Day 6: Student for Life

It’s not infrequent that I’m equated with a freak of nature and asked “how have you accomplished this at such a young age?”

In all honesty, I’ve been extremely blessed, and can say I attribute it to knowing just how little I really know and how little I can do on my own.



I make it a point to take at least four different seminars or classes each year on various subjects and spend time with as many mentors as possible. What I’ve learned from others has saved me from infinite heartache, headache, and provided tremendous opportunities that I never would have had on my own!



PS... Today is the LAST DAY of 2007!!! If you're thinking of attending a Photo Business Boot Camp (or a BBC on a CRUISE to Mexico!!), getting any DVDs or attending any other great seminars next year NOW IS THE TIME to sign up and take advantage of those deductions - remember education for your business is 100% tax deductible!!

Day 5: S-Corp or LLC??

ATTENTIONAL ALL SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS: If you are thinking of filing your business as a new entity (ie switching from Sole Proprietor to an S-Corp) then JANUARY 1, 2008 is the DAY to do it!

Why? Because then you'll be the same entity the whole year and not have to fill out all kinds of different forms for both entities!

Not sure what you should be? Here's a quick run-down of the differences below.
Not sure how to register? I used The CompanyCorporation and let them do all that for me for a low price. Check em out! ***CLICK HERE***





• Sole Proprietorship - Easy to form, taxed at individual rate, no additional taxes to file (use Schedule C), losses apply against other income, no legal separation between company and personal assets.

• Partnership - We highly recommend against this if you are in business with another individual. Instead, look into filing as an LLC or S-Corp.

• Corporation - We recommend against this for small businesses because of the double taxation (you will be taxed at a corporate level and individual level). Instead, look to filing as an LLC or S-Corp.

• S Corporation - Taxed at individual tax rates, losses can be applied against personal or spouse income, legal separation between company and personal assets, allows you to avoid paying social security on all of your earnings (you can take dividends in addition to a salary), must file a corporate tax return, more paperwork than an LLC

• LLC - Limited Liability Company - Taxed at individual tax rates, losses can be applied against personal or spouse income, legal separation between company and personal assets, easier to set up than an S corp, not recognized the same in all states, single-owner LLC pays self-employment tax. Recommended for businesses with more than one partner for ease of distributing dividends.

Day 4: Be Rich and GIVE

Did you know that:



and




We are by all standards very wealthy in that many of us are making a good living doing what we love. In the day-to-day rat race, it’s easy to forget this and instead compare ourselves to others and think of what we don’t have!

The remedy? Get out and GIVE. Give of your time, money, and other resources. Get yourself a good dose of perspective!

More on HOW TO BE RICH? Check out the playbacks dated 8/19, 8/26, and 9/2...

***CLICK HERE***

Day 3: The Art of Sales

If you’ve ever read Robert Kiyosaki, you might remember reading about a conversation he had with an author in Paris. The author was asking why Kiyosaki’s books made more money even though she thought her writing was better.





Kiyosaki points to the cover of one of his books and brings to light “notice it says ‘Best Selling Author’ not ‘Best Writing Author’!!” Perhaps we should take a course on sales instead of focusing only on our photography?

If you haven't read it yet, Rich Dad Poor Dad is a MUST READ!! Want more on sales as it pertains to the photography industry? KISS Merchandising is exactly that! It also helps you put together packages and figure out pricing!

Day 2: Why Photography Isn't Cheap!

"It's HOW much??!?!?" "My dad is going to FLIP when he hears how expensive the photography is!" "We can't afford it!" "Why would we pay that much for photography?? We can get prints at Walmart for $0.19!"

We've heard it all! All the excuses WHY our clients or potential clients or the public in general thinks we charge too much...

In REALITY, most professional wedding and portrait photographers are hardly making a living at it. The average income is $33,000 per year for a full time pro photographer. And that's if they're averaging 3-5k per wedding!

All the questioners think about is the paper we print on and the equipment we shoot with. The truth of the matter is, there's SOOOO much more to running a business -- so many more costs that contribute to why we need to charge what we do.

In ANY business, there is a general equation that will compute how much we need to make to pay ourselves a salary and cover all of our expenses. It's called the "Break-Even Analysis" ... I call it the BIG Equation.

If you know what your:
- Cost of Sales % is
- Overhead Expenses are
- Asset/Depreciation Expenses are

Then it's very simple to run this equation and figure out how much you need to charge.

The problem is it takes a good deal of time to determine all of the costs. What makes a Cost of Sales cost different from an Overhead Expense? Without going too much into these things (it's much more involved than time allows on a blog post) I'd like to use a simple example:


A restaurant! Simply, a restaurant mirrors a photography business model similarly.

