What works for you?

[GreggVicik]

OK, I am not much of a business man. I will be the first to admit that. I am not much of an artist either. I see things more in a technical way than an artistic way. With that said, I have put the focus of our business on the technical end, digitizing rather than the artistic end, shooting. Now back to the business side, since I am not much of a business person I could use input from others here on the forum that are business people. My question is how do you choose where to spend your money? If I do nothing, no work comes my way. I do see the need to do something, but what? Direct mail? Ads in trade publications? Better laid out web site? Sell everything, buy a monkey and a llama and travel the world singing songs of when candy cost a nickle a bag??? OK, maybe the ads in trade publications is a little over the top... Anyway, what have you done in the past? What seemed to work for you? What didn't work? Remember, based on your reply there may be a llama and monkey coming to a town near you. You don't need to see that...

[ChrisPurves]

Hi Greg:- I looked at your website. It looks like your whole market is museums and similar organizations. If that's the case then your best way to promote your services is with personal contact. An ad in a trade magazine is like throwing a rock into a lake - maybe someone will notice.

Contact the museum or archive or whatever, first by phone to find out who is reponsible for purchasing your services. Make an appointment to see them. Bring samples of your best work if they are technicall savy. Let them see what you do. Leave them a sample, maybe a slide and a high quality scan. Let them mull it over for a couple of days or a week then follow up with a phone call. Ask them what their thoughts where about your product. Is it good enough for them? If it is then ask for the order. If not then find out what is wrong and change it. Niche markets like this are very easy to sell into if you have the right products. But they HAVE to be the right product and stand out from your competition.

Good luck
Chris

[Norm_Cabana]

Gregg,

How do I decide where to spend my money? My philosophy is fairly simple. Is it going to make money for me? If it will, then I will probably buy it. If I am deciding between two or more items, which one will return the most money? Whatever returns the most money gets bought first and if there is money left over, I might buy the second item. If it won't then I have to decide if the thing I am thinking of buying will improve my productivity, my image or make my customers feel better. For example, if I need to buy more picture frames and I also need a new monitor, but it still works, I will probably choose the picture frames as they can bring in more revenue than they cost while the monitor will make my work easier to do but it won't directly bring in more cash. However, if the monitor is broken there is no choice. A broken monitor means I loose money while I just won't make any extra money if I don't have the picture frames. It's all about priorities.

However, I have a feeling you were talking about advertising, right?

[GreggVicik]

Thanks guys for your input. Chris, you are correct in that my main market would be museums and the like. It looks like I need to start putting together an information pack so that I will have something to leave. I have been thinking that I needed to do something like this and now based on your opinion, I guess I need to now do it.

Norm, I was talking more about advertising, but my wife would agree with you 10,000% on your words of wisdom. I often find my self needing (OK, wanting) something new that really will not put any extra money in my pocket. I am going to need to bud-bud-budget, there I said the word, budget my money so that a little bit last longer. Since I got into this business, up until late last year, I had the advantage of working at a position that allowed me time to run my business. Therefore, money was always coming in from the day job to help run the business. Late last year I gave up the full time job to stay home with my newborn daughter since my wife had better benefits at her job. We looked at it as the perfect time to make the move. I guess I need to focus more on the business end of things now.

Again, thanks for the replies. If anyone else has any words of wisdom, I am sure other readers would too like to learn from you.

[Norm_Cabana]

Gregg,

Oh where do I start? You have a LOT of work to do and I am going to recommend a list of must read books. Well, they're a must read if you want to grow your business and make it at least profitable.

When I first looked at your company name, without going to your web site, I thought you were a commercial photographer specializing in food products, i.e. medium rare as in medium rare steak! I'm not sure how I would equate your name to a digitizing service.

Next, when I went to your site, I could not immediately tell what your business focus is. This is a deadly mistake. When a person comes to a web site you will have their attention for roughly three seconds. In those three seconds you have to clearly communicate what you do and why someone should use you and how they can contact you. My web site is no shining example, especially since the only thing there is our home page, but if you go to my site you'll immediately see that we are 1. Motorsports Photographers and 2. that we are the premier motorsports event photographers (I didn't actually write that but I'm too lazy to change it.) and that if you want to contact us we can be reached at sales@headonphotos.net. It's not pretty but it does it's job.

