How would I feel if I was told I had to purchase $250.00 from my favorite restaurant, clothing or grocery store?

I know the answer for me is this, no matter how much I LOVED that store, it would leave a really sour taste in my mouth, I wouldn’t return and I would feel like the store was trying to trick me into purchasing more then I was comfortable.

I understand why photographers feel the need to require a minimum purchase, but I don’t think it’s good business practice.

When you give your clients a minimum that is all they will shoot for, or expect to pay. They will enter the ordering process with the mind set of ‘I am going to spend $250. because that is what I am required to do’.  

I encourage you to spend more time and energy setting expectations that will be profitable.  Setting expectations is easy, as are in-person order appointments. You don’t even need fancy equipment!

How can you insure you receive compensation for your time, without requiring your clients spend a predetermined $$$ on products?  I have a few ideas . . . 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here at Get Schooled Photo we have a little valentines day love for you!

A cute t-shirt transfer! Print this little sweetness onto transfer paper and then iron on to t-shirts, canvas totes, etc. 

No strings attached, you don’t have to tweet, or facebook or sign up for our homeroom newsletter – we just want to give. If you share with friends, that would just be the best. Let’s be honest there has been some negative sharing lately, let’s share some LOVE.

It would make us feel so warm, fuzzy and loved on Valentines Day.  If you do share head to our facebook page and let us know . . .

We  have a few more gifts for those that spread love & cheer to the photography community today!

Visit our facebook page & share the post about our little gifts of love and we will give you a link to another fun download!

It is a PDF, however you can open pdfs in photoshop and customize, click the PDF and select ‘Open with’ and open with photoshop. Watch the video below to learn how you can customize for your branding.
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD YOUR T-SHIRT DESIGN!  Happy v-day

THANK YOU TO THE AMAZING ERIN HAINES OF BE TRUE DESIGNS FOR THE ABOVE DESIGN!

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The amazing Leslie Kerrigan of Seniorologie and
Courtney DeLaura of Get Schooled Photo have teamed up to bring you…

STUDIO SHINE: magazines for your clients!

Subscribe to 6 issues over the course of 12 months.  We do the writing, the design and the leg work. You plug a few images in and send off to your clients. We are only taking a very limited number of introductory subscribers.

Not only do we provide you with outstanding magazines that will shine the light on your studio, also included is our 12 month marketing plan for your business. To do lists, tasks and a clear direction on making your studio shine like a beautiful beacon.

Whether you are a Senior Portrait Photographer, Family/Kids Photographer or a Wedding Photographer we have a magazine for you and your clients. Choose to subscribe to one or all three for a discounted rate!

Want to join in on this marketing plan that will Shine the spotlight on your studio, drive clients to share about you without even realizing it?

Enter your email below, we will contact you as soon as subscription is live!

So very excited to share the beautiful posing guide we have included in the Senior Blueprint
I just had to post a quick little look.

early registration ends sunday at midnight. Senior Blueprint : 5 week online course

Tonight we have a guest post that is near and dear to my heart. Just three days ago I had to take my beloved 2007 imac to the apple genius because it wasn’t working very well. The diagnosis?  A complete wipe out, they had to wipe my computer clean and reinstall everything.  Thank goodness I had backed up my entire computer only two days before. The anxiety I feel when it comes to digital file back ups is at an all time high.   One of the Senior Blueprint participants, Jared Rey has a solution he wanted to share with all of us.  I am so excited to learn how he alleviates the anxiety of digital file management.  Without further ado, Jared Rey of Jared Rey Photography

I am honored to have this opportunity to write my first guest blog post. Thank you
Courtney for asking me to contribute to this great blog!

As digital photographers it is essential that we make every effort to keep our images
and more importantly our client images safe. We have all learned either the hard
way or from horror stories from our colleagues that it is wise to keep your images
backed-up. So we go out and buy our nice/big external hard drive and begin backing
up all our images.

Now with this new addition to our lives we have yet another task to add to our
already long workflow. We constantly have to remember to back up those files we
just downloaded to our computer, then we have to remember to drag those files we
edited over to the new hard drive so we don’t lose all our hard work, then once we
are completed with the session we have to back up all those files once again. Let us
not forget that dreaded feeling that is the final step…deleting/purging our old work.
It is taking up room on our jam packed hard drive, our computer is going slow now,
we HAVE to free up some space. Did you remember to back up those files? What
about that other session? Anxiety builds as you move your cursor over that trash
can icon to hit ‘Empty Trash’, you hope and pray you have your workflow down
enough to know you backed up those files. Files gone. Sound familiar?

