You’ve got the power!

Over the weekend a blog posting by an advertising agency got the photographer community in a well-deserved snit. The post essentially said that photographers have some guts claiming to own the photos they make on assignment for an agency. After all, their argument went, the agency created the concept and all the photographer had to do was shoot the thing. The authors then went on to utterly misinterpret the copyright law in regards to photography and, well, they came off insulting just about any creative vendor they have ever worked with.

By this morning, the agency was hit with many emails from upset photographers. The professional groups got involved as well. This tiny agency in a small market in Illinois managed to bring together people from all over the US (and beyond) in a show of solidarity against the self-serving bullying tactics used by so many agencies–particularly the small- to mid-sized ones.

The article has been pulled, and an apology (a lame one, in my opinion) now takes its place. I’m not linking to any of it because I don’t want the crappy agency to get any more publicity. My point in writing about this is that the photographers stood up for their rights and made a difference. Individual creatives changed a company. It can be done, and here is proof.

You have lots of power. Every creative does. You can say “no” to bad deals and take back control. Call out companies who demand all rights or only offer work for hire contracts or who won’t pay on time or whatever. You can make a difference. That agency in Illinois had its post seen by one photographer who thought enough about it to share it with others, resulting in postings on all the major photo forums and, voilà, a difference was made.

Remember your power. Use it wisely and do not give it away. No one can take it from you. Use it for good–your own and your industry’s.

Doing the right thing works

I went to a medical “spa” to talk to someone about getting some laser treatments for a skin issue. The nurse practitioner who would perform the procedure took over 30 minutes to talk to me and answer all my questions. One of those questions was about getting a second treatment for a separate issue. This would have been hundreds more and with one word from the NP I probably would have seriously considered having it done. However, the NP said I should wait, offered some advice and products that her company did NOT sell, and discussed other, much less expensive and invasive things to try–again, things her company did not provide or, when they did, she even suggested alternatives where I could find the products for less money.

I left the consultation with ideas, samples, and a feeling that the NP was more interested in giving me the service I needed, not just what I wanted. She cared; or at least I felt she did.

That’s effective marketing. By doing the right thing, the NP got a new client (me) and some fantastic word of mouth. Unless she screws up the procedure, which I doubt will happen, she’ll have a loyal client who will recommend her and her company to others.

For service-based businesses, and all creative businesses fit that category, building that trust is the best thing one can do. Doing the right thing, being honest with your clients and offering ways to help them achieve their goals, will result in increased return clients and better billings.

Another reason to go after the big fish

Need another reason to specialize and go after a highly targeted market rather than being a generalist who will shoot anything for anyone for any money? How about this–Yahoo and Reuters are teaming up to provide “user-generated” images for the news. Forget about making any money shooting low- to mid-level photo-journalism in the future–everyone and their brother who has a photo cell phone are the new stringers.

This is happening in other creative industries as well. Look at the Superbowl ad contest, for example. Millions of dollars get spent every year on Superbowl ads, but now any schmo has the chance to get his/her idea made and placed into the most prized media buy of the year. Ouch.
I think the high-end professionals will always have work. But for those of you who are going after “whatever I can get” kinds of work, now is the time to re-examine that plan.

Didn’t you become a creative pro to be something more than a techie? As the army used to say, “Be all that you can be!” It’s your best shot at making it financially to boot.

Now on iTunes

Creative Lube, our podcast service, is now a part of iTunes. Tell your friends and colleagues (including those non-photographer creatives you know) about Creative Lube, and let them know they can find it at the iTunes store. Oh, and it is still free, as always.

When it counts…

I was just at Whole Foods where my credit/check card got declined. Of course, this was unexpected, but it happened and I hurried home to check my accounts online. As I had just done my books a couple of days ago, I knew there was money in that account, so the declination wigged me out a bit. When I checked, there was a charge from a department store in Atlanta ($1.00, I’m thinking that may have been a test by the thieves) from a couple of days ago and another from a gas station in Montreal, Canada. That one was for over $90 and it was posted three hours after I made a purchase at a bookstore here in San Diego.

