From Don Giannatti: 10 Things You Can Do Right Now for Your Photography Business : Don continues an excellent business primer series with this fourth entry. There’s not much more to say other than this is a must-not-miss link.
From Leslie Burns-Dell’Acqua: Burns Auto Parts Manuals; Leslie is a photographers consultant, and her July issue of Burns Auto Parts Manual just got sent out to subscribers. (No, it’s not anything to do with cars.) In this issue, she discusses the military concept of Mission Creep, or how X soon becomes X+Y, soon becomes X+Y+Z+A+B+C, etc.. She relates this to the need for continued vigilance for protecting our intellectual property rights, as well as serving as a role models in that regard. In otherwords, don’t let the mission get lost through all the noise. It’s well worth the cost & effort to subscribe to her free manuals.
From Chase Jarvis: The Consequences of Creativity: An excellent hour long audio visual presentation of one of America’s most prolific and viral photographer / director that he gave to the Art Director’s Club of Denver and the ASMP about creativity. The business take-away is that you must allow yourself time to have some fun, and break from convention to keep your passion and eye alive, moving, and receptive to new stimuli. (Something I’m very keen to get back to following my accident.)
From Professional Photographer Magazine: Be Remarkable; Seth Godin discusses earning a living as a photographer. This is a pdf of an interview with the marketing maverick who says you need to stand out with both quality and a voice. If everyone is a brown cow and mooing, you need to be a purple cow and bark; attract attention. There is a powerful point made by saying that if you are wallowing in a sea of average or sameness, then you are doomed. It is a serious wake up call to everyone running a photo business.
Two ‘on-the-money’ posts: First, from Richard and Patty’s San Antonio Portrait Photography Studio: How Much Money do Photographers Make? A good blog entry that gives some basic framework to what kind of income a career in photography might earn, along with a few tips to guide you toward maximizing your potential beyond the average Joe or Jane Photographer. Want more? Check out this one from Livebooks and photographer Doug Menuez: Seeing Money: Tips for capitaziling on your cash flow. He writes, “The first thing to consider with a business — before the branding, marketing, or anything — is the money. Where will it come from, where will it go, and how much will you need at what times. Whether you’re thinking about launching your first business or already have one, the following information will help you stay solvent and sane”
I’m also throwing in one of my own this week, since many people seem as equally outraged and appalled by The Horrid Terms of Entry for the 2009 Costco Photo Contest. I know that very few professionals enter these types of contest, but this one is especially bad. You don’t just give away an unlimited use license when you enter, but instead, you are giving away your ownership of the photo, and assigning all intellectual property rights for your entry to Costco. Friends don’t let freinds of family enter this contest.
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Bonus Link from MYDL.com: Your Pre-Trip Media Checklist. The folks at Managing Your Digital Life bring you several real good, heads-up advice on how to prepare for, or prevent digital and electronic disasters while you’re away on your big photo trip.
Another great list Gary. I missed a couple of these, so thanks for providing the links here. Have a great weekend!