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Policies for Baby Plans

Lesson 25 from: Baby Plans: Photographing the Early Years

Julia Kelleher

Policies for Baby Plans

Lesson 25 from: Baby Plans: Photographing the Early Years

Julia Kelleher

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Lesson Info

25. Policies for Baby Plans

Next Lesson: Customer Service

Lessons

Class Trailer

DAY 1

1

Class Introduction

13:24
2

What is a Baby Plan?

29:09
3

7 Steps to Baby Plan Success

26:59
4

Shooting Prep for the 4-5 Month Old "Smiling Stage"

14:33
5

4-5 Month Olds: Tummy Time and Headshots

21:02
6

4-5 Month Olds: Basket Shot

20:34
7

The Baby Plan Structure

28:28

Lesson Info

Policies for Baby Plans

Policies, policies, policies, policies and customer service okay it's so important and I've stressed to you guys how much customer service should be your mantra from this day forward pretty much we're also going to discuss how your policies interplay with that customer service so yearlong client is a little different than others and you need to account make policies that account for that, right? So we're going to learn that in this segment we're also going to talk about communicating your policies to the client and how to do that. We're going discuss how to draw your line in the sand so help your clients respect your business and fold the rules basically how to not give in to a client. You know, this is the hard part as you get a relationship with clients over the long haul, you know, a year long client you're gonna be tempted to wantto get lax on your policies because you like him and you know them, so we're gonna help you kind of get through that why problems happen and how to analyz...

