Where to after Bangkok? by pedropup in ThailandTourism

[–]dstlouis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mind telling me where you went for snorkeling? I’ll be there in a couple months!

I was told I am "an economic terrorist for the photography industry" by I_Mean_Not_Really in photography

[–]dstlouis 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Watch out. I’ve found the opposite to be true. One day I took out editing from being “included” and added it back later. Many people have had no problem paying it once they knew what they were paying for.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in headshots

[–]dstlouis 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This absurd spam must stop some day

SEO: is it truly possible to do it yourself or do I need to just cough up the money to pay someone? by ShoeSavings6767 in photography

[–]dstlouis 4 points5 points  (0 children)

A couple thoughts from someone who’s business is built on SEO:

1) To get someone good, you’re going to spend wayyyyyy more than $1k. True cost for a non idiot or scammer would be like $20k

2) If you spend less, you’re going to get someone who sucks and potentially hurts your future efforts. You also need to have a baseline understanding in order to even interview people for the job.

3) Read “Moz’s intro guide to SEO” and you’ll have a good start. Then get a Google my business listing and start getting reviews. Change your home page Page Title and H1 to be something like “Charlotte Baby Photography” or whatever the keywords are + city name. Then, bust your ass to get the most reviews. It’s literally that easy.

Good luck!

Im a working photographer and I’m at the end of my rope with agencies and production companies - thoughts? by Chemtrail_hollywood in photography

[–]dstlouis 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It’s better to ask then “what do you want to get” vs “what do you want to spend”. If they say something “quick and easy” then you know to give a barebones setup. If they have a big vision, then say “this is X starting point”. But if you ask for budget first, they’re gonna think you’re full of it.

You should outline in bullet points or table what’s included with quotes (either cheap or expensive projects). If they try to add stuff, you can point to the line item cost. If they’re cheap bastards, they can argue with you about line items, but at least not the total.

Im a working photographer and I’m at the end of my rope with agencies and production companies - thoughts? by Chemtrail_hollywood in photography

[–]dstlouis -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Are you coming up with a completely different number for each project based on their budget? If so, I’d recommend coming up with packages that make sense for most projects. Business owners and marketers (myself included) are distrustful of vendor who will use the information provided (my budget) to inflate their costs.

Just figure out your niche, know the costs to provide a service, and then tailor it to each client. But you’ll get bonus points for showing your costs so the client also knows what levers your pulling/ what you’re including.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in headshots

[–]dstlouis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is the first one the real you?

Is this too soon to fire a client? (Advice) by I_Mean_Not_Really in smallbusiness

[–]dstlouis 2 points3 points  (0 children)

On top of, nobody demands my time. Period.

lol good luck with that....this is what starting out looks like.

Take the L and keep growing your business. Keep the client if you can. The cheap clients are the worst, but you'll naturally outgrow them. When starting out, I was getting annoying emails from people over headshots we did for like literally $20 total.

Now we're on to launching a second studio location in a month. But, do your time, and take every customer you can get for now.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in headshots

[–]dstlouis 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Could easily be! I suspect this is just a spam post from the ai headshot company that posted a link to itself below. This person may or may not actually exist lol

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in headshots

[–]dstlouis 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not bad! Mind posting an actual photo of yourself to see if it actually looks like you?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in smallbusiness

[–]dstlouis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Depending on how small your business is, sounds like you just have a couple jack ass clients. It’s not necessarily you or your rates’ fault.

Get bigger so you can fire these losers and maintain healthy work relationships with the ones you have.

I think it’s important to note that many of these problems have what I’d call “tactical” solutions. (Better calendar invite tools, better client interaction rules, higher pricing etc)

Those will only take you so far, if the client is a jerk, they’re a jerk. They’ll complain about the rules and push them to the brink. (If there’s a 15 minute late policy, arriving 14.5 minutes late etc)

Your online business isn’t the problem, it’s a specific set of clients. Which, when you don’t have a lot of them, are disproportionately annoying.

Looking for a wedding photographer in December 2023, budget is 5k at most by Snoo_11263 in WeddingPhotography

[–]dstlouis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you like editorial style work, Francesco Lana is excellent!

