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There are four pillars to running a sustainable and profitable business: Guide The Business Attract The Business Run The Business Do The Business Most business owners (and yes, if you have a photography business then you are a business owner, even if it is just you) tend to focus on attracting the business and doing the business at the expense of the other two. This can be a costly mistake and lead to the business becoming your boss, instead of a business that you love and enjoy, a business that serves you. 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 This is an underestimated part of running a business, however, it is key. Don't overcomplicate this. I show my clients how to use a simple one-page document called the Business GPS that they can glance at and review on a regular basis. It's an effective guidance system to keep your business on track and stop you from getting distracted from achieving your goals and dreams. 𝗔𝘁𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 All things marketing and sales. When it comes to attracting the business many creatives skip the foundational aspects of deeply understanding their clients and target market. When you fathom out what drives and motivates your clients to buy your products and services on a deeper intrinsic level (rather than the surface level I want photographs of my dog) then you can create effective messaging, positioning and marketing. 𝗥𝘂𝗻 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 Another often neglected part of business. This is all about your data/numbers, finances and team (even if you think of yourself as a team of 1). However, if you use any suppliers or tools from other companies then you have a team... Without knowing your data you can't make good decisions. Without measuring your Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) you make decision making guess. There is no need to overcomplicate this. Keep it simple and track the essentials. 𝗗𝗼 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 This is delivering the business, doing the work of your business. The more that you can systemise this and create processes, the more consistent your client experience will be, and the easier your life will be.

Take a look at the top wins, lessons learned, what kept clients stuck, what helped them and what they avoided! Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/fd5C

Seems hard to believe that Midge has been with us for three years now. Every day she brings us all so much love and joy. And all thanks to an unexpected post in a Facebook Group - thank you @Craig Cantwell. The moral - you never know what good is going to come your way or when or where from.

Get a sneak peek and see how some of my clients did - their wins, key KPIs, lessons learned and more... The Inside Track: 2020 Q4 Client Insights & Learns ▸ https://lttr.ai/fcUg

Working out what price you should charge for your services and products can be bewildering and confusing. There is a lot of conflicting advice out there. Some of it is good. Some of it is bad. Much of it with an agenda, or based on what's currently working for the person giving the advice. But what works for one person isn't right for everyone. If you follow the wrong strategy for your pricing it can do a lot of harm. I literally have seen several businesses go from steadily growing to zero because the owner followed the advice that was wrong for their business at that particular point in time. There are many factors to consider when working out your prices. Consider them and work out what's right for you and your business. And if it feels wrong, change tack. 1: 💪Your level of skill or expertise and the quality of products that you sell. 2: Can you deliver a minimum standard in ALL conditions, even in the most difficult? Have you built up the real-world experience to do that, served your apprenticeship as such? 3: What stage is your business at? Businesses just starting out have very different needs, priorities and objectives to those who are established and those who are towards the higher end of the market. 4: How much momentum does your business have? How many leads and clients 👨‍👨‍👦‍👦 does the business have each month? 5: Do you have the confidence and belief in your abilities, that what you offer is worth the prices you are charging or do your prices scare the crap out of you? 6: It doesn't matter how brilliant you are at what you do, if you do not have the ability to market your business at your given price point then it's always going to be a struggle to book enough clients or sell enough. 7: Is everything about your client experience and customer service in alignment with or better than the prices you are charging? 8: What are your current objectives? Is your priority to build momentum? To build your experience and reputation? To be able to cut back on the number of hours you work in your business? To increase your profits? 9: What does it cost you to do business?

There are lots of strategies, tactics that are all valid ways of doing business. They all work when used in an appropriate way and with the right foundations. However, they don't all work for every business. Don't follow the leaders and guru's blindly. They often teach what is profitable to sell, or the only way they know how. But that doesn't mean that they know the underlying principles, or how to teach others with different resources and at different stages of business how to make the same tactics work for them. The question, therefore, is not what's the best tactic or strategy, it's which is the best one for me and my business with the market and resources that we have?

What's The First Thing You Do When You Wake Up?

What's on your agenda today? I'd love to hear in the comments below. Here's mine...

There are three steps to creating a sustainable and profitable business. Each one builds upon the next. Most people try to skip the first one, the foundations, and go straight to attracting clients, then wonder why they aren't getting many sales. If you don't know why your clients are buying, then it's so much harder to successfully sell. Too many businesses have the attitude that you shouldn't have to sell, that people will just buy. It rarely works that way because people aren't buying what you sell, they are buying what your products enable. And there are always alternatives to what you sell, not just your competition, but other types of products, other actions. Your job is to show people why what you sell is the best way to achieve or get what they want over and above all the other alternatives. Save this as a reminder, and if you want help attracting more clients DM me.

When we follow what everyone else is doing, follow the guru's without questioning whether what they teach is in alignment with who we are and what we want to create, that's when we end up with a business that isn't right for us, that we don't enjoy. Then we start to self-sabotage, even if we don't realise it. There is no one right way to grow a business. There is no one size fits all method to market your business. There is no "best" business model. There is only what's right for us. And to know what's right for us, our objectives, strengths, weaknesses, then we need to think differently to most people about business. Unless we want to become lemmings heading for the cliff top...

Today, I'm crossing off creating a sales page off my to-do list. What are you crossing off your list?

If you genuinely care about the goal, you'll focus on the system. Agree or disagree?