Your site is nicely done. It's clean, attractive and easy to get around. It's also confusing. You have "galleries" but what are they galleries of and why should I be looking at them? What does a gallery have to do with a digitzing service? Instead you might think about doing a before and after sample of your work.

You have a resume section showing. Unless you are trying to land a job, instead of running a business, a resume really has no place here. A bio telling folks of what your qualifications are and what you've accomplished, as it directly relates to your business, certainly works but not a resume. What might be more effective is a list of your skills and training, your major clients, what you did for them and what they said about your work. This gives you credibility.

Your sections about ‘digitizing’ and ‘consulting’ are very well done. It’s easily to see that these are your strengths. This is what you know and you need to build on it.

If you are going to put a contact section on your web site help your customer by telling them several ways to contact you (voice, mail and e-mail) and your business hours. If you leave out the business hours part you'll be getting contacted at the strangest times. Ask me how I know!

Your web site should be your primary means of advertisement and if you do it right you’ll get a better ROI than on pretty much any other kind of advertising. Before you spend another dime on advertising you need to answer this question. Think long and hard about this before you answer. Can you ever remember getting up off your couch/chair etc. and gone to a store to buy anything just because you saw or heard an ad?

The only ad on TV that has ever pushed me to go to a store was the Staples ad about how they would give you a $3 off coupon for each empty ink cartridge you brought in. I use a LOT of ink and this would have been a big benefit for me. Unfortunately they limited the coupons to one per visit. They also had a limit on how many per day. It wasn’t worth my time to make 12 trips to the store each week. I totally ignore radio ads and the only print ads that ever get my attention are ones where Coke is on sale. We drink a LOT of Coke here. I might pay attention to other food store ads but I don’t react to them. Think about how much money is spent on advertising and how little of it results in sales. Do you remember the Target ads over Christmas? Did they make you go to Target to buy anything? In fact, do you remember if they even ASKED you to go to their stores to buy anything?

Why all this emphasis on ads and buying you ask? Well, it’s simple. We, as small business owners, don’t have the resources to waste on advertisement that doesn’t result in sales. So if ads don’t work, what does? Ah, the answer to this is to be found in my next installment of “How the sale works!”

[ChrisPurves]

NORM! (sleazy Cheers reference) Don't ever stop writing these little ditties for us.
I have been in sales for more than 30 years and you put it all so much better and easier to understand. I read every one of your posts. You remind me of so many things that I have known for a long time but have forgotten about.
Keep it up. Sir, you are an inspiration.

Chris

[GreggVicik]

Norm, Where have you been all this time? I am only going to address one of your points. I feel you are 100% correct in everything you have said. I am, at this exact moment, making the changes to my web site that you laid out. The one thing I will address is our name, Medium Rare. Most of what we do involves "rare" works, thus the "medium" is a "rare" work of art. It really kills them around the ole museum community... OK, that is the only point I will address since everything you said makes sense to me. This site has evolved over the years. When I first started out, all I did was photography. Now photography is a very small part of what we do and the area that I want to phase out. Removing the "Gallery" section seems to be the perfect way to phase out the photography end of things. Replacing this with the samples does seem to be the logical thing to do. The "Resume" section will be history. It was put on-line for the public when it needed to be only given out by direct URL as needed. Often times when an institution goes after a grant, they want a resume of the individual doing the work. I put it on-line in the public side for one request and that was a mistake. My "Contact" page is also now getting re-worked, based on your advice. I wanted to revamp my site so now is the ideal time to do so. Thanks so much for taking the time to review my site and for letting me know what you think. Be sure, if time permits, to check back on my site over the next week or so. I am sure that the points you brought to my attention will only help at this point. I will be waiting eagerly for your next installment "How the sale works!"

On a side note, Thank you Drew for adding in the "Business" section. I think this one section will make a lot of difference to a lot of people. It has for me...

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