New Year and New Business Photos Goals
Do you like planning for the new year? Does the thought of making business plans overwhelm or excite you? I personally love making new year goals and plans, but it does feel overwhelming and intimidating to set those goals.
What I love to do is, dump every idea that I’d like to get done in the year on a Post-It note. Once all the ideas are out of your head and on paper, then you can organize, group and sort those goals. Some goals will need to be broken down into smaller pieces and spread out throughout the year. Goal cascade those goals!
For example let’s take the goal you’ve written down to “take a personal branding photoshoot in 2024”. How can we make this big and vague idea into actionable and smaller steps?
Actionable Steps to: Find My Perfect Personal Branding Photographer
- Google search: “Personal branding photographer near me…” or add your city, or the nearest largest city like Tacoma or Seattle.
- Ask my business bestie or other business owners that have had professionally taken branding photos of their business for a personal referral.
- Two other places to search are in Facebook business groups for referrals as well as searching hashtags on Instagram #brandingphotography____(city).
Now that you’ve got a possibly huge and long list of personal branding photographers, let’s start sifting through this list. Some referrals from groups may just be a portrait photographer that also have done some personal branding clients. I recommended shying away from these photographers, while they do great work they don’t specialize in personal branding photography. Branding photography takes a lot of prep work and you want your photographer to GUIDE you through this process so you can nail your photos with images that fit your specific needs.
The next part is filtering through your list of personal branding photographers. Check every photographer’s website.
- Does their homepage guide you through their personal branding process? Are they an expert in personal branding photography?
Yes- Keep them on your list
No- I’d recommend you remove them from your list, you don’t want to be the one figuring this out all by yourself. Branding photographers are your guide through the process and helping you along the journey.
- Read their About Me or Bio page. Do your values align with theirs?
Yes- Keep them on the list
No- Take them off, who wants to work with someone that you don’t agree with.
- Check their portfolio page. Do you like all the images they present? Does their style match the style you are also envisioning?
Yes- Keep them on your list
No- Delete them from your list, if they are a bright photographer and you like darker and moody work, this is going to be frustrating for both parties.
- Lastly, look at their Services or Investment page. This can be a little scary if you’ve never made a photography investment for your business. However don’t let sticker shock scare you from this photographer you’re loving. I’ve seen prices from $800-$5,000+ for personal branding photographers. This number is going to be dependent on the value they bring, their skills, knowledge, and of course their CODB.
-You can see if this photographer offers payment plans
-If you love this photographer's work, follow them and then decide if this is the person you vibe with and want to invest in them being your guide through the process.
-You really want to connect with your photographer, sometimes we have to put these scary goals down and then adjust and make our annual revenue goals based on what investments we need/want to make for
our businesses.
After you’ve gone through all of these steps and eliminated a whole lot of unaligned photographers. Go to the photographers Contact page and fill out their form and inquire with them. Hopefully they will respond within a few days minus those weekend and holiday days. They should (I do) set up a phone call to start the connection process.
This phone call is meant to get to know your business, your vision and to assure you of how the personal branding photography process works. Ask them all the questions. Here are a few questions to ask.
- What is your process?
- Do I select my own images or you?
- Can I add filters (if this is something you want, not all allow this one)?
- How long will my gallery stay up?
- Can I select more images in a few months?
- Do you have a studio or will you help me find the perfect location?
- When are you available?
- Do you take payment plans?
- What if I have a team? How does that work?
- What areas do you travel to for photoshoots?
- Are you available in x month?
- I'm unsure of ____ (props, clothing, location, season, what photos I need...)- share what you don't know
After or during the call it is time to make the decision if you’re ready to hire and invest in this personal branding photographer.
If you have “Have personal branding photos taken” as a 2024 goal, start this process now. The overall process from first phone call to photoshoot is on average a month, it can be a little less, but not much. This is also dependent on the photographer's availability as well, some months are more in demand and fill up fast.
A few things to consider when planning your personal branding photos.
- The season- Do you want to have photos taken outside in a specific seasonal look? Or will your photos be taken inside only?
- Rental availability can also dictate when you schedule a photoshoot.
- Winter and darker PNW months will make for shorter photoshoot time frames.
- Most/many personal branding photographers only do photoshoots during work hours (weekdays), some may have some exceptions.
- How far are both of you willing to travel for the location?
May 2024 bring an amazing personal branding photoshoot for your business!
If I am meeting a lot of these things and you want to start the conversation, you can fill out my contact form and we can schedule a call or if your not fully ready but want to connect, let's DM on Instagram.
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