PhotoMerchant: Tell me about yourself and your photography business.

Sharon Chapman: I’ve been photographing weddings for about 10 years, and have recently given up my full time job as a law clerk to focus on my business, Whole Package Photographics.

I also do horse racing photography, working for a trainer at Caulfield Race Course. I had a friend who owned a horse at Caulfield, and he suggested I come down to take some photos of trackwork in the morning, for something different for my portfolio. The trainer wanted a photographer to take photos to keep the owners updated on the horses’ progress and hired me as the stable photographer.

In 2011, I won the Quill Award for News Photograph of the Year, which has been great for giving my racing work exposure and credibility.

My business is split evenly between weddings and horse racing. I’m happy with the way things are balanced. The horse photography tends to be during the week, so I can do weddings on the weekends.

PM: Can you tell me about winning the Quill Award?

SC: I went to Warnambool last year and lucked into a media pass. A horse jumped a barrier and into the crowd, and even though there were seven photographers lined up next to each other, I was the only one who managed to get the shot.

Because I continued to shoot the aftermath, I didn’t immediately go through my photos to see what I had. It all happened really quickly. When I saw that I had the photo, my initial reaction was to think that everyone else would have it, but I spoke to a few photographers and they said nobody else had got the shot.

Then the media frenzy started. There was a bidding war between newspapers to run the photo on the front page. As part of negotiations, I made sure I retained rights to the photo. The Herald Sun ran the photo as did The Australian, New York Times, and Washington Post.

PM: How did it help your business?

SC: I got good exposure. The next day I had seven radio interviews, and I was interviewed on Channel Seven news. I think people liked the underdog story. I was a wedding photographer with no press experience who sat with the pros and got the shot that nobody else did.

The photo and attention gave me a lot of credibility. I could easily approach race clubs and sales companies and it no longer mattered I didn’t have 20 years’ experience in the horse racing industry.

PM: What’s the most important thing you’ve learned about running a business?

SC: Organisation and managing the client’s expectations are very important, particularly when it comes to timing on the wedding day. I always do a pre-planning session with the client to manage expectations. It’s crucial to organising the wedding day.

PM: Why do you think your customers like working with you?

SC: I have a unique work ethic and will work extra time outside of what’s booked if necessary to get the best shots.

I also make sure that the couple has a lot of fun during the day. I try to keep it as candid as possible while still giving some direction. I get so many clients during the speeches thanking me for making their wedding such a fun day. That’s one of the elements I repeatedly get praised for.

I also try to turn around photos quickly and make sure I communicate with them through the whole process.

PM: What about your horse racing clients?

SC: The passion I have for horses comes through in my work. I’m happy to get up at four in the morning to go to track work and make sure they’re getting the photos straight away for the owners.

I also have a different viewpoint. My competitors have done horse racing photography their whole career, and might give some standard shots. I have a different style and look at it through fresh eyes.

PM: Is there anything you’ve changed about your business?

SC: Pricing. In the beginning I didn’t value my work enough, so I priced it quite low. I’ve realised as I’ve become better and more experienced that I should keep my prices in line with my experience.

PM: How do you manage your workflows?

SC: I used to have a full time job and do photography part time. I found it really difficult to do both. Last year I did 32 weddings, had a full time job, and spent four months away in America. It was crazy.

I’m constantly looking at new workflow systems that other photographers are using. I now use Lightroom rather than Photoshop which is very good for processing high volumes of photos. PhotoMerchant has also helped a huge amount because I’ve got a great gallery system that I can show clients for work.

PM: What do you do to stay competitive with other photographers in your market?

SC: I’ve created a niche with wedding photography by giving a disc to clients. As an extra service, I also allow client friends and families to access my PhotoMerchant galleries, so that for weddings with 300-400 guests, they can purchase prints without bothering the couple.

With horse racing, it’s quite complicated because you can’t sell individual photos because of licensing issues. I get my work from racing clubs who would hire me for the day to cover the whole event, including fashions on the field. My wedding experience helps because I’ve done a lot more people photography than the other photographers. Like I said before, with horse racing, I’m starting to get a name for myself because I try to come up with something new to keep people interested. I don’t just stand at the winning post to get the winning shot.

PM: If you could go back in time and give your younger self a piece of advice, what would it be?

