Wisdom in the Tangents Photography Podcast 105. 5 Things I Wish I Knew in My First 5 Years
John shares 5 things that would have been amazing to know in his first 5 years of business.
Sponsor: Táve
Receive an extended 60 day free trial of Táve at Lightdarkco.com/tave
Number 1. I am not my ideal client.
I definitely used to be my ideal client when I first began, charging $500 for an 8 hour wedding or $50 for an hour portrait session. That was the budget that 24 year old John would have had to hire to someone.
As your style and client experience evolves with you, your ideal client does too. The experience you provide for a luxury wedding client is much different than what you’d provide for a lower budget craigslist couple.
Continuing to market to myself (who I thought my client was) I was undervaluing my services and it held my prices, my portfolio, and my growth back until I realized that I was not my ideal client.
Number 2. Serve your clients. Don’t sell to your clients.
Full episode on this in Episode #47 (listen here)
Trying to sell and upsell once they’ve booked felt sleezy to me and I didn’t like it, so I rarely sold.
Instead of talking about all the things I can do for them (selling), I began to talk about their pain points, how they can overcome them, and how I can help as their photographer.
Allowing them to see the value they place on my service and booking them, instead of telling them what value they should place on my services and selling to them.
Number 3. Outsourcing
Know that the people who specialize in the areas you plan to outsource are actually really amazing at those services and probably really love doing it.
When I outsourced my editing, it was hard at first, but now they do such an amazing job and I have full trust in them to match my editing style well.
Number 4. Be humble and open to learn
When I realized I didn’t have to learn it all myself in a hands-on way, trial and error, but instead I could learn from someone else’s trails and errors, that opened myself up to a fast track of learning and growth in my business.
Don’t be afraid to ask what you may think are “dumb” questions. They aren’t. And the sooner you ask, the sooner you’ll learn and grow as a person and business owner.
Number 5. Set up automations
I have certain emails set up to automatically send at specific points in the client journey. Certain tasks that pop up after the previous is completed, and contracts, invoices and reminders that automatically are sent to my clients.
My CRM, Tave, is a huge part of those automations. I highly recommend you get a CRM (client relationship manager) to manage your clients, set up automations, and give you more time back in your hands.
Here is a link to receive an extended 60 day free trial of Táve to see if you like it. Lightdarkco.com/tave
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