SCHOLARSHIP & SCHOLARSHIP WINNER
Thanks so much to everyone who applied for the Mind Your Business scholarship.  I received way more scholarships than I expected which was a blessing and a curse.. It was a bittersweet experience getting the read your stories – sweet because I feel so honored that you guys opened up to me, and bitter because I could only select one winner.  In the end I did hand out a few honorable mentions to people who really had a great story and a great attitude, but there was one person who completely stole the show.  I knew almost instantly after reading her entry that she would be the winner, and that instinct proved to be right.  Lidia Boicu is a Dallas-based photographer who does a little of everything but is especially talented at family work, including maternity and child portraiture.  Her business, Oh So Posh Photography, has been recommended to me by countless local photographers who are all impressed by her work, but more importantly impressed by her personality, attitude, and friendliness.  Lidia is always a pleasure to talk to, she seems to always be in a good mood and always lifting up and supporting others around her, which is even more impressive when you hear her story.  Lidia has been through a lot over the past four years.  Her daughter was born with a rare syndrome that required a cross-country flight and a difficult surgery to treat, her father died unexpectedly last Christmas, and at 31 she was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer.  With all of that, it would be easy for Lidia to give up or succumb to depression, but instead, she has turned her brushes with death into an inspiring cause.  Lidia founded the Tiny Sparrow Foundation, which provides photography services to families of children who are fighting life threatening diseases.  I know Lidia puts so much of her time and effort into Tiny Sparrow, and she has really worked hard to help out people whose shoes she has walked in – facing a very real and very scary chance that they or someone they love may not be alive much longer.  Lidia has a great attitude about her business, eager to learn more and willing to work hard and do her research to get there.  She is really an impressive person all around, and I’m so excited to have her at the workshop, which will hopefully allow her to take both her business and Tiny Sparrow to a new level. Here is one of my favorite images from her blog:

WORKSHOP REGISTRATION DEADLINE
If you’d like to register for the Mind Your Business workshop, make sure you do so by midnight this Wednesday, January 6.  At that point registration will close and no further signups will be accepted.  You can learn more about the workshop here and sign up for the workshop here.  Thanks so much to colleagues Kelly Simants and Jason Huang of Table4 Photography for mentioning the Mind Your Business workshop on their websites and for their kind words and their friendship.  Kelly is also hosting a business-focused workshop called The Simple Plan, geared mostly towards wedding planners but applicable to all wedding industry vendors.

CANS FOR COMMENTS
Thanks so much to everyone who participated in Cans for Comments.  Between this website and Racy Steeves, you guys placed 207 comments in the month of December, which means a local food bank is going to be getting a HUGE donation!  I loved getting to hear from so many of my readers for the first time, so even though Cans for Comments is complete, feel free to keep the comments coming!

OUT OF THE OFFICE
Stacy Reeves Photography will be closed for business January 9-21.  We will all be out of the country for a destination honeymoon session and extended vacation, and we will have limited access to phone and e-mail.  Please be patient as e-mails, phone calls, and print orders will be delayed during this time.

FEATURED ON…
Recently I’ve had the honor of being featured on some major blogs and websites, and I’d love to reciprocate by mentioning a few of them here.  My Photographers Pricing Guide was featured on MCP Actions, a fantastic blog that offers advice and free resources for professional photographers.  It should be a staple on every photog’s RSS reader!  I was also surprised and humbled to find via Google Alert that I was mentioned on Photographers Who Blog among the likes of such industry legends as Pete Souza (the White House official photographer), David Hobby (aka that Strobist guy), and Zack Arias, whose famous OneLight workshop I attended recently.  I am definitely not worthy, but I appreciate the honor nonetheless!  Finally, this blog has been nominated as one of the Best Dallas Wedding Blogs by Dallas Wedding Planner, a great resource of brides planning a Dallas-area wedding.  I would really really reeeeally love your vote, and all it takes is a moment!  Just follow this link, scroll down to the poll, select “Stacy Reeves” and click Submit!  If I win I’ll add an additional 50 cans to the Cans for Comments donation, so your time spent voting will be for a good cause :)

I never say this enough, but thanks to all of you who read this blog on a regular basis, who leave comments, who send me e-mails, who share the stuff you learn here on other blogs and forums, and who just generally support me.  Sometimes as a blogger it can be easy to think that you’re talking to no one, so knowing that there are people out there who are actually listening is a really awesome and encouraging thing.  Thanks also to my clients, who make me love my job and who keep a smile on my face every day!  I’ve got over 40 – FORTY!! – weddings and portrait sessions waiting in the blog queue, so there is lots of great material in store for 2010!

