Author: Leslie Burns

No, this isn’t an upcoming title, though I wish it were (yes, I’m a Harry Potter fan). I just thought I’d mention how HP is connected to what we all do every day.

Ms. Rowling had a burning desire to write. She worked other jobs while she wrote, but her passion was always to get Harry on the page. In fact, she was even on public assistance during the writing of the first book, trying to write and keep a roof over the head of herself and her daughter, as a single parent. She did whatever it took to get that book done, and then presented it to several publishers before she got one to publish it.

Side note: can you imagine how much those who turned her down must be kicking themselves?!

Anyway, fast-forward to today and Ms. Rowling is now one of the wealthiest women in the world. She is worth, reportedly, over a billion dollars, and definitely more than Queen Elizabeth II.

None of this would have happened if she were not true to her own vision. She “saw” Harry and his story and she had to write it. She had to write it for herself, and she hoped that others would want to share in it after the fact. She did what it took to enable her to be true to that vision.

And it paid off. Boy howdy did it.

Oh, and none of this would have happened if she sold all the rights to her book(s) either. Remember that next time a client “demands” copyright.

So the stock market is flying high and the talking head are saying “things are fine” but are they really? Not so much domestically in the USA.

The reasons stocks are still going up are more related to overseas growth than domestic. Here in the US, our economy is sputtering, and that is important to know if you’re trying to make a living running a creative business.

Many companies, when they see a downturn in their businesses, cut their budgets to keep the bottom line where they want it–that is, to show growth. Where do they make the cuts? Too often, it is in marketing. Boom, your clients aren’t spending as much money for the needs you fulfill–that’s going to hurt your bottom line.

This means you need to do two things:

1) Don’t follow in their footsteps and cut your marketing budget if you can at all avoid it. You need to get your name out there more and in better ways, if anything, during a down-time.

2) Save for the down-time, including cutting unnecessary expenditures. Start now, even if you’re doing very well.

I hope I’m wrong, I really do, but the indicators are not looking good for the next few years here in the USA. The housing debacle is drying up LOADS of consumer spending and the real inflation rate for most people is more like 9-10% (just google “real inflation” for lots of articles) rather than the low number officially given by the government (remember, gas prices and many other things do not figure in the official CPI). The dollar is trading at record lows. The list of negatives is pretty impressive.

It’s (probably) only going to get worse before it gets better (which it will, in time). But people have been getting through bad times forever, and, with a little planning you can too. Pay off your debt as much as you can now and save up some cash to keep you going if work dries up for a while. Try to live just a bit more frugally and do the same for your business. Then, even if things don’t go as poorly as they might, you’ll be ahead in the future.

As for your business, keep working on your vision so that you can create unique, demand-generating work and license the work you do make. Even when the economy completely tanks (think post 9/11 for a taste), you can make money if your work is special and/or your previous licenses need to be renewed by the client.

Most importantly, don’t panic. That won’t help you no matter what. Rather, plan and take the important steps you can to protect your business and weather the storm in case things do get bad. Also realize that if your sales do drop, it might not be because you didn’t market “right,” but rather simply because your clients, your individual market, cut back on their spending. There is nothing you can do to force anyone buy when they aren’t buying. Don’t beat yourself up–all businesses have ups and downs. Just prepare for the potential downs and ride ’em out.

As of this writing, creative intellectual property (photography, illustration, design, etc.) isn’t going to dry up anytime soon as an industry (or group of industries), so even if things do get bad, they’ll get better again too.

I read on one of the photo forums a post from a photographer who said that he would love to get better clients and better paying projects, and that he tries to do just that, but that he has to keep marketing to the cheap-o clients to keep getting enough work to make enough money. He is blocking himself from really pursuing and achieving his stated goal.

Imagine being overweight and deciding that you want to lose the extra weight. You make that your goal–to lose 20 pounds in 4 months. It’s doable, but it’s going to require work on your part. Now, imagine saying, at the very same time, that you aren’t going to cut any calories; you won’t eat less, because you’re afraid you won’t get all the vitamins and minerals you need if you reduce your intake at all.

Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? I mean, I guess if you worked out a ton you still *might* lose the weight, but it’s a damn hard way to go about it. And the whole theory is based on a false premise–that you will put yourself, your health, in danger if you eat less–when in fact you can often get even better nutrition from eating less (eat more fruits and veggies and drop the chips, for example).

Well it’s just the same when it comes to your business. If you want to get better clients, you must stop going after the crappy ones. They don’t feed your business well. When you market to them, better clients will be at best disinterested and more likely repulsed by the kind of work you have to show to attract (or, better put, not scare off) the el-cheap-os.

Also, if you book yourself busy with crappy, cheap clients, you won’t have the time or energy to do what you need to to go after the good ones. It’s damn hard to think of creative marketing ideas when you’ve been shooting uninspired crap for lousy clients for too many hours and not enough money. It’s the creative equivalent of becoming a couch potato.

So, if you want to get better clients, do better work, and get better paying projects, you must make that your goal and take the steps necessary to achieve that. One of those steps must be to stop marketing to the lower-end clients.

In the creative industries, especially in publishing, there are two times a year where your marketing efforts may fall on totally deaf ears: December holidays and August through Labor Day (US). So, as we fast approach August, you may wish to rethink that mailing you were about to send.

Loads of people are taking time off or, when they are not, they are planning to take time off, or wishing they were at the beach, or they’re sweating at their desks, resenting their co-workers who are at the beach ;-). The point is, they’re either not at their desks to get your marketing piece or they’re not in the mood to receive it, um, well.

What to do…well, you can go ahead and send it on the off-chance your piece breaks through (more possible with the lower number of mailers/emails being sent at this time) but then you’ll have to pray that the receiver is in to get it (if not, it might get lost in the big backload awaiting his/her return), or you can wait and send after Labor Day. I generally recommend waiting until after Labor Day if you haven’t sent the piece by the end of July.

Now, why not take this opportunity, this lull, to think of some unique marketing ideas you can implement now or in the future.

For now, maybe send a “make your own tropical paradise” kit to a few select clients you know are going to be around. Include things like drinks umbrellas, inflatable palm tree (you can find loads of stuff at party stores for this), and maybe even a recipe for some serious adult punch-like beverage (try Webtender for ideas). Don’t forget a note like “In case you can’t get away, you can still have a mini-vacation. Aloha from Joe Smith Photographer.”

For later, now would be a great time to do research for new potential clients. Take a couple of days and hang out in the air conditioned library looking through magazines at ads and editorial images. You could end up finding some great new potential matches.

Or make a list of goals you want to achieve by October 1st.

Of course, you could also take some time and just shoot for yourself. Maybe you’ll make the perfect image(s) for your next marketing campaign.

I have a basic living/working philosophy that it is better to assume the best in people than the worst. So, when it comes to our industry, that means I believe the following:

1) most art directors always want to make the best creative they can;
2) most ADs also want to work with creative collaborators (not dictate to a techno-droid);
3) most art buyers want to use the best photographer for any project, and even though they may be restrained by budget at times, they still want to find the best creative they can within their budgets;
4) art buyers, art directors, designers, etc., are not out to get photographers, even when they act like total jerks (they may be facing serious pressure from bosses, for example);
and
5) if you treat every person you encounter in your working day with respect and kindness rather than fear and aggression, you might get burned once in a while, but overall your business will grow and grow more healthily.

A codicil to all this is: sometimes enough is enough. You don’t need to make every single dollar/euro/pound/whatever out there; you just need to make as much as you need/want (whatever goal you set for your business). Now, I don’t see anything wrong with setting good, aggressive financial goals, but if making every penny means you have to be a paranoid jerk who lives in fear that the AB you are talking to might have another grand in her budget that you aren’t getting, even though you’re already getting 5- or 6-figures for the project, then you’re giving up too much of your humanity for the lucre.

For some people, these ideals don’t mesh with theirs, and that’s fine (it’s still a mostly free country). But, if you want to work with me, you should know this is what I think.

