Lessons

Lesson Info

Goals and Objectives

Where do you want your business is to be because you are the on ly one who is in control of it and getting it there that is up to you not me not your competitors don't worry about what anybody else is saying or what anybody else is doing screw him do what you want to do b you worry about you and your business ok things to consider whether you're stayed home mom and you got family you're working a full time job here's what you need to consider even if you're an established studio let's set achievable goals realistic goals okay, nothing worse than going I want to be a millionaire that's great. How the hell are you going to get there? Okay, so let's set realistic goals that you can achieve because the more you're hitting your goals and targets guess what happens? Confidence starts building so we've got to set realistic goals now that doesn't mean we set little baby goals either. Okay what's your goal I want to have to photo shoots this year. Yeah. Congratulations. Okay, let's start settin...

g some realistic, achievable goals. I want you thinking about that right now also stretch goals. Okay, what starts happening is is if you say I want twenty weddings once you hit the twenty weddings mentally you have checked out, you're done, you're like I hit my goal I'm done no achievable goals stretch goals. I want to hit twenty weddings, but I want to get twenty to twenty five and you'll hear me talk that way, it's just part of natural light. I'm between here and here, it's just part of the way I'm thinking. I want to twenty to twenty five weddings I want to do fifty to seventy five seniors. I want to do ten to fifteen families start making it real right now, there's. No reason for you not to put these goals down. Just after everything I've taught you over the last two days how everything I've taught you over the course of being on creative life. There's no reason you can't achieve your goals. What do your family commitments? You have to think about this, right? Look, I'm in a position where I can work eighteen hours a day, maybe that's not for you, that's totally fine. You've got two kids at home, you've got a full time job. You've gotta understand if you're working forty, fifty hours a week at another job, how are you going to achieve these goals if this job is getting in the way of chasing your dream? So you've got to figure out what the solution is, they're not only bright future solution. What's your three month plan what's your six month plan you start reducing hours at the job you're out when do you want to punch out? You know, for me there was a certain amount of weddings I had tohave once had twenty weddings I was ready to quit microsoft twenty weddings wasn't gonna offset my income from microsoft but it was once I hit that point I knew I could start focusing on the rest of my business building my senior business my family's right, my puppy party business you know whatever I was trying to grow that's what I was doing what's your scalability plan the biggest challenge you're going to face as you're making this transition okay from point a to point b the biggest challenge for you is going to be time you're not gonna have enough time so you've got to figure out how do you scale? Do you hire someone? Do you outsource? Who are your partners who's handling your taxes. Okay. Are you doing them yourselves? When are you gonna incorporate right? How do you get legal advice? What is the scale ability plan for you? Is your spouse gonna help your husband? Your wife? Are they going to help you? My scalability plan? We were starting out. Taylor was not part of salvador cincotti photography that's the main reason our names not in it it wasn't a snub to her she don't want anything to do with photography and so this was my company my business once I started getting under water right? And I'm drowning I'm looking to my wife to throw me a life preserver she had to help me on certain aspects of the business right? So she started stepping in just doing back office stuff stuff collecting money okay, helping me get orders out the door helping me wrap pictures guys, you think I have time to sit there wrapping pictures and putting pretty ribbon on it? I'd have time for that. Hire a frickin intern for that again. What is your scale ability plan? Okay, then he quickly became okay. Honey, I need you to help me photograph so then taylor became a second shooter reluctantly. Then I started seeing how much money we were leaving on the table because every time I had to keep saying no, we're book nowhere book no, we're booked on mike screw it. You're shooting weddings now and taylor wanted nothing to do with that, right? So I've been dragging her along whether she wanted to or not is part of my scalability plan, so she didn't know it ok, but she is my scalability plan uh, finances, how are you making this investment in your business? Where is the money coming from are you thinking about that? Right? So all of you are watching whether you're watching this or you go to w p p ay on you go to the trade shows, you start making this laundry list, we all have it don't lie off what we want, what equipment we want, all the new gadgets we want the lighting that shot skis write all that stuff. How are you paying for it? You've got to start thinking about where that money's coming from. You can't just quit your job if you're if you're, uh, you know, have a full time job because that full time job is probably what's funding your business right now. You need that money coming in to do that or the money from the jobs you're working, okay, reinvest right back in the business. So as we were growing any time I got paid outside the business