CHAPTER 13-: Here is Chapter Thirteen “The Complete Guide to Starting a Photography Business.” “- Entrepreneurs are so obsessed with expanding their revenue streams and growing their client portfolios that they don’t realize that the only way to bring meaningful business success is to focus on business. optimization of their business operations. When it comes to optimizing the photography industry, nothing is more important than encouraging employees to perform to the best of their abilities and potential. If the photographers in your business aren’t up to the task, then your business operations should definitely be abandoned.
Improving the efficiency of photographers is not easy
Getting your photographers to work hard and fully engage in your work is much more difficult than planning an effective marketing strategy. Your marketing plans and cost reduction efforts are based on your creativity and much of it in your hands. However, when it comes to making your photographers do a better job, you will find yourself in a position where you no longer exercise the same authority as other areas of your business.
If Your Photographer If you are just not ready to provide the best photographic equipment, there is nothing you can do but remove your photographer or send him back. However, the dismissal and suspension from work is unlikely to benefit any company, let alone the photography industry, which operates in an industry that is in dire need of talented and experienced photographers.
Instead of asking your photographers to leave when they fail to meet their expectations, you need to motivate them and instill in them the seeds of determination to overcome phases of redundancy and inefficiency and prove their worth in your business. . Perhaps nothing is more difficult for an entrepreneur than to encourage their employees to be the best they can be and to leave nothing at home.
- Losing the passion for working with photography
If you want your photographers to be workhorses and dedicated employees, you must first determine the reasons why a photographer may be reluctant to provide your business with the best services he or she can provide. Provided you have an impeccable recruiting program and have hired true talented and trustworthy photographers who can take on any challenges your business faces, you need to be sure that your photographers have the potential and credentials to demonstrating unparalleled photographic brilliance and splendor.
In other words, you can rest assured that your photographers are passionate enough to take on some of the toughest and most challenging jobs your clients may give you. However, passion is something that can easily go away. It is like a fire burning deep in the heart of a man or woman who is always at work. When working conditions do not complement the ambition and inclinations of the employee, this passion for a particular profession, which is in the heart of a man or a woman, begins to fade.
Thus, the intensity of their zeal for their tasks is significantly reduced, and they gradually begin to lose motivation to go the extra mile and overcome additional obstacles to be successful. When your employees are unhappy or unhappy with the working environment in your photography business, you can be sure that they are tired of your practices and need a new source of inspiration to rekindle the fire of passion that was burning long ago.
- Be charmed by your rivals
You should also take into account that the competition in photography is getting more and more fierce with each passing day. When there is fierce competition between companies, it not only forces them to fight for more market share, but also forces them to participate in a tug of war for the best photographers in town. Remember that no matter how many photography courses and schools are created and developed, the number of great photographers in any industry will always be limited.
No matter how many GWC mushrooms are in the city’s neighborhoods or how popular photography is, the supply of high-quality photographers will be somewhat limited given the practice, patience, and skill required to achieve true mastery. . in the field of photography.
This is the reason why other photography companies, especially those that are in direct competition with you, will always be looking to hire disgruntled, disgruntled, and disgruntled workers who are considering leaving their business to graze green grass. elsewhere. Even if the working conditions in your company are exemplary and your salary is respectable, you will still have employees who will consider working for you and those who will seek better employment opportunities in another company or photography industry.
- Increasing costs do not promote employee retention
Under these circumstances, the hobbyist entrepreneur will resort to the impractical solution to spend more on the employees to ensure that they are not tempted by the organization. However, increasing your spending is not the right way to retain employees. When you recruit photographers for your business, you don’t need amazing money to find the best employees. All you had to do was just use the best recruiting strategies and find smart ways to screen out the most talented amateur photographers.
In other words, instead of resorting to increased costs, you have relied on your wits and wisdom to attract photographers who will bring great value and reputation to your photography business. Likewise, you need to keep your hands off your wallet while trying to keep your best employees. Instead of luring them to better deals, you need to come up with smart ideas that make them believe and feel that working in your photography business will best serve their career and professional interests.
Photography agent engagement model
If you want your photographers to be involved mentally, physically, and spiritually in their work and in their commitment to providing your business with the best possible photographic services, you need to develop an employee engagement plan or employee engagement template.
If you execute this model to perfection, you will surely be able to demand the best possible results from your employees and dedicate them to the desire to push their limits and cross their limits every time they have to deal with a customer. . This engagement plan should be an integral part of your employee retention plan. One cannot stress the importance of having an employee retention plan.
It might be a little difficult for you to understand the importance of keeping your employees in the early stages of your business, but as you gain experience over the years, you will quickly realize that keeping those same employees in your business saves you a tremendous amount of money and time. Whenever you hire a new employee, you must devote valuable time and money to their education and training so that they fit the style of your business and meet the standards that your business strives for. ‘achieve whenever she accepts an assignment from a client.
When you have a permanent team of employees who serve you for an extended period (preferably 7-10 years), this will allow the team to develop healthy chemistry, which in turn will develop a thirst to strive higher. and to be better with their photographic services. Going back to the employee engagement model, here are the 5 main components that make up the model:
5 elements to learn to model the interaction with photographers
- Alignment
- Warning
- Attitude
- Evaluation
- Authenticity
1) Alignment
The first component of an employee engagement plan is consistency, which involves the idea of creating harmony between the strengths of your employees, in this case the photographers, and the demands of the jobs and tasks you have for them. assigned. In other words, the capabilities of your photographers should be in sync with the requirements of the job description. This is what you need to make sure of during the recruiting phase, but you can never really understand whether a photographer is suitable for the job or not if they are not involved in it.
