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Lesson Info

Business Goals

a business call most of you don't have business goals because most of you are just trying to survive you're not trying to thrive yet so let me show you something at this the best advice I was given for your own self esteem make business goals and achieve them nobody ever it never occurred to me nobody ever sort of enlightened me to the fact that I would gain self esteem by achieving in business because I didn't realize that those simple goals when you achieve them are so empowering that you then move on to the next goals and the next girls and the next goals and before you know it you're snowball off being successful has grown and grown and grown and all of a sudden you're challenging yourself way past what you thought you were capable off a is later you're standing in another country addressing photographers around the world as to the challenges that you were faced eight years ago when you decided that you were too scared but you had to create a business I think you should make girls ...

for work and not money and the reason is this if I tell you my planner that you have four days to come up with five thousand dollars what would you do you would you would worry about finding five thousand dollars for status you would think well I don't have five thousand dollars what am I going to do you might try and think like a bird of somebody how would I make that in four days there are a million thought patterns behind on my god how am I going to create five thousand dollars but if I told you that you had to book five sittings in a week what would you think how'm I gonna book five sittings and you would go about looking for five people as opposed to going around looking for five thousand dollars now the lore of manifestation or whatever you wanna call it that sort of dictates that if you don't have money and you wanted that you push it away from you because you are wanting it as opposed to accepting that you have it or going about creating hit the idea then is that the more that you freak out that you don't have money the least money you will manifest for yourself and the more that you create goals for people the more you put yourself out there and speak to people which in turn will give you shoots which in turn give you income the best part about that is if you make a goal for money you will kept pure income at whatever you make your goal for remember for the first twelve months I managed to manifest four hundred dollars a week except for when I made a goal to get ten shoots awake I started to make twenty thousand dollars a week and yet had I kept my goal of twenty four thousand dollars a week I would not have lent that I needed to shift my focus away from money and towards shoots and I made a goal to shoot tin shoots a week so I have to ask the question how many shoots do you want in your studio a week tell me how many weddings you want a year how many how many family portraits you want to hear tell me how many boudoir shoots you want in one year then don't just tell me write it down tell your staff tell your spouse tell the universe and make it a go because a dream is just a dream until you write it down and make it a goal I don't have a dream of owning twenty thousand dollars a week I have a goal of booking twelve shoots the lore of marketing averages states that twelve shoots per week is forty eight shoots per month forty eight shoots per month will be booked at four hundred and eighty taggart audience monthly what a then head to focus on was not held the hell am I going to make twenty thousand dollars a week what I turned all of my attention towards wass I need to put my business in front of an audience of four hundred eighty people a week a month in order to fully booked my studio twelve months out of the year in our second year of business we nearly hit the seven hundred thousand dollars back and to nova and in the third nearly eight hundred and eighty thousand at that time we have now employed six staff plus to pat time is plus me and my business partner I have now employed to full time photographers who are shooting and I have stopped becoming a shooter and I have become a business manager in mark I don't have a marketing too great they do not like managing staff see was slowly dying on the inside had stopped doing the one thing that I love to do and that is take photographs I should have hired a business manager not two photographers right okay here I am with my goal twelve shoots per week forty eight shoots per month four hundred eight taggart audience a month when you think about finding four hundred eighty people a month it's a lot of people to find it's not there's people everywhere it's like seven billion actually on the planet and they come back every year so here's the irony sometimes we see mess of limits I live in a small town yes I come from a farming community of two hundred forty thousand they all spent more money than the rich town wives the only limits you see there's a really famous story about a re book in the late eighties they took a macking manager and and they went teo a certain place in africa and they were going to send one hundred thousand units of reebok shoes over in the late eighties when reebok exploded and apparently in this book it says that the marketing managers sent back effects that said don't seem units nobly were shoes here there's no market here and then ten years later a young upstart it for reebok who really kicked reebok into garin made it incredibly famous went to the same place in africa and center you affects back that said send two hundred eighty thousand units immediately no one wears shoes here and the difference was one sort no market because why would people buy shoes they don't need to in this climate in this place and the other ones saw a massive market because nobody wish use here and it's a it's a neat story it's a netbook actually I'll find the lincoln send it to you because I believe opportunity is everywhere and until you start seeing it as opportunity you're going to let it go by and there is enough in