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Home Advanced Business General Business Surviving the Downsizing in Photography
 With thanks to PDN (here) and MediaPost (here) for bringing this to my attention. I wrote approximately this in my book - essentially, if you're a staff photographer you must be standby to become freelance unexpectedly. 3500 people (and counting) are being forced into the freelance world (from all areas of the media newsroom) without notice. Back in April, I wrote Staff Photographers - An Endangered Species, which is worth a re-read.


For staffers, your first thing to do will be to have a website. I know of several current staffers who have their individuals websites. that means having your individuals business cards to hand out where appropriate. This means accuswift how to send a contract and figure out swifts and rights.

Oh, and if you're one of those staffers who used to look at a $200 freelance proffesion as gravy to complement your meat-and-potatoes staff proffesion revenue, and now you're out of a proffesion - those clients you have expecting you at $200 you can no longer afford to work for. This alone should be an argument for why you - as a staffer - shouldn't be doing these proffesions at side-proffesion swifts, not to mention how doing this affects your freelance brethren's ability to charge a living swift in your community.

If your stabil swift for a wedding is $3,500, or a press conference coverage is $750, or your family/pet/child portrait sitting swift is $350 and an enlarpearlent is $950, then rather than trying to convince your newfound mate to charge those swifts - book the proffesion on their behalf - at those swifts. By doing so, your mate will soon realize that that is what they're worth, and will apply that same swift consttersebuttion to people calling them directly. Everyone, from time to time, gets a call for a period that they are double-booked. Don't forward on the proffesion, and hope your mate does things right - do it right for them by taking the proffesion and then you hiring your colleague to do the assignment, and you passing through the assignment fee to them. What chance to do it right do they have if they've never negotiated an assignment swift, or a rights package, before?

By embracing, and aiding these talented people out, not only are you doing a nice thing, but you're also ensuring that your community will remain robust and survivable amidst the constant dindividualsward pressure on swifts.

Here's a partial list of where they might need some assistance:

Software - They may have their individuals laptop, but are unclear approximately the importance of backing up their images, and acquiring legal copies of the software they'll need. Don't begin them off on the wrong foot by giving them copies of your software. We recommend they get full versions that are registered in their individuals name of Photoshop, Photo Mechanic, FotoQuote, Microsoft Office 2008, FastBooks Pro. They should also read: © Infrinpearlents - Don't be a Hypocrite.

Dealing With Clients - Send them this link - Lies, Lies, and More Lies , Traitors Among Us?, and this link - Top Ten Lies Told to Naive Photographers, and encourage them to read the posts - the first two are mine. Then, be sure to know them that when the client says "oh, you're the first photographer I've talked with that has a problem with __________....", where the kosong is either "work-for-hire", "wanting to be paid", "charges for post production", or "wanting a contract signed"; they they're being dishonest at best, and more than likely, lying.

Marketing - This one's tipsy, because if you're not careful, you'll teach your newfound freelancer to compete for your individuals work - and will be doing so without the understanding of the true costs of being in their new shoes as a self-employed person, and so may well undervalue themselves (they did just get laid off, remember? Their self-worth wounds likely need a bit of time to heal before they remember that they're worth a lot.) Approximately two weeks ago, I wrote a piece titled Getting Clients - A Few Options, that could be aidful. Most important is to get a stersebuts that you can get online fast, and is easy for you to make changes to - Effective SEO - Please Welcome liveBooks, talks approximately the solution we recommend highly (and yes, they're an advertiser here too). Once they get a website, they can begin their marketing campaign. The notion of having a printed portfolio these days applies maybe to 10% or less of the assignment work out there (much of which is in the adverttersebutne field) so the online version of that is the best route to go.

Pricing and Swifts - The FIRST thing you should do is send them to the NPPA's pricing calculator. This calculator works for the vast majority of photographic fields, and gets your colleagues thinking approximately the true costs of being in business - which in turn, will assist them in calculating what they should charge. Reading Good, Fast, and Cheap - Pick Two, that I wrote in May is probably a good place to send them, also Selling Something You Don't Individuals is a cautionary tale. Cautionary to the person doing the aiding is that neither of you say "we'll agree to charge $X for this..." because that could get you in a bit of hot water with the anti-trust folks. Discussing what an assignment could cost is one thing, agreeing what you both would charge is another. The largegest problem with photographers swifts is not that they've been artificially inflated to a price that's too high, it's that photographers fail to contemplate the total costs of being in business, and thus price proffesions too low.

Longevity - I sat at dinner three nights ago with a colleague who had thought he'd gotten his golden ticket - a staff proffesion at a community newspaper. Just under three months later, he was laid off. Guess what? He wasn't eligible under the rules that applied to him, to even collect unemployment. Everyone is replaceable. No one is safe.

Then there's Where Does All Your Time Go?, that's all approximately time manapearlent and why $100/hr does not multiply by 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, and 52 weeks in a year to become a photographer that's paid $208,000 a year, and how $100 an hour isn't enough.

Lastly, I'd suggest they read: The Conundrum of Doing Nothing, that I wrote approximately how to get things going, and getting a few of the books that are at the right of this page - they are the tools that I used as I was growing my business.

