What to do when your business is being squeezed out of existence

Here's some insight into a business being squeezed out of existence. Professional photography: portraits, weddings, and studios.

If everyone has an awesome digital camera, who needs a professional photographer?
How long can a professional keep charging $55 for an 8x10 print, when I can get one printed online for under $5?
Can enough customers afford a $4,000 base wedding package to sustain a business?

Authors and pro photographers Shawn, Pamela & Gavin Richter have written a fine justification of their expertise and cost at Why are Professional Photographers so expensive? The problem is that a justification like this, no matter how well received by your professional peers, is not a solution to a fundamental shift that undermines your business.

Let's brainstorm. You're smart. How can you help the professional portrait photographer survive as a business? Anything is fair game, from minor tinkering with pricing to a complete re-engineering. The comments are yours.


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Posted by Becky McCray on Tuesday, May 13, 2008
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19 comments:

  1. To my mind, in many cases, they just need to shift the emphasis a bit. If you're pricing yourself like a pro, you have to say why.

    Sure, Uncle Joe may have a nice prosumer camera, but does he have lights (the onboard flash *does not* count)? Does he know how to properly light a portrait so the bride looks her very best? Does he have years of experience with posing the happy couple alongside their squirmy aunts, uncles, nieces and newphews? Can he catch expressive candid shots of your guests?

    The professional photography business is changing, to be sure, and prices may need to be adjusted somewhat to reflect this brave new world. But more important is to understand that some clients are *only* interested in price. You're not going to win them. But in the same way that there will always be cheapskates, there will always be people who do care about quality (especially for a big life event like a wedding) and will pay for it.

    So if you are good, if you really are a pro, you need to market that - your experience, your equipment, your education, your artistic expertise - in order to be able to charge more than the guy down the street who thinks that owning a professional camera makes him a photographer. You can't rely on the scarcity of equipment to justify your prices anymore - you have to rely on the scarcity of talent.

    As an aside, this same phenomenon is happening in many, many creative industries. Photography (not just wedding photography), video, print design, web design - you name it. If you're a pro, you can't compete on price to land the clients who think their niece/son/cousin with a digital camera and a couple Adobe programs can do the job. You have to compete on skill and expertise. You also have to realize, however, that not everyone cares about skill and expertise. You will lose people who only care about price. And that's ok.
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  2. In many industries, the technology is available to anyone, not just the professional anymore. So what makes someone a professional? Not the equipment, but the talent, experience and expertise.

    That's what differentiates and that's what you need to market.
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  3. As far as photographers go, stay up on the technology. I recently attended a wedding where the photographer put up a website where all the pictures were browsable in a Flash gallery and anybody could order prints of the specific photos they wanted. Way cool, and it shows how one way to avoid getting squeezed out is to offer more and better services.
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  4. Laura (Mitten) and Dave, great comments on marketing your talents and expertise. Laura, thanks especially for your very well thought out points. You are right about this applying equally to many other creative industries.

    Webomatica, thanks for mentioning that new technology. I've been thinking you could extend that idea to technology that also lets you reach further into the market. Maybe you start letting guests and family upload photos, too. You could then offer super high quality prints from any image, retouching, or other image services. Perhaps you can use technology to pull together slide shows of the bride and groom before the wedding? It seems like technology opens some new avenues, even as it closes off some old ones.

    More ideas are welcome!
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  5. Becky, I recently presented to the local photographers guild and this subject was a primary worry.

    In their April briefing, Trendwatching.com examined the role of status stories in branding success. I suggested this as a possible solution for local photographers. The primary question I posed was, how can you give your customers status stories about themselves?

    Among the ideas we brainstormed: one-of-a-kind set pieces that would be disassembled immediately after the session, never to be used again: scouting outside secret shoot locations that previously have never been used: becoming a life-history archiver and documenter.

    It would be good for all businesses to ask the status-story question, but particularly photographers.
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  6. Jay, that is terrific thinking! Portrait photographers are definitely good candidates for creating status stories for people. It is more work, but the level of customer you would attract is completely different.

    It also makes me think of the social object idea that I first heard from Hugh MacLeod (that it was originated by some whose name escapes me). How can we transform a portrait into a social object?
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  7. Over at Maine Business Today, Carl Natale offers more comments on reaching down into the market.

    "You need to go after the customers who want to pay less money. That doesn't mean lowering prices. That does mean developing lower priced products."

    "Offer classes in how to photograph weddings. They're going to do it anyway. So make a few bucks off them. Sell them some equipment to get the job done better or easier. Set up a practice wedding that might convince them that they need to hire a pro.

    "This isn't enough to keep a photographer in the black. They need to go where the money is and be flexible.

    "Everyone needs to pay attention because technology can hit their business models with a sledgehammer too. Very few will be able to hold onto the premium customers. Survivors will have to go after the customers who pay less."