this world there is enough to go around there is enough that everybody there is enough I want you to make a goal for your business right now I need you to write down how many shoots you want next year and I want you to hit this target once you hit this target over the year whatever your target is it's it's three shoots a week let's say it's fifty winnings and and a hundred family portrait so I want you to write it down make it a goal and start marketing towards making that happen I didn't want you to email me in twelve months time and tell me how well you hit your target okay I want to see this is a goal I wanted to be on the wall in your studio I want you to actively participate in the future of your business I don't want you to sit there anymore telling me you can't have this you can't have that why am I struggling when you are not actively working towards something and I want you to get off other people's photography websites and start going out there and actively finding people to come into your business I want you to stop marketing toe other photographers they're not paying your wages I want you to stop looking for validation in your work by sitting at home getting validation on the internet you are good enough to make money if you offer a good product and a good service I don't I want you to stop looking at other people's websites and saying I don't understand why they're so I'm successful when I'm so much better than them that is the voice of a blocked artist and if you were sitting at home wondering why you are not making an income and they are it's because they're out there doing it and they're not sitting at home criticizing you I want you to write your business for me right now I want you to draw eight boxes at a ten I want you to tell me how strong compared to mine your brand is I want you to tell me how strong is your brand isn't communicating really well isn't communicating to the people you wanted to visit speaking to a target market is it the kind of brand that you look at and say I'm attracting a great client because my brand kicks ass speaks a great story that tells a great story tell me out of ten will your brand is tell me out of teen we're marketing is are you one of those people that are hiding at home they're too scared you put yourself out there or are you actively participating in the future of your business by doing one thing every day toe actively market your business are you calling your database are you calling your database that has existed with you already the people that have already spent money with you are you staying in contact with those people are you telling stories to your market how is your photo shop skills are you spending eighty hours a week on photo shop twenty wise nodding at me are you wasting your time on photoshopped adobe doesn't mind adobe loves you but it don't be will love you if you make more money so you could buy more adobe products get off your photo shop pay somebody else to do it or do less for the shop think smart rate your photo shop at a tin rate your production I'm telling you right now if you are not turning around your albums you're processing your week in your product within two weeks or a month after a wedding then you are not getting referrals from your clients because the entire referral system of your business is based on the tune around of your finished product now write yourself out of tin on your shooting I know you all want to be better shooters I want to be a better shooter but I'll shoot well enough to sell a very very high volume business so I need to stop focusing on being a bit of shooter and stop focusing on being a bit of a person's person because everybody rates the shooting quite high but we'll spend eighty percent of the week of the shooting or photo shop and neither of those actually make money shooting a photo shop do not make you money and this your marketing and branding it selling it okay tell me your sales tell me outta tin will your sales that I want to see some numbers come on uh I want you to tell me where you are ten out of ten in your sales he's kicking us in yourselves you're reaching your target what is your average sale now don't lie to me don't lie to me were camera way on don't lie to me world don't tell me you have a four thousand dollar average when you don't you don't lie to me because I've been in a studio for twenty two years and I've seen what a studio tunes over I know the average portrait right in this world is around eleven hundred dollars average portrait's how nine hundred and other countries so if you tell me your every cell is eight thousand I don't believe you when you do an average so you take your entire shoots over the year and you take the entire income your studio and you divide it by that number so when I ask you what your averages and you say forty eight grand I go six that's an average an average hellas thie average off that number now when you tell me your averages six or eight grand or whatever it is not I hear some real doozies you've neglected to mention the no sales in the low sales because I think it's quite we forget it's like when you're on a diet and you forget that you ate that cake after lunch you just forget about it it's like that didn't really mean anything that cake so just forget about it so what I want to know is your real average now I've done a consultation in a business and he he told me that their average cell was four thousand dollars and when I did the numbers at this studio it was sixteen hundred and eighty and he said I'm really embarrassed and I said why you're double the country's average I said you're doing really well so stop lying about your average and stop building what your average is so what I want you to do is take your average sale and increase it now listen to this you walk into a shoot and I walk into a shoot with marijuana and I kicked us with his shit I'm like she's gonna love it she spends four hundred dollars I'm devastated or even wis she didn't buy anything which means I didn't hit the mac I did not give her a product that she wants and I did not listen to her when she told