Professional Photographers - Don"t Needlessly Create a Competitor
The photography industry is competitive and is becoming increasingly more so.
With the advent of digital cameras a number or people are looking at the industry and deciding that they too can be professional photographers.
While the barrier to entry into the photography business is low, there are a few hard earned competitive advantages that an established photographer should protect.
While normally the employee/employer relationship in the photography business is productive and a win/in for both the employer and employee, at times an employee will take unfair advantage of his employer and begin a competing business.
While the employee is absolutely free to start a business, it should not be done with the hard earned assets of the employers business.
The following are some ideas on how a professional photography business owner can avoid this pitfall.
1.
Keep your client list from being easily taken by your employees.
This can be done through a database and proper software.
A properly structured database with applicable software will allow an employee to look up a client's information through a last name or telephone number but not allow a dump of all the clients in the system.
If an employee wants your client list, he will have to steal the client's information one by one.
2.
Don't allow the actions and macros to be copied.
There are a number of ways this can be done.
Give your employees a logon which only allows read access to the macros and actions - not write access.
3.
Use someone who lives outside of your community to complete your orders.
The last thing a photography business owner needs is ex- employee sharing your his information with your clients.
This can be done by using remote software to access your PC on which orders are performed.
4.
Use a non-compete agreement to the degree possible.
Contact a local attorney to find out what is and what is not enforceable.
Don't put anything in it you know is not enforceable.
You may lose your employee's trust if you put terms in it which are not likely to be enforced.
The photography industry is competitive.
Don't make it more so by allowing employees take your competitive information.
With the advent of digital cameras a number or people are looking at the industry and deciding that they too can be professional photographers.
While the barrier to entry into the photography business is low, there are a few hard earned competitive advantages that an established photographer should protect.
While normally the employee/employer relationship in the photography business is productive and a win/in for both the employer and employee, at times an employee will take unfair advantage of his employer and begin a competing business.
While the employee is absolutely free to start a business, it should not be done with the hard earned assets of the employers business.
The following are some ideas on how a professional photography business owner can avoid this pitfall.
1.
Keep your client list from being easily taken by your employees.
This can be done through a database and proper software.
A properly structured database with applicable software will allow an employee to look up a client's information through a last name or telephone number but not allow a dump of all the clients in the system.
If an employee wants your client list, he will have to steal the client's information one by one.
2.
Don't allow the actions and macros to be copied.
There are a number of ways this can be done.
Give your employees a logon which only allows read access to the macros and actions - not write access.
3.
Use someone who lives outside of your community to complete your orders.
The last thing a photography business owner needs is ex- employee sharing your his information with your clients.
This can be done by using remote software to access your PC on which orders are performed.
4.
Use a non-compete agreement to the degree possible.
Contact a local attorney to find out what is and what is not enforceable.
Don't put anything in it you know is not enforceable.
You may lose your employee's trust if you put terms in it which are not likely to be enforced.
The photography industry is competitive.
Don't make it more so by allowing employees take your competitive information.
