do a planning session in our clients’ homes, we are simply taking the idea of the Suggestion a step further by putting our selected images on their walls, thereby creating a vivid visual. People are visual; sales are also visual!

We now take several pieces of copy paper instead of a ruler so that we can write the locations throughout the home on it. When we started, we only took a ruler that we would tape to the wall with painter’s tape. Then we would get back to the studio with several snapshots of walls, hallways, etc, but couldn’t remember where they were located throughout the home. DUH! We all know that paper is 11″ wide, so we use that measurement in ProSelect to correctly size the images as we populate our client’s walls with virtual images. We save these snaps in a folder for future suggestions of future imagery. It is a win-win. We know the layout of their home and where our portraits would hang best and they get properly-sized imagery!

Reason #2:

It changes the playing field of host and guest.

When we are were invited to do the planning session in a home, our client becomes the host and us the guest. It is exactly opposite of doing the planning session in the studio. When we are the guest in a home, the dynamics change as our clients strive to make us feel comfortable on their turf. It takes the pressure off a bit. An added bonus is they don’t have to pack up their babies and children to bring them to us! Any time we can make our clients’ lives easier serves us well in the market when women are busier than ever before and love this convenience.

Reason#3:

We see their decor and can match imagery and framing more closely to a style that will hang well in their home.

Although our concept of Sales Suggestions have served us very well over the years, we can pinpoint them more specifically when we know what our clients’ homes look like. If our client doesn’t yet know which Walden “style” they want, Color Studies (more formal) or Relationship Black and White Imagery (more interactive and contemporary) or a Beau Visage (painted piece), we can steer them in the right direction when we are standing in their home, looking around at their decorating style. We can more successfully choose framing as well and not suggest a formal frame for a casual home or vice versa. Seeing the colors used throughout their home helps determine how we style the photography session as well so that we don’t use colors in our set that would clash with their walls.

How do we get clients to book these sessions in their homes? What we have found that works best is if we simply present the idea as normal operating procedure. Instead of saying, “We do planning sessions either here at the studio or in your home. Which would you like?” Instead, we say, “Our planning sessions are done in your home (here you give whatever reason you want to present to them). Which day would be best? Monday or Thursday?” Let them turn you down; don’t assume anything!

As a boutique studio, we MUST create GAPS between us and others vying for the same business and dollars. With this added service, we feel we are adding yet another layer that creates a GAP for us in our market.

Have a great week, everyone! Please subscribe if you are not a regular…I would love to have you:-)

Bev

www.timandbevwalden.com

continued from last week…

2. Re-experience that which you have.

We are constantly changing.  Our old conventional ideas evolve into new ones.  Sometimes revisiting the past can reignite old ideas that we’ve forgotten, but that are none-the-less important.  Old ideas can also inspire new ones.Watch old home videos; listen to old music; watch your favorite childhood television shows; look at old year books, pictures, and crafts you did as a child.

I often go back through old “journals” that I carried with me to programs to take notes years ago. It is amazing to read these again and realize how much I have NOT put into practice that I should have! It gives me the kick in the pants to get busy again, trying out new ideas.

A good friend, Drake Busath, once told us to walk around the block where we live and take photos. In doing that, he says, we will see everything in a new light and creativity will be sparked!

3. Exercise your creativity to make it stronger.

Years ago, in the film days, I once entered 4 prints, all created with different films. Using Konica 3200, a very grainy film, I entered a portrait lit only by a streetlamp. Then I took 1600 film and did a studio portrait using only modeling lights so the portrait took on an orange glow. I then went outside and did a portrait with infrared film. Finally, I did a studio portrait with Kodak VPS120. Why? To exercise my creativity and expand my boundries.

Tim and I often would spend weekends shooting Polaroid manipulations, a wonderfully engaging and relaxing way to spend the afternoon. When we travelled, our challenge would always be to capture the essence of a place with our manipulations. These are now part of a collection of images from around the world that are simply priceless to us!

A great book on creativity is “Drawing on the right side of the brain.” by Betty Edwards. This link is a free PDF download.

My challenge to you this week:

1. Prioritize creativity again to be an important part of your life. Make the effort.

2.  Try something different this week and be hyper-aware of your feelings. Are there thoughts running through your mind that you can use in your photography?

3. Start scheduling Portfolio sessions for yourself as often as you can. Use this time to try different things. NO LIMITS! NO STRESS! Simply fun!

4. Go out and simply play with photography again to re-ignite your passion for this wonderful industry.

5. Download the PDF above and start reading it. Make notes and try some of the exercises. How does it make you feel?

Remember, photography is not just what we do, but it is who we are!

Have a great week, everyone!