e them. So whether it be your systems or your policies or challenging clients or whatever I want to discuss with you howto pinpoint problems and analyze those and fix them when they go wrong in a good way that makes your client happy and provide still that stellar customer service sometimes the hardest lessons are the most hard one you know when things happen and you screw up andi accidents happen those air when sometimes the best policies come around is because you screwed up somewhere you realized it and you're like, oh, I don't have a policy for that I'd better make one ah, the reason customer service is so important might actually surprise you when I talk a little bit more about customer service and then of course we're going to discuss the seven mantra sze of customer service as well so policies I love it I love it getting the baby's cry it's so cute I try not to let him cry too much but it's just so sweet it's just because it's not how they communicate at this age they can't do much more than that. So sometimes I cry, isn't it sarah? Because they're upset it's because I mean yeah obviously upset that something was just frustration or because they can't communicate their desires that's how they let you know that they need help with that something's wrong or they want to tell you something good policies are like a solid pre nuptial agreement ifyou're in develop a relationship for life with their client a long term one in other words you want them to marry you you better have a good pre nup right? A pre nuptial agreement sets out expectations on the front end in case something bad happens right well, policies do the same thing but they also set out expectations for the day to day back when there was arranged marriages there were duties of the husband and wife to complete on a daily basis that was in their quote contract and it's the same today with you and your business you want to set out the expectations for what you're going to provide for them and you want to set out the expectations that you have from them to be a client you're basically saying to them help me help you but if you lay the groundwork for a solid relationship the policies help you set those expectations and really do that okay? You need session policies you need design and payment policies ordering and delivery policies are just a few of the types of policies that you need so we're goingto go over some of the areas that you might need policies for set the length of sessions do you want to have a policy that states you know sessions only go to ours you know, sometimes a client would be like oh can we just do one more can we just do one more? Can we just do one more? Do you want to have a policy for that? What about session fee restrictions? What does it include? What is it not include? Can you have family members in on the baby plan session? Are you going allow siblings I've got three sessions in one year are you going to just do baby or you gonna let the sibling come in the older sibling? And what about family sessions at the end of the year? When are you going to let family come in and be photographed so make sure you said solid policies for all those rules to cancellation policy you know, I'm I allow people to cancel for a refund, you know, within thirty days of the session if they cancel and like, if they're truly canceling, if they're canceling because baby sick, then we just reschedule that kind of thing and I don't want to stick baby in my in my studio and I outlined that in my policies stick kids air no fun and they want to photograph don't bring him in what about payment policies for sessions and booking policies? Are is the payment due before they book how much of it is dio that kind of thing? What about model releases? Are you going to ask your client to sign a model release no matter what? Are you going to make it optional for me it's like conditionally optional it's like it's optional but it's not you know I mean like they have the have the option to say no by any means and I say that whole heartedly because I have a lot of clients were like criminal psychologist or I have ah couple celebrity clients and those people don't want their images sold. Teo, you know the magazine that will show off their kid, you know? And I get that so that's not gonna happen in the studio especially if they tell me that say no to the donald release and also, if you have ah, like an undercover cop, he doesn't want his kid up plastered all over the internet. Are you kidding me? So we have to protect that with our clients and we have to have policies set forth. And what does that model release mean? You know, what does that mean? You could do with the images be very clear about those kinds of things rescheduling and miss session policies. We discussed that yesterday. What if the client misses the second session? Can they do the third one if they've missed the second one in that kind of thing? What about liability and pet animal policies? I have a lot of clients who want to bring in the pet. I generally am okay with that on the family session at the end and occasionally I will allow it. Unlike the seven month session of the one year session, I never allow it for the newborn session and there's very strong reasons for that a dog, a new baby coming in the house is that new and a dog has been especially if it's a first tile the dog has been the baby and they don't understand what's happening are going on and you have no idea how that animal's going to react in your studio with anymore baby and to me that's too risky okay as far as safety is concerned but as the child's been in the house for a while and you get to the seven month session you know probe the client a little bit more about their animal I have huge policies about biting dogs I used to photograph pets a lot I started often been as a pet photographer were before I graduated over two newborns exclusively and I've had a couple dogs bite me it sucks let me tell you it hurts and so my policy is biting dog or an aggressive dog of any kind even just a little snip and that dog is out of here and I will not photograph it again especially on me but with kids it's even more you risk more liability okay and what will you provide to the client during the session what are you going to set forth as what they can expect from you that all has to be outlining the policies ordering when and where when will the ordering appointment take place and where will it take place and who should be there outlined those policies can there be kids we allow kids or not additional ordering appointments. What if they can't make a decision that day and they want to come back or they want you to post images online? What are your policies for that? Okay, I have very strict policies for that kind of stuff. They're supposed to make an order at the ordering appointment. All decision makers should be present if you can't make a decision the day of your order. Appointment additional order employment. So, one hundred dollars each for another two hour block of our time. We have no room next tuesday. You want to come in, then? Oh, no, we'll just order now. Thanks. It's nips that in the bud. So if you have those policies outlined in your document that your client sign, you're gonna be a lot better off. Yeah, kinda passing this along the way. So since you mentioned it, do you include other children in any of the babies? First year plan or the newborn shoots what's your policy? Yes, I will include a sibling. Not always, but especially if I photographed that first sibling as a new boring you bet shall bring him in for the for the baby plan. I stop it, parents and I'll stop it. I mean, if there's like five siblings in the family that's a lot to deal with that's a family that's a family shooting granted when I first was no when the lady with the five kids under two came to me and she did the newborn the triplet newborns she