I have been invited to write my solution to this dilemma that has helped get rid of
all my anxiety with that trash bin and create a way where I no longer have to worry
about remembering to back up my files. I use two free software solutions for my
Mac (sorry PC people, I do not know PC equivalents) to back up everything on my
computer. Before sharing the software I first want to explain how my computer is
set up. I have two main hard drives, one hard drive is for all my personal stuff, &
computer software/applications, while my second hard drive is used for everything
related to my photography business. I also have two back up hard drives and each
one is strictly used to back up each main hard drive.

The first piece of software I used is called Time Machine and the great thing is that
this comes pre-installed on your Mac. Time Machine keeps hourly, daily, and weekly
back ups of your entire computer! I use Time Machine to back up my first hard drive
that keeps all my personal files and computer software/applications. This gives me
piece of mind that if anything every happened to my main hard drive that I have an
exact replica of it on another hard drive that is ready to go. If you ever fear you may
have deleted something you shouldn’t have, Time Machine makes it easy to go back
to that time and date to retrieve the file. Peace of mind to the extreme. Whenever I
get back from a wedding or portrait session I immediately download my memory
card to this first hard drive. I only move the images to my business hard drive once
I have had a chance to go through the images and take out all the blinks and blurs. If
there is ever a reason I need to get those ‘blinks and blurs’ images I can always use
Time Machine to go back and get them.

The second piece of software I use is named Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) and can be
downloaded by visiting this site: www.bombich.com. Carbon Copy Cloner is another
piece of free Mac software, it comes with tiny ads when the software is running but
you can disable the ads by donating some money to the company, which I highly
recommend. Carbon Copy Cloner is a powerful piece of software because it allows
you to have much more control over what is being backed up and how often. Time
Machine is super simple and backs up your entire computer all the time with no
added options or controls. CCC will allow you to clone your hard drive (like Time
Machine), Incremental Backups that only backs up changed data (files you have
edited for example) which makes backing up faster, schedule back up of files as
often as you want and on any time schedule, it will even e-mail you notifications of
back ups for even more piece of mind! Carbon Copy Cloner is a fantastic way to keep
all your files in sync without having to constantly be keeping it on your mind, set it
up once and you are golden! I use CCC to back up my business hard drive and I only
did one big back up when I first started using it and now I use incremental back up
which only backs up anything new that has been changed on my hard drive, which
makes it very fast and painless.

Now that I have these two forms of protection for my computer and all my files I
have zero stress or anxiety when it comes to backing up my files. The last form of
protection you could take would be to back up your entire final edit JPEGs to an
online cloud service.

Do you need both pieces of software to back up all your files? Nope. Can you get by
with just a laptop, one external hard drive, and Time Machine or CCC? Absolutely.

Hope this helps you all have a little less anxiety in your life. Take care!

Want to learn from the contributors and participants of Senior Blueprint? You have one more day to register at the early registration price.  

We hope you will join us in creating a
Senior Portrait business that makes your heart leap for joy in 2012/2013.

THE SENIOR BLUEPRINT:
Early Registration available for 48 more hours!

Look what participants are chatting about in our private facebook group . . .

This course is helping us to avoid impatience by breaking it all down into reasonable chunks and steps, while also avoiding fear by moving at a steady pace and encouraging us to keep moving forward. Guys, we are on the path of a series of difficult (but achievable) hills…I’m so excited to see what we all have in store!

A big shout out is already due to our group! I checked out Pinterest based on a post from one of my fellow groupies and I got inspired today to update my pic for my website. I was looking for cool styles for seniors and I created this little “pink picnic.” I LOVE LOVE LOVE this workshop already!

BTW, I love that the course hasn’t even started yet but we’re already working on stuff and getting pumped for a great season!! I love the support and sense of community, it makes this all a little less overwhelming

Hi group! It’s been so helpful to see everyone’s senior rep applications! Thank you so much for all of the ideas!

I am very thankful for the video on cleaning out email…that helped to get me motivated! I had already worked on my desktop some at the beginning of the year, I love that organizer! Thanks!