me what she wanted or I didn't ask her I did not educate here is two how much is going to cost if she does not buy I have made one of those mistakes make no mistake about I ke this always gonna be next addition to the role but ninety nine percent of the time I've made one of those mistakes she buys nothing and I'm destroyed sandra comes in I barely connect with sanders she was a bit of a bitch but you know I worked through the shoot she was painful her kids were atrocious I took really average shots sandra whips through the sale and pays me five thousand dollars without asking for discount and before I say how would you like to pay for that is standing there with your credit card I'm mystified man was well I just called your memoir I'm up juana is walked out of my studio gorgeous shoud I put so much different when she spoke nothing sander was a pain in the ass she spent five grand but the best part about it is I'm destroyed when you don't spend and I'm elated when you do okay you did not know sail map wanna you earned sixteen hundred eighty dollars you did not do a five thousand dollar sale with sandra you in sixteen hundred eighty dollars because there is your average so if I walk out of the chute now and I go well I just did a fifteen hundred dollars sale I didn't I did a three thousand dollars out because that is my average if I walk out of the chute and I've done a eight thousand dollars sale I didn't I did a three thousand dollar shoes because that is my average so I want you to work out your average and if you shoot different genres I want you to work out your boudoir average your portrait average your winning average I want you to put it on the wall and say currently my winning averages three thousand two hundred dollars my goal this year is to lift my average to four and a half grand how am I going to do that I'm going to create amazing product that is based and pointing towards the four and a half thousand dollar market I'm going to create a desirable product that is worth four and a half thousand dollars I'm going to make sure that that desirable product is speaking to my tag of market and I am going to make sure I offer the sales and service that comes along with four and a half thousand dollar product because unless you offering the sales and the service and the product that actually belongs with a four and a half thousand dollar product you're never going to get it okay so the idea is right this out of ten and then tell me where you're failing and where you're getting really good at tell me and about your staff do you have staff are you finding it there you good at managing staff you bennett managing stuff tell me where you rate yourself with money because right now I'm about an eight they're gonna big spender you know could be a little bit more careful but I used to be a two in fact I used to be a minus four used to be an overdraft so many you know I used to I used to be on the overdraft section of the minus four out of ten my brand is powerful my marketing is excellent my photo shop is outstanding because it produces result my production is horrendous that I'm being honest about myself right now my shooting is good enough to sell my sales are outstanding I don't have any staff anymore because when I took my brand to australia I made the decision to downgrade my brand to just me so I make more money I'll tell you about that and my money is is good so here's where I suck now this has helped the impact is going to have on my business my production is dropping so fast because I don't have staff I'm not managing their area and I'm not producing a result with my shoots fast enough that my sales will drop immediately because I am not giving my clients the service that I preach to people if I shooed them I'm not tuning them around fast enough like I used to because I know in terms of referrals that when I produced a folio box which takes fifteen minutes to put together so all I have to do is print images get them sent back to may put them together and gift wrap it that takes me three hours if I'm waiting a month to do that I have missed the opportunity to get five to thine referrals from that girl picking up her folio and this is how you tell where you're going wrong what are the complaints in your business right now because the complaint that I get and that I was getting in my studio and I'm now getting it again so after creative life I have to go home and take a good hard look at myself because the complaint that I'm getting right now is so you're taking too long to produce my result now when they call you you're amazing you're working on the phone when they come in for the shoot you're the best friend hi it's great to meet you you connect you have a great time they're coming for this shoot you kick us taking their photographs you educate them about how much they have a great old time they can back to the studio they view the portrait your coffee you show them beautiful photographs and they're writing you a check or swiping the card for three thousand dollars that is the price of the car and then they get nothing now that client right now feels a little bit ripped off you know great experience great person great connection you now have my money this is we at ninety percent of photographers are really falling down okay you need two stop doing the volume thatyou're doing in orderto up the production and the quality of what you have in orderto up the amount of referrals coming back to you so that you can start creating ongoing but sustainable business this is how it works that production must be outstanding during a global financial crisis the power goes back to the buyer okay marijuana is now sitting there going well I've still got a husband with a job I've still got money in the bank you look desperate why should I give you my money everything's on sale interest rate to lower why work for it and what are we doing as a service to say I want your business you can offer discount sure but people aren't looking for a cheaper product sorry people are looking for a cheaper product do you know why because they know if they tell you that