Someone had gotten my card number and was ripping me off.

I called my bank and the first woman I spoke to was, to put it kindly, snippy and no help. She said “the charges are only authorizations and haven’t hit your account yet so there’s nothing anyone can do. Check back in a couple of days.” Um…hell no. I’m not going to wait a couple of days to see how much more I lose. I mentioned the declination and she actually said “I don’t see that here so it couldn’t have happened.”

Look lady, I was there. It happened.

I finally got her to transfer me to the fraud department which she did in a huff. There I got lots of kind and caring help. The woman I spoke to said, right off, that she would do whatever she could to fix the problem then she told me that my account had been frozen because the bank had caught the Canadian charge and thought it was suspicious. That’s why my card was declined. She then said that she marked the suspicious charges for removal and that I’d be getting a bunch of paperwork (and a new card) in the mail, etc.
In other words, my bank had already seen there was a problem and had been trying to contact me to check out the charge. They were being the good guys. Too bad I never would have known that from the first Customer Service person I spoke to. If I had listened to her and not been the pushy broad I can be when necessary, who knows when this would have gotten resolved! And how much stress would I have gone through and how likely was it that I would even stay with that bank if I lost money this way?
When one of your clients calls you with a problem do you go into defensive mode (“I don’t see that here so it couldn’t have happened”) or do you try to help? Even (especially!) if it’s not your problem, you can do a world of good if you set aside your defenses and simply try to help.

When it counts, a client will remember the person who saved his/her (client’s) ass in a pinch.

State of Stock

There’s an important article on the Wall Street Journal site about how using non-exclusive stock images is causing image duplication between competitors. It also says that as new media campaigns get bigger and bigger, exclusivity is going to become more popular. And exclusivity means more value to the client and thus a higher price.

Good news.

“Crappy” work

On one of the forums recently someone objected to my using the term “crappy” when referring to work one might get from a self-made, none-too-well-designed photographer’s website. The poster seemed to get his knickers in a twist over the idea that I would judge anyone’s work in any way, much less to judge it crappy.

Well, I’m here to tell you that there is plenty of crappy work out there and we need to stop being afraid of calling it crap. But the poster completely missed my point–in this case I wasn’t calling the work produced crappy, I was calling the work offered crappy.

Creatives need to stop agreeing to do crappy work–the crappy work that is offered by cheap clients who barely want “good enough” creative work and don’t want to pay anything close to a fair price for it. You know crap when you see it–when a client comes to you with a stock image and wants you to reproduce it because they don’t want to pay the “high” (cough!) stock usage price; or the one who wants the logo by tomorrow and wants it to look just like their competitor’s, but better and for $250; or the one who wants the ad to show “free” at least 3 times, with a starburst, and make the logo bigger, and make sure you can see that the people in the image are black, white, Asian, gay, straight, male, and female, but keep it to two people to save money–oh, and the insert date is tomorrow but there is no reason to have a rush charge since “all you have to do is find the right stock image and change the font a teeny bit.”

All of these clients, and so many others, are offering crappy work and it is up to the creative to say “no” to it. In saying “no” you are liberating yourself. You free your mind from the burden of doing work that depresses you. You don’t have to “sell out” but instead can hold your head high and say “I am not the right person for this project” and look yourself in the mirror without wincing.

The added bonus is that some of these crappy clients will learn from your refusal; they will go back to their bosses and say “we can do better–the creative I wanted to do this project can do much more with this, if we let him/her.” This will take time, and it won’t happen with all the crappy clients out there, but the contacts who want to work with you and who are impressed with your honesty and integrity will, when given the opportunity, come back to you with the not-crappy work.

The crap-seekers will just find some other “desperate” creative to do their bidding.

So go after the best clients out there and take passes on the crappy work. Seek out the work that will fulfill you creatively as well as financially. Feed your soul as well as your accounts receivable. Don’t forget, they won’t know you are out there unless you market to them–the good clients. There are loads of them out there. Plenty to go around! Find them, work with them, and keep your heads up.