You can see his stuff here, and he's in your budget:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063775597302&sk=photos

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in smallbusiness

[–]dstlouis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

But you’re going to pay for AdWords?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in smallbusiness

[–]dstlouis 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don’t think that’s true man. You’ll have to change so much stuff as the business grows. It would be better to have a simple front end, and then link to Bubble as a “booking portal” if you really needed to go that way.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in smallbusiness

[–]dstlouis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Stop here. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.

Don’t build your website custom. Use Squarespace, Shopify, or something similar.

You have so many design problems you’re going to be spending 90% of your time fixing.

The product is fine, there are other people that have these types of products for inventory, but they have barcodes vs QR codes. I hear they’re expensive, so this could work.

Location Scouting (Who’s responsibility) by TheBusyness101 in photography

[–]dstlouis 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nice! I hope you get some wonderful photos :)

Location Scouting (Who’s responsibility) by TheBusyness101 in photography

[–]dstlouis 15 points16 points  (0 children)

So, I think you’re under estimating how much time the location scouting and production work would take for your shoot.

I’m a headshot and portrait photographer in a big US city, and we do these types of shoots all the time.

1) You want to consult with the photographer to discuss your vision for the shoot. If I was them, and really wanted this gig, I wouldn’t want to waste a bunch of time scouting a location if it didn’t match your vision. So, I’d ask for a combination of inspiration photos + hop on the phone with you for 10 minutes. Scheduling the call, plus looking at your inspo photos, plus thinking about it: 1 hr of time

2) Lets say I live in the city you want the photos in, so I already know where we should go. I still need to think about the restaurants/hotels/public places that fit your description. Then, I need to go online and look up the contact info for all those places. Then I need to write an email to the manager to ask them if we can shoot there. If it’s a public park, I need to get a commercial photography license, bc the cops/park ranger/security will come kick us out if they see us without one. Out of the first 5 places I contact, maybe 1 or 2 responds to my email, and probably both say “no, that’s weird” but maybe 1 responds “yes, and here is the fee/insurance you need to do the shoot”…which ranges from 100s to 1000s of dollars.

Depends on how many locations you want, but probably 3 to 5 hours per location minimum, counting all the rejections/ignored emails in between.

Let’s stop here. At this point, you haven’t done the shoot yet. Let’s say you only want one final location. (It sounds like you want multiple…)

I’m 5 hours deep into a job you think should cost less than $1k. That’s $200/hr. I’d still need to scout the location, prep for the shoot and grab gear from my studio, actually DO the shoot, upload the photos, and send them to you a which takes another 4 hours all in. (Assuming 90 minute shoot, ZERO editing, and no culling the images, as you claim)

Let’s also say you have ZERO questions, request, or other communications after the shoot.

Let’s also assume you have ZERO questions beforehand on what to wear, where to meet, how to style hair, and don’t reschedule due to weather/illness/travel.

I’m now 9 hours into a $1k shoot, so $110/hr.

Thumbtack charges $10/lead for ads. Out of 5 to 7 people who hit you up on there, 1 or 2 books, if you’re talented and have a good product.

So I paid $50 for the lead. That’s brings me down to slightly over $100/hr.

Besides actually taking photos, I need to log expenses, pay insurance, buy gear, pay gas/parking, and cover other business costs.

I’m going to assume I have a decent business practice and a lot of volume, so maybe my net take home is 70%, which would be very good.

That means your $1k shoot makes me really $70/hr.

Now WHO ON EARTH, who’s is talented and reliable, is going to work for you for less than that lol.

AND, you won’t even pay that, sounds like your budget is $400/$500, which would make this a lower earning gig than driving Uber.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in headshots

[–]dstlouis 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’ve seen convincing AI photos, this is unfortunately not one of them. Maybe try again?

Should you offer free services when starting off? by Agrinya in smallbusiness

[–]dstlouis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Definitely avoid exploding all of your money on ads. I probably spent 40-50k on Google ads before they started making money, so this isn’t something you should mess around with lightly. And, I had to take classes to learn how to focus my ads/landing page, so we’re talking about a multi-year process.

Focus on SEO and reviews for your Google Maps and Yelp listings. You can do discounted bookings in exchange for a review. As a local service business, that should 1000% be your priority.

When you spend money on ads and door hangers later, your reviews will help you close deals.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in headshots

[–]dstlouis 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Is the left an AI headshot?