I promise, after this, I am done talking about quarantine. You know, I was always one of those so called nerdy kids growing up. I loved to read, and I loved to learn. I still love both those things, although I don't get to spend as much time doing either one as much as I would like to these days. I am probably one of the oddballs that actually enjoyed a lot of my general education college courses. I find it fascinating learning new things, well, at least on certain topics. I never want to have to go back to Chemistry, Physics, or Calculus again (no offense to anyone who loves those subjects, they're just not for me!). I also tend to remember random facts from the things I learn, you would be surprised the strange things that stuck with me for years. Anyway, the last topic I am going to talk about in growing my business is education, branding, and workflow.
As I mentioned before, every great photographer will tell you that there is always room for learning new skills and making improvement. Something that I finally started doing for my business over a year ago was investing in myself. I was spending lots of money in a year on equipment and props, but I really wasn't taking the time to invest in more education. When I finally did this, it made a huge impact on my work! Even though I had learned manual through a combination of two film photography courses in college and my own trial and error, taking a really great shooting and editing course last year was one of the best investments I ever made in my business.
This year, I decided to focus on my weak points. I know I mention my weak points a lot, but this is because I know that growth happens when you make improvements. And the best way to grow and improve, is to really nail down what areas are your weakest, and focus on where you want to see those things be and make the effort. Sure, it's easy to work on things you're good at, but I never was one to just settle for the easy way out. I enjoy a good challenge and I enjoy learning, so bring on the weaknesses!
One of the areas that I wanted to work on was posing. Sure, I can look through Pinterest and get all sorts of posing ideas, but it's not just seeing the pose, it's being able to give the best cues to achieve that pose. Posing goes way beyond where your hands and feet are, it's down to the nitty gritty of where your hair lays and what direction your eyes are. Internally, I felt that I could use better cues and positioning techniques to attain the look that I wanted. I decided it was time to purchase the posing course from the educators that I had learned so much from in shooting and editing. I may not have been able to practice these right away, but that didn't stop me from paying attention and thinking my way through imaginary shoots. By going through the steps, prompts, and posing in my head, I worked to ingrain the information so it would come easy and natural when I could shoot again. I did manage to use some of the tips and tricks during my engagement photos that were taken with some help from my sister. This was such a great investment for me, and I was really glad that I took the time to go through the course and soak up all the details, because it will only benefit my clients and the experience I am able to provide them.
Another less exciting course I decided to take while on quarantine was a business course. This one, was a bit more of a struggle. I would be lying if I said I didn't fall asleep watching some of the videos and have to go back and re-watch them. Going over things like book keeping methods, taxes, and workflows are not exactly my definition of an exciting time. Sure, there were some aspects that I already had handled and didn't really need, like how to register my business and set up to collect sales tax. But there were a lot of things that I learned that will definitely help my business grow and help me keep up with the growth. The concept of curating and branding were always foreign to me before this course, but they explained it and made it simple. And I learned just how a good workflow management system can make my job so much easier. Was this a super fun and exciting educational pursuit, no, however I do know it will make me a better business owner, which is important to help me be successful and not a starving artist!
After I learned about branding and curating, the most obvious thing to do was go through and do an overhaul on my own website. I updated a lot of my galleries and how things were laid out. I also ditched photos that I had kept just because they were something different. After that I set out to set up a new workflow system. I have no doubt that all my preparation and behind the scenes planning will lead to my business growing more rapidly than ever, so with that in mind, having systems in place to simplify my life is going to come in handy. Side note: you're never quarantined alone if the dogs are home!
Our lives are what we make of them. I could have chosen to be sad and depressed, moping about while I couldn't get out and photograph people. But what would that have gained me? Instead, I chose to dig in and take full advantage of the time I was given to set groundwork and make improvements. Nothing is impossible if you set your mind to it, even growing your business while you're shut down on a quarantine.
