Presentation for San Diego PUG.

1. Marketing Small Business Understanding the Art of Profit & Marketing in a Social Media World

2. A Common View … I don’t know what I want to do with my life. I like taking pictures. My friend said my picture was nice. I’ll be a photographer. That will be fun, easy, rewarding. I will be happy.

3. Reality Taking pictures is fun. Making clients happy with them is hard. Just finding clients is hard. I spend most of my time doing everything but taking pictures. There are four other photographers on my block. Every customer who actually talks to me wants a deal. Maybe working at Starbucks WAS more fun.

4. Whether We Like It Or Not! Professional Photography is a Business. To be successful you have to treat it like a business. If you don’t, you will fail. It takes time An average of five years before you are actually making money It takes money An average photographer spends $20K to $40K in startup costs And there are no guarantees …. But a fundamental understanding of the way a business works will help you a lot!

5. The Profit Question. Do you have a great business? How Do You Know?

6. Revenue “Revenue is income, cash inflows, that a company receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sales of goods and services to customers.”

7. Profit “Revenue minus all expenses.” Profit is how much you keep at the end of the day – what you live on. Do you understand all of your costs? Are you making enough? Do you know the levers you can adjust to make more?

9. You’re shooting bigger, more expensive events

10. You’re shooting for wealthier clients

14. Four Immutable Laws You Must Define and Understand Your Target Customer. You Must have a Compelling Product/Feature Mix You Must Reach Potential Clients with a Resonant Message You Must Make a Profit

15. Everything Starts with the Customer The answer to every question you have about your business begins with, “what would my customers want?”

16. Who is Tommy Bahama? Who is your model customer? Can you write down ten traits that are common to the customers you love? “female, 25-35, mom, college educated, works, shops at Nordstrom, listens to country music, has simple style, pretty, confident” Are there enough people like this near you to make a living serving them? If not, who else can you serve?

17. Products that Work The root of your business is making something you love and something people will buy come as close together as possible. They will very rarely be exactly the same thing A good product is three things: Repeatable you can provide it to more than one client Saleable People in your marketplace will want to buy it. And they’ll be willing to pay enough to make it worth your while Differentiable There is something about your product that is different from the person down the street who’s doing the same thing.

18. Change is the Only Option Today’s standout, differentiated, everyone’s in love with it product is tomorrow’s yesterday’s news. But a Small Business must be Disciplined about introducing new products.

19. The BCG Matrix Using this simple, powerful model will make decisions much easier!

20. Getting the Word Out “Branding” The most overused and least understood term in the marketing vocabulary. “Branding” is the science of communicating who you are and what makes you special toyour target customer. Your Brand encompasses everything your business wants to be.

21. Don’t Sweat Your Logo It doesn’t matter. Ok. It does. Just a little. But on a list of 1000 things, this is number 975. Same with colors, fonts, etc. In the business of photography what does matter is: Compelling understandable targeted image collections. Differentiated products that make you stand out Pricing that makes sense to you target customer And a GREAT referral Base

22. Reaching Customers Any money you are spending advertising online is wasted. In small business, the vast majority of customers come through referrals. Build relationships with every customer, every vendor, every location and every friend. Continually remind your ‘community’ of your presence, products and services. Remember that “If You Build It They Will Come” is a lie.

23. The Biz-Social Media Conundrum Facebook – Friend or Foe? It isn’t going away and people aren’t going to use it less. So turn it into a friend. Encourage use of your images for profile pictures, etc. Just ask your clients to say “I love this picture from my great photographer!” To Tweet or not to Tweet? Every interaction on social media is an interaction with your clients. You have no private SM life. The internet always wins!

24. And Once All of that is Done Are you making a profit? Are you hitting your goals? Do you have goals? Do you have more money in your savings account this year than last year? If not. Start at the top and work your way through.

25. Frankly Speaking… Actually doing it is the real key to success …

26. A Parting Thought Time for a story... One evening, an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said the battle is between two wolves inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride and ego. One is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, generosity, truth, compassion, benevolence and faith. The boy thought about it for a moment and asked his grandfather, "Which wolf wins the battle?" The wise old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."