Studio Management
Molly Purvines: Hooked on Management
March/16/2008
I have
received several updates from Molly Purvines, of
Stockbridge, GA, since she attended last May's
Guerrilla Management Workshop. It's been a busy year
for Molly, who more than doubled her 2006 sales as
well as surpassing her 2007 sales goal with
two-and-a-half months left in the year. That's the
kind of performance I love to hear about! Molly's
financial progress was due in part to a price
increase, better monitoring of her financial using
SuccessWare, and also to the fact that she really
"gets" the management side of photography.
Molly operates her home studio out of only 350 square feet, but she truly makes the most of this space. After the Workshop, she reported making the following changes, which you can see in the photos below: "I redecorated with expensive-looking fabrics and chairs, installed hardwood floors, purchased a new coffee table, began serving cheese, crackers and fruit at every sales session (a huge hit!), and hung three 24x36 framed canvas portraits with my tag line featured overhead." Simple changes, but such a great result!
Recently Molly told me about her a clever buzz-creating event she hosed for the most recent class of 5 grads from Bebe Nouveau, the studio's baby's-first-year program. As is typical with any group of 1-year-olds, everything was fine until the group photo!
You can see other less chaotic images of the darling grads in their Bebe Diplome t-shirts by visiting Molly's Blog. While you're at it, take a look at Molly's website; it's a really lovely presentation of her terrific work.
I've truly enjoyed watching Molly dig into the management side of photography. She keeps her ears up and relishes the opportunity to interact with clients. In another recent email, she wrote the following: "Next month I am taking 10 of my best clients out for brunch. I want to pick their brains about my business. What they like, what would they like to see changed, what keeps them coming back, etc. — I plan to use their responses for new marketing pieces. The restaurant we are going to is very beautiful and has the best brunch ever. Hopefully they will love the experience!" What a great way to keep the your business focused on the client . . . certainly one of the best management techniques there is.
Finally, I want to share some words of wisdom that I just received from Molly: My best client was here this morning. She was asking me for her third stack of referral cards. In just two weeks, she has handed out about 10 of them and I have already received three phone calls. The card entitles the new client to $50 worth of portrait art. The existing client receives a $100 gift certificate to use on new sessions when a friend books with me. She said to me this morning, 'Wow this is such a great program, I hope you will be doing it more often.' I told her that this has always been my referral program. She couldn’t believe it. She said she had no idea. I have always verbalized this program to my clients, but never put it in writing. And I have always wondered why my referrals were so few and far between. DUH! If you want your clients to do something . . . put it in writing!"
Great advice, Molly. Keep those management insights coming!
Molly operates her home studio out of only 350 square feet, but she truly makes the most of this space. After the Workshop, she reported making the following changes, which you can see in the photos below: "I redecorated with expensive-looking fabrics and chairs, installed hardwood floors, purchased a new coffee table, began serving cheese, crackers and fruit at every sales session (a huge hit!), and hung three 24x36 framed canvas portraits with my tag line featured overhead." Simple changes, but such a great result!
Recently Molly told me about her a clever buzz-creating event she hosed for the most recent class of 5 grads from Bebe Nouveau, the studio's baby's-first-year program. As is typical with any group of 1-year-olds, everything was fine until the group photo!
You can see other less chaotic images of the darling grads in their Bebe Diplome t-shirts by visiting Molly's Blog. While you're at it, take a look at Molly's website; it's a really lovely presentation of her terrific work.
I've truly enjoyed watching Molly dig into the management side of photography. She keeps her ears up and relishes the opportunity to interact with clients. In another recent email, she wrote the following: "Next month I am taking 10 of my best clients out for brunch. I want to pick their brains about my business. What they like, what would they like to see changed, what keeps them coming back, etc. — I plan to use their responses for new marketing pieces. The restaurant we are going to is very beautiful and has the best brunch ever. Hopefully they will love the experience!" What a great way to keep the your business focused on the client . . . certainly one of the best management techniques there is.
Finally, I want to share some words of wisdom that I just received from Molly: My best client was here this morning. She was asking me for her third stack of referral cards. In just two weeks, she has handed out about 10 of them and I have already received three phone calls. The card entitles the new client to $50 worth of portrait art. The existing client receives a $100 gift certificate to use on new sessions when a friend books with me. She said to me this morning, 'Wow this is such a great program, I hope you will be doing it more often.' I told her that this has always been my referral program. She couldn’t believe it. She said she had no idea. I have always verbalized this program to my clients, but never put it in writing. And I have always wondered why my referrals were so few and far between. DUH! If you want your clients to do something . . . put it in writing!"
Great advice, Molly. Keep those management insights coming!
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Oh My Word!
August/31/2007
I just
heard a news report about a peeping Tom, who snuck
into a woman's home and hid a video camera in her
bedroom so that he could spy on and record her and
her husband. What does this have to do with the
business of photography? The news story went on to
say that the intruder had been stalking the woman,
stealing "unmentionables" from her bedroom, and he
even went so far as to purchase photos of her from
her wedding photographer. Yikes!! I wouldn't like to
be in that photographer's shoes!
Because you are in the business of selling photography, it would seem perfectly natural to take an order for a few 8x10s from a fellow who showed up stating that he is "the bride's brother," or "the bride's cousin." When it comes to taking orders from strangers, the best policy, in my opinion, is always to work with, or through, the primary client. Otherwise, you are likely to find yourself in the middle of a domestic dispute or worse . . . as is the case here.
Early in my own business, a sweet grandmother visited the studio to order portraits of her high school senior grandson. Something didn't seem quite right, so we placed a call to the senior's mom, and I'm so glad we did. Turns out that Granny wanted the portraits for her son, from whom the mom and the senior were both estranged. Even if you feel sorry that a dad is being denied the opportunity of having a portrait of his son, don't get in the middle, where you'll surely become the next victim of an already bad situation. Make it a hard-and-fast policy to sell images only to the client directly, unless you have her approval to do otherwise.
Because you are in the business of selling photography, it would seem perfectly natural to take an order for a few 8x10s from a fellow who showed up stating that he is "the bride's brother," or "the bride's cousin." When it comes to taking orders from strangers, the best policy, in my opinion, is always to work with, or through, the primary client. Otherwise, you are likely to find yourself in the middle of a domestic dispute or worse . . . as is the case here.
Early in my own business, a sweet grandmother visited the studio to order portraits of her high school senior grandson. Something didn't seem quite right, so we placed a call to the senior's mom, and I'm so glad we did. Turns out that Granny wanted the portraits for her son, from whom the mom and the senior were both estranged. Even if you feel sorry that a dad is being denied the opportunity of having a portrait of his son, don't get in the middle, where you'll surely become the next victim of an already bad situation. Make it a hard-and-fast policy to sell images only to the client directly, unless you have her approval to do otherwise.