Guest Blog – Networking

Dorie Howell is the mother to one adorable little 2 and a half year old little girl and lives in Virginia right outside of Washington, DC.  She has been in business for a little under two years and is loving every minute of it.

So you want to grow your business?  I know this might sound crazy, but one of the best things you can do is get to know your “competition”.  Really… get to know the people in your area that do what you do.  And I don’t mean in a stalkerish (yes, that is a word ) , competitive type of way.  Get to know them as people.  Learn about them and make them friends.  Why, you ask?  Well, there are many great reasons to get to know the members in your community who are in the same line of business as you.

Many people think I am crazy when I tell them this, but I truly believe that most of us photographers are out on an island.  We work, shoot, edit, make business plans, and everything else alone.  We don’t have the advantage of having a cubicle mate or co-worker to bounce ideas off of.  I don’t have the advantage that my husband has when he goes off to work.  I can’t lean over and say, “Hey, Howard, can you come check this out for a second?”   Sure, most of us find places online where we can share our work, get critiqued, and generally find people who will take the time to look at a picture for 30 seconds and give us some feedback.  Those avenues are invaluable.   BUT, try to go out and find a community of photographers in your area that will not only tell you how it is, but guide you in how to fix it.  Most importantly, they can tell you when something just doesn’t work.  And if you can do it during a mom’s night out, that is even better.

One way to connect is to go to Happy Hour events hosted by camera stores, meet-up groups, traveling seminars, etc…  The chance for networking there is tremendous.  The reason I love the meet-ups and sponsored happy hours is because I get to put my grown up clothes on (maybe even something that had to be dry cleaned – woo hoo!) and I get to meet photographers that specialize in all sorts of subjects.  I specialize in child and family photography.  It is so great to sit and chat with a wedding photographer about their business and how they do things.  Not all of it applies to my business BUT hearing different ideas can be inspiring.   I never knew how to do a multiple edit in Adobe Camera Raw.  I was completely oblivious to that fact.  But someone turned me on to that at a happy hour and it has saved me HOURS and HOURS of time in my editing chair.  Something so simple…that I should have already known… but didn’t.  And in a brief chat, in a bar, in downtown DC, on a Tuesday night, it seriously revolutionized my editing.

You may also get referrals from networking with other photographers.  I get some of my best customers from referring photographers who cannot take clients for one reason or another.   One photographer cannot be all things to all clients, so I love having a network of very talented people that I can refer people out to.  That makes me look helpful and hopefully those people will remember me when they need family pictures in the future.

But here is a word of warning about these events. When you go, behave in a way that will make people want to refer business to you.  Recently at a photographer event, I had a wedding photographer say something extremely crude to me within the first two minutes of meeting him.  It was apparent by his harsh demeanor and free use of foul  language that he was just being himself and didn’t mean anything by it, BUT I would never in  a million years refer any of my clients to him.  If he was that rude to me within two minutes of meeting me, what would he say to my conservative client base?   Make sure your reputation stays intact, even when letting your hair down.

So I encourage you to get out, make friends, and connect on a face to face basis with all the talented people out there.  Don’t be scared if you are just starting out or aren’t in this to make a full-time career.  Some of the best people to talk to are the ones that are doing it purely for the love of the lens, not the love of the money.  No matter what, you have something important to share and people will embrace it.  You can do it!