Bev

www.timandbevwalden.com

Facebook: Waldens Education For Photographers

This is a topic near and dear to my heart and has been neglected for awhile due to the daily circumstances we face in our economy. As I thought about it, I again longed for the carefree moments that have been laid aside in order to keep our business on track. What am I speaking about…CREATIVITY of course!

As photographers, we are creative individuals, but that creativity must be nourished and fed in order to survive.  We’re all unique due to the distinct combination of life experiences each of us has had; and, thus, within us are unique and creative ideas.  It’s just a matter of accessing and activating those parts of our brains; then creativity will reign. How important is nurturing your creativity? If you don’t think it is important, you will not take the time nor make the effort to expand your thinking.

Here are some ways we can all get back to what drew us to photography in the first place-exercising creativity!

1. Experience that which you haven’t.

I’ve found that doing things I haven’t before allows my brain to think of things it hasn’t before.  It’s interesting to experience this epiphany-like light bulb that goes off in my head, yet it’s difficult to explain.  Your heart-rate increases, your mind begins considering not only new ideas, but expansions of those ideas.

I remember teaching at MARS in New Jersey one year. Fog was rolling in over the beach which was right across the street from the hotel. We were finished for the day, but as this fog rolled in right at sunset, I had a “vision” of a woman with a long scarf blowing in the wind, standing with the ocean behind her. I grabbed a lady from the class, gave her a long, flowing dress to put on and literally ran across the road to set my camera up for the shot. At this moment, nothing else mattered. I didn’t see the people who gathered around-my only objective was capturing what I had seen in my mind’s eye. I laid in the sand and shot until I felt I had “it.” With adrenaline pumping, I was on a high for the next several hours.

What had happened?  I believe I was experiencing a bout of creativity due to the unusual experience of shooting on a beach. My brain took over as it jumped out of the normal box into the creative box! I had no comparison, living in Kentucky, to what was the right or wrong way to shoot on a beach, so my mind opened up to new and creative possibilities.

To access your creativity, it is imperative that you constantly try new things and play with new techniques.  Listen to new music; speak to people with different perspectives on life and try to understand those perspectives; travel to new places and try to understand their values and cultures; try new restaurants and local hangouts; read new books; learn as much as you can about things you don’t know or understand.  New experiences mean new ideas and new ideas possess the potential for creation.

If you can go back to thinking like a child, it will help break the barriers to your creativity. Children play, are not afraid of new things and are not aware of their limitations. Get different cameras out of your closet, dust them off and play. Photoshop is limitless, so take some time for yourself to play with all it has to offer. Let the joy of creating imagery back into your life once again.

This is why our Portfolio sessions are so critical. What are they? Simply an invitation only session that we set up with interesting people who are not clients. It is in these sessions that we experiment with new styles, lighting and posing to enhance our creativity. Without the pressure to create a portrait that we need to sell, we are released to be wildly creative. We try to schedule one per month and it keeps us from feeling stale.

As they say, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy {and Jill a dull girl}.”

Stay tuned next week for Part 2. In the meantime, go out this week and do something totally new. Get out of your rut!

Have a great week, everyone!

Bev

www.timandbevwalden.com

Facebook: join me at Waldens Education for Photographers

Years ago, on the cusp of developing our Relationship Black and White portraiture, we read the book, The E-Myth, that completely changed how we thought about our business. The kick in the pants was that we knew it all along, but never put it into practice, gave it much thought or identity. That word…CONSISTENCY!

What do I mean by consistency. It’s very simple. When a client visits Walden’s for the first time or the hundredth time, they have the same experience. When they call, they hear the same message with the same pleasant voice. When they pick up their order, they have an experience each time that is consistent. When they look at our art, they see a consistent high standard of craftsmanship. Each time and every time there is any touch point, it is the same. CONSISTENCY IS VITAL!

At first, we thought it insignificant, but when your business is faltering like ours was in those early years, you learn to pay attention to every little detail. 

The visual that helped us understand this concept the most was to compare our business to a franchise. If you think about McDonalds, you may not like the food, but it is always consistent. In fact, when we travel, we often pick a franchise restaurant because we know what to expect. From the food to decor to the experience, our expectations are met.

Fast forward to your second visit. You are very excited and have told many friends about this restaurant. However, on this visit, the hot rolls never appear. In fact, you have to ask the server for them. When they get to your table, they are cold. And now that you think about it, the music has been left on a station that is not so relaxing. In fact, it is jarring and a little too loud. What are you thinking about now? If it were me, I would be very disappointed, but willing to hang on to see if the rest of the evening is up to my expectations that were set on the first visit. If the food is still well prepared and beautifully presented and the owner still comes out to talk with me, I may give the restaurant one more chance, thinking this was just an “off” night. However, if anything else is a disappointment, I may never go back. And guess what? I will never tell them, but just quietly slip away without a fuss.