SC: I wish I’d started photography 20 years ago. I bought my first camera 10 years ago. I was working in property law and a girl asked me to take her wedding photos. I happened to have the fanciest camera of all her friends, so I got the gig!

PM: Do you have any tips for new photographers?

SC: Always believe in yourself and don’t devalue your work because you don’t have the confidence. Those are the mistakes I’ve made in the past.

You never know what will happen. If a year ago someone had said to me I was going to take an award winning photo, I would have laughed. It’s about believing in yourself, because if you don’t believe in yourself, how are you going to get a client to believe in your work?

PM: What do you think is going to happen in photography in five year’s time?

SC: I’ve noticed I’m constantly challenged by the wannabe wedding photographer who’s done an afternoon class and think they’re a professional wedding photographer. They take a bit of the market away without being experienced.

I know that’s how I got into it, but I started out slowly, doing one wedding a year for a long time. I knew I needed to do courses and develop my portfolio before I could go full time.

PM: What do you do in your spare time?

SC: I do try to have a balance now. Since I left my job, I’ve realised that I don’t have to work every night. I can go see friends, go out to dinner and relax a bit. I like to have that balance because it gives me time to step back from my work for a while and come back with fresh eyes.

I try to mix my photo jobs with going interstate. It’s not really spare time, but I feel like it’s a bit of a holiday. I’m away from my normal computer so there’s only a limited amount of work I can do. I’m forced to relax!

Sharon Chapman runs Whole Package Photographics, a Melbourne-based wedding and horse racing photography business.

Some of you have been experiencing a range of problems inside the PhotoMerchant Application and a slow loading times on your website. Some of these issues have been going on for some time time, others are new and bizarre. Thank you to everyone who has submitted a problem to our help desk and helped us research the problem.

The problems you may have experienced are:

• Slow loading category based galleries (website)
• Sluggish performance during checkout (website)
• Long pauses when viewing the dashboard and customer orders (admin)
• Gallery Order page appearing blank (admin)
• And a few others…

Over the past two days we have performed a thorough “biopsy” on the PhotoMerchant application servers and database. The good news is, we now know what has been causing the problems and we know how to solve them. The bad news is that we will need to make iterative adjustments to our database which is likely to cause some periods of downtime over the coming week.

This will mean that your Website and the PhotoMerchant Admin Interface will be unavailable for brief periods of time – most less than half an hour, and at worse, up to two hours. We are planning these outages so that they will have minimal impact on your productivity.

The result of these outages should see dramatic speed improvements on your website and in the admin area. We thank you for your patience and understanding.

Stay tuned for updated to this blog post and the Help Desk for more.

PhotoMerchant: At what stage in a business’ life should a photographer think about hiring staff?

Doug Hall: If they are so busy that they can no longer meet the deadlines for client delivery, then they’ve started looking for staff too late. That’s why it’s important to look ahead and plan to hire to meet the needs of their growing business.

David Ryall: When back-end work is restricting them from servicing clients, they need to hire. A photographer’s focus should to be talking to clients, making sales, and doing the shooting.

Steve Saporito: I think photographers need to look at hiring when they feel that they don’t have the skills to do parts of their business efficiently and properly. Many of them believe they have to do everything, and they’re marketing, but they don’t know how to market, and they’re selling, but they don’t know how to sell. If for example they identify that they’re not great at converting enquiries into bookings, then hiring a person to do that is much cheaper than doing it themselves.

PM: What if they feel like the revenue they’re generating won’t cover hiring staff, but hiring staff will help them generate more revenue?

SS: Sometimes you need to take a leap of faith. Obviously you need to be able to pay the staff, but money isn’t the only resource. Excess capacity is a resource. So is a database of leads. All you need to do is hire someone who loves being on the phone and they will convert those leads so all you have to do is what you’re good at: shooting.

PM: How do you find staff for a photography business?

DH: We have an established network in the industry and find people through our network.

DR: We recruit our photography staff through TAFE. At the photography course graduation show we collect their business cards and contact them directly to see if they want to interview for a position.

SS: We advertise; Gumtree is a great resource.

