Every once in a while, there is a book that can have an actual impact on your business. It's very rare that you can actually take what they mention in a book and apply it. It's rare, extremely rare. The book is Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive by Noah J. Goldstein (Author), Steve J. Martin (Author), Robert B. Cialdini (Author). It's available at Amazon or any other bookstore.

They did an experiment:

Waiters gave candy with the restaurant bill to diners in three different ways:

1. 1 candy for each guest
2. 2 candies to each guest
3. 1 candy for each guest followed by walking away from the table, then turning around to give a second candy to each guest.

The results were:

1. 3.3% increase in tips for one candy.
2. 14.1% increase in tips for two candies given at once.
3. 23% increase in tips for the walk away and return with a second piece scenario.

What's a tip got to do with running a photography business? Everything. The photography business is the people business. People buy your photos. If you give them more than they expected, they will buy more and will come back for your photo services.

A couple of days ago, I got this email:

1. Don't email: email is too easy to ignore.
2. Phone the editor to make an appointment without sounding hostile asking for:

Or something along these lines. Change it from business to personal. You are asking a person to help you, and many will.

When I take photos, I always get:

It always infuriate mes me. I'd like to respond “Give me your money” but my standard “wimpy” answer is: “It will be tonight on my website”. But: What the Duck¹⁾ has a much better answer:

I love it.

Regularly I receive calls and emails, asking if they can use my photos for free. I don't know about you. If you are a professional photographer, and you give away your photos and your rights for free, you will not stay a professional photographer for long. I rarely give my photos for free. The keyword is rarely, meaning that I have done it.

How fortunate I am, that they have chosen to use my photos for free! It will raise my profile in the “industry.” Most of them are outraged that I dared not give my photos for free. Some have even suggested that I should pay them for the benefit of being published.

I don't give way photos willy-nilly. I have a policy. Depending on who asks and how they ask, I have agreed but under the condition that they fulfill my policy:

Once they receive my policy via email, they usually ask me to modify it or rescind it, just for one time. That's when I say:

As a photographic business, we will take any publicity we can get, especially the good one. Publicity is good, especially free publicity.

1. Free publicity is cheap.
2. Free publicity is the best advertising.
3. Free publicity will make us rich.
4. Free publicity will make you gorgeous and win the lottery!
5. …

So how does a photographer gets free publicity? They¹⁾ always tell you to make a press release announcing that you are:

1. The biggest photographer, or the biggest photography studio
2. The smallest photographer/photography studio
3. The oldest…
4. Different…

I don't know about you, but I know that this has never worked for me. What can you do that makes you such a different photographer from anybody else. You shoot weddings, do portraits, do advertising, do travel… So is everybody else, even my dog takes photos. Now a dog taking photos is something different! That will get you plenty of free publicity.

The news media: radio, newspapers and TVs always need positive local content, especially on slow news days.

Last year, one of my biggest customer went “belly up”, closed, bankrupt, sort of. They did file for bankruptcy after they paid the “small guys”, including me. They owed me $400, which they paid.

6 month later, I get a phone call from Travis, the ex-owner. He's trying to get back in business and there are a couple of photos that he'd like to use, but he can't afford to pay me anything.

Late last night, much later than usual, I received a phone call from Travis, he's back in business and will need my service next month, 2 full days with payment on delivery. That wasn't me who asked, he offered.

Your customers and employees will remember how you treated them when times were tough, when they needed a break. No one remembers how you acted during the boom times.

Photography can be either a business or a hobby. If you are reading this website, it's because you are already operating a photographic business or want to become a photographic business. All businesses have customers.

To put more simply: No customer = No business. If you have customers, you will need to charge for your photos.

• So how much do you charge?
• How much should you charge?
• How do you set you prices?
  1. Same as your competition?
  2. What your customer can pay?
  3. What you need to earn a living?
  4. What you think you are worth?

Before you decide, you should look at your costs. As a photographic business, you will have overheads such as an office/studio, telephone, cameras, lenses, hydro… What about a salary for yourself; maybe even assistants? How many industries do you know, where successful business owners set their prices without knowing their costs? None, zero, nada, zilch.

Before setting your prices, you must figure out your costs. The National Press Photographers Association: NPPA has a cost of doing business calculator where you just plug in your figures. It even has suggestions that are a fairly good starting point.

– Niels Bohr

I have known Danny¹⁾ for years, we often bump into each other. He's a good photographer, but business is not what it should be. He always complains about how bad business is, then he always asks, if am too busy, that I send him some customers. I have not. I have recommended a few other photographers but never Danny. Why? Because he wears his religion on his sleeves, he makes everybody uncomfortable with it.

1. I can't remember a conversation where he didn't quote the bible.
2. He has many stickers on his car about Jesus being his real boss…

Your religion is your religion. You can be proud of it. Photography is a business; it's not a pulpit to preach a religion. Don't bring up religion or politics in your business. Now if your customer asks or brings it up, that's a different story.

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I am amazed at people's naivety when it comes to the Internet! Somehow people think that they can control what's on the Internet. The latest example is Obama¹⁾. The Obama team has removed many policies²⁾ from their website see: Agenda vanishes from Obama's transition website as reported by CNet.

• Did you put in foot in your mouth on your photo blog³⁾? and now wish to retract it?
• Did you post a comment on somebody else's website, that now you regret being associated with it?
• Did you post what turns out to be embarrassing photos?
• Did you post some photos that are not your best work?
• Are you posting your new prices, and hope that people will not notice the price increase?