by Michael Imus

(Part 1 of a 3 Part Series)

Everyone today has heard of “these times” meaning the economy.  What do we do? Business is down, the wolves are at the door, technology is giving our clients the ability to do it themselves, and everyone is looking for answers.  Well, let me start off by saying these times have always been around.  Look into the past.  Photographers would shoot a studio session without film, get the session retainer, go buy film and then tell the client they messed up the shoot and will re-do the session for free.  Afterward they would sell the prints.  Way, way back when, painters would get money up front to commission paintings because they didn’t even have any paint when they were hired to do the work.

The wedding industry in theory is actually recession proof in a way.  People will always get married, they will always need food at the reception, a cake, photographs of their family and a video of the ceremony, etc.  So what can we do to be the companies that survive “these times”?

The Wall
What is the wall?  Every business has one.  It is a big ugly dirty brick wall that stops a business dead in its tracks.  It is that bad thing that everyone fears.  Its bricks are made of failure, ridicule, no money, and is held together with “I told you – you would never make it”.  On the other side of the wall is a green pasture of success and no worry of any kind. Or, so we think. 

Your business is always racing at breakneck speed toward the wall.  Sometimes we don’t want to look at the wall and we try to ignore it.  Some people are fixated on the wall and just stare at it all day.  But either way, we all race toward that wall everyday.

The goal is to keep yourself as far from the wall as possible.  Every client and every sale (that is profitable) pushes you farther away from the wall.  Unprofitable clients, mistakes and such push you towards the wall. 

Plan Long Term
If you want to survive in this industry, you have to plan long term.  I know your thinking “I’m worried about paying the bills NOW and that wall is about an inch from my nose!”  This is true, but if you don’t make a long term plan first, no matter how much money you make short term, you will crash head-on into the wall eventually. 

There is a saying that states if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.  Scientists have actually proven this fact to be correct.  So lets start with your plan.  Where do you want to be in 5 or 10 years?  If you say you want to own your own private island, be careful, you will be called out on your own plan.  It has to be realistic.  If you want to be a rock star in the industry, be careful, being a rock star does not always equate to financial success.  Once you figure out where you want to be, you will start to figure short term ideas to get you there.  If you have your long term plan, it does not matter if you go bankrupt, only make $1.75 for all of 2009, work 4 jobs to pay the creditors, or even sell off your equipment.  You will achieve success because those bad things are just “temporary” and in your long term plan, you know what you need to do to make it. 

Remember this, the only way your business will EVER fail, the only way you will truly smash into that wall, is if you give up.  If you don’t believe me, look through anyone in history.  The only true failures are the ones that gave up. 

Push Back From The Wall
Here are some things you can do today to push back the wall short term as well as long term.

1. Write down the goals you want to achieve and list the obstacles or roadblocks that keep you from reaching them.
2. Brainstorm three new ways to get around those roadblocks. Make sure they are things you’ve never tried before. Run your ideas by someone you have confidence in and see if they can add to or give you any new ideas. Better yet, meet with someone who has achieved the goal you are after and find out how they did it.
3. Turn those three best ideas into actual strategies and prioritize them with the most important coming first. Don’t be afraid to take some risks outside of your comfort zone.
4. Put tactics behind those three strategies. Be detailed on the little tasks you have to complete to implement your strategies.
5. Start with your best strategy and implement with pure determination. If that doesn’t work, move on to the second one, and so on. If you’ve exhausted the three best ideas and still have not achieved your goal, make a list of three more ideas and repeat the process.

Remember, don’t do the same thing harder and expect different results. Stay away from the wall with intelligent changes along the way.

(Editors Note: Michael Imus Photographers is a multi-award winning wedding photography business that is noted for their very unique style of photography.  See more at www.michaelimus.com)

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 22nd, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under News Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.