Let's say that each year the restaurant spends $60,000 in Overhead Expenses and Assets. These are things like phone and electricity, rent, the owners salary, other salaried employees, health insurance, business insurance, new equipment (assets), new fixtures and tables (assets), cleaning services, office supplies, website fees, newspaper ads, print costs, and new menus. Of the $60,000, about half of that is for the owners and other salaries. Not much, hu!?

Then, every year, they spend $35,000 in food and food supply costs. This is the Cost of Sales.

Let's say that they bring in a grand total of $100,000 in income (aka sales on food in the restaurant).

Given those numbers, we can look at the profits:

$100,000 = Gross Sales
- 35,000 = Cost of Sales
= 65,000
- 60,000 = Overhead/Asset Expenses
= 5,000 = Total Profit for Business


WOW - a whopping $5,000 that goes back into the business as profits or that the owner can take home as return on investment. Not such a great investment for a whole TON of work, hu? The photography industry works the same way.

So the next time someone questions why we charge what we do, know that it's a bit easier to constitute your prices when you know what goes into them. If you want to go more in-dept and REALLY figure out how much you're making in a salary, how to categorize and account for expenses, how to set up your business legally, how much you're making out of every dollar, and how to put together prices and packages that actually make a profit... it's all in the Profit Center DVD. It's FOUR hours of DVD and can take a few weeks to put together if your numbers aren't already well-tracked.

SO my big question for Day 2 of the TWELVE is:
Do you know how much $$$ you need to make next year in order to pay for all of your expenses and take home a modest salary??

Clue: It's likely to be between $250,000 - 150,000 if you're a full-time pro!!!

Twelve Days AFTER Christmas: Day 1: STOP!

There's nothing more difficult in small business (in my opinion) than transitioning from work-to-play and play-to-work. The lines are VERY blurry in this business because work for us as professional photographers is very often our "play" times but what our clients don't see a lot of is all the BEHIND THE SCENES stuff we do that really does feel a lot more like work:

- taxes,
- purchasing,
- budgeting,
- pricing,
- packaging,
- database management,
- inquiry management,
- meetings,
- training,
- education,
- testing the latest equipment,
- a zillion meetings,
- another zillion and 1/2 calls and emails,
- piles and piles of legal paperwork,
- contracts,
- model releases,
- equipment repair,
- file management,
- storage solutions,
- learning new software,
- editing, editing, editing,
- design,
- branding,
- merchandising,
- marketing,
- web design,
- slideshow development,
- forecasting,
- sales,
- retouching,
- vendor relations,
- and so much more but the list is already TOO long!

I often find I'm trying, in vain, to get the the bottom of my to-do list before I leave town to go visit family or go on an actual non-work vacation. Always stressed out and missing flights. I know there is a much better transition. Just STOP. AND SAY "NO"!

S-T-O-P

(ah, doesn't that feel better now!?)

Put the computers and lists away, and enjoy life!

Personally, I'll be leaving the country for a week in January during one of the largest photography conventions of the year. I spoke at it earlier this year (Imaging USA) but when it came down to it.... I just had to say "NO" for a change. Two weeks later, I'll be flying across the country to cozy up do a WORK STOP... an annual work-retreat of sorts. More on that perhaps when the time is right.

So my question for you for DAY 1 of these TWELVE:
When will you be taking time to STOP these next few weeks/months? What will you say NO to in order to do so?

Who's Your Santa??

Without further ado... I give you our THREE FAB SANTAS!! These three awesome photographers fell subject to being on the OTHER side of the camera this December ... doing their very best SANTA :)

The only thing is... I'm having trouble coming up with the right captions for them! SO here's the deal: anyone who identifies all THREE Santas and comes up with quotes for them will be in the running for either a FREE DVD from our BananasEDU collection or $100 off a Business Boot Camp! I have an impartial judge standing by that will choose the most original, fun, awesome captions and we'll announce the winner sometime on Friday!


You can put your submission in the comments field or email them to us at info at photobizbootcamp.com !

The deadline is this Thursday (12/27) at 11pm EST. Quote away!!


Santa 1



Santa 2



Santa3

Meet the "Survivors"

... of the Photo Business Boot Camp!

There are actually quite a few more but this slide show includes a handful of individuals who have made it through a BBC in 2007. Check for additional pics at the end too!

For Love or Money? ("LOVE" part IV of V)

note: The "LOVE" series is posted on www.lianasbananas.com - I felt strongly about posting this here too so here goes:



Love. Money. Our dreams. Client needs. Security. Freedom. Purpose. Budgets. Jobs. Costs. Sacrifice. Questions. Lifestyle. Opposition. Freedom. True Love.


“Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.” - Margaret Young

Sunday afternoon, on my way home from sunny West Palm, the couple in the seats next to me started asking about Amy & Joel’s wedding pictures and commented “it looks like something from a magazine ... you can tell you really love what you do.” I smiled my thanks to them at that observation and we chatted about life and photography and the difference LOVE had made when this woman had her favorite portrait taken years ago. A few hours later, on my way out the door, I received a heartbreaking call that one of my clients passed away. I spent the rest of the evening at a church holiday event trying to keep my eyes dry in the dark auditorium, failing miserably.

My world has been a bit of a roller-coaster the past few years and the question that has been in the heart of it all is “for love or money?” I spoke on the topic at five major conventions this year... as it relates to photography and doing what we love through our work. I wasn’t prepared for how amazing it was to hear the different reasons some of my peers do what they do. I have my own reasons... some that I shared with them... that I will share with you... soon.

There’s something unbelievably cathartic about finally being hit over the head with the realization of what your purpose is. I don’t think our purpose is ever very far off from doing what we LOVE to do... for all the right reasons. Doing it NOT for money but for the LOVE of it and how it touches the lives of others.

I have a little problem though... here’s where I got the roller coaster ride.... my purpose is not simple. I did not celebrate in the epiphany that I am only to be a full time photographer and to help others experience the beauty that is around them always. God didn’t put a period there -- he put a comma. It’s taken me YEARS of heartache, headache, bad jobs, good jobs, right jobs, wrong jobs.... to finally put in words what I know I’ve been put on this earth to do. I’ll tell it to you now, because I know you’ll start seeing and hearing it everywhere in what I do: “To help others achieve the impossible AND experience the beauty that is about them always.”

To tell you the story of how I came to this conclusion and how I know without a doubt what my purpose it... would take 500+ words. I know this because I typed it up recently. Perhaps a story to share another day ;)

Regardless, it hasn’t been an easy pill to swallow... because doing what I LOVE not only involves the fun, exciting part of my job called photography.... but it deals with money. It deals with sacrifice and facing necessary evils no creative person in their right mind wants to tackle. I’ve been charged with the challenge of helping creative entrepreneurs be better stewards of their money, and being able to actually make a living off of doing something they love. And it’s one difficult industry to do it in. I'm in Boston now with 8 amazing photographers who are making that sacrifice and doing what they need to do to lay the financial foundation for their businesses. I'm so proud of what they're doing, it hurts our brains, but it's so worth it. It will allow us to move forward and focus on doing what we love.

So I guess that is my question for you. Why do you do what you do? Is it for Love or Money?

Photographers biggest problems... tell me!

We just wrapped another awesome Photo Biz Boot Camp and I finally have time to get to some of the hundreds of things I seem to have on my to-do list.

We were talking the other day about some of
- the issues photographers face and
- what we're looking forward to working on this winter

I have a feeling many of us photographers are in the same boat on this - and am interested in hearing what YOU think?????

Brief thoughts on album design software options and workflow...

After a year and a half of use, I too am convinced that Photojunction is the slow (though good) choice if you want a template/official album software...

....with that said, I'm now convinced that there's a MUCH better option out there... thanks to Kevin's quick tutorial... on using Adobe's InDesign.

I called Adobe a while back and upgraded my misc. Macromedia and Adobe products to the Web Premium Creative Suite (CS3) for less than the price of InDesign alone. Downloaded the free 30-day trial to try it out while it ships.

Opened up Kevin's tutorial on one computer, InDesign on the other and Sara was able to get through a pre-design in record speed (and while she was learning it!) Now she's got the wedding edited, shipped to Pictage, slideshows prepared, and an album draft design complete sometimes by Monday after the wedding using my Crazy Simple Workflow and the Album design in InDesign.

Here is the album she did for the wedding we photographed this weekend. The bride & groom had the slideshow link by Monday afternoon:




Also check out a Guestbook she designed from a recent engagement shoot we did up in North Carolina a few weeks ago...



PS... we design EVERYTHING square so we can print in multiple album types after we design it. After all, our time is $$ so if we can help our clients out by offering duplicates at a lower price it's a win-win for everyone (because we don't have to redo the design, just resize and submit the order).

PSS... We've also designed in Photoshop and using Pictage's tool... so far InDesign is the quickest as it allows the most "organized fluidity" as I like to call it... without adding unnecessary steps that drag the process out....

PSSSSS +++++..... Album design is NOT for everyone. I'll design every blue moon and the clients love them but when it comes down to it I'm just not as good as others are... if you're weary of album design, OUTSOURCE it! In fact, I think Sara will be offering up her services to others soon too so post here if you want her to email you with info once it's up ;)

Go Fishing -- Enjoy Life!

