The business of photography and retouching
When someone asks you to work for free, they want photography that’s good enough, pictures that are better than nothing, photos that are worth what they’re paying.
When someone hires you to work for pay, they want photography that’s good, pictures that are better than anything, photos that are worth what they’re paying.
If you need a deposit or a prepayment before the photography takes place, you simply ask the customer for it. Easy, right?
With retail customers, this is a straightforward process. But with some corporate customers, it might require slightly more paperwork.
Some companies can’t, or won’t, issue a prepayment based only on a photographer’s estimate or quote. They may need an invoice. An invoice is a legal request for payment, a quote is not.
How do you invoice a customer for work that hasn’t been done?
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“The customer is always right” is a well-known saying. But contrary to popular belief, it’s neither a law nor regulation of any kind.
That phrase seems to have gotten its start at least 112 years ago as part of a customer service policy of Marshall Field & Company, a Chicago department store.
A 1905 US newspaper published an article about Marshall Field & Company in which it seemingly quoted what Marshall Field taught his employees, namely that the customer is always right.
Harry Selfridge, a department store executive who worked for Marshall Field, moved to London in 1906 and soon opened his Selfridges & Company department store. He, too, used the phrase “the customer is always right.”
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Confucius was wrong when he said:
Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.
Running a photography business consists of short moments of photography broken up by long periods of business. But those moments of photography make it worthwhile.
While photographers do need to make money, the need to create pictures may be more important. It’s not always about money.
Making money is a job. Making good pictures is an accomplishment.
Internet scams that target photographers have been around for years. Over the past couple of years, there’s another scam involving credit cards.
A scammer, posing as a customer, will ask to hire a photographer for an upcoming event but only if the photographer accepts credit cards. If the photographer agrees to the work, the scammer will mention that they also need to pay another event supplier who doesn’t take credit cards.
The scammer will offer to send extra money to the photographer so the photographer can pay that other supplier. To tempt the photographer, the scammer will promise the photographer a couple hundred dollars extra for their trouble.
The scammer will use a stolen credit card to pay the photographer’s fee, the other supplier’s fee and the extra money for the photographer’s trouble. The unsuspecting photographer will be told to pay the other supplier immediately – it’s urgent!! – but only in cash through Western Union.
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Are you planning a business conference, workshop or other corporate event? Would you like to add more value?
Arrange to have a business portrait studio at your next event. People could get a new business headshot while they’re at your event.
This is not to be confused with those photo booths you might see at parties and other social events. A business portrait studio has no silly props, no crazy backgrounds. It’s a no-nonsense, business photo studio with photographer, assistant(s) and, perhaps, makeup artist.
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If you accept mobile, point-of-sale credit card payments by using something like Square, there are a couple things you need to know.
Apple has removed the 3.5mm headphone jack from its new devices. Lenovo has also started doing this and it appears Samsung may do the same. The problem is that credit card readers currently use the headphone jack.
The move to the proprietary Lightning connector and the concurrent move to USB-C ports (which can accept proprietary restrictions) greatly increase Apple’s control of third-party devices that can connect with Apple products.
This move is expected to generate a lot of money for Apple since third-party manufacturers will have to pay for licensing, pay for Apple’s proprietary MFi chip and other components, and pay a royalty on each and every device they manufacture. By contrast, USB and 3.5mm audio connectors are royalty-free, OS-independent, device-independent and they fall outside of Apple’s control.
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