Johannes wrote a post last week about a restaurant going the extra mile, but in the wrong direction. I thought it was real food for thought ... so to speak. Justine pasted it on DWF and people got the point. But Adrienne reckoned it was a bit harsh – didn't the restaurant deserve marks for trying? Absolutely, and I'm sure Johannes was out to make a point rather than beat up on them. But... It's a harsh world. Your customers probably don't care how hard you try, whether you can make payroll, how much you like oysters. Sometimes the toughest thing about being in business is that you can't make To View More >>

I was upsold to in the weekend and didn't even know it. Now that I do though, I'm ok with it. Over the last few weeks my fiancee and I have been looking out wedding bands for us both. We'd again done our homework, been put off by another raft of useless sales people and ended up where we always knew we would, with the same jeweller I'd bought her engagement ring from. I blogged about that experience a while back. An hour later I walked out of the shop with a quote for a wedding band thicker, wider, with a bigger diamond and in higher quality gold than I'd gone in thinking I wanted. Kayla made To View More >>

Is it just me or are we all (suppliers to the wedding industry) suffering from our clients' "fear of commitment"? The numbers of bookings are down, the time between booking and getting married is getting shorter. "It's the Recession," we cry, and it's almost true. It's not the recession, it's the fear of it. How can we overcome that fear? This is just a question, but ... are we better to say, "We'll give you a 20% discount" or, "We can be flexible?" What does "flexible" mean? It might refer to payment terms. It might mean they can start with a 'shoot only' package and add the trimmings later – To View More >>

Forget about boxing, here are the Queensberry Rules for photographers! 1. Outstanding presentation adds enormous value to your photography. 2. Using the same albums as everyone else reduces the value of your photography. Ask anyone in the street how much a stack of prints is worth, or a disc of images, or a slideshow. Everyone's been to the mini lab, or burnt a disk, so the answer is, "Not much". What you're paying for when you hire a professional, of course, is their time, skill and artistry. Focusing on the presentation takes nothing away from that. It simply places the photography in a new To View More >>

What is a Dumbo Feather? It is the thing that somebody believes in that allows them to achieve their dreams, or maybe overcome their fears. Dumbo (think the elephant with big ears) believed that it was a very special feather that gave him the ability to fly, and when he lost the feather he became a flightless elephant. With extensive counselling and a few kind words he realised that it was in fact his large ears that were responsible for his 'winged' prowess. We are often the Dumbo Feather to our clients. They believe that we are responsible for making them photogenic ... sure we have our friend, To View More >>

This clip is from Mad Men, the US TV series about '60s-era Madison Ave ad-men. The guys are planning the launch of the Kodak Carousel. Watch 'em weep. It's not the about the technology, it's not about "new", it's about...  what drives your business. Cheers, Ian To View More >>

Three things I love... Metaphors ("Remix 'Collections' are like iTunes Playlists"). Stories (like Danny's PJ speed test). One-liners ("Colour management used to be just calling the lab to complain about your prints.") Words, that's all... But they make you think. They illuminate what you're saying and make it memorable. They use the familiar to explain the unfamiliar. They're gems of great price if you polish them till they shine, and really awkward if you don't. Cheers, Ian A few more from Bob Tulloch's seminar in Auckland last Wednesday: Our clients have two motivations, love and pride. We're To View More >>

Bob had another noteworthy one-liner in his seminar: "Gen Y is about to discover the difference between a Want and a Need." You need to understand that Bob was sharing the stage with young Danny, and there were plenty more Gen Y in the audience... I'm a Boomer like Bob, so I was fine with it, but Danny said, "I wonder whether he offended anyone?" FWIW it made me think about two aspects of "framing" your photography. Bob used certain words to describe his role (artist, historian) and what motivated his clients (love, pride). He's framing his photography as a Need, not a Want. Something they can't To View More >>

You've probably got it that I'm a Seth Godin fanboy. Every day I get my daily dose of something to think about. Posting about the digital revolution in our industry reminded me of this quote. It's from a very long post about the music industry, but it'll bounce ideas round your head: "The new thing is never as good as the old thing, at least right now. "Soon, the new thing will be better than the old thing will be. But if you wait until then, it’s going to be too late.  Feel free to wax nostalgic about the old thing, but don’t fool yourself into believing it’s going to be here forever. It To View More >>

At weddings there are always time burglars stealing from the innocent, so we talk to our clients about how long things really take ... so we don't lose the time we need. Sometimes this means that a cunning couple will deliberately try to run us out of time because they hate having their photographs taken. We distract them by focusing on their feelings for each other instead of their feelings about photography – easy if you aren't constantly asking them to smile for the camera. One of the most guilty time burglars is the make-up artist … stealing time from the photographer to get the perfect To View More >>