A little story my dad sent me sometime last year - he and my mom are good about warning me to SLOW DOWN and enjoy life. I found this while rebuilding my email after the crash and can't help but share...

This picture is from a tiny port on the island of Kefalonia in Greece ... we took a ferry from here to the island due south this summer.




A boat docked in a tiny Greek village. An American tourist complimented the Greek fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

"Not very long," answered the Greek.

"But then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?" asked the
American.

The Greek explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.

The American asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

"I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with
my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends,
have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs . . I have a full
life."

The American interrupted, "I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat."

And after that?" asked the Greek.

With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers.

Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own
plant.

You can then leave this little village and move to Athens, Los Angeles, or even New York City! From there you can direct your huge new enterprise."

"How long would that take?" asked the Greek.

"Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years," replied the American.

"And after that?"

"Afterwards? Well my Friend, That's when it gets really interesting, "answered the American, laughing. "When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!"

"Millions? Really? And after that?" said the Greek.

"After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the
coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta
with your wife and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends."

And the moral is:

Know where you're going in life....you may already be there.

Free Resources: Make it Personal & Goal-Oriented

Back by popular demand (I know it got lost in the blog-shuffle) - the "Make it Personal & Goal Oriented" audio and downloads are available again - for FREE!

The resources includes the audio from Lesson 1 of the Profit Center DVD and click and save to disk the PDFs that go along with it. Whether you are a pro photographer or really ANY small business owner this is step one on pretty much EVERYTHING we teach about creating strategies and running a successful business. We recommend listening to the audio then taking the time out of your busy schedule (away from distractions!) to brainstorm and fill out the sheets with your own information.




DOWNLOAD 1st PDF HERE

DOWNLOAD 2nd PDF HERE

***CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO AUDIO****

The BIG Secret to Financial Freedom ;)

Watched this one (great SNL skit) a long time ago and we looked it up again tonight @ our PUG meeting. Enjoy!


(Had to take the video down as it was crashing - check out SNL "don't buy stuff" on YouTube or Google ;)

Whadya think?? Should I order the book now with my AMEX?

Have a BACKUP Plan: Thoughts on Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery

From Liana's Bananas Blog :

As you may have guessed from the post below... my "baby" (NO, I don't actually have kids thus I must refer to my precious Powerbooks as such instead) crashed/died/bit-the-dust today. This computer was my "workhorse" from 2005-early 2007 and I still use it as my main file/email computer.

The Good News:

- We are OCD about backing up all client files so NONE were lost in this crash. We still have back-ups from this weekend's wedding, though not the edit.
- We'd done a COMPLETE backup of the computer as of August 29th and various other back ups that happen regularly overnight, every night

The Bad News:

- The Past 72 hours worth of work (Wedding edit from this weekend, complete library/favorites selection of 2007 images, and various documents may or may not be recoverable. We're slowly trying to recover these files by transfering them over to another computer. We may have to go through the wedding from this weekend again. But thanks to our Crazy Simple Workflow... only hrs were lost instead of days.
- This computer was "born" in 2005 and some of the applications were transfered from a now-retired G4 TITANIUM powerbook from 2001... needless to say, we'll loose a lot of grandfathered applications when the computer gets wiped out and reformatted.

The Ironic:

- I was out dropping off two back-up hard drives at a safety-deposit box at the bank when the crash happened. Go figure!


Lesson Learned:

- Just Like Tires: Computers will fail, directories will corrupt, and hard drives WILL fail. They are like tires... will wear out over time... you can count on that!

- Plan for IT: When I worked in Corporate America I spent my first year there helping out people that put together Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery programs for a living (for big companies). They taught me a few key things like the importance of having a full plan for recovering your important files and programs ... so if a computer crashes or the whole office goes up in flames today, we can be back in business in a few days.

- Learn from others before it happens to YOU!: Nothing like this has happened to me until now... and I knew it was a matter of time... so I'm glad I took these steps BEFORE vs AFTER a crash happens.

I have an appointment with a Mac Genius tomorrow afternoon (oh yes, that AppleCare comes in handy here!) and will probably be up half the night pulling as many key files off the HD as possible. Sarah will be able to continue our work on the other two computers so all will be okay... just a few days behind....


PRACTICAL TIPS FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

Step 1: Imagine the WORST possible scenario.
Your office goes up in flames. All your files, equipment.... GONE.

Step 2: Make a LIST of what you need to be back in Biz. Okay, you only need to be depressed for a millisecond... so your biz is up in flames... what would you need in order to get up and running again? What equipment (computers, cameras, etc), software (ie LOTS of expensive Adobe stuff) and files (client images, tax info & receipts, client communications, agreements, legal forms, etc) would you need to be up and running again in 24-72 hours?