From Michael LeBoeuf’s How to Win Customers & Keep Them for Life here’s something to think about:

“A typical business hears from only 4 percent of its dissatisfied customers. The other 96 percent just quietly go away and 91 percent will never come back. That represents a serious financial loss for companies whose people don’t know how to treat customers, and a tremendous gain to those that do.”

I believe having erratic and inconsistent experiences create customers who leave a business in search of another they can trust to have the same, great experience each and every time they visit. CONSISTENCY IS VITAL!

“To create a consistent experience for your customers that will delight them, and even surprise them, you must have a strategy and a plan.” Bobby Burns, E-Myth Business Coach

After people have discovered your business and decided they liked it enough to try you out, the quality you want to establish is trust which will come from them having a consistent experience, each and every time. You see, when you create the first impression and everything is beautiful and magical, you give your client an imaginary yardstick to measure you on every return visit. Can you maintain what you have started? It is better to do less and do it consistently than bite off more than you can chew and cause disappointment.

Some other valuable things to consider when building your business:

*If you make a promise, this is where your promise comes to life, where the “rubber meets the road.” It is better to under promise and over deliver than the other way around.

 *You must exceed your clients’ needs and provide value beyond the mere product or service.

*To create a loyal (or beyond loyal to evangelists) client base, who tell their friends about you and who wouldn’t think of using another brand, requires intentionality and focus.

We decided, on that day long ago, to create systems to run the business and then any employee can run the system. It takes the employee out of the middle and comforts them as they know their boundries. When an employee is left to make decisions for your business, things can quickly become erratic as they may make  promises inconsistent with your vision or create an environment for your clients that is this way one day and that way the next. You must be intentional and focus on a plan-teach your employees that plan and pay attention to this ONE LITTLE WORD…CONSISTENCY! It is that important.

Until next week,

Bev

www.timandbevwalden.com

This can be a bit tricky, but I wanted to share what we have done in this area as we have had photographers inquire about this topic. We decided we needed to raise prices, but really hated to in a soft economy, so we came up with these solutions.

Instead of raising prices on some of the products, we decided to look at our PROFIT MARGINS instead to see where we could improve them. We took apart every product and process to see where we could lower the base cost, but we knew the product still had to stand the quality test our clients paid us for.

1. The first change we made was on one of our most popular products, the Image Showcases (6-8×8 images in 12×12 double mats.) We were paying quite a lot for vendors to cut a double mat for the front and then an additional solid mat to back each of the 6 matted images. Three mats per image times 6 images was 18 mats for one product! We don’t use cheap mats either, so that was adding to our cost and diminishing our profit margin. On top of that, we had to pay to have them assembled and also pay for the print that was inserted and they took awhile to finish and deliver to our clients because of all the many steps (and people) in the process.

Instead, we decided to create a designed 12×12 piece as a template where we could digitally add the image into it and voila! Done! Now all we do is upload these pieces to White House (WHCC) and they come back beautifully printed, mounted on styrene, laminated and ready to deliver. This cut our costs tremendously in materials and labor and dramatically shortened the time it took to deliver it. We designed one set for color and one for our black and white work. In the Associate division (formerly Studio B), we were already doing this.

With this new style, we are keeping the same price as we had and if someone wants the “old style” with physical mats, we charge $50.00 additional for the extra materials and labor they require. It makes sense to our clients when I explain it, we make much more profit and everyone is happy as they can order either and we are covered.

2. The second change we made was to delete the automatic mounting of our Table Top images (8×10 and smaller) and if a client wants it now, we charge an additional $15.00 per image. Again, we are taking the approach of raising our profit margins rather than our print prices. About 40% of our clients will pay for the mounting of their images and 60% opt out. This decision allows us to keep our Table Top prices the same (now for unmounted prints) and make additional bottom line profits when we mount them.

3. Finally, on this topic, we scoured our price lists to find those items that were costing us too much to produce and figured out ways to scale them back to make them more profitable. Since we were printing our own canvasses in the past, we created our products in odd sizes as it didn’t matter. Once we printed them and had our in-house framer stretch them, we realized we were paying way too much once we figured up the costs of materials and labor (and it took a long time to deliver these images). We decided to re-configure our products to fit WHCC’s sizes and once we did that, our costs went way down. So, our Senior Eclectic that was 13×21 is now 16×24, a normal WHCC size. We know now exactly how much it will cost and as a bonus, we have a much faster turn-around.

Take the time this week to go through your prices and products to see where any changes, big or small, can make a difference to your profit margins.

Have a great week everyone.

Bev

www.timandbevwalden.com