The 80-20 Rule For Photographers
The 80-20 rule applies to many facets of a photography business but perhaps the most important is where you actually spend your time and where you make your money.
For most people it probably looks something like this: 80% of your time is spent on activities that produce 20% of your income, or less.
Paperwork, interruptions and distractions...
busy work that eats into your camera time and your sales time.
What this actually means is only 20% of your time is spent on the activities that generate most of your income.
Does that sound familiar? In tough times the first thing to do is to review your time-management and get totally clear on what tasks are actually generating most of your income.
Once you identify where you spend your time, and which activities make you money, chances are there'll be very little overlap! So if you want to improve your financial results, the trick is simply to spend more time on the income producing tasks and reduce or eliminate everything else.
It probably sounds easy enough, but it can be a challenge because we're already conditioned to view all the busy-work as essential.
Once you get clear on what makes you money and what doesn't, it does get easier.
After that it's a matter of reducing the time you spend on tasks that don't generate cashflow and using it instead to do more of the things that do generate cashflow.
Reducing time spent checking email ten times a day, checking your photo website statistics, aimless web surfing.
You can then use that time for real market research, prospecting for new photo buyers, researching new markets and shooting new images! That's what's going to grow your business: creating new photos and showing them to Clients.
Everything else should be kept to a minimum.
Two Things You Can Do Right Now: Set Your Email To Check Only Twice A Day.
Set the first check at 12 noon, so you have the morning free to get things done uninterrupted.
Set the second check for later in the afternoon so you can check for responses.
Turn off sounds & alerts so you don't get interrupted if you're in the middle of something.
Set Up An Autoresponder Message on your email account to tell people you'll be checking and responding at these times and include a mobile phone number if it's urgent.
You'll be amazed how few calls you'll get! Most people will wait quite happily once they know when to expect a reply! Unfortunately there will always be a lot of administration-time in any business, but you shouldn't let that get in the way of doing the stuff that actually makes you money...
shooting great photos that sell.
For most people it probably looks something like this: 80% of your time is spent on activities that produce 20% of your income, or less.
Paperwork, interruptions and distractions...
busy work that eats into your camera time and your sales time.
What this actually means is only 20% of your time is spent on the activities that generate most of your income.
Does that sound familiar? In tough times the first thing to do is to review your time-management and get totally clear on what tasks are actually generating most of your income.
Once you identify where you spend your time, and which activities make you money, chances are there'll be very little overlap! So if you want to improve your financial results, the trick is simply to spend more time on the income producing tasks and reduce or eliminate everything else.
It probably sounds easy enough, but it can be a challenge because we're already conditioned to view all the busy-work as essential.
Once you get clear on what makes you money and what doesn't, it does get easier.
After that it's a matter of reducing the time you spend on tasks that don't generate cashflow and using it instead to do more of the things that do generate cashflow.
Reducing time spent checking email ten times a day, checking your photo website statistics, aimless web surfing.
You can then use that time for real market research, prospecting for new photo buyers, researching new markets and shooting new images! That's what's going to grow your business: creating new photos and showing them to Clients.
Everything else should be kept to a minimum.
Two Things You Can Do Right Now: Set Your Email To Check Only Twice A Day.
Set the first check at 12 noon, so you have the morning free to get things done uninterrupted.
Set the second check for later in the afternoon so you can check for responses.
Turn off sounds & alerts so you don't get interrupted if you're in the middle of something.
Set Up An Autoresponder Message on your email account to tell people you'll be checking and responding at these times and include a mobile phone number if it's urgent.
You'll be amazed how few calls you'll get! Most people will wait quite happily once they know when to expect a reply! Unfortunately there will always be a lot of administration-time in any business, but you shouldn't let that get in the way of doing the stuff that actually makes you money...
shooting great photos that sell.