In the spirit of the holiday season, I’ve decided to offer a scholarship to my Mind Your Business workshop.  If you haven’t heard about the workshop, you can get the full details here, but essentially it’s a one-day workshop focusing on the business aspects of beginning a career in professional photography.  Being able to take a good photo unfortunately has only a small impact on how successful you’ll be as a photography business owner.  I’ve seen so many talented photographers fail or give up because they just didn’t have the business sense to promote themselves and run their businesses effectively, which is heartbreaking and completely avoidable.

The winner of the scholarship will receive complimentary registration to the workshop on Sunday, January 24, including lunch.  However, travel fees are not included, so if you live outside of the DFW area you should be prepared to provide your own transportation to the workshop.

To apply, e-mail me at info@stacyreeves.com with “Mind Your Business Scholarship” in the title, and answer the following questions/prompts:

1.  Tell me about yourself and your family.

2.  Tell me how you got into photography, and how your business has progressed thus far.

3.  What problems have you faced in your photography business?

4.  What do you feel is holding you back from achieving your business goals?

5.  What have you done to give back to your community in the past year?  (It’s okay if your answer is nothing, I understand that starting a business can be all-consuming!)

6. Please include 5-10 examples of your work that you feel best reflect your style and ability.

The most important thing I will be looking for is brutal honesty and accountability.  The more genuine you can be in your answers, the better!

Applications are due by midnight on Monday, December 28, so that gives you ten days and two weekends to put your applications together!  Even if you have already registered for the workshop, you’re welcome to apply, and if you’re selected as the winner your registration fee will be refunded in full. Plus, everyone who applies will receive a business-related surprise from me! :)

I look forward to reading all of your applications!

It’s been a long long time since I posted a Humpdates, but the time has come! So many big announcements, so little blog space.. here we go!

Pricing Guide Update
For those of you who are familiar with my Pricing Guide for photographers, I want to let everyone know that the guide has recently had a major update. I’ve heard from a lot of portrait photographers that they really like the idea of creating a system of pricing that accounted for cost, taxes, and desired profit, but they weren’t sure how to translate that into portrait photography. After doing some research with some of my portrait photographer friends, I’ve come up with some modifications to the process in the guide that can be very helpful for photographers who primarily shoot weddings. If you’re a portrait photographer who needs some help getting your pricing in order, check out my pricing guide, especially the final chapter!

Mind Your Business Workshop
The response to my workshop has been FANTASTIC! I’m so excited to be helping so many of you get your business where it needs to be. I’m working on some great gifts and surprises for the attendees, as well as a few really helpful guest speakers. I also wanted to clarify that this workshop is not designed solely for full time photographers, part time photographers, wedding photographers, or portrait photographers. The workshop is about building a good business no matter what your subject matter is and no matter what your long term business goals are, be it a source of “fun money” on the side or a legitimate lifelong career. If you’re running a photography business of any kind and you’re not making as much money or booking the types of clients you want, this workshop will help you.  I guarantee it!  Seats are EXTREMELY limited so I cannot guarantee how long registration will stay open, get your seat while you still can!

Important December Dates to Remember
December 10 – Thursday Therapy – Happy Hour for all DFW wedding industry professionals at Sambuca in Plano.  If you work in the wedding industry in the DFW area, come join your colleagues for dinner and drinks and lots of networking!
December 11 – Print order deadline.  If you need prints, canvases, digital negatives, or anything else before Christmas, your order must be placed no later than Friday, December 11.  Orders placed after that date requiring holiday delivery will incur a significant rush fee.
December 21-28  – Stacy Reeves Photography is closed for the holidays.  We will be unable to respond to e-mails, phone calls, or fulfill orders during this time.
December 24 – Stacy’s birthday!!