What a great opportunity! VII is an amazing photo agency with a roster that includes photographers like Lauren Greenfield, James Nachtwey, and Antonin Kratochvil. And now they are going to review others for potential membership (for those of you who don’t know, it’s a sort of co-op–not your typical photo agency–so being a member means being a partner).

Go to the VII site and click on “VII Membership” (top of the page) for details.

Then, gird ’em up, put together a great set of images and bio/statement, and send! What’s the worst that’ll happen? You won’t get chosen–which means you’ll be in the same place you are now. But if you are selected…wow!

David Parrish is a creative business consultant located in the UK (but he works internationally). I stumbled upon his site (link in my Blog Injectors section, too) and was immediately impressed. This guy knows his stuff and he shares it with the world.

One of the best things he shares is his book, in electronic form. TShirts and Suits should be required reading for any creative professional, particularly any who is even vaguely toying with the idea of launching her/his own company. It’s chock full of solid information and, though it is written for a UK audience, the info holds up on this side of the pond too (just don’t get confused with all the alternate spellings :-)) It’s also written in language we all can understand, uses humor, and the design and illustrations are well done to boot.

Go. Download. Read. Even if you’ve been in business for a while. I bet you’ll learn something helpful no matter where you are in your creative career.

…you’re Nicole Miller in this situation: MSNBC puts one of your wedding dresses, priced at over $1000, up against a dress from Target, priced at less than $150, and the people can’t tell the difference?

What can we learn from this? You can price your product at whatever you want, but if it isn’t different and special, eventually people will realize it’s not worth the price. It becomes a commodity. But if you make something special, unique, then no one will ever confuse it with the cheap commodities in the same product category.

Annie Leibovitz oversteps on her shoot with Queen Elizabeth II. Ooops.

Yesterday afternoon I had my hair done. I went to a relatively new salon and this was the first time the stylist had ever worked on my hair. I met with her last week for a consultation ahead of time, mostly because I’ve had a really bad history of not-great (some terrible) stylists since moving here to San Diego, and she impressed me during that meeting. She listened and gave what sounded like her honest opinion on what we could and should do and, without sounding like a jerk, came across as competent and confident that she could make me look good. Hesitant as I was to spend a significant sum on my hair (again), after so many past disappointments, I booked the appointment.

Yesterday, during the (long) process, she continued to impress. She was totally prepared when I arrived and remembered exactly what we had spoken about the week before. She was friendly, positive, and listened at least as much as she spoke (which is a good way of treating clients in any service industry).

At one point, I asked her the most crucial question (and I should have asked this on the first meeting): Why do you do hair? She replied that she had to do hair–she had always done the hair of her friends and family, for as long as she could remember, and she just loved it–the creativity, challenge, etc. It was what she always wanted to do. She went on to say that there is always something new to learn and she takes classes whenever she can even though she’s been doing hair professionally for years now.

Ding! We have a winner! She exuded passion for what she does. I knew at that moment that I was at least safe in her hands. Later, the results proved that she was, in fact, a talented pro and I’m very happy I found her. After years of hair frustration and disappointment, I finally have found a great stylist: Sarah Salt at Disconnected.

But what else she said is important for us in our creative businesses: she has a second job working in insurance. Why? Because she has worked at the insurance company for years, including when she went through beauty school, and the salon won’t be offering benefits for a little while yet. She put herself through beauty school by working in insurance and working that job now permits her to follow her passion. She has no love for insurance, but she is respected by the company, does her job very well, and could, in fact, have made that her career (a nice, stable career)–but her passion is hair and she is doing whatever it takes to follow that passion. It’s been a long haul for her, but she is very close to achieving her goal. For now that means working 12+ hour days, but she isn’t selling out her industry or herself in the process.

I’ve had photographers (and a few other creatives) complain when I have said that rather than give away rights to get a project, or lowball, it would be better for them to wait tables or get a temp job to pay their bills and to work on their business (targeting the right clients) at the same time. Sarah’s story proves that not only can it be done, doing the right thing pays off in the long run. Is it a lot of work? You bet your dupa. But it is the best way to achieve your goals without compromising your vision.