Thanksgiving

This is the holiday when we Americans are supposed to give thanks. There are all sorts of things I am thankful for, but today, the day before the holiday, I’ll tell you what I am most thankful for: having patience.

My husband and I are going to have dinner with some of his family and I am making dessert–a pumpkin pie and an apple pie. I think we can pretty much bet that most families will be having pie for dessert. So why did I have to go to three different major grocery chains to get the few things I didn’t have to make the pies, namely a can of plain pumpkin, granny smith apples, cinnamon, and disposable pie tins? I’ll tell you why: poor planning by the stores!

There is no reason a major grocery store should not have loads of all these items on the morning of the day before Thanksgiving. Every year the menu of the American family is about the same so it’s not like they shouldn’t expect to sell some pie-making items.

Now I’m a nice person with loads of patience, so I didn’t get angry with any of the workers, but I’d bet money that there will be screaming fits by others later in the day when they can’t find the items they need. Managers will be called, lines will be held up with complaints, and generally a lot of people are going to be in a bad mood, just because the powers-that-be didn’t plan well.
Don’t let this happen in your business. It is better by far to be over-stocked and not needs something for a project than to need something and not have it–especially if you have a client in your studio or breathing down your neck. Have back-ups for everything technical, of course, but also remember to think about comfort items for you, your crew, and the client(s)–water, bee sting kits, hanbd-held video games to pass the time, whatever. In the worst case, you won’t need them and the client will see you as a competent professional. In the best case, something will be needed and you will be able to whip it out saying “I have it right here,” thus making you look like a savior.
Now there’s something to be thankful for.

Learn how to write! (and save money too)

Most of you know already how important I think proper writing is for creatives and their businesses. So many of you had little (or no) training in writing while in college/art school, and now when you have to write a proposal or a press release or even just send an estimate, you struggle. Okay, you more than struggle, you freeze up and hit full panic or send written items that do more damage than good. It doesn’t have to be that way.

I’ve just recently learned of online courses to help. These courses can help you overcome your grammar fears and make your syntax sing. They are offered by the WritersOnlineWorkshops which is a part of F&W Publications–the fine folks who bring you the Photographer’s Market and Writer’s Market books, as well as HOW magazine and other fine publications. In other words, these people are not some fly-by-night group. No, they are writing pros and they can definitely help you improve your business.

Best of all, they are offering a discount for any of you who learn about these courses via this email (or the BAP Blog): 10% off! All you have to do is enter the special coupon code BAP6 when you enroll.

And no, I get nothing for this–no kickbacks or financial deals. I just thought it would help you and your businesses, and the fine folks at the WritersOnlineWorkshops.com agreed and offered the discount.

Here are some suggested options and more information:

Brush up on the basics—or dive a little deeper into business or creative writing—with WritersOnlineWorkshops.com, brought to you by the parent company of HOW Magazine and the HOW Design Conference. You’ll work one-on-one with a professional writing instructor to improve your writing skills, no matter what your skill level or interests.

Improve your grammar skills with the six-week comprehensive course Elements of Effective Writing I: Grammar and Mechanics http://www.writersonlineworkshops.com/viewworkshop.asp?workshopid=1027 .

If you need to improve your business writing skills, including memos, reports, and proposals, check out Essentials of Business Writing http://www.writersonlineworkshops.com/viewworkshop.asp?workshopid=1042 .

And if you want to get a little more creative or get into more details, try some of the other creative (and non) writing courses they offer. A full listing of courses is available at
http://www.writersonlineworkshops.com/workshopdescriptions.asp .

In case you’re afraid of commitment, here’s this additional information directly from the WritersOnlineWorkshop people:
This month (November) only we’re offering a special no-risk registration that lets you cancel your workshop even after your class has begun—without paying the customary administrative fees and penalties. Simply put, if something unforeseen happens or you aren’t happy with the class, you won’t have to pay if you don’t stay in the course.

There’s nothing to lose! Click here to learn more about this exclusive promotion and to pick your perfect workshop today: http://www.writersonlineworkshops.com/

I agree. Sign up today. The discount offer is time-limited and will expire January 31, 2007.