[Leica] Finding work

[Mike Johnston <michaeljohnston@ameritech.net>]

>>>3. Marketing yourself may be the most difficult part<<<

Heh! There's an understatement. Average: 70% of your working hours will
be spent marketing. And it's almost as big a pain in the ass when all
your work succeeds, because then you have to start turning down jobs
because you don't have the time to do them. Then those people stop
calling you.

A bit of cheap advice: to get started, find some photographers who do
the same sort of work that you'd like to do, but who are better
established. This only works with people who charge more than you can
possibly get away with charging, and who absolutely won't work for as
low as your standard day rate. Then go to them show them your portfolio,
and offer to give them 10% of any job they throw your way.

Many successful photographers have priced themselves out of the reach of
former clients who liked them, and still get requests from $500 / day
clients when they are charging no less than $1K-$2K / day. They don't
like to turn those jobs away but they usually have to. If you can find a
situation like this, the more successful photographer will be very happy
to get his "commission" and you should be very happy to get the work
without having to go out and hump for it.

Another thing I've done is to go to non-competing photographers and make
the same offer. For instance, I like to do do nice casual b&w 35mm
environmental portraits; so I used to go to the big formal-dress,
formal-pose medium-format color studios, show them my work, and offer to
give them 10% of my rate for any appropriate clients who were looking
for something more my style. It worked. They were happy, because they
got to please a customer and earn a little free money; and I was happy,
because I got more jobs without having to go drum them up.

The only thing is that you have to follow through and make the client
happy. Stiff one of these clients, and you'll stop getting those
referrals in a big hurry.

- --Mike