What’s Your Preference?

Jim Poor · #1 (**permalink**) 12-22-2010, 02:29 PM

Well, maybe not really, but here's a glimpse into my end of year plans, worries, etc.

This time last year, I set a goal of more portraits and fewer dog sports. What I ended up with was more portraits and MORE dog sports. The more dog sports part kept me from getting as many more portraits as I wanted because with 59 events in one year, virtually every weekend was marked as unavailable on my calendar as were a few regular weeks.

So, this year here I sit again. I've decided to go from 59 events last year to 25-30 next. Looking at Jan-Feb is pretty scary right now as the calendar is almost totally white with only one event. The temptation is to book anything and everything in sight, but that would leave me with no time for portraits again.

A broader look at the whole year, shows that I'm 70% booked for dog sports and that I've gone over my "quota" of two per month in three out of the twelve months.

So, I've resolved to stick to my guns and have instructed my scheduler to stick strictly to no more than two weekends per month for dog sports from March on, but to book whatever she can in Jan-Feb. That seems like a good compromise.

NicoleScraps · #2 (**permalink**) 12-22-2010, 02:37 PM

I understand where you are coming from. Being self employed is a scary thing sometimes when you see nothing on the plate during a particular month.
Hubby struggles with this all of the time with his business.
He'll have no work coming in, then do a bunch of marketing to get new clients. Then his old clients will all of the sudden send him a ton of work and he is slammed.
I've told him before to just trust in his clients' loyalties (he takes good care of them), trust in his abilities, and keep a nest egg in the bank.

sk66 · #3 (**permalink**) 12-22-2010, 03:08 PM

Hmm,..
If I gether correctly, you do the sporting events primarily under speculation and the portraits are the high profit market..but doesn't the sporting events feed the portraiture side for you?
It's a tough call....But I think you made the right choice...The sporting events are also "marketing" and what you should be doing when things are slow.

Jim Poor · #4 (**permalink**) 12-22-2010, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sk66

Hmm,..
If I gether correctly, you do the sporting events primarily under speculation and the portraits are the high profit market..but doesn't the sporting events feed the portraiture side for you?
It's a tough call....But I think you made the right choice...The sporting events are also "marketing" and what you should be doing when things are slow.

In theory, the sports could feed into portraits. In reality, most of the sports folks spend every bit of their spare income on the sports themselves. I see anywhere from 50-600 dogs every weekend (usually in the 300 range) and last year I did three private sittings from dog sport clients.

I did some "on-site" portraits at a couple events for a "group rate," but a lot events don't have the space for it or I don't have the time to take away from shooting the event itself.

Part of it is that I haven't put much "on-site" effort into marketing portraits to those folks, but the other part of it is that they simply don't budget enough to pay me a $350 creative fee ($200 in 2010) and an average print purchase of $1200.

Biomech · #5 (**permalink**) 12-22-2010, 09:23 PM

2 things:

By portraits do you mean the private dog portraits or people?
And I'm getting ready to go live April 6th, I see you're stacked for jobs, my biggest worry is I won't get enough work to pay the bills :/

Jim Poor · #6 (**permalink**) 12-22-2010, 09:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Biomech

2 things:

By portraits do you mean the private dog portraits or people?
And I'm getting ready to go live April 6th, I see you're stacked for jobs, my biggest worry is I won't get enough work to pay the bills :/

I mean private dog portraits. I only do the occasional "human only" work.