In life, you have many choices to make throughout your life that accompany several different paths. The beautiful thing about the world we live in is, for the most part, you get to decide which path you would like to travel down. I found my favorite path to be one I am walking down with a camera in my hand. Now to you, when envisioning a day in the life of a photographer it probably seems pretty easy right? Snapping a few pictures, living life simply, and thriving every day? ... Unfortunately it's not just that easy. Us as photographers must have skill sets that range from advertising to business to creativity and everywhere in between. If an artist wants to make it in the world of photography he/she must have the professional capability to appeal to a large audience of people and draw attention to their product. After sitting down and speaking with someone who works in the professional world of business you can learn there is a lot that goes into appealing to your audience and bringing the attention of the largest possible array of customers.
One of the most important aspects of speaking to an audience or customers is how you address them as well as how you present yourself. It is human nature to try and read someone through how they speak and how they select their words. There are proper speaking conventions for different groups of people and different occasions. For example, if you are hanging out with your friends, just talking loosely and “shootin’ the shit” if you will, you know you can speak in an unorganized and sporadic like fashion because your friends have an expectation of how you speak; however, that expectation is not one which they expect to hear old english come out of your mouth or even the type of speech you would use in a professional business situation. That’s just not what you and your friends are used to (hopefully...otherwise I’d be considering pursuit of a new friend group) On the other hand, if you are presenting your work or trying to pitch your idea to a group of people in a business-like situation, you are going to to select your words in a meticulous and professional manner. This can otherwise be referred to as rhetoric. The idea of rhetoric is that there is a different strategy to speech depending on the audience. If you imagine the places where you see writing, you will see that the way it is written is decided specifically for that occasion. Writing is everywhere if you think about it. There is writing on warning labels, written in a very strict transparent way so that the reader understands the danger efficiently and quickly. There is writing in store windows to potentially attract customers. This is a perfect example of writing being implemented in a business environment to help the company appeal to clients or customers. If you see a store that has a sign reading “SALE 20% OFF” in the window that is written and placed strategically so you as the buyer will first of all see the sign (written in all caps) as well as feel like you are getting a better deal by buying their product opposed to other stores products. So to reiterate the connection of rhetoric to business practices_____ In most cases, this will be made up of an organized plan of attack, respectful gestures, and an interesting presentation that will hold their attention. When interviewing someone in the professional world who deals with this type of interaction on a daily basis you get to understand what goes into the behind the scenes of holding a business meeting. When holding a meeting with a group of people that are possibly interested in what you are selling you must be prepared. Preparedness shows that you are serious about what you are doing. It will show your client that they can depend on you in future products. Everything that goes into the meeting with your clients must be thoroughly thought through and planned. You should have everything planned from the preparation before the meeting to the interaction during the meeting to the follow up after the meeting. The same follows for the world of photography. As photographers it is our job to create and present a product or image in this case that appeals to our clients in an organized and professional fashion. My interviewee went on to talk about how you want to present your idea, make your pitch organized and easy to follow, keep in mind what the client wants because that is always first, and make a good impression by being respectful and friendly. How a person speaks means a lot about how they hold themselves, how passionate they are, and what kind of person they are. If you can holster these qualities in the best and most appealing fashion to your clients then you will have yourself set up for success.
Another major part of establishing a successful business practice is presenting your work in a way that well represents you yourself, your motives, and your passion. This is very important in establishing a self image for yourself. Around the world there are many different people for many different things. Have you ever found yourself watching an old-time movie or even a TV-show where the character turns to the other character and says, “I got a guy”. Now, there are many different “guys” throughout the world we live in for many different things. Someone may have a book guy, or a fruit guy, or a construction guy, and so on. As a photographer you want to become one of those “guys”. A person who has a signature for themselves, a reason people will hire you opposed to the next guy This comes down to a matter of organizing your work and establishing a signature for yourself. Something that makes you stand out for what you do. This can be achieved in one way by going above and beyond the expectations of your client. If you blow them away with your organization and professionality as well as the final product you will have extremely reliable customers and plenty of them. I have a photography teacher, Greg Voight, who once told us a story about his beginning years as a photographer. He was trying to get a job shooting for a golf event coverage between him and several other photographers. When Greg showed up to deliver his images they were all organized neatly in a binder labeled and all. The director was astonished. He had never seen something so professionally done. He was used to receiving a bag full of negatives and to have them all organized and layed out nicely… who do you think was the first person he called the following year? To this same point you want to create an image for yourself that stands for your business. When you are trying to run a business you want continuing and reliable customers. Customers become reliable when they become comfortable. Creating this signature for yourself allows people to feel comfortable with what they are buying because every time they pick up their phone to call you for a job they will know what they will get as a final product. It’s like a sandwich shop, sure there’s plenty of sandwich shops around town but you just love that one sandwich place because you know you’re going to get a fantastic sandwich. Now, you like that sandwich so much that you want to go tell your friends about this great sandwich you just had. It is the same when you are trying to sell a product and this is exactly how good business works. Supporting a strong and positive representation of your business is key in drawing people in and maintaining relationships with clients.
As a photographer it is our job to grab your attention and make you feel through the imagery that we capture. This is the same for business practices you want to grab the attention of the client and customer. My interviewee, Doug is a marketing consultant in a group of about 50 people that all work together to pitch ideas to different companies ranging anywhere from hallmark to sara lee to petco. These ideas consist of ways that the company can make their product better and more appealing to their customers. If you think about it this is a huge part of the company selling their product. So in a way Doug has to figure out what will make people more inclined to buy this product. Part of that process will be finding out how to make people feel like they have to buy this product. This might be putting rough looking shelter pups on the packages of the dog food for Petco to appeal to people’s emotions. They see the dogs on the bag and maybe it says 5% of profit will go to shelter organizations. These are all business practices to get someone to feel more inclined to buy that product opposed to the others. The same follows for photography. Our job is to produce an image that you see and you feel happy, sad, angry, confused, it doesn’t matter what you feel as long as we can make you feel something. Because, that feeling alone draws you into the image. In a photography business example, imagine you are a wedding photographer. A couple walks into your studio looking for a potential photographer. If they look at the walls and see all the beautiful married couples so happy and wonderful and nothing in the world could ever be wrong with them. They both go “Awww, look at them we want that, we want to be like them. We’ll hire you.” And that’s how business works. Make them feel like they will be happy in the end of things just like the couples on your wall. This my friends can be referred to as using ethos, pathos, and logos in your business practices, an extremely valuable tool. In one of my classes, my brilliant teacher Zack Depiero asks us, “who has seen a movie recently that made you cry?” People went on to answer, and Zack then asks, “why? Why did this movie make you feel like that.” To his point, this movie was completely fiction. All the characters are made up and so is the story. So why does entertainment basically lying to you make you feel so strongly for the characters? It’s because the person selling to you is establishing a relationship between their piece, product, or characters and making you feel connected to them and emotional for them. You would be surprised how much emotions really affect people’s choices every single day. If you can appeal to people’s emotions through your work, I guarantee you will be able to reel ‘em in. It is simply how us amazing human beings work, true human nature.
It truly is crazy how related photography is with the business world and how many people would never know how connected the two are. If you can communicate effectively to an audience they will take you seriously and be more likely to be a client to you if you treat them like their interest is your priority. Creating an image for yourself and relationships with clients is key in maintaining continued business. Finally people love feelings, our society is becoming more and more dramatic as the days pass, so recognize that and feed the drama! Make people see what is before them with their feelings and encourage them that your product is worthy of their emotions. Being a successful businessman is achievable by harnessing all these techniques and using them to attract an audience to your work.
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