because I was working a full time job, that money went right back into the business. So for the first year and a half, two years, probably every dime we made went right back into the business either an equipment or marketing. But you have to start thinking about that now, what's your support network look like if you've got kids and you've got a photo shoot. Why are you scrambling? Do you have your friends family who can baby sit so that you could be nimble so they could drop everything at a moment's notice? What about when you have a client presentation and everything I'm saying to you nothing is like kind of an ah ha moment what should be the ah ha moment is that I'm telling you you need to start thinking about this now so that we're not surprised later on what is the plan? We've got to have a plan we can just live here and now we've got to look to the future because I'm trying to help you guys chase your dreams and go after what you love well, what is stopping you from getting there wherever you want to be what's stopping you from getting their rachel I'm gonna put you on the spot right now what is stopping you from quitting and following your dream to things that are stopping you in your mind just raw what's stopping him finances and um family commitments family commitments time with your kids yeah, okay, so there's two things that are stopping you okay, what do we need to do to resolve that? What would help finance wise finance wise? I'm more money my money got aside because that's the obvious answer what would help you from a finance perspective? What what would help you? Well I think having having more more jobs, a zara's like more photography jobs what photography jobs, yeah, and then also, I'm I'm I'm looking at, you know, asking what mom and dad for some help there too, and they're more than willing they've been asking us so, so good, but do you feel okay? And I'm sorry for putting you on the spot, but this is this is raw. Everybody should be asked himself the same questions and they're all at home probably stumbling to like crap, but I don't know what the answer is, right? But so this is what standing in the way. Okay, so now what's going to fix that mom and dad are willing to help out a little bit, getting more paid jobs and everything we've talked about for two days should be getting you to the point where you are getting more paid jobs, right? You feel confident that now you at least understand how to go after yes, making money. Okay, what about family commitments? What's gonna help you there. That's a tough one. That's a tough one for everybody. Right? Well, how do I balance work? Life balance. I love my children. I want to spend time with my husband or my wife, how what's gonna help you there. Um I think just having one day just putting aside, like, one day a week where we say ok, this is our time with the kids and and having that conversation with them so they understand because there were thirteen in ten so they're excited about the business too, and they want us to succeed as well, but I love the way you're thinking by the way is because you understand that their sacrifice it has to be made here yeah, success is not easy, man, everybody needs to understand there's a certain level of sacrifice that we have to make to get where we want to be. It is not easy and so you understand, and you're bringing your family and now so that as a unit you guys are making a decision together and saying, ok, we have to be diligent and carving out this one day a week and I'm gonna look you right in the eye and tell you that is going to be the biggest challenge for you and your family is honoring that one day because this guy right here guilty of letting that one day just go right, I might have maybe next week can we do it tomorrow, right? And I get in trouble my my wife is staring at me from behind you burning a hole in my chest because I'm guilty of that because the sacrifices I have to make for the business so I want you guys out there thinking the same thing what is in the way of you and stopping you get there and how do we fix it? Okay, so if you're out there going yet, I got the same problem that's awesome. Okay, we've identified the problem, but if we just keep sitting here and we don't identify the solution what's gonna change we're gonna wake up tomorrow morning we're gonna walk in the same circle we're gonna walk into the same wall and nothing's going to change you've got to start thinking about what you need to do to get where you need to be goals write him down europe home get your pen and paper out, start writing down goals where do you want to be? Twenty thirteen twenty fourteen put pen to paper make it happen dana, I want to see you right come on, man. Start right you got it down already. All right, brown noser. Okay, so, uh twenty thirteen goals right thirty five to forty weddings seventy five to one hundred seniors notice I'm writing the way I'm telling you to start thinking there's my minimum I want to hit thirty five weddings but my stretches forty I start pushing past that forty I'm going to get in a world of trouble for passing going after that forty so I'm putting goals on paper and it actually in my office, I have a whiteboard on the wall and in my office, I write this stuff down. What my goals are this way, it's just burning into my brain every day that I'm not marching towards that beaten. If you were watching yesterday, I read my personality test you from strength finder, dot com and some of you took it, which was awesome, jules did, and you understand my personality if that number is staring at me every day on the wall, and I'm not doing something to go after it, I feel like a personal failure. This is what