you to it expensive you'll cut your price in half because that's how desperate we are we're bringing the level other industry down by shaving our product in half because we're so desperate for money and we reek of desperation and what we're telling people is I'll not only cut my price in half I will do anything you want me to I'm not with it and we need to bring that back up we need to bring the value back upto what we're doing and the only way we can value what we're doing is too often outstanding service offer the sort of service that people will pay for him happily pay for alright so anyone want to give me the ratings anybody brave enough come on sander your writing furiously I am I don't mind write write it out baby give me a brand brand I said seven just because four things have in the last six months marketing is on the rise at five working ok I like your optimism but let's be really yeah uh push up seven productions six production six sales for and money three I found very interesting how all three of those connect six and shooting at seven so what to lois tell me about sales money sales sales average I'm gonna say four to five hundred a case he don't think your work's good enough I don't I have a hard time seeing that there are clients out there um like I'm looking I look at my demographic my demographic of women are women who are um they put their money into their kid's sports their kid's activities like I say you hear what you're saying you are a four hundred dollar market so you've created a four hundred dollar market get your mentality is your works only with four hundred or you or you would only spend four hundred so other people will only spend four hundred okay tell me something if something was to happen to one of your children tomorrow help prices would one of those fellows be what what have you done for those people you've stopped time you offer more than a four hundred dollars see this absolutely okay so you're the only one that believes it's with four hundred bags other people are selling over three grand if you shift your idea on value everything around you shifts and I don't mean telling people you're with more I mean believing that you with more big difference okay why rand nine point five in nigeria marketing six I don't know what market it means how much of my marketing okay we're gonna do mac next okay for a shop is is eight because my clients always happy product one because I spent ten years you know ten years gotta deliver sister gotta deliver that's that's my cross should shooting what does that mean again just your rating your overall shooting level of shoot fabulous yeah fathers happy eight nine even sales I was confused about because it could mean many things they doing good sales he happy with yourselves could you do more sounds would you be my model is not based on sales all my shoots up prepaid for there's a package so I'm happy with that package very okay and you're happy with your average then I would write yourselves hi stuff I don't know where because I before you I got you talking I thought I needed it most and now I'm thinking that I would let you do need staff list were high quality of way under money I'm very happy but my I'm very miserable because of production on because I'm stuck because I'm I get all the clients I want yes what I spent I want to impress so much ok that I'm just stuck in that place so I'm not turning over work all right you must be turning through work you must be creating service through your production you must change that you must turn it around pretend around you'll get more work and if you get more what to get more money because there is a limit to the fact that you're taking so long is that you cannot do so much work so you must create their production you must turn around I want everybody out later right themselves on those eight things that I want to see um I want to see some changes but what I want to see here is I want to see you speaking a bit of message and telling a bit of story about what you do I want to see you putting yourself out there and I want to see you constantly participating everyday in marketing I want to see your freddie shot up skill and down skill in time because I don't want to see you working on photo shop and if you are running a business with staff I would rather you paid somebody twenty dollars an hour to do a student after hours paid them twenty dollars now toluene photoshopped from you and focus on marketing your business because that's going to get you more shoots there is not going to get you more shoots no matter how pretty you make them I want you to tune your production around so that you make and higher average thatyou get referrals that you have happy clients because when you have heavy clients we have repeat business in multiple business opportunities with everyone I want your shooting to just be good enough to sell ah high quality product so ups kill yourself and then move on I need your sales average to be lifting constantly because I want you to go to the next level in yourself in your business I want you to look at yourselves average I want you to look at your product I wanted you look at how you're selling your business how you're selling it on the phone what the mistakes you're making I want you teo we're con being a bit of manager and not a micromanager and being smart with your time and mostly I want you to work on being a bitter savour and a bit of saving for your business because it's imperative that you save money for your business now that this way to tell me if I was to troubleshoot in your business I wouldn't get youto tell me the rating of all of that I would get you to tell me your client's rating on all of that I want your client to tell me where you fell down I want your client to tell me the mistakes you made with them and if your client is angry with you because you've taken too much time then you can put a big cross through production once you look atyour complaints I bet you you're fine there will be a consistent complaint in your business that will be to one of those areas find out what their area is and fix it