Birthday Celebrations!
Since December is Stacy’s birthday month (and here in Texas we like to do things BIG), we’re planning several events to celebrate the big 2-6.  Come join us at Cru Wine Bar in Plano on Monday, December 14 or at Medieval Times in Dallas on Wednesday, December 16 (or, if you’re a real trooper, at iFratelli’s in Las Colinas on December 24).  For more details, view the Evite here (and don’t forget to RSVP).

Cans for Comments
For the entire month of December, I will donate one canned good (or $1 worth of another item they need badly) to a local food bank for every comment left on this site.  Since I was a little late in announcing it, I’m retroactively counting all the comments in December so far.  If you’d like to help out needy families in the Dallas area, all you have to do is leave a comment on ANY post on my blog.  I look forward to reading all of your thoughts and helping out those in need!  For more information on Cans for Comments and other participating blogs, click here!

After a humbling and very overwhelming response to the survey I posted last week, I’m happy to announce that I will be hosting my first-ever group workshop!  For more information on the workshop or to sign up, click here to see the info page!

The decision to host a business workshop is not something that I made lightly.  Over the course of my career I’ve been very active in many different photography forums mentoring new photographers, and I’ve spent countless hours “talking shop” with my colleagues about all things business related.  In fact, the reason I created my pricing guide was because I kept seeing photographers asking the same questions about pricing, and I was seeing those photographers making the same mistakes (and the same excuses) again and again.  Since I began offering one-on-one consultations over a year ago, I’ve been amazed to discover just how many photographers have no idea how to handle the business side of what they do, and how that has cost them a frightening amount of money.
 
The harsh but true reality of being a professional photographer is that most photographers who think they’re making money in their business actually aren’t.  Most people think that if they’re getting any kind of payment at all, they’re turning a profit.  Sadly, that couldn’t be further from the truth.  In 2006, Professional Photographers of America released a Benchmark Study that looked at the numbers of 180 different photographers across the country and analyzed how photography businesses are being run and how much money they’re really making.  Here are some shocking findings from that study:
 
-The average photographer brings in a salary of approximately $30,000 a year.  (You can make more than that as a manager at the local McDonald’s!)
 
-The best-run photography studio owners keep about 41% of their gross profits, while the average studio owner keeps approximately 30% of their revenue.  That means that for every $1,000 paid, the average photographer gets to keep about $300.
 
-Most wedding photography studios need to charge around $5,000 a wedding in order for the studio owner to be able to make a reasonable living.
 
I know that most of you are probably skeptical of these statements, and think that there’s no possible way they could be accurate.  Believe me when I say that they are very, very, VERY true.  After reading the study I decided to go back and study my own business, and this is what I discovered: My second year of business I had a 27% profit margin and made about $36,000, and the first year I was able to pay all of my bills and taxes and still have enough money to live comfortably was the year I averaged $5,000 a wedding and had a 40% profit margin.  I couldn’t have been more true to the statistics if I tried!  After I released my pricing guide I had a lot of people come to me with their numbers, asking me to check them to make sure they weren’t missing something, and over and over and over again, those statistics proved to be right on the money (no pun intended) for those photographers as well.
 
It’s easy for people to believe that all it takes to make money in photography is a nice camera and a little talent, but there’s a good reason why well over half of small businesses fail within the first four years.  Running a business is tough.  There are so many ways to fail, and so few ways to succeed, and most people don’t have a mentor who can tell them which is which.  My hope is that my workshop will allow people to have a solid business mentor, if only for a day.  I will share all the things I did wrong and all the things I did right, and the consequences and advantages of both, as well as what I would have done differently if I could.  We’ll talk about everything from tax laws to cash flow to pricing to business plans to target demographics to branding to client management, and all the stuff in between.
 
If the business side of being a photographer is frustrating you or holding you back, check out the workshop page.  Let’s get your business on the right track so you can stop worrying about your business and start enjoying your craft!