Step 3: Insure the obvious. Business insurance, equipment insurance, legal protection. If you're a pro photographer you should have ALL of the above. A GREAT place to start is by joining Professional Photographers of America. If you shoot even ONE event per year, their Indemnification Coverage is priceless. I know people personally who's biz has been saved by it. PPA will also be able to point you in the right direction for all sorts of insurance and protection. Pay attention to what is covered and not covered... if your equipment is stolen or destroyed, will you be covered to be able to buy new equipment/get it fixed right away?

Step 4: Invest in extended service/warranties/protection plans. I ALWAYS get the warranty with new lenses/camera bodies. I've had to use them MULTIPLE times already and it's so nice to not have to fork out the $$ for replacements when they'll be repaired under the warranty. I also have the AppleCare plan for my computers... they've repaired hard drives, and done Thousands of $$s in parts and labor for me thus far in my 7-8 years as a Mac user. A $100+ upfront sure beats 1,000 later.

Step 5: Get your files OFF your hard drives, backed up multiple times in multiple ways. I have FOUR copies of all of my client files. We back up to disk TWICE - one disk goes Pictage... which is backed up FOREVER! The other disk we keep in the office to burn a copy for clients if they purchase it after everything has been ordered. We also back up to TWO different external hard drives. Lacie is the hard drive of choice.... been using them for years! Essentially, we have two identical eternal hard drives - one stays in the office and one goes off site (to a safety deposit box at the bank). We also wait to format the CF cards until Pictage receives the disk and everything is backed up. The important thing is to have copies in different places in different forms so if one fails, then another fails... then there are still backups!

Step 6: Don't forget your operating files! It's easy to remember to back up client files... what about email, calendars, contacts, agreements, contracts, legal docs, and other important stuff?? Well, you can back them up to disk & external hard drive (like above).... but you use these files a lot and may forget to do that regularly. So make time to do the above but also utilize some great programs that keep it simple! Here's where having and using a .MAC account comes in handy! With a little programing, it can all be done without you having to think about it! Every night, every computer connects to our .MAC account online and syncs up all of the information :) Not only is it safe online backed up, but it's in-sync too! Super cool! There are also tons of external applications you can use to back up other documents and programs such as iBackup and SilverKeeper. I'm sure I'm missing TONS of great programs too so if you use a great one post it up here!

Step 7: Get a Safety Deposit Box and make an Emergency Kit. Back-up drives, start-up disks, application disks, serial numbers, warranties, emergency cash fund, etc... put it all in one place with instructions, passwords, etc ...so it's there if/when you need it!

Pheww... makes me exhausted just thinking of it! But with a little planning ahead of time, you'll save a lot of money and headaches later!

Bananas FAQs

Pheewww.... this week is Fan-tas-tic! Mainly, we're all caught up with the major back-load of work that's been pending for quite some time and there is finally time to go through old emails, files, and do some major organization.

I must start this post win a personal apology to anyone who's emailed without hearing back yet. In response to so many of the same requests we get each day for answers on all kinds of things from business to photography to stuff like "can you send me that secret recipe?" we'll be starting a "Bananas FAQ" section of this blog. We'll be tackling a back-log of questions and requests and then move on to any additional FAQs so feel free to post any new ones below :)

Fun stuff!!

The first comes from Cindy in Arizona:

"Hi Liana,

I enjoyed your session at the Chicks conference. I have a couple of questions:

~ what software do you use to design your albums?
~ how do you market and/or how do client's find you as a destination photographer?
~ what software are you using to make your movie shows in?
~ you mentioned showing your movie shows at the reception - are you using your own portable projection equipment?
~ did you mention something about adding video to your new Web site? If so, what video editing software will/or do you use?"

Album Software:
Like I do with most ventures, we've tested out what is know as the http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif"best in the industry" and made our minds up after some use with each. I started using Photoshop but then turned to Photojunction and got great use out of that for some time. After a few constant quirks, we started looking for something with more flexibility and tried out Adobe's InDesign which is our favorite by far! It's MADE for design :) Kevin Swan has a GREAT, quick tutorial available for download/purchase that will tell you get you started real quick. We still use Photojunction for the old albums and they've been super helpful on the phone whenever we need help - so that's a good option too, just not for us now that we've tasted the ease of using InDesign.

How Clients Find me To Photograph their Destination Wedding:
Most of my clients have heard of me through someone they know and then checked out my site online before contacting us. Some hear of us via the WPJA, the Knot chat forums, via Industry publications and forums, and random web searches. I think updating the blog with pics helps a lot too - we have a lot of inquiries come in after I've photographed & blogged about a destination wedding or trip :)

Movie Shows:
I'm not sure if you mean my slideshows that are posted online? For that I use ShowIt Web - it's available at www.ShowItFast.com. Literally thousands are able to enjoy watching pics from a wedding I photographed only days earlier. I've booked jobs off of these alone when my site was under construction.

