A little more about my work - Part 2

When I moved back to Mackay from Brisbane I envisaged that product photography would probably be my main field. Maybe it will, time will tell. Mackay is in the middle of a bit of a boom business wise. It has a massive support industry for the mining sector with major industrial sites still expanding, particularly in the Paget area.  Of course everything else goes with that, jobs mean people, people mean demand for goods, entertainment, leisure and dining. To an extent I overestimated how easy it would be to tap into the advertising requirements that creates. I forgot Mackay is still a word of mouth region. I forgot many companies are national or international with marketing decided at head office, I forgot smaller businesses just won't or can't pay for bespoke images. Worst of all I forgot these strong economic times mean businesses are just doing far too well to need advertising.

I had a number of companies tell me they can't handle more business, the last thing they want is advertising. Hotels / motels are at full occupancy almost constantly, several never having advertised or having any web presence, and the panel beaters has a 7 month waiting list on minor repairs.

How has this translated into my business?

Well first of all how did I try marketing it? In the past 18-24 months, (which includes educational and Brisbane time) my accounting software shows outgoings on courses and gear of over 27,000 dollars and income (as anticipated) for new start seriously in the negative. This means advertising budget is non-existent. I've taken space in the Local Directories (yet to enter print) and also a 12 months in the Mackay Telegraph. Beyond that it is what I can get by leg work. I had a bound Portfolio printed up. More about the trials of the portfolio printing in a later blog.   The 12x12 folio was then duly walked round nearly every business that seemed like a potential client for as long as my business cards lasted. Of over 900 business cards dropped only 1 booking has resulted so far. For the amount of time pacing the industrial areas a poor return indeed. What have I learnt? Well I am still sure the business is there, am I getting past the just out of school receptionist? (usually not). Am I there at the time they want images? (probably not). 

 I went to the QME 2012 (Queensland Mining Exhibition) with over 600 exhibitors, all used photography to illustrate their displays, 99.9% was the type of photography my skill set and equipment set can do. Only trouble there was;- A. They already had their images, posters etc, B. As a QME visitor I can't promote my trade. I was too late on scene for them all.

Overall I think I've learnt to look far more often at feedback available to me, i.e. does a card drop/cold call reflect in website hits, do I get more calls? If I don't do I have another tactic? My new tactic for this last couple of weeks has been the Telegraph ad.

One area that has seemed potentially to be a good one was small Restaurants and Cafes. I've had 3 very strong enquiries about this, I rated one as almost a certainty. The 2 smaller independent cafes I wasn't too sure would go with it. Simple reason is that food photography is very labour intensive and time consuming. It therefore isn't cheap, even in the customers time. I strongly recommended to both outlets the image should reflect what they sell, not be generic shots  not the -"strawberries and chilled smoothies on the tropical beach" type thing. I can do that, but feel it is a let down to their customers and is just doing the stock photography thing. One of the two was quoted, I'd already been told no budgets so as anticipated it was a knock back.  Why did neither go for it? Well I'm sure I'm up against cheap stock images, second is I can show my previous food images, but not their food, they don't have an idea of what they will get. I could offer a free test or single set but they still need to commit time and effort, there is too much resistance to that first step.

Image: - Coffee and gear. Shot in Studio.

The final enquiry was for (potentially) a set of images for a new chain of Cafes, with possibilities for wall and menu images. I got raves about my existing images, I followed up in several ways within his time frame but was unable to gain further conversations/contact. No idea why.

Of course chasing this type of business isn't just about the product, it can equally well result in images for;- processes, training manuals, environmental, executive  and staff portrait, real estate, handover, certification, insurance, lifestyle etc etc.