The Eighty-Twenty Rule For Photographers
November 9th, 2011
The 80-20 rule is applicable to many area of photography but perhaps the most significant is where you spend your time and where you make your money.
For most photographers it probably looks something similar to this: 80% of your time is spent on activities that produce 20% of your income, or less. Paperwork, busy-work, interruptions and distractions…
Which really means is only 20% of your time is spent on the activities that generate most of your revenue.
Does that sound familiar?
In hard times the first thing to do is to study both of your time allocation and get totally clear on what jobs generate income. Once you determine where you pass the time, and which activities generate most of your earnings, chances are there’ll be little overlap!
After that it is a matter of reducing the time you spend on tasks that don't generate cashflow and using it instead to do more of the things which do generate cashflow.
Reducing time expended checking e-mail 10 times a day, checking your photo website statistics, aimless web surfing. You may then use that time for real market analysis, prospecting for new photograph purchasers and shooting new images!
That's what is going to grow your business: shooting new photographs and showing them to Clients.
Everything else should ideally be kept as low as possible.
2 Things You Can Do Right Now:
Set Your E-mail To Test Only Twice A Day. Set the 1st check at 12 midday, so you have the morning free to get things done uninterrupted. Set the second check for later in the afternoon so that you can check for replies. Turn off sounds & alerts so you do not get interrupted if you are in the middle of something.
Set Up An Auto responder Message on your email account to inform folk you'll be checking and replying at these times and include a cell-phone number if it's imperative. You will be surprised how few calls you'll get! The general public will wait quite happily after they know when to expect a reply!
Sadly there will always be lots of administration time in any business, but you shouldn’t let that get in the way of doing the stuff that actually makes you money … shooting great photos that sell!
Matt Brading is a photographer and writer with the GlobalEye Stock Photo Agency. GlobalEye offers a unique platform for photographers wanting to get started selling photographs online without the constraints (or commissions) of a traditional stock library.
Matt’s recently started publishing with kindle using the Kindle Publisher Pro package. The Kindle Publisher Pro package is a complete package designed to show you how to publish kindle books in a weekend.