The three things photographers need to do before running their cost of doing business
Image by: @northfolk
I want to start out by saying that while I still reference the cost of doing business (CODB) because it’s language that photographers understand and search for, I have upgraded to a new vocabulary. I refer to CODB as a dream allocation. Find out my reasons here, and why it can help with your money mindset so that you can start loving the numbers instead of fearing them.
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There are some important things that need to be aligned for us before we even pull out a calculator or open a spreadsheet. And they all have to do with our mindset.
I call a negative mindset the great annihilator of business. Why? Because if you are trying to do business-like things and a voice inside your head is saying it’s all wrong, it sucks, what the hell do you think you’re doing or you’re not cut out for this, how far along and how successful do you think you will be with those business things? Answer: not very. While we need to work on reducing the volume of that voice (if not eliminating altogether), we must at least understand that it’s a voice in our own head, undermining every advancement you are trying to make. So many photographers worry about other people hating their work or leaving bad reviews, but those same photographers will hate on their own work and give themselves bad reviews before anyone else ever gets a chance to. That’s massive sabotage from within and no business can truly advance with that kind of force working against it - like trying to walk forward against the wind of a hurricane. So let’s go through 3 things that we must do, to set ourselves up for success, before you tackle your dream allocation.
Build Confidence
If you have ever said something like “I’m not good enough” or “I suck” or something similar, do me a favour. Email a client and say it to them instead. What, you would never? Why? Because you respect other humans and wouldn’t put them down and it’s not even true. But guess what? You’re a human, just like them. We were put on this earth with different looks, personalities, and skill sets, but notice I said different and not better or worse. This negative energy on the inside seeps to everything outside. You are carrying this negative energy and bringing it to sit at the table in every client transaction like a shadow. Your outside voice is saying lovely things to clients - you look beautiful! and your inside voice is putting you down at the same time. I don’t need to tell you that this creates friction, even if imperceptible. Could you imagine putting some rotting food into your camera bag, and now and then you and your clients get a whiff of something gross? We want a road full of green lights to successfully book and serve clients and advance our business. You must change the red light in your head to green for that to happen.
If you would never think, let alone say these things about and to someone else and if you want hear kind words, start with yourself. Not every thought we think is a truth; it’s an opinion. That means we can change our opinion as we wish and the nice thing is that it’s your body and mind so you have absolute permission. You are the architect.
Start telling yourself the opposite message, every day. If you believe that repetition or practice works, then it will work with this too. If you practice photography you will get better, not worse. If you work out at the gym you will get more fit and not less fit. So practice and repeat positive messages and the result is that you will start thinking a better way and not a worse way. Then, everything will seem more effortless and less intimidating and you can tackle finances more easily, as well as all other aspects of business. Marketing is mindset before strategy implementation.
Decide
Do I feel like pizza or burgers tonight? No food will happen for for me until I make a decision. For certain things, it makes total sense, like deciding what to order. But in other areas, we tend to put off decisions, and waffle with choices, spinning things this way and that, or avoiding things altogether (like doing a dream allocation!)
Just like nothing will happen for dinner unless you decide, nothing concrete can happen for you until you decide that you are a business owner. Are you one? If you said YES, then you have DECIDED. And when you have decided, that order will come to you and that’s what’s for dinner. Meaning, now you are prepared to do business owner things like writing a basic business plan and documenting and implementing marketing strategies to generate business. If you honestly said NO, then that’s still a decision and now you have a different journey - what things do you need to do to eventually change that NO to YES?
If you don’t decide, it lingers just like the negative messages linger in our heads. Indecision is also a confusing and even annoying energy. How many times have you become annoyed when you or someone can’t make a decision - hmm, what’s for dinner? Which movie? It’s a stagnation energy, keeping you from moving forward. You get hangry, and all the movies start playing without you. It’s the same in business. If you haven’t firmly drawn a line then you stagnate until you do and stagnation is bad for business.
Decision and confidence go together like old friends. Confident people decide quickly because they don’t second-guess themselves, and when we decide quickly it’s empowering and it feeds our confidence. We often feel we must wait and weigh options before acting, for fear of making the wrong decision and harming our business. But there is more harm and risk to a business when you don’t decide, than making a wrong decision. Because once you realize the error, you decide to correct it. It’s a constant push forward, and it matters less if the move is correct or not because you always have another move. Watch a game of champion chess. They decide and act quickly. There is nothing more agonizing — for the players as well as the audience — than to watch someone mull over their options for a long time. Nothing moves forward and everyone gets impatient.
Craft
You call up a contractor and ask them for a quote to remodel your home. What is the first thing that they will ask you? The scope of work. Because if you just want to swap out your old kitchen cabinets, that price will be different from if you want all the floors and walls ripped up and you start designing a new kitchen from scratch.
We must do the same for ourselves — outline the scope of our work — in order to accurately price our products and services. You will have a different set of costs if you want to be a volume studio photographer with a different theme each month, than a family photographer who has no studio or sets to build and does sessions at a client’s home. I wrote about this topic in my blog post The important missing link when you price your photography. The more specific you can be about your vision and the way you want to serve people, the better prepared and more confident you will be to tackle those finances. Make a few more decisions here and then move to your dream allocation. Remember, deciding moves you forward. You don’t have to be 100% clear on your model and it doesn’t mean you can’t decide to move into a different direction, but the point is to start moving!
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