If you're asking about the actual movies on my liana.tv site we use FinalCutExpress and Apple has a built in iMovie which is easy and quick to use (much easier than any other program out there, in my opinion!)

Slideshows at Receptions:
I hardly ever project a slideshow at a reception unless a client specifically asks us to. We DO however do a slideshow on a laptop at almost every reception. Downloading, sorting, using the "quick collection" function, and slideshow function in Lightroom makes the process SOOOOO quick and easy. I actually go through the exact process in detail on our workflow/Lightroom tutorial that just came out. You can check it out HERE.

Video in New Site:
We're SUPER excited for the new www.liana.tv to premier later this fall :) It's been a work-in-progress for over a year now and will be stock-full of content-rich videos to help clients out. Most of the video is produced in Final Cut but we've got some stuff on YouTube and hidden on our sites now to help in the meantime that is produced on programs that are easier to use like iMovie.

Brand Camp field trip

We are on day two of the Photo Biz Boot Camp and went for an
inspiration field trip ... Here is Amber from Arizona and Dana all the
way from Bahrain scouting their new brand colors, textures, and
patterns.

The BananasEDU site is LIVE!!

We finally have v1.0 of the BananasEDU site up and ALIVE!!

Check out the DVD section for the SAME GREAT SPECIALS we ran at the Pictage Partner Conference this past week. We'll be running these for a limited time - stay tuned for more!!

KISS & SHOWit

We're here at the Pictage Partner Conference this week (much more on this coming soon) and Sara put together a fun photo collage from the KISS & SHOWit party last night. It got a little crazy with all of us doing our best to get the NON-dancers to dance - and it worked!! More soon because I have to run out the door now....

The TRUE Cost of Photography / PPA ABI

Archive: Originally Published June 7, 2006

WOW. For the past two days, I had the opportunity to participate in a very new and VERY enlightening training at the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) headquarters here in Atlanta. It was awesome because there were another 19 photographers there who came from all over the country and a pretty diverse crowd as far as what we do too (MANY portrait studios there).

Scott Kurkian (CFO of PPA) and the legendary Ann Monteith (previous president of PPA and ABI guru) led us through tons of materials, questions, and methodologies to equip us with becoming Approved Business Instructors for PPA. What these two have done for our industry is amazing and it's awesome the charge they've set forth in helping photographers with their businesses.

On Sunday, class was scheduled from 9am to 9pm so I had the pleasure of dinning with Scott, Lori, and Julia for both lunch and dinner.

Julia Woods, me, and Lori Gragg in class


Thanks gals for all the stimulating conversation on pricing and biz in general!

One of the most interesting things about the past two days is when they shared the results of a financial survey that was just completed (and isn't even published yet!) They surveyed and analyzed financial statements on over 180 photography businesses and this is the FIRST time the industry has qualified, in-depth data in this area... which means we will FINALLY be able to analyze and base our financials on an industry-standard!! AWESOME!

Ann and Scott are making sense of these numbers so that they can be published over the next few months, but a few stats that stuck out to me are that:

- On average, a photography studio needs to have 150,000 - 250,000 in net sales to be profitable (enough to make a living off of) !!! The exceptions they showed were few and far between when someone was able to keep the cost of sales, overhead, and asset depreciation down considerably. These numbers are especially shocking when I think about all the small businesses out there that have no idea what their numbers are or where they're at with their numbers.

- The average home studio makes $32,977 (this is net profit / owners income) WOW. WOW. WOW. (and who said photographers were overpaid!!??!)

A final interesting consensus (the class made) is that in the middle-market, a studio needs to be bringing in around $5,000 per wedding to be a profitable wedding photography business, given the average Cost of Sales, Overhead, and the Assets needed to run the business. Again there are exceptions but it's so interesting to see these numbers spelled out finally - it's going to make a huge impact to those who take advantage of this information and get their businesses on-track financially.

UPDATE: The results of this study were published in July 2006 in a report titled "PPA's 2005 Studio Benchmark Survey" that can be downloaded from PPA's members-only section. If you haven't already check it out ASAP!

Breakfast with Rudy Giuliani

Archive: Originally published May 18, 2006

This morning I had the awesome opportunity to join a bunch of other Atlanta area business people at the AJC's 100 Best Georgia Companies Awards Breakfast with former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

We had killer seats right up front and it wasn't until 15 minutes into breakfast that I realized Giuliani was parked at the table diagonal from ours. He talked with us for about an hour about six qualities that strong leaders all have in common. It was interesting because just before he went on, they had a panel of 5 CEOs from the top-ranked Georgia companies for this year answer the question of "what is the most important quality a CEO must have to lead their organization successfully."