uh excuse me she wanted to baby plan and I allowed her to put the twins in and those were involved sessions and now my policies are a little different because obviously not that it was a bad experience at all. Those kids are actually easier to photographed in most two year olds amazing well behaved kids I mean, I could get a I could put all five of them together with the one year olds and the three year olds and get a single shot multiple single shots of them I don't know any compositing like at all they were that good so you but subsequent sessions were allowed siblings and just got to be too many so you need to ask yourself am I goingto limit that how many siblings can come in and do they have to have been a client beforehand to do that? So uh what about online gallery restrictions and order cancellations? You know I have a fifty percent charge for people who places cancel in order after after it's already been placed and wants it sent to the lab it's non refundable, non refundable and usually their orders at the lab about an hour after they leave the order appointment so I don't get cancellations of orders at all, okay? Every once in a while we have a client who can't make a full decision and that art product we just charge them for the minimum and then they fill it later kind of thing so they can take their digital files home that's when I have that's, when I have most the problems, this is a matter of fact, I'm goingto cancel that and make a policy in my a contract that says you need to make a decision at the ordering appointment because you're in our client workflow, and if you decide that you need time to decide, then you're out of our workflow and we can't guarantee that you're going to get all your stuff on time that things are gonna happen the way they should and we don't really want to do that. We want to provide you the best customer service possible, so the policies space within the state, you could do that, but once you're out of the workflow, all time and stuff goes out the window and you may get your product six, eight weeks later kind of thing, you know? So if you want to be in our workflow and get everything that when we say we're going to give it to you, you need to help us by providing meeting our deadlines as well, okay? Um image archives policy how long are you going to keep images that kind of thing is there a minimum order order appointment cancellations and timing to the next session so like for example, I'm dealing with a client right now who we did their six month session in december and our seven month session in december the baby's turning one and she still hasn't come in for her order appointment for the six month session. So am I gonna shoot the one your session without her ordering from the six month session? No, I can't do that. I won't shoot that next session until she orders from the first one okay it's just she gets out of the work for order and then we end up getting screwed up that makes sense so I'm I'm strict about that kind of thing so ask yourself what you want to do in your business what works for you time management wise profit wise and, you know, outline that carefully design policies so if you're going to designing things like image boxes or albums with things like that do you have an hourly rate or is it a flat fee for things revisions? How many revisions come the client do who has to approve the design and where should that take place? This is a huge one for me I do not let clients approve graphic design via email, screen color my client screens are not professionally calibrated the color looks way different on their monitor than it does mine so when they get their printed product it's not going to look anything that's like on their screen it could be totally whacked out and yet there are proving things via email what they see on their screen no they gotta prove it in studio on my professional calibrated monitors that's how we see stuff that kind of thing is super important but like the image boxes and stuff they don't necessarily get to design they get to pick the image but I get to design it so I control a lot of that by not giving them a choice email policies you know how are you going to handle e mailing back and forth with approval on stuff are you going to do that if you are procrastination policies for people who just can't decide and like you know how much time are you going to give him are you going archive things after a month or two I have a climbing I actually have to deal with this myself I've got a client has a newborn album from a year and a half ago that she still hasn't approved the design on I mean we've all got it we'll have these people so we need to come up with a policy that states if your design is not approved within thirty days of us providing you with proofs then we're archiving your order and putting it away and they'll be a hundred feet your feet, a pullout, those files for us to look at it again, that kind of thing time is money and when you're out of our work fall like that, you're being hard on us and we can't provide you with the best service, okay payment policies when his payment due payment plan in relation to successive sessions are you gonna offer a payment plan? And how is that going to work? You need to take one credit card to three isn't a layaway program? Is it month to month? You could have interest outline all this stuff in your policies to your client order changes or two returns digital orders did you order not returnable refundable the minute they take that usb out of the studio and I say that to them when I hand them the paperwork and they're printed invoice at the bottom, I make sure I say you're signing for your credit card. You're also signing here that you understand that the product you're taking out of the studio is a digital downloadable product, which makes the sale final once this usb leaves our studio and no no refunds, no returns because it's a downloadable product and they look, oh yeah, well, of course you'd be surprised how many people try to return digital files can't do it you've seen him you know what they look like you know they're beautiful you're taking them you know what the product is bam it's done sales final okay and what about payment policies on incentive spending levels? The question you guys asked earlier what if they don't make a certain ascendant incentive level on the first two sessions but on the third session they realized oh my gosh if we just spent this much more we could have gotten a free box can we still do that you won't have a policy on that you know everything you know I'm saying how long will it take to deliver the order shipping policies I hate shipping oh shipping destroys me crazy I don't know I don't like to ship at all I will only do it if I absolutely have to um particularly drop shipping because I can't see the product before it goes out the door I have no quality control so that's you know you have to decide if you'll ship stuff to clients I don't pick up in order approval on delivery any guaranty for your products do you want to have a guarantee and what would that look like in your policies? Digital delivery how are you going to deliver the images digitally? I do it both by online upload to the lab and buy us be so they have two ways of having their files delivered to them you know, outline that in your policies and then force of course the free year and gift delivery and policies for that they're getting a free year in gifts so they tend to take it a little more lightly than stuff they pay for so they don't get teo prove any design we designed that we get to do it on that free year end gift they have no say whatsoever and how that's designed or what it looks like because it's free okay, so but then, as far as timing, when are you going to deliver that versus the last payment? That makes sense. How many days out from the last payment does the