Write the job description, be very clear about what you want, and incorporate that into the ad. Then look for evidence on resumes that people have done the sorts of things you’re after. It’s also important not to hire someone exactly like you because that person will come with the same deficiencies you have, and you’ll end up with the same problems.

DR: For photographers who are just starting out and looking to employ staff, be very specific about intentions for that employee. Writing a detailed job description is crucial for the new employee and for yourself. You need to be clear about what tasks they’re taking over, and what you’re going to do with your extra time so you’ll be able to step back and let them do their job.

PM: What qualities are more important: skill and experience, or personality and fit?

DH: Passion and fit.  You can train people to give them the skills they need, but it is very difficult to motivate people if they only see the position as a job.

DR: Personality. They need to have a bit of aptitude, but if you have someone with the right attitude, you can teach them anything.

SS: It’s very helpful to use behavioural questions in the interview, because personality and fit are more important. You can teach skill. The right personality and the right fit will absorb like a sponge and take on the skill. You can’t teach or change personality.

PM: How long should someone take to learn something like lead conversion?

SS: With personality testing, we’re looking for someone who likes people and has good communication skills. I come in and do a day’s training with them and the next day they’re booking people. They should be booking 2-3 quality people a day. Within a couple of weeks, they should be booking 5-8 people a day. Those specific targets need to be communicated clearly to staff and monitored closely.

PM: When hiring experienced photographers, are training and brand orientation important, or should you let them do their own thing?

DH: There is a balance that needs to be taken here.  People need to feel like they belong to the business and have control over their part of it, but they also have to have the same outlook that the business has so the clients don’t get confused.  With photographers we don’t want them to change from the way they shoot, because our clients choose the photographer for their style and their work.

DR: Definitely it’s important. Even in a small business, they’re still representing you; it’s your name on the door. You have to treat them as a partner in the business; they’re part of the team, representing one brand, one image, one ideal.

PM: What if it’s not working? How can you approach the awkward issue of having to let someone go?

DH: Start by contracting the staff on a job-by-job basis.  It’s a good way to see if they fit into the business, and if their work is good enough.  It also lets them decide on the amount of work they want to do, so they have the right work/life balance. For the relationship to work, the business and the staff member have to both be happy.

DR: We do it as directly as we can. If we see issues, we’ll raise them with the staff member and give them coaching and opportunities to change. If it’s a serious problem we’ll write them up officially and document it. If they need to be terminated then that’s the course we take.

SS: It’s much easier to coach someone than performance manage them. If you’re continually coaching and monitoring someone, then you shouldn’t have to performance manage them.

If you to have someone who isn’t meeting performance levels, that person will set a new low standard for your whole team. Your team will respect you more and be more productive once that person has gone. If you avoid termination it will pull the rest of the team down and they will begin to lose respect for you as a leader.

	Doug Hall is a partner with T8 Photography, a Canberra-based wedding and portrait business with 12 staff members.
	David Ryall is the Managing Director of Photo Hendriks, a Perth-based school and team photography business. Photo Hendriks has 19 staff members.
	Steve Saporito runs The Portrait Studio Doctor, mentoring portrait photographers all over Australia. Find him on Facebook.

PhotoMerchant: Tell me about yourself and your photography business.

Steven Norris: I’ve been about a photographer for 20 years and selling my work for 15. Like many others, I didn’t start out doing photography meaning to do photography.

I’m a sailor, and at one stage was a fleet captain for a local sailing club on the coast of North Carolina. Sailing is a big sport there, but it was never mentioned in the paper. I went to the local newspaper about it, and the sports editor asked me to bring him something. That’s when I started photographing friends sailing and racing for the paper.

I run Steven Norris Photography, and I do photojournalism and documentary photography, as well as landscapes, scenic, and wildlife. In the last year I’ve turned my attention to portraits and weddings.

I also teach photography, which is a good sales channel for my business – customers of my scenic photography work are mostly my students and their families.

PM: What’s the most important thing you’ve learned about running a business?

SN: I think that you have to develop your own style. You cannot do what everybody else is doing. I have a friend who is a great photographer, and he told me that when everybody is pointing their cameras in one direction, you should turn around because the better shot is probably behind you.

PM: Why do you think your customers like working with you?

SN: In my portrait work, I try to make them all look like models. I have someone who does the make-up and styling to make people look good and feel good. When they feel good, they take a better portrait. When they take a better portrait, they like working with me.