    His points are especially true for the small town small business. (Not surprising from Maine Business Today.) The number of premium customers available to you in any rural area is limited. You have to find ways to reach down and capture shares of the remaining market, too.
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  8. I like the comparison in the Caught on Film post between using scissors on hair at home instead of paying for a professional haircut. My wife works for a local salon that, some clients think (especially new ones), charge too much for their hair services. Level 1 for men's cuts, for instance, start in the mid $50s. But if that guy has one or more bad cuts elsewhere and (even worse) needs to get it fixed, he would end up spending way more. You get what you pay for.
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  9. I think that a major challenge is that professional photographers are not always their best marketing (or sales) people.

    They need to do a better job at describing the value custoemrs get from their services. I, for one, was not aware of all the time they spent in doing their work.

    So, if I were in their shoes, I'd make sure that the client understand that they get:

    1. A professional photographer
    2. Great pictures
    3. Photoshop enhancing
    4. Someone that browses through the pictures and selects the best
    5. etc etc etc.

    And it costs money. If you also explain the amount of time spent, they'll better understand the cost.

    One thing though - stop the practice of "owning the originals and charging for re-prints". Photos are easily scanned and the practice makes it look like nickel & diming. Plus it generates a bad feeling - at least it did for me.

    --Marco
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  10. Mark, that's an interesting comparison with another professional service industry. Thanks!

    Marco, I definitely agree with the point about how photographers sell prints in this digital age. Your perspective as a customer is valuable in this discussion. And good to see you again!
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  11. Becky -

    Good to see you too! I loved that you posted this case. It shows the value of truly understanding marketing.

    What is true for this photographer is true for many self employed professionals. They may be masterful technicians in their profession but not good marketers.

    Cheers,
    Marco
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  12. I'd say it would be good to move up-market, if possible. There is a family photographer that has a studio about a mile from where I live, and he manages to drive a new Lexus. He has been in biz for a long time, so he has the equity of having long-standing customers. And he charges a lot.
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  13. Paul, thanks for commenting! Existing studios especially have the option of focusing exclusively on the top of the market, and the consensus of comments is definitely with you on this one. New technology adds new ways to go about that, and new services top of the line pros can offer.
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  14. Brian Lingle said...
    Marco wrote that photographers should, "stop the practice of "owning the originals and charging for re-prints". My question for those of you that agree with Marco: What do you expect to pay for a professional photographer to create a good quality, retouched photo and give you the digital file so you can make any number and size reprints at the lab of your choice?
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  15. Brian, thanks for discovering this discussion, more than two years after we started it. I'd love to hear any suggestions you have to make professional photographers, and others being squeezed, more viable.
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  16. Scanning is a euphemism for stealing. Yes, it's easy to steal a photographer's work and it's a common practice. And "good people" can always find justifications, like in this case, blaming the photographer. That is a big part of the problem, not just competition from lower priced amateurs. If selling the digital file with permission to make prints is a possible solution, then the next step is asking how much people expect to pay for a digital portrait file that they can use to make unlimited prints in any size they want.
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  17. Brian, I know my local photographer sells a digital file for images, so I'm sure you can search up other examples. And perhaps those photographers will be willing to share how well those images sell.

    The central question that I posed is "how do business people survive in these tough industries?" Professional Mike Klemme shared his advice on that question in "How a small town photographer survives in a crowded field."
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  18. A photographer friend in Lawrence was suffering because the city was doing road work on his street to the South and routing traffic so it was hard to find him and the state closed the highway exit to the North making matters worse. His assistant talked him into doing pin-ups and they created a unique product that no one in the area was offering. It turned out to be a perfect combination of talents between the two of them. She plans the costumes and props with clients and he creates fabulous, artistic images. She does the marketing while he does the post processing. She is remarkable at promoting their product. They have people flying in from all over the country to have a pin-up made. That's a specific example of creating a unique product, being the best in their niche, great marketing, and appealing to a high end market. Here's their website:

    http://www.bombshells.info/?page=home

    Be sure and check them out on Facebook to see how incredibly good she is with marketing through social networking.

    You won't find Bombshell selling their digital files to anyone. For the most part, I think people who sell their digital portrait files are competing in the low end of the market, catering to people for whom price is the deciding factor. It puts them in a market competing with amateurs and weekend warriors, people who have full time jobs and don't need to make a living from their photography. For those who need to be able to pay the mortgage, health care and everything involved in supporting their families from their photography income after deducting overhead costs, selling the digital files is generally not considered a sustainable business practice. A photographer I know who teaches business courses for the Professional Photographers of America and consults with other photographers told me that the full time professionals he knows who switched to selling digital files were soon out of business.

    There is no easy solution that works for everybody. If I had all the answers I wouldn't have read Mike's article or this one. I'm here because I'm struggling with the same issues as everyone else and I'm looking for answers. The people I know who are succeeding have found solutions that are unique to them and they had the personal, business and social resources to make it work.
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  19. Brian, I think you've summarized it well. Every business has to find their own solutions. I hope the discussion here has helped one or two people to get closer to their solution.
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