By Gary Geschwind
Working as an independent photographer can be thought of in two parts, 1) marketing yourself, and 2) doing the work. In my experience, each takes about the same amount of time. Although when starting up a relatively unknown business, marketing to build your reputation will be more time consuming. Throughout the year, we will bring additional articles discussing the business side of photography.
So what makes a successful business? Maximizing revenues and minimizing costs. As an independent businessperson, you need to look at all activities as either revenue-generating or a cost center. You have two levers to use (1) how much time you put to each and (2) how productive you are doing that activity.
If you are the typical photographer, then you generate revenue by taking more photographs and by selling those photographers. They are revenue-generating centers and you want to put more time into those activities. However, lab work in the Shop to fix defects, to enhance photos and to prepare for output also takes a significant amount of time and often it is a cost center. Here you want to minimize the amount of time. In other words, the more time you spend in reworking your images, the less time you can spend taking photographs and practicing the art.
An alternative approach is to minimize the lab time through automation. Many routine steps (and sometimes creative steps, too) can be accomplished in seconds with a Photoshop “action”. Over the next week, look for some additional articles that explore how to gain these productivity enhancements.
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