PM: Is there anything you’ve changed about your business since you started?

SN: Like I said, for many years, I did scenic and landscape, and now I’m doing so much more portrait and people work. I made the switch for a couple of reasons. I believe doing weddings and portraits is certainly more lucrative. People are more apt to buy photos of someone they love rather than landscape and scenic photography. But occasionally, for my mental health, I still wander back into the woods!

I market to my wedding and portrait clients strictly by word of mouth. I don’t do any advertising, but I use Facebook religiously.  I have friends across a wide social spectrum and I gain a lot of clients through my network.

PM: How do you manage your workflows?

SN: I’ll normally do two weddings and three or four portrait sessions a month. I’ve got my photography work, teaching, and working with the photography club to juggle. I also have a day job in marketing for the community college, but can arrange my hours around my photography work. I’m lucky to have that flexibility.

PM: Have you had any experience running a business?

SN: I’ve taken courses on running business, and I was a business owner for about seven years, which gave me a lot of important experience with accounting and taxes.  Joining Professional Photographers of America (PPA) has been a great asset to my work in the business and has helped me to treat it as a business instead of a hobby.

I attend a lot of workshops. Some are on business, some are on technical aspects of photography. I also do a lot of business webinars. Mark Wallace puts out some very good YouTube videos.

It’s good to get to know as many people in the business as possible. It’s very rare in other businesses that you could pay a few hundred dollars and rub elbows with experts. This is invaluable.

But there comes a time when you’ve got to develop your own style. You cannot emulate what someone else is doing. At some point you have to see things in your own way, and that’s a lonely road.

PM: What do you do to stay competitive with other photographers in your market?

SN: I try to do everything differently. I try to look in the opposite direction that other people are looking. If you look at other people’s work – and I think you should look at all kinds of genres of photography – you’ll see that a lot of people are doing the same thing. But with digital cameras, it’s easier than it has ever been to do something different. No one has your creativity when it comes to sitting down in Photoshop. You’re the one who’s going to put your own spin on it. I have a workflow process that nobody else that I know is doing, and it results in a different look. It’s what differentiates me, and that’s the best way I know to stay competitive.

I think it’s very important for a wedding photographer, especially a male, to have a female assistant. I have assistants I work with from the club who may not be that experienced, but they’re female and they’re good photographers. It helps a lot to have a female perspective when it comes to a wedding.

PM: If you could go back in time and give your younger self a piece of advice, what would it be?

SN: I would have started photography much earlier, and I would have attended more people photography workshops. I enjoy the social interaction of people photography much more.

I realise now that people photography is more unique than landscape. You can find 100,000 photos of any area around Sedona, but nobody has taken the shots of people that I’ve taken. If I went back, I’d have done more people photography. Today my portfolio would be bigger and more unique.

PM: Do you have any tips for new photographers?

SN: Learn to think with the right side of your brain – the side that controls the creative process. A lot of people don’t naturally do that. I did a lot of study on how to balance my left brain with my right brain and do more right brain thinking, and it’s helped my work a lot.

Take a basic course in photography; you can learn the basics more quickly if you just invest $100 and take a basic course from a good instructor.

Go to workshops if you’re serious about your photography, and go to different kinds of workshops to find out which kind of photography you can get your groove on with. You may find you like food or portrait or landscape photography, and workshops will help you find which one you like best.

PM: What do you think is going to happen in photography in five year’s time?

SN: I keep wondering if all of this digital stuff is going to get to be old hat and subside a bit so we don’t have as many new people going into photography. I think we might peak in the next couple of years.

Technically, I think you’ll see a topping out of the megapixel craze. I think manufacturers will learn to create the sensors in a different and better way to create photos of better quality. I think ISO performance is going to improve dramatically.

PM: What do you do in your spare time?

SN: I promote and support the photography club and I travel a lot, domestically and internationally. I really want to get to Australia one day, especially Perth or Freemantle.

I also do a lot of hiking. I probably walk 7-10 miles a day. We have some of the greatest hiking trails here in southwest Virginia. As they say, a body in motion tends to stay in motion.

Steven Norris runs Steven Norris Photography, a Salem, Virginia-based wedding, portrait and scenic photography business.

