You Should Go There

Jess and I went to Moab for a few days after Thanksgiving, it was only a 5.5 hour drive out there which wasn't bad at all. We spent Friday afternoon and Saturday morning at Arches National Park, which if you have never been there is definitely worth the trip. There are over 2000 natural arches in the park and there are many that you can almost drive right up to. Some of them are huge, Landscape Arch is the largest in the world and spans over 300 feet.

Landscape Arch at sunrise


There is of course probably the most famous arch called Delicate Arch, it is on the Utah license plates. We didn't hike all the way up to it this time, but it is pretty cool, even from far away.


The colors are incredible, especially at sunset. A lot of deep reds and oranges in the rocks.


Sunset


Every single arch is extremely unique and different, many of them have lost large chunks out of them which dramatically changes how they look. There is also a lot of sand out there, as most of the rock formations are sandstone, we probably should have worn sandals.



It was a nice little get away, the weather was great, we ate some good food and had a great time together. So if you ever have a chance, I highly recommend going there, this is my third time and they have all been very cool.

Changed My Website...Again

Actually I just added a few new pages, changed some of the text on the pages, and made a few other small changes. But please check it out and let me know what you think about it, also please let me know if you see anything I need to change; like any spelling or punctuation.

I also met yesterday with a photographer here in Colorado named Grant Oakes, I just called him randomly and asked if he would be willing to sit and chat, and he was very receptive to it. He has been professionally photographing weddings for about 10 years, he commands a fairly high price and had some great ideas and insights for me. He also offered me the opportunity to tag along with him as an "assistant" some time. He said I would be able to help him shoot the wedding and get a better idea of the flow of the day. That would be extremely helpful to me in building my portfolio and becoming more comfortable during the actual event. He only photographs about 25 weddings a year, and he said he may be able to pass my name along to couples who can't afford his services. That is almost like free advertising, and would be an incredibly helpful way to get my feet off the ground. So all in all a pretty good two days so far this week. I hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving break.

The albums that I will be offering to brides and grooms is a fine art coffee table book. They come in a variety of sizes, and either square or vertical format. The cool thing is that you can custom design each page for the album. I arrange and lay out all the pages with all of their pictures, I can add borders, backgrounds, etc. This makes each book unique and custom so that the couple has something nobody else has. I think these books will be very desirable.

"Can I Photograph Your Wedding?"

As I mentioned last time I have been learning alot about business, but now my biggest, and most important challenge, is to begin advertising and finding clients. After all the overriding goal of this business is to make money, and I can't do that without some clients. My SBA class last week was about marketing and I met with my aunt last week who works in marketing and advertising. I definitely got a clearer picture of the general principles of marketing, and some ideas of more specific things to do. This is going to be a big challenge for me because first I need to find some couples getting married; but then I need to convince them to allow me to photograph the most important day of their lives. Oh and by the way I have only photographed one wedding before, and you will need to pay me $2000, so how about it? Obviously my sales pitch will be more refined, and I know that I have the ability and creativity to do an incredible job, so my confidence will definitely show through.

My First Wedding (That I Photographed)

Back to "getting" clients, I think that the best way to start will be a type of grassroots campaign. I am going to print up brochures, make a list of all of the wedding related businesses in the area and start going door to door asking if I can leave some brochures. My hope will be to spread my name as far and wide as possible in hopes of receiving a few phone calls, and then maybe booking a few weddings. I have a feeling that it will be somewhat of an exponential curve; it will be slow going for awhile, but as I start to photograph a few weddings the bookings will come more frequently. This whole process may take in excess of an entire year, and I am prepared for that. If I can photograph 10 weddings by the end of next year, that would be very beneficial. After I begin to see what my "typical" client might look like, than I can spend some money on advertising. Try things like buying a mailing list and sending out direct mail pieces; which is actually more successful than one might think.

