Small business lessons
Posted on June 5, 2017 by under
You may be working by yourself or have the operating schedule of one person, but you need others to support your business and administration
- Do not undersell yourself or your service. As a business and a competitor in a market full of photographers closely aligned with your skills, pricing yourself markedly below the rest of the competition to make short term gains will only hurt your business in the long run. Establishing yourself is not a short-term approach. It requires a strategy to be charging respectable rates both now and in the future. Sure, you may lose clients who are looking for a very quick solution and will only spend the smallest amount. But these are not the kind of client you want long-term.
- Be agile and move quickly. Following on the from point above, in each of those potential client cases there may be creative terms you can apply to a cheap. First deal which can lead to an increasingly-better second and third deal. Importantly, do not spend too much time on these or similar actions. As soon as a negotiation goes on too long, the value declines quickly for both parties. Recognise those moments, much like a perfect image, and move on.
- Good relationships and good actions last. This is not very ‘business speak’ but the way you treat everyone you come across – clients, partners, suppliers, peers, competitors, you name it – speaks volumes about your business and how you are perceived in the wider world. When you work so hard on your business, naturally you spend a large amount of time looking inward. And not so much on the impact and profile the business may develop externally. Maintain good relationships, give others a little helping hand every now and again. It goes a long way.
- Be clear about the terms of work. However you agree a contract or terms, make sure all parties are clear on the objectives. Price and the deliverables. If you consider them a friend then this is doubly important. Know where the business boundaries are. What are everyone’s expectations?
- Solo does not mean alone. You may be working by yourself or have the operating schedule of one person. But you need others to support your business and administration. This is especially true when you become swamped with work or fall ill. For example, like with theimageifle system, we can link you up with one of our expert print partners to handle all the order fulfilment rather than you getting your hands dirty. Would this save you time?
- Use the tools at your disposal. Big companies have many resources but we live in the internet age where information is available to everyone. Use the internet to learn how the best marketers operate. Learn to project manage. It’s how start up companies survive. It’s all there, for free. just go find it!
- Nothing happens if you don’t do anything. You are the business so if you stand back and wait for things to happen, they almost certainly will not. As much as time becomes the commodity, so the actions you take each day in your precious hours define how the business moves forward. And, therefore, whether you win business.
- Learn. That people do not learn from their mistakes is extremely common. And making the same moves, often costly ones, smacks of inefficient working and thinking that working hard will solve the problem. Working hard is not the same as working smart.