I would love to go in depth about "Rudy's Six" but fear that time is not on my side today so here they are:
1. Strong Beliefs (devote time to thinking and making goals)
2. Optimistic - focus on solutions and remain calm and positive
3. Courage - does not mean a lack of fear, it means recognizing fear and overcoming it. We MUST be willing to take risks.
4. Relentless Preparation - If you prepare for everything you can think of, when the unexpected happens you will still be prepared because it will be a variation of your practiced scenarios. He used specific examples from 9/11 how they had not planned for a disaster of that magnitude, but all the other plans (like triage and evacuation procedures) allowed them to move forward.
5. Teamwork - A leader asks themselves 'what are my weaknesses and how do I balance them with strengths of others.'
6. Communicator - A leader is able to communicate all of the above. i.e. A coach of a football team does not do a thing on the field but is a teacher and a motivator and leads the team to victory because they can communicate effectively with the team.

In the end, Rudy says: "You can do all of these things but none of it matters unless you CARE about people. Organizations are comprised of people. People with emotions, personal lives... you can not ignore these things. If you are successful in this area, you and your organization will be successful too."

If you ever get a chance to hear Rudy in person - go! - He's a phenomenal speaker and quite the comedian too!

LinkedIN Myspace : A New Era in Communications

It took my friend Christina about eight emails before I finally gave in and signed up. I had not idea why this "myspace" and "facebook" and "linkedin" were so the rage. Perhaps it's because I'm already on communication-overload and this just adds to it, but looking back it HAS reunited me with many and connected me with many more. Times they-are-a-changing for sure!

Who's IN?






MySpace Page

Best Books

Last week I sold one of my plasma TVs as it was never watched but merely a temptation to put down my books to watch something mindless. Granted, the TV stood on a bookshelf that hosted a handful (okay, 50-60) of my favorite books.... and now the shelf is being used elsewhere. With a pile of books all over my floor now and a new shipment in from Amazon last week, I've been inspired to update my "Best Book" list online. (I'll update periodically so feel free to bookmark)

Here ya go...




***CLICK HERE TO SEE MY BOOK LIST***

August BBC - Day 1

It's the end of a long 12-hour boot camp day and we just got home
from a lovely dinner after a full day of discussing goals, vision,
numbers, and lots of other biz stuff. It's a difficult day because
the number part is mind-boggling and we're all exhausted by the end
of it and have "homework" at night.

The group here is awesome. Here's a shot Kevin Swan shot of us during
our "wine and cheese" break before dinner.

Kimberly, Nicole Kent, Sara Harper, me and KT Merry. We'll have to
get some with Kevin tomorrow...

Shoot for the Moon

Just a quick reminder why we should never stop at creating big goals for ourselves. We should take it a step further and make Big Hairy Audacious Goals!! (BHAGs!) After all...

Any Day Now...

...we'll be unveiling the BananasEDU site. We have a crazy week coming up with a PhotoBizBootCamp here in Atanta this Tuesday - Thursday, then a bunch of shoots on Friday.





The Crazy Simple Workflow will be in duplication starting this week so pre-sales will start soon ;)

KISS your Ads

If you've taken a biz class you've probably heard the importance of "KISS" before: Keep It Simple, S____ (fill in the blank)

I'm not an advocate of traditional advertising but there are a FEW - VERY FEW - exceptions I make. I don't want to go too much into this controversy right here and now because it's a long discussion.... and I could talk forever on it...

... but an exception presented itself and today we were charged with designing an ad to send to the publication ASAP.

The thing is, there's a lot of clutter out there already. The "enemy" is no longer the competition - it's the clutter! So how to combat this clutter? KISS!!! The simpler, the better. It's not an easy thing to do though. Being a visual artist.... it's easy to want to clutter my ad with lots of photos and text and graphics. It's so much easier to pick a few favorite photos and slap them up there with a logo and call it an ad.

So I opted for a more daring approach - strip it bare. Simplify. Completely simplify. Advertise my photography without showing a single photo.

I dare you to apply this principal to your next ad, marketing peice, or even something less visual in nature. Think about what your goal is too! For me, it's to spark intrigue; present my business as timeless, classic, fresh; give them a glimpse of my vision; and ultimately get them to go to my web site.

In the essence of KISSing, I'll close with this:

Crazy Simple Workflow

Without further delay...

We finally are ready to share a little bit about a project we've been working on for the past few months. One of the most expensive things about wedding photography is the time it takes us to process the images and get them to the client. As professional photographers these are just a few of the many decisions we face:

- How to organize files?
- How to back up files to ensure they are secure?
- How to view images?
- How to take the best photos straight out of the camera?
- Should we show a slideshow on-location or online and how should we do that?
- How to spend less time in front of the computer and more time doing what we love - shooting pics!?
- How to get images and products to clients as soon as possible with top quality?
- What software to use and how to use it?
- What shortcuts and templates and tricks will help us use the software better?