The problem is, regular people don’t quite understand what she does, and as a result, she’s been missing out on selling services to an enormous potential customer base.

Enter her mentor, a person who knows nothing about this niche field, but everything about simple, direct marketing. As a result of his advice, my friend has changed the way she markets herself and she’s just won some big corporate clients who will more than help keep the lights on for another year.

A business mentor can be an incredibly valuable resource for a photography business. While photography industry expertise is helpful, anyone with successful small business experience can be a help. A good mentor can provide advice and support, a different perspective on your business, and help with goal setting and accountability.

Think about the people in your network and what you might learn from them. Your mentor might be a family member, a friend, or someone you met at an event. Start approaching people to see if they would mind spending an hour a month with you to talk about business. It’s likely they’ll be flattered and happy to help.

Remember, you’re asking for their time, so the least you can do is buy them a coffee and be organised about what you want to do with your time together. Before meeting, decide what you want to focus on and set out some goals. Refine your goals with your mentor and set deadlines. Meet regularly and show progress by following their advice, or if you disagree with that advice, have good grounds to challenge it.

Running a photography business is often solitary, and without a fresh point of view, it can become stagnant. A mentor can challenge you, and make sure your business is always evolving and improving.

Pilar Mitchell, Word Source-ress

When she’s not writing her blog, Cult of Clothes, Pili is a corporate advisor working with businesses of all sizes, from start-ups to stock-exchange-listed companies. She is fascinated by the evolution of small businesses and loves to combine her passion for writing with the opportunity to help entrepreneurs grow and learn.

Dear favourite PhotoMerchant customer,

Yes, you.

Would you mind providing some feedback for a testimonial page that we are creating? We’ve realised that your stories really help other photographers visualise what they might experience when they sign up to PhotoMerchant. I’d love to be able to share your story too…

I know it can be a bit daunting to sit down to write a testimonial, so I came up with a survey page to make the process really quick and easy.

I realise your time is precious but we love hearing about how you’re using PhotoMerchant and how it’s made your life just that little bit easier and other photographers reading your stories too. When you’re filling out the feedback form, try and phrase your responses as if you are sharing your experience with someone who has never heard of PhotoMerchant before.

Did I mention that I think you’re awesome? Well you are. Thanks heaps. We hope this message finds you happy and well.

x

Kain

Ted’s Cameras Online Executive, Mr Jason Robertson, commented: “The internet is a wonderful tool for photographers, but can also be quite daunting. Whether you are a professional or amateur photographer, with PhotoMerchant you can be up and running in minutes with a fully operational and visually stunning website. We recognise how important yet unfortunately painful, time-consuming and expensive this can be for our members, so we are delighted to partner with PhotoMerchant to make it simple and effective.”

The agreement aligns two photography businesses whose focus on customer service and quality is well regarded in the industry.

PhotoMerchant CEO, Mr Elmar Platzer, added: “Ted’s Cameras is synonymous with professional photography in Australia, so it’s a great endorsement of the PhotoMerchant service, and we are looking forward to supporting all Club Ted’s members.”

PhotoMerchant was founded in Sydney four years ago and is reaching tens of thousands of professional and amateur photographers in Australia and the US.

The partnership will commence in April 2012 and roll out across Club Ted and 24 Ted’s Cameras stores across Australia.

About PhotoMerchant

PhotoMerchant is an online business system which provides all the tools that professional, and emerging photographers need to create a serious photography business online. PhotoMerchant provides website and portfolio templates, e-commerce functionality, unlimited website hosting and business and financial management tools.

About Ted’s Cameras

Ted’s Cameras is a brand that has been synonymous with photography in Australia for the past 40 years. Ted’s Cameras delivers product value and exceptional service to its customers, retailing all major camera brands and the latest in hardware, including digital compact and SLR cameras, HD video cameras and accessories. Ted’s Cameras has 24 stores in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Australian Capital Territory.

PhotoMerchant: Tell me about yourself and your photography business.

Shayne Nienaber: I come from a family of surfers; we’ve lived our life at the beach. Three years ago on a surf trip, I picked up a camera and started shooting. I’d never been into photography before, but the shots I took turned out really well and I got hooked. When I came home I bought a camera and started practicing and improving my skills.

