Re: Using my Leicas for Enterprise ($$$$/self-promo)

[Donal Philby <donalphilby@earthlink.net>]

Ben,

I looked at my bank account today and it made me feel least qualified to
answer your question.  If only I could pay my phone bill with
receiveables!

As other have responded, it is business acumen that is vital to
success.  I know marginally talented photographers who are good business
people who are very sucessful.

Virtually all my business has come via referrals.  But I've had several
major clients (The $20,000 to $30,000 a year kind) either go out of
business (GTE Entertainment) or get bought (Aldus by Adobe) and seen
business dry up so I'm on the stump looking.

Generally I keep clients once they have worked for me, and I've been
told there are several reasons.  I don't have a huge ego (at least not
that anyone sees!!!) that has to be dealt with and I listen to client
needs.  I can think conceptually (which comes from having written and
directed lots of advertising).  I can light just about anything and make
it interesting (which fundamentals I learned when I took a
quasi-in-house job shooting medical products for a catalogue company--I
can shoot clear plastic on white, or chrome or flat black--and the
skills I learned apply to shooting people in factories or natural light
landscapes or boats on water as well).  

So part of my advice is:

Really listen to clients about what they want/need.
Learn how to communicate ideas with your pictures (ask not what picture
they want, but what ideas and feelings they want to communicate to
customers (whether magazine reader or product purchaser).
Learn to do research.
Learn technical skills (and today, especially with the demand for color,
that means lighting) so well it is second nature.
Don't talk about yourself on jobs, ask about the client.
Read Photo District News.
Find out how much a magazine gets for a page of advertising where you
might be published.  Believe me, it will help your negotiating
convictions.  (I just had a client complain and try to get a photo of
mine for less than $300 to use on a billboard, saying there just wasn't
much budget.  I asked how much they were paying for the billboard. 
$15,000.  Suddenly I wasn't very sympathetic and we eventually
negotiated agreeably.)

The other part is:

Forget the assignment slavery part of the above advice and follow Fred
Ward's advice to create your own.  Especially stock.  Find an out of
print book by Henry Scanlon (one of the owners of Comstock along with
Tom Grill) on stock photography and read it, especially the parts about
thinking conceptually to illustrate universal concepts such as love,
victory, pain, pleasure, etc.    And as you begin to know the kind of
work that you can't wait to do, follow it as far as it will go.

Try to build long term investments such as book projects, stock files,
and specialty knowledge (such as Fred's geology) so that eventually
these will begin to pay off and give you freedom to fund more
investments in things that matter to you.

Edit your work tightly and begin organizing your files of pictures
before it becomes an enormous task, and stay on top of it, so it doesn't
drain your energy.

Don't forget why you started taking pictures in the first place.

Donal Philby
San Diego