drives me. You've got to figure out what drives you, but it starts with putting it down, making it real the minute you write that down and you realize you're not doing anything to get to it. You start right, you start feeling bad about yourself, so we've got to put these goals down. Not about maybe this year, maybe next year. No, write it down. Where do you want to be this year? Next year? Realistic goals video fifteen wedding cinema, right? I want to do video weddings I want to go up to fifteen I love it families, headshots, stretch goals whatever it is you're going after this has to be written down now so that it's tangible it's in front of you talk to your spouse about it and guys I don't want you tuning out if you're like oh we're in establish studio we don't need to do this nonsense we are an established studio and we still do this we do this every single year in fact we do it every six months we're constantly moving our goals based on what's happening right here right now we've got to put that line in the sand so to speak to go after it so how are you going to do it so if these are my goals if I go back to this I want thirty five to forty weddings sounds amazing how you gonna get there? Are you new bridal shows you some of the marketing techniques I talked to yesterday how are you getting there there has to be a path to where you're going um what are the top three obstacles so if I say you're gonna do thirty five to forty weddings okay jules I'm gonna pick on you now right? What your wedding count this year? Honestly yeah well I don't want your life well thankfully it's much better than when we were in vegas so we're at nine you're at nine for twenty thirteen yes here is the important question what's your goal for twenty thirteen twenty twenty you've got a gap of eleven how are you gonna get there what's your plan with all the wonderful tips you've given me although one of them has scuffled further so much pressure on you right now facebook how are you going to get their bridal shows bridal shows on producing my own bridal show that's right? You told me about that that's an amazing idea okay um what are the obstacle standing in your way to get into the twenty? What do you believe your obstacles are what's stopping you? Why you're only at nine and not twenty right now because lack of marketing that we have not been doing that's what I want to hear from you she understands what has stopped her from getting to where she needs to be okay notice jules didn't say because you've been around me too long now um jules didn't say oh well, nobody spending money in my market oh my brides or cheap oh all they want is a digital negatives nonsense stop making excuses she's no longer making excuses right she's looking inward at what she can do with her business and not obstacles on you the fact that you're not marketing is on you it's on nobody else so we're gonna do things we're going to close that gap that's awesome same for the rest of you I need you thinking that way on what can you do to make changes stop blaming the environment for where you're at stop blaming everybody else in the world for what's going wrong in your world we own us and we own what we do and how we react and respond to it and marketing conditions and business conditions are no different than anything else right we grow our business from o seven to today in the middle of a recession I don't blame anyone else what do you think? St louis is no photographers there's a ton of the tigris every bridal show I go to there's thirty to forty photographers twenty eight of them are knew every time I go there there's like a handful of photographers that are the same ones every year there's a new influx of photographers coming in offering nine, ninety nine packages and next year they're gone because you cannot survive charging a thousand dollars for a wedding it's just impossible all right, right so all of you I want you identifying what are the top three on schools and how do we remove them? My plan I needed twenty weddings I shared this with you on the books before I punched out. Okay, so rachel when are you gonna punch out? What do you know? I didn't expect you to grab the mic you're very confident with it all right? You know when you're ready to punch my new um when we are books of for three months so three months out, I know by then and we have things in place that's mark continually marketing each month as well I feel confident that that's when you're going and you have that written down somewhere I do and you've talked to your husband he knows what's about to happen he's totally excited that makes me happy right now because you're doing it the right way now, robbie for you mine's identical two years actually, twenty weddings is the bigg market where you want to be, which hopefully end of summer I will be there so then I hope you're there, right? But now the question is what are you going to do to get there all sorts of crap all sorts of crap. You better start articulating bridal shows, dress shops you know, things that all the things we've been talking about for two days, right as you have that success with the chiropractor. Okay, kind of dumb luck, but it's still work nonetheless. Now you need to really start going after that and I'm forcing all of you to be accountable. So where you want to be, right? I told you that not email I sent you when you signed up for this course, I did not select you because of your pretty faces I selected mostly you robbie, but but I selected you right. Because I saw potential in what you were doing and so and where you want to be. And now we're going to force you to be accountable, not only to yourselves, but to me, so that you, you get there.