One of my favorite pictures ever, Thanks Marcus


I also need to begin to create a more targeted market or client. Right now my ideal target market would be a couple from the ages of 21-28. I would like to try and target the younger couple getting married because I feel that I have some insight to getting married at a younger than average age. I feel that I would be able to relate to someone closer to my age. I also don't believe that there are many photographers specifically targeting this age group. Knowing this target market will also influence the places I do some advertising, for instance I will try and market more heavily on college campuses in the area. This will definitely be a huge challenge, and the majority of my time the next few weeks will be spent on some of these tasks. I did read that about 15-20% of all engagements happen in December, so that is good news for me.

Oh by the way if anyone knows of any places that I can leave some brochures and business cards please let me know. Please also feel free to pass my name along to anyone you know who is getting married, or who needs a photographer in any way. Word of mouth is going to be EXTREMELY important for me right now, so any help that I can get from any person or place will be greatly appreciated. As always thanks for reading and Happy Thanksgiving!

Fall Foliage of Colorado

I'm Learning a lot

I have taken two classes through the Small Business Administration, I have been reading books, and doing a ton of online research. I have received a huge amount of information about how to run a business. At my most recent SBA class we learned about business entities, taxes, liability, and small business loans. While this information is very technical it is also extremely important to the viability and success of any business. The general statistics I've heard are that about 85% of businesses fail in the first year, and of those 15% that succeed another 70-80% fail in the next five years. These statistics can be a bit frightening, but with the right training and with a strong business and financial IQ many more businesses would succeed. There is never a shortage of great business ideas and inventions, but it seems like people fail to realize the importance of the "boring" aspects of a business. While I can't admit that accounting and balance sheets are the most exciting, I can say that the idea of learning more intrigues me.

Sunset through the trees.


Working on a trail crew this summer was great fun, I got in good shape, and it helped me lose some unwanted pounds. However the majority of our conversations during the day seemed to turn to bodily functions, or making fun of each other, sometimes it felt like I was 16 or 17 again (only with more friends.) But in the last two weeks I have already learned so much, I have a much better understanding of the direction of my business, as well as more of the nitty-gritty things. For example I thought I was going to be a sole-proprietor, however I am now deciding between an LLC (limited liability company) and becoming a corporation, yes, you can actually be a one-person corporation. The last two weeks have really allowed me to use my brain alot more than I had in previous months, something that has been very beneficial for me, and my brain.

Rusty fence in eastern Colorado while hunting this week.


This coming week I expect will be very helpful. My third SBA class is all about marketing, and I am meeting with my aunt who works in marketing and advertising. I will also be meeting with a local photographer in town, I sent him an e-mail asking if he would be interested in sitting down with me, and he was very excited about the idea. Hopefully I will be able to gain some great insight from someone who has been in the business for 25 years.

By the way check this website out, he owns a photography studio in California, his company photographs 75 weddings a year and this is his rate. Unbeleivable, but something to aspire to.
http://www.storybookweddings.com/pricing3589/coverage.html

I hope everyone is doing well, keep in touch.

My First Class

I went to class all day yesterday at the Small Business Administration. They have four workshops, one a week for the next three weeks, and it is put on by the group called SCORE. This is the same group who also offers the free counseling. The class yesterday had three components: first they talked about general things in starting a business, second one gentleman talked about financial statements, and third a woman from the denver public library. I found the class extremely insightful and definitely took alot from it; I am excited for the next three weeks. One of the big things they talked about was creating a business plan, I have read some examples and they are very thorouhg, very in depth and 20-30 pages long. This is one thing that I will be working on, it is similar to a road map of your business and they say you should always be referring to it as you run your business. I also learned the Denver Public Library has amazing resources for people starting businesses. They have lists of every business in just about every field in the United States, 13 million small businesses to be exact, they also have detailed information about consumers and their spending habits. For example there are 190,000 households in Denver that are 18-34 year old singles. This is all information that is important when determining who your customers are and what they spend their money on.

There were about 20 people in this class, all different ages and all with different business ideas. Some good, some interesting, some maybe more difficult to start. There were three people who wanted to start hypnotherapy and accupuncture clinics, this must be getting more popular. There were also more women than men in the class, which I thought was great. It was cool to see so many people who were passionate about starting a business and who had so many great ideas. A few of the people had already been in business for a few years and some had started more than one business, smart dedicated and driven people, hopefully I can match them.

Fitzy in Great Basin National Park