I came up with an idea that just may be brilliant? lol I figured I’d share!

I got my email down to only 5 emails that I need to follow up on. I went from 1800 to 5. Woo hoo! Thanks Senior Blueprint!!! 

Let your  business know you are in love, buy it a Valentines Gift.

Senior Blueprint : creating awe-inspiring senior portrait businesses that will make your clients give you hugs and high fives. Oh and your bank account will yell “Yipppieeee”

Do you have amazingly cute images to share? Click the contact button above and send us an email. We would love to show the Get Schooled Photo world your work!

SENIOR BLUEPRINT COURSE begins in 11 days.

Join us in creating an awe-inspiring senior portrait business that will make your heart so happy and your bank account giggle with delight!

Early Registration ends very soon!

Oh my goodness to the gracious a fun video like this with all your senior reps/spokesmodels would be amazing.  Just something fun, quick and easy!

I know I am going to do a fun video this year, what about you?   How are you going to draw lots of fun, happy positive attention to your Senior portrait business?

senior blueprint early registration ends Sunday at midnight. . .

We are having so much fun in our private facebook group, hope you will join us.

Being paid to photograph the outstanding young people of your community is like a gift, a dream job and a JOY.

Tonight we are lacing up our boxing gloves and
sucker punching the business monsters.

You know the ones, they have names like;  Self-doubt, Comparison, Lack of Focus and FEAR.  These business monsters will paralyze your productivity and create nasty road blocks smack dab in the middle of your road to success. Here are my tips to a solid knock out.

Stop looking at other photographers images/marketing/website.

Stop wishing to some day be as [cool, busy, awesome, funny, booked] as they are.  It isn’t doing you any good. You are not learning, you are not growing, you are not moving forward.  It is tearing away at your self esteem, these comparisons you are making. So please stop, it hurts my heart that you are doing this.

online presence is not always reality or even the truth
don’t forget that when you are viewing a photographers fan page or website it is meant for clients. 

They are not going to publish on their business blog

‘My bookings/sells are down this month, aahhhhhhhh what am I going to do!?!??!”

Put yourself out there, be fearless.

Contact your local new stations and offer to talk about the best outfits for senior portraits. Is there any amazing boutique in town that caters to the younger crowd, see if you can partner up.  Do not sit back and wonder why things aren’t falling in your lap.  Get out there, in your community.  Be your communities expert in portraiture.  Offer to speak at women’s groups, hold beginners photography courses for new moms.  You have information to share, share it with your community, your potential clients!

Rely on a sounding board, someone in the trenches with you.

Someone that is actually shooting, selling and fulfilling orders. Encourage and celebrate each others successes.  Share with them, give to that person.  That is what is going down on the Senior Blueprint private facebook group and it’s so heart warming to witness.

Take the day off!  

If you are sitting down to work on your business and you are just in a funk, those pesky business monsters are firmly planted on your shoulder. Stop and just take the day off. I can guarantee you that a day off from your business every once in a while will not kill it. It will actually make if flourish.  You will feel refreshed and most likely be more productive after your day off. Oh and I mean A COMPLETE DAY OFF. Stop checking your facebook fan count, don’t answer any client emails, shut the computer off and do something that gives you joy. Read a book, go to some antique stores, take a hike, get breakfast with your best friend, etc.  

Make an I’m so awesome list.  

Yes, it seems silly but it helps. When the monsters are creeeeeping in and I am feeling inadequate my husband actually helps by listing my accomplishments.   He will say stuff, like “Oh my gosh, you have done such and such, you have done this and that!” I then start, saying “Oh yea, oh heck yea.  I am making a living by photographing beautiful senior girls, I am so lucky!”

Be productive in your self criticism.  

We all have room to grow and we all can do better. Those aren’t pesky monster thoughts, that is reality. However if you do not act upon your need to change, grow and learn then you are inviting the jealousy monster to root itself deep within your soul.  You will find yourself saying things like; Well they are super booked because they have this and that.  What do you need to be just a little better today, tomorrow, next month?  Answer that question and take action. 

We are always here to help, that is our mission.

Senior Blueprint – Early registration is available until February 2nd.  You do not have to be present to participate in this course, it is a self paced digital guide, videos, marketing kit, and business forms. We have scheduled live Q&A evenings for guidance and interaction!