Simone's post brought back some recent memories I have been trying to suppress. As part of my rehabilitation process, I thought I should add to the discussion.
Some of you may have noticed a touch of anger in a few my posts of late and this comment is absolutely not intended to be anti-amateur, just a bit of insight.
Four months ago we started looking to add one more part-time person to our small staff. Specifically, I wanted a woman for our pre-school program and to be able to take maternity portraits, child portraits, etc. I hired a very nice 30 something woman who worked briefly at Wallymart but was disillusioned with the assembly line system. She had an amazing 'passion' for photography. It only took a few days for me to get into arguments with her over our idea that photography was a passion yes, but a business first. You can't feed the family, pay the mortgage and fill the gas tank with 'passion'. She had no interest in taking 5 minutes per child at a preschool, she wanted to create a 'masterpiece' each time. Great, but the average sale is $35. range for preschools. Hmmm. Her marketing plan was to take portraits for free and when the customers were 'wowed', they would pay $10. for an 8x10 that she wanted to get printed at the local PiggyWiggly for 68 cents. I wished her luck and finally let her go after only working a dozen days because I could not devote the hours necessary to make her understand that 'business is business' - ya gotta get the job done with a profit.
Next I interviewed a lady with great qualifications - just amazing. No driver's licence, no car. Our studio is 10 miles from anywhere and all our jobs are on location. 'You must own a car' was clearly stipulated in our ad. I'm baffled on that one.
Then another interview with a well qualified lady who worked part-time for another studio. After 5 minutes of interview, she gushed of her 'passion' for photography and portraiture. She had spent a few days taking some decent photos of a football team in our market area. So, how much did she charge for the prints ??? FREE to all players!! - just did it to be nice!!! Great I said, but do you realize that you just took hundreds of dollars from my pocket by doing it for free. At least you could have charged the minimum going rate?? She could not understand at any level that people should make a living doing something that was a pure joy. Of course, her hubby was rich - that sorta explained everything.
Last, I hired another lady. I was so careful to explain our philosophy and policies during a 45 min interview. She seemed genuinely excited. She worked 4 hours, then quit. She said "I just don't think I could possibly sell anything I photograph, I do it because I love it so much".
Whew. I'm just so confused. Actually, that's not true, I'm peed-off.
Everyone thinks that money has no meaning anymore. Maybe I should join the ranks of the unemployed and see if it's true.
I still have an opening for a part-time person but I think I need to have someone else do the interviews. I may start to get violent.
Is it me or has there been a full moon every night for the last few months???
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