If you are not getting as many bookings or clients as you want, it's down to one of these reasons... Save this for future reference and if you want help with your marketing DM me...

No-one tells you that it takes so much longer to build momentum in your business than you think it will. No-one tells you that the biggest thing getting in the way of that momentum is you. No-one tells you that once you start to build that momentum, that things will change and grow so much quicker than you ever thought possible, that in the mid to long term you can achieve so much more than you ever believed possible.

I recently got great news from Paul, one of my clients. When he first started working with me he immersed himself in my trainings and frameworks, implementing one step at a time, starting with the foundations. Before long he started getting results. He went from 0 clients on his books to 26. As he built his momentum, he followed my system of frequently and incrementally increasing his fees. He's now charging 350% more than he was a couple of years ago. Still meeting his targets for bookings. Not only is he making more money, more profit, the clients he's booking are more fun to work with. But it gets better. The impact of this means that Paul has quit his job (that he hated) and gone full time as a professional photographer. That's a win in business and a win in life! I helped Paul and I'd like to help you... If you'd like my help send me a DM and we'll see if you are a good fit and how best I can help you.

There are four pillars to running a sustainable and profitable business: Guide The Business Attract The Business Run The Business Do The Business Most business owners (and yes, if you have a photography business then you are a business owner, even if it is just you) tend to focus on attracting the business and doing the business at the expense of the other two. This can be a costly mistake and lead to the business becoming your boss, instead of a business that you love and enjoy, a business that serves you. 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 This is an underestimated part of running a business, however, it is key. Don't overcomplicate this. I show my clients how to use a simple one-page document called the Business GPS that they can glance at and review on a regular basis. It's an effective guidance system to keep your business on track and stop you from getting distracted from achieving your goals and dreams. 𝗔𝘁𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 All things marketing and sales. When it comes to attracting the business many creatives skip the foundational aspects of deeply understanding their clients and target market. When you fathom out what drives and motivates your clients to buy your products and services on a deeper intrinsic level (rather than the surface level I want photographs of my dog) then you can create effective messaging, positioning and marketing. 𝗥𝘂𝗻 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 Another often neglected part of business. This is all about your data/numbers, finances and team (even if you think of yourself as a team of 1). However, if you use any suppliers or tools from other companies then you have a team... Without knowing your data you can't make good decisions. Without measuring your Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) you make decision making guess. There is no need to overcomplicate this. Keep it simple and track the essentials. 𝗗𝗼 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 This is delivering the business, doing the work of your business. The more that you can systemise this and create processes, the more consistent your client experience will be, and the easier your life will be.

What's The First Thing That Comes To Mind When I Say "Success"?

Before I started my business helping other businesses grow their profits, I was a professional photographer for 5 years. There were many highlights: - being commissioned to photograph Prince Charles for one of his trusts - photographing world championship motorcycle racer Scott Redding twice -presenting masterclasses at the SWPP -photographing weddings in Portugal and Spain... In the end I realised that the photography was a tool to make a difference in people's lives and I wasn't that attached to the tool. Don't get me wrong, I still love photography... However, there were other ways of doing that which would allow me to better create the life I wanted to live creating greater impact. That and lugging about heavy camera equipment wasn't doing my neck and back any good!

I recently got great news from Paul, one of my clients. When he first started working with me he immersed himself in my trainings and frameworks, implementing one step at a time, starting with the foundations. Before long he started getting results. He went from 0 clients on his books to 26. As he built his momentum, he followed my system of frequently and incrementally increasing his fees. He's now charging 350% more than he was a couple of years ago. Still meeting his targets for bookings. Not only is he making more money, more profit, the clients he's booking are more fun to work with. But it gets better. The impact of this means that Paul has quit his job (that he hated) and gone full time as a professional photographer. That's a win in business and a win in life! I helped Paul and I'd like to help you... If you'd like my help send me a DM and we'll see if you are a good fit and how best I can help you.

Working out what price you should charge for your services and products can be bewildering and confusing. There is a lot of conflicting advice out there. Some of it is good. Some of it is bad. Much of it with an agenda, or based on what's currently working for the person giving the advice. But what works for one person isn't right for everyone. If you follow the wrong strategy for your pricing it can do a lot of harm. I literally have seen several businesses go from steadily growing to zero because the owner followed the advice that was wrong for their business at that particular point in time. There are many factors to consider when working out your prices. Consider them and work out what's right for you and your business. And if it feels wrong, change tack. 1: 💪Your level of skill or expertise and the quality of products that you sell. 2: Can you deliver a minimum standard in ALL conditions, even in the most difficult? Have you built up the real-world experience to do that, served your apprenticeship as such? 3: What stage is your business at? Businesses just starting out have very different needs, priorities and objectives to those who are established and those who are towards the higher end of the market. 4: How much momentum does your business have? How many leads and clients 👨‍👨‍👦‍👦 does the business have each month? 5: Do you have the confidence and belief in your abilities, that what you offer is worth the prices you are charging or do your prices scare the crap out of you? 6: It doesn't matter how brilliant you are at what you do, if you do not have the ability to market your business at your given price point then it's always going to be a struggle to book enough clients or sell enough. 7: Is everything about your client experience and customer service in alignment with or better than the prices you are charging? 8: What are your current objectives? Is your priority to build momentum? To build your experience and reputation? To be able to cut back on the number of hours you work in your business? To increase your profits? 9: What does it cost you to do business?

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