I booked into a photography course to learn the basics, and bought myself a water housing so I could shoot in the water to get a better perspective. A lot of other photographers were just shooting from land and their photos looked the same.

Initially I got photos published in surf magazines like Australian Surfing Life Magazine, Zigzag in South Africa  and Gold Coast Surf. There are also a few websites – Coastal Watch and Swellnet – which run photos of the day. I sent them my photos, and as my work improved, it was published.

I then diversified to include portrait and commercial photography and realised that it had become more of a business than a hobby. I still have a day job as a service manager for a car magazine, and on the weekends I run Shayne Nienaber Photography, doing surf and portrait photography. I’m pretty busy!

PM: What’s the most important thing you’ve learned about running a business?

SN: I give a really excellent, reasonably-priced product to my customers, and I’m honest and trustworthy. If you don’t have those things in business, you’re going to suffer.

Pricing was hard to get the hang of at first. I always quote my prices up front, and if I make a mistake and underquote, that’s at my expense. I made my mistakes early on, which was good because of the learning experience. Thankfully I’ve got over that now!

My management role has helped me a lot with the business. I know how to set budgets and goals, and make five year plans.

PM: Why do you think your customers like working with you?

SN: I’m a very easy-going person. I love meeting new people. I’ve been told that I talk too much, but I think that’s one of my positive attributes!

PM: Is there anything you’ve changed about your business since you started?

SN: I’ve my changed business to focus on surf and portraits. When I first started out, I wanted to do many types of photography, including weddings, but I find I can be most creative with portrait and surf photography, and with portraits, I get to meet lots of people, which I love.

Portrait photography is more lucrative for me. You can make a lot more money with weddings per assignment, but it’s very competitive. I get a lot of work in portrait photography because my wife is a teacher so I can advertise in schools. My daughter is a dancer, and that’s allowed me to get involved in photographing dance clubs as well.

PM: How do you manage your workflows?

SN: Being a service manager has really helped me with time management. I make sure that I don’t let my work clutter up, and I keep on top of bills and invoices. I’m very hard on myself – I make sure that things get done straight away. I’ve seen guys who let paperwork get out of control and it’s not good.

PM: What do you do to stay competitive with other photographers in your market?

SN: I never undercut anybody. If a potential customer asks me for a quote, I’ll give them my price, and if they say there’s another photographer who will give it to them cheaper, I’ll give them my portfolio. They can make a decision based on that.

Quality is going to stand above anything else – that’s how I compete. I’d rather let my photos speak for themselves.

PM: How did you get clients when you first started out?

SN: Surf photography is very competitive and cutthroat. It’s about who you know in the surf industry. It’s very sad because there are a lot of good photographers out there and a lot of them don’t get any work processed.

I first submitted photos to surf websites where they run photos of the day; they have an incredible number of views every day. I asked other photographers who they were dealing with at the magazines. Once I started talking to the right contacts, I got exposure in the industry. After that I had sponsors contacting me to shoot their surfers.

Facebook has been a great way to drive traffic to my website. It’s instant, and people are on there all the time. I’ll put one or two photos as a teaser on my Facebook site and direct people to go to my website for the rest of the photos.

PM: If you could go back in time and give your younger self a piece of advice, what would it be?

SN: Trust your own instincts, even if you feel they’re not leading you quite right, because at the end of the day, if you learn from your own mistakes, you’re going to become a better photographer and a better person.

A lot of professional photographers have been around for a long time, and it’s easy for a new photographer to put them on a pedestal. But if you’re taking good shots and getting good reviews back, you must be doing something right. It’s great to look at other people’s work, but you need to develop your own style.

PM: Do you have any tips for new photographers?

SN: Be committed and patient if you’re going to be a serious photographer. Equipment is so expensive. If you’re going to get into photography, you want to be passionate about it. It’s not just a hobby that you can get bored with and throw away the camera later.

Also if you’re going to start a business only buy the equipment you need for that business. Don’t just buy a fish eye lens because it looks cool and then never use it.

PM: What do you think is going to happen in photography in five year’s time?

SN: Video to still photography is getting closer and closer. A lot of cameras have high definition video and it’s getting very good. You can take a still from the video. Maybe it’s going to put the still photographers out of the game.