All I knew is that There Has GOT To Be A Better Way! So we tested, experimented, researched, designed, and incorporated basic business smarts to our workflow. It's about working smarter, not harder; taking better photos straight out of the camera; starting with an end in mind; and Keeping It Simple.

Watch the video for a quick peak:



The awesome thing is we also added a quick shooting lesson as well and it shows all the key things you need to know about lightroom so the DVD lesson ended up being two hours instead of one. We've got our production time (including blogging, slideshows, AND albums) down to record times ...so that clients can see everything in as short as hours!

I think the DVD ("Liana's Crazy Simple Workflow") will be out in the next week or two with pre-sales starting this weekend. Hop over to BananasEDU.com to sign up for the update and site debut :)

Fighting Writersblock

... (continued from below)... So how to beat this Procrastination and Perfection problem? The answers, as usual, did not come from me.

Before my re-emergence into full time photography, I was charged with being a voice within corporate America... namely a big four accounting firm. To say I was in over my head was an understatement. My poor boss had to repeatedly correct my on my technical mistakes in particular... let's just say "hooked on foniks didn't werk for mee!" I was sent to training like all the others except this training was special... it was with the company known for being the leaders in communications training. I still look back and know their workshop was one of the most valuable ones I've attended... if even for this advice alone....




It was the president of the company, Mark Ragan, that solved my problem. He didn't believe in writersblock.... only in a) not having enough information and/or b) trying to be perfect the first time around and never getting anything down on paper because of it.

Thus, the solution is simple...
a) brainstorm and gather additional information. Let the ideas flow freely... do not dismiss an idea until you've dumped everything out on paper. Make google your friend. Seek advice, input, facts, and examples from others. That should solved the lack-of-information problem.

b) then ... in Mark's words... "Write Cra*!" Yep, he says the best way to fight the perfection problem is to try to write garbage... something not perfect... something you'd never think of showing another living, breathing organism. Some people call this "free writing." The thing about this is you have to keep writing until the whole story is on paper... THEN, and only then do you go back and edit, edit, edit. You have to have a chunk of clay before you can sculpt it into something beautiful or worthwhile.

Over the years, I've seen that this concept work in other areas as well. If it's taking forever to get an album design complete, we simply let go of perfection and finish it. It's the editing process that will bring it to it's perfect form... and that comes with the help of many others including the client.

I bet there's some piece of work (ahhem... like all the original bios missing from websites) that's been neglected because you can't find the words or inspiration... I dare you to try Mark's method. Try gathering more information, write cra*, then edit, edit, edit. I dare say that even if it's far from perfection the world will be a better place because of it ... because it's REAL.

But that's a whole other topic....

Perfection Leads to Procrastination

I have this problem. It starts with a capital "P."

I *love* to Procrastinate. I also love to do things right and do the best possible job ... or not do it at all. Yes, sometimes I'm guilty of being a Perfectionist. For months, the emails, notes, scribbles, articles, quotes, inspirations, facts, stories, reviews, and recaps have been piling up on my desk, kitchen table, filing cabinet, inbox, and finally in a so-called-designated-email-folder-titled-"blogstuff."

This new shiny blog has been prepped and tested. It still has a few tweaks but is functional and awaiting my use. But now I don't know where to start. If I had posted about the aforementioned "blogstuff" when I was going through it, it would have been so much easier. Now it's difficult. What to do?

"Why do today what can be put off until tomorrow."

LOL. That one cracks me up. I'm pretty sure it belongs on one of those Demotivator posters that I discovered when working in corporate America. A group of us spent an entire lunch hour one day laughing at all of these until we were crying, all the while contemplating which ones to gift to each other.



Well... it would be more PERFECT to talk about how to solve this "P" problem in another post... perhaps I'll procrastinate until tomorrow on this one....

In the meantime, I'm going to know that sometimes giving up on perfection is necessary - in all areas of life. Otherwise, I might not press the "publish" button just yet...

Photo Business Boot Camp

Ever wondered what a BBC is like? Here is a short clip of a few recent participants!

New Biz Blog!

Hey Everyone!

LOTS of new exciting stuff coming up - we decided to move a lot of the behind-the-scenes photo and biz tips over to a blog dedicated to those things specifically so feel free to post up questions here and this is the place we'll be answering them :)

Lots of tips, tricks, reviews, and industry-happenings comin' in the future.

Off to Greece now but stay tuned for more!!

Cheers!

Liana