For example, if you hire photographers for your sports photography agency, you will likely be looking for photographers who have photographed a particular sport in the past. Most of the time you will come across photographers who have played sports in the minor league or in the lower categories where the pace of the game is much slower and the pressure of the working environment is much lower.
Since your photography agency may contract a large sports team or a sports arena, your photographers will have to deal with sports situations and sports environments with which they are completely unfamiliar. This is when you will notice if your photographer’s strengths match the nature of the work being done.
If you want to match your employees’ strengths with the demands of the job at hand, you must first learn about their strengths. Researching, evaluating and analyzing employee attributes is one of the characteristics of the extraordinary entrepreneur. You cannot neglect a stone to reveal, articulate and defend the strengths of your photographers. This means that it is not enough to know them.
You need to determine exactly how you can use their capabilities to benefit your business, or in other words, you need to know how to manipulate their capabilities to support your business program. It sounds like the work of a genius, but all it really takes is a little planning, a pinch of logical reasoning, and a little analytical thinking.
Again, making sure your employees match their jobs isn’t the easiest job in the world. If you have managers in your business, you need to train them to identify exactly what your photographers are missing. Have them use each photographer’s skills or arsenal until they provide you with a detailed report on the types of applications or tasks they are suitable for. each photographer.
One of the things you need to remember is that when it comes to alignment, focusing on the weaknesses won’t do you any good. Instead of trying to erase or eliminate the weaknesses of your employees, make a sincere effort to harness, develop and exploit the strengths they have.
For example, if you have a photographer in your pet photography agency who works well with dogs and has bird reservations, don’t force them to master the art of photographing birds, even if they have. more money in it. Just ask a photographer to broaden their experience in dog photography and soon you will create an amazing photographer who can make you thousands of dollars a day for painting dogs.
2) Attention
Physical and non-physical ways to increase the attention of your employees are described in the Attention section of the Employee Engagement Model. As an entrepreneur and acting director of your photography business, the most valuable resource you can give to your employees isn’t money (although that’s what every employee hopes for), but their attention. .
This is even more true in the photography industry, as photographers take pride in their profession and always strive to be noticed by their superiors. The quality and nature of the attention you pay to your employees says a lot about how you treat them and how you plan to retain them during tough times.
The general perception of photographers, as mentioned earlier, is that they are isolated entities who enjoy living and working on their own. This may be true for some photographers, but even then, every photographer in the world will be happy to receive some genuine and genuine attention from their employers. So make sure you don’t miss out on making your photographers feel under your radar. You don’t have to be obsessed with making them smile or laugh. Just name them, say hello in the morning, and celebrate their accomplishments to make them feel good about your organization.
3) attitude
It’s one thing to pay attention to the work of your photographers, but it’s a whole different dynamic to make them feel like you’re keeping a positive attitude. A positive attitude comes from positive feelings and positive thoughts that you can spread through the minds of your employees. When you put positivity in the minds of your photographers, you empower them to take on any challenge and take on any challenge, no matter how small.
For example, when you have a demanding client approaching you with an incredibly difficult task, you need to instill confidence in the hearts of the photographers who will be assigned the task. Instead of scaring them and warning them of the consequences of failure, instill in them a sense of faith and trust so that they can do their job without worrying about firing them or fining them. they go wrong. You simply won’t believe how positive thinking can help a photographer unleash their potential and fulfill their professional responsibilities flawlessly.
You should also be careful to avoid negative emotions from your job. environment. Don’t transfer the anger and anxiety from your love life to your workplace. These emotions are contagious and can affect your employees quite easily.
4) appreciation
The need for appreciation and the desire for compliments are embedded in the heart of every professional. Perhaps the desire to be appreciated is greater than the financial need for cash reimbursement. Even the most arrogant and obsessive photographers in the world would like their employers to come to them and personally recognize their contributions. Why is this desire so strong? Indeed, evaluation is the most important incentive for any employee. Without appreciation, your photographers will lose the motivation to keep up with their workload and provide high quality photography services.
For example, if your photographer does an amazing job of keeping a client happy by taking amazing and breathtaking photos, then you should congratulate your photographers on their success and let them know that you have always believed in their abilities (even if you don’t. have not done). Your words will inspire your photographer and make him work twice as hard so he can impress you next time. Measuring your employees’ efforts is a very easy way to get them to work harder without paying them extra money. It doesn’t get any less complicated than that.
5) Authenticity
Photographers hide their faces behind cameras, but that doesn’t stop them from thinking about how their employers are trying to make them work harder. Do you honestly think that your employees cannot see the different entrepreneurial methods you are using to get them to work under difficult conditions?
If you think along the same lines, you are deeply mistaken. Being overly kind, caring, and loving to your coworkers will get you nowhere. If you try to go too far with your kindness, your photographers will likely stop appreciating you for who you are. Therefore, it is imperative that you stay true to your character and express a sincere desire to help your photographers.
For example, if you own a photography business and need a certain photographer to cover two events on the same day ( which is very hectic ), you might be tempted to spend a bit more time with it. this photographer and engage in gossip. to soften it up for the difficult task ahead. If you are not used to talking to your employees a lot, then the photographer will not be fooled by your technique and will simply refuse to meet your requirements.
So, it’s important that you stay consistent with your communication and don’t develop the habit of having friendly conversations only when you need your photos to do extra work.