I think video will take some of the creativeness and skill out of still photography. With stills, you have to get into position, get the exposure right, but when you’re shooting video you can just stand there and shoot.

PM: What do you do in your spare time?

SN: I try to surf when I can. I also try to read up on equipment. I do research at the library and online to keep up to date on technology and equipment. There’s always something new you can learn.

Shayne Nienaber runs Shayne Nienaber Photography, a Gold Coast-based surfing and portrait photography business.

Well we are all still coming down from buzzing with excitement over our very first Brisbane MeetUp! WHEW! with over 60 people in the room after just days notice that we were going to do this: we are calling this one of our best social outings yet! Not to mention we had the inimitable Portrait Doctor Steve Saporito as a special guest star for the night! DOUBLE WHEW!

So the plan was simple: see if we can gather a few PhotoMerchant users and people who are “PM-curious” at the gorgeous QA Hotel in Newfarm. We would be happy with just a few because with some of the team still in the USA, and our CEO Elmar & CTO Derek having just gotten back from the huge WPPI we didn’t have much time to get the ball rolling….

WOW! as mentioned we were blown away with the passionate reception! Around half of the people in the room were totally new to PhotoMerchant and were keen to get their questions answered. Of course the other half were dedicated PM users who kept us all on our toes with technical questions and lots of key feature requests! Derek had people audible gasping in delight as he laid out some of the new features of the next version of PhotoMerchant especially what we are calling the “Promo Engine“…

Another surprise for everyone was legendary Steve Saporito; The Portrait Doctor was able to re-shuffle some flights and come and hang-out. He was even able to pull out a killer 20 minute presentation from no-where and inspired a lot of the photographers in the room to really think different about booking in clients. Great stuff!

Lastly this was a special event for little old me as it was my first official public debut as the CHAMPION FOR THE COMMUNITY! I was personally overwhelmed with everyone’s love and support and genuine excitement about what we want to do! The best is yet to come folks!

We are trying something new with the photographs of the night: Not only have uploaded the photographs we took of the night to our Facebook page here, {so please head on over and tag yourself and everyone you recognise} But we have also put all the images up on PhotoMerchant, so you can try the digital downloads for free, or even buy a very cheap print! Check it out!

See you at the next one!!!

DJ Paine.

Some of the Brisbane PMMU gang obviously having way too much fun.

The beautiful Team Toowoomba!

No matter if you are tall or short... all are welcome to the PMMU!

Elmar, Steve, Derek & DJ do their best Vogue / BlueSteel

Elmar & Steve have a deep meaningful by the bar of the QA Hotel.

Your business’ real value is in your client base. Your past clients represent potential new revenue. They are an opportunity for recurring work and for referrals. In a competitive industry with thousands of photographers fighting for the top spot on Google, referrals can be an incredibly effective way to generate new business.

Besides taking great photographs, there are some simple ways to help nurture and protect your relationships with your clients:

Get to know them – Sit down with your clients in a comfortable setting before a shoot and talk. It will make them more comfortable during the shoot, and the stronger the personal connection, the more likely they are to refer you to their personal contacts.

Listen – You’re customising a product just for them, so ask questions, and then sit back and listen to what they want.

Let them go – If you don’t think you can help them, suggest an alternative photographer. They will remember this unselfish gesture and might refer you business later on.

Under promise, over deliver – Give them more than they expected. Turn around proofs more quickly than promised. Stick around at an event longer than expected to get those last special shots. Your extra effort will be noted and appreciated.

Remember the details – Put together a spreadsheet of your clients, including the service they purchased, and personal details like children’s names, or anniversary dates. In a previous PhotoMerchant interview, the inimitable Steve Saporito suggests sending out anniversary cards to old wedding clients. It’s a simple, unobtrusive way to remind them about you.

The real value in your photography business doesn’t lie in your equipment, or your skill and talent. Your client base is your most valuable asset. Nurturing that asset, and you’ll grow your business.

Pilar Mitchell, Word Source-ress

When she’s not writing her blog, Cult of Clothes, Pili is a corporate advisor working with businesses of all sizes, from start-ups to stock-exchange-listed companies. She is fascinated by the evolution of small businesses and loves to combine her passion for writing with the opportunity to help entrepreneurs grow and learn.