DURHAM, NC (September 26, 2011) – "Making short-term trade-offs for short-term pay-offs hurts you – and everyone else – in the long run," photographer Matt Slaby of Luceo Images said following NPPA's Business Blitz in Denver in August.
NPPA's Business Blitz is a exciting and new one-day educational workshop designed to offer a variety of topics to help freelance photographers enhance their technical skills while building a profitable and sustainable business. Slaby was one of the Business Blitz's panel of expert speakers.
This week NPPA's Business Blitz takes place in St. Louis, it's third national stop, and it is being held in conjunction with the Society of News Design's annual conference. SND will give NPPA members $100 off their conference registration fee.
"The over-arching theme of NPPA's Business Blitz workshop is that photographers need to learn to pay attention to the long game," Slaby said. "If we can educate even just one photographer about having good business practices, it will make it better for all photographers in the future as for how we'll all interact with clients. By educating photographers, in the long-run what we're really doing is educating our clients."
"Photographers can sometimes have a sense of secrecy about how much of their business practices they're willing to share, so they're sometimes standoffish about it because they think other photographers may adapt their business practices. But in the long game that's good, because it will make it better for all photographers. It doesn't make sense to not share good business practices; all you're doing is making it better for yourself in the long run. It makes it easier for me to do business with clients when they've been properly educated by other photographers who came before me."
Slaby said that Business Blitz will help photographers see the danger spots in doing business, including the risks that come with making short-term trade-offs.
"Sure you could get a client by agreeing to work for $200 and no expenses, and get a nice credit line with a nice client name, but in exchange you've essentially given up all the rights to your image, to resale, and you're not getting paid enough to even break a profit. You get a little bit of money, but you lose money in the long run and you've put yourself out there as someone who will work for cheap. It just doesn't serve your best interest in the long run."
"Photographers really need to believe in the value of photography, whether it's photojournalism or fine art or commercial photography," Slaby said. "Having photographers be successful at their business is important."
Denver-based photographer Ellen Jaskol, who was also a Business Blitz speaker, feels like she learned "so many things, in just the one day."
"Speaker John Harrington really is an amazing resource for all photographers on how he operates his business," Jaskol said. "He really opens up and shares his real-life experience with clients – so it's not just hypothetical. He gives you real instances and examples of how he negotiates, he showed us actual invoices, and he's really there to share his experiences, which is great. I've gone to other workshops that give you hypotheticals, and that really doesn't bring it 'down to the ground' for me. And he's there to answer questions."
Jaskol, who doesn't like to describe herself as a "freelancer" but instead presents herself to clients as "someone who owns a photography business," said she came out of the Business Blitz with a new attitude. "Now I don't feel bad about charging a client what I think I should charge for my work," she said. "I feel like now it's okay to charge them what it's worth and if that client doesn't want to pay, then it's okay. If you feel like you're competent for the job, I learned that you don't have to undercharge."
The remaining stops for NPPA's 2011 Business Blitz are in St. Louis, MO, on September 29; San Jose, CA, on October 7; and St. Petersburg, FL, on November 10.
There will be at least four speakers at each of the remaining Business Blitz stops, including Washington-based freelance photojournalist Harrington. From PhotoShelter, Chris Owyoung will speak in St. Louis. And industry veteran Grover Sanschagrin, a photojournalist who is PhotoShelter's vice president as well as a co-founder, will speak in San Francisco.
Andrew Funderburg of Fundy Software has been added to the line-up of confirmed speakers for the next stop of NPPA's Business Blitz seminar in St. Louis in September, and for the San Jose stop in October.
Funderburg is both an international wedding and portrait photographer and a leading software developer in wedding and portrait community. The award-winning Fundy Software Inc. has, in just three short years, become an industry leader in helping photographers become more successful. He'll be talking about optimizing your sales and marketing pipeline to increase what he calls "the golden triangle of profit." In any business, there are only three ways to increase profits - increase your customer base, increase your per-customer earnings, and increase productivity. Funderburg's down-to-earth, easy-to-use system is sure to help wedding and portrait photographers jump start their business.
Also added as a speaker in St. Louis is photographer Stephanie Zetti. She specializes in photographing people, and in 2003 after a newspaper career she started her own business specializing in documentary styled wedding and portrait photography.
At the Florida stop, Amanda Sosa Stone joins the line-up to talk about how photographers can improve their marketing and self promotion. She's the co-author of the book "The Photographer's Survival Guide," and previously she worked in the advertising industry in New York as an art buyer and worked for the agency Foote, Cone & Belding in Manhattan.
Advanced registration for NPPA's Business Blitz is required, and you can register online for the remaining stops here.
Business Blitz is sponsored by Nikon Professional Services, PhotoShelter, and BlinkBid.