free gift get delivered? That kind of stuff? Okay. Communicating your policies really is the key to getting them understood. Beat your clients over the head, have them here it have them see it, have them signed for it super super important. And when I say beat them over the head I mean, I am just kidding in the literal sense of the word but really, how how do you do that? How do you get them to understand this stuff? Will you go over it at multiple times during the process? Okay? The pre consul to they should sign and acknowledge that they've read it, create marketing materials and go over this over and over again in our my order appointment, I have a whole another kid that they get right after the session. That's called the ordering appointment prep kit and in there is a little card that says what's gonna happen if the order appointment and are ordering policies on the back. So they read the policies again and again and again and again again. So when I get to the ordering session there's no point of contention, no there's, nothing in there. There's no complaint there's no objection. If there is a repeated objection that I hear a lot, then I need to make another policy. Do you know I'm saying so? Watch for those and listen for those that may mean that you need you need to make another policy that addresses a profit ongoing problem that you're having. Okay, verbalized critical pot policies at critical moments, like when I'm making when I'm at the session and I'm about to give them the ordering prep kit and we're your signing them up on the calendar for their ordering session, I physically say to them, okay, all decision makers need to be present at the ordering appointment who needs to be here and what if their schedule like you will be placing your order at the ordering appointment? So I want to make sure you're fully fully prepared. Please go over this entire kit thes two sections of the most important to read, which is going to educate you about the transitory nature of digital files, about why printing it's worth it and it's really going to ask you to evaluate your budget and evaluate your goals for the images and what you want to do with them? Because, really, what this is about is five, ten years from now, how do you want to see these images? So please go home, review your budget, you know, kind of have a loose plan of what you want to do with your images and make sure you read or ordering policies so that you're ready to place your order at the ordering appointment. Those are the exact words I use every single time I book and ordering appointment with a client. Okay, so get this lingo in language written down for yourself. Take the time, opened up a word document and write it all down. You'll tweak it as you go and perfect it. Okay? Yeah, go for it. You get them the pricing before, you know, once you've given them that packet, or do you review the pricing when they get that? Yes, I have a brochure studio over sure that outlines are basic pricing kind of starting point pricing and then my pricing guide which aspire for keeping that bag over here I'll just get you guys all because it's you gotta visualize you got to see it so I think that's important um so thank you christmas again oh, I need my pre after you've read my mind lest you dear okay, so when they leave the ordering appointment they get this little kit okay? And in here is a sheet that says what's gonna happen at the ordering appointment and it has our ordering policies on the back. Okay, then in here it says how to measure your wall so in pro select you can take a photograph of a wall and then put the client's images on the walls so they can do that and send us the image and then we'll be able to show their images on their walls in the right size on the back of that is a reminder for when they're ordering appointment is so they keep this okay because I need to remember when they're ordered equipment is and if I can show images on their walls and the right size with a grouping that looks amazing in the space and is designed for the space, I'm going to sell that a lot more than if I didn't do that this is a digital file education brochure, so this talks about, you know, how prince raise a child self esteem how digital files are not archival, all that stuff. And then this one here asks them to really consider their budget and think about how they want to see these images five to ten years from now. Do they envision walking by them every day in their home? Do they envision an album that khun sit with their child and peruse through that that the child can have later on in life? I always say the child's gonna want the album, not the world portrait. I have a huge affinity towards albums, and then there's display ideas to give them ideas about what quartets and what can be done with them. Okay, so this kid is instrumental. Then, of course, there's just popular products albums and are finishes on the other side to get them thinking about what they might want to do with their images. So not only have we talked about this in the pre console, but now, after the session is over and we're making the ordering appointment, I'm outlining my policies again, communicating to them the importance of the print, communicating to them the importance of taking care of their digital files and helping them think about what they're going to be doing with their images and planting the seed of the sale even further. Watering and fertilizing it so that by the time we get to the ordered appointment there's a blossom that I can pick off of it okay that's pretty much what I'm doing so the more I beat over my client's head that they need to get this stuff straight the better off I'm going to be in the ordering session and honestly the better off they are going to be too now as faras pricing goes this brochure where is it where's my brochure oh please tell me I brought it I did bring a shirt for sure tonight oh fiddly current foreign it I did not bring it well ok anyway it's a threefold brochure is just a standard studio for sure that hard so basic pricing in it but this book is at the studio this is our major product guide that says how create a collection works for the client and then inside of it is our signature wall art we talked about the different finishes we have what sizes what the prices are so this outlines every single piece of a product that we do in our studios. So while the session's going on clients are totally perusing this every single client looks through this and sees how create a correction works what all the products are and the exact same product that is pictured here in the book is sitting there for them to touch and hold and look at it's huge sample products are what sell your work and when you can visually associate what's in the book so here's the picture we took here's the picture of the album with the cover on the front this exact album is sitting on the table where this cook resides okay so clients can go through oh yeah that's that oh yeah while I'm shooting the session so that plans to see the sale then they get all this literature and oh yeah we want that all we want to do that okay what's that going to cost they set their budget they know what's happened when they come into the order employment it truly is just an ordering appointment it's not a sales appointment anymore that makes sense okay, I see a couple light bulbs going on and I love you okay? Make sure it's nice and clean and neat and pretty has all kinds of other goodies in here but we'll get to that later. Okay? Well what lauren take this if you don't mind, sweetie thank you. Okay, so what if your client challenges your policies? What do you do? Sometimes the truth hurts and you just say it with smile what you guys let's put me on the spot give me classic objection that a client provides you and that's the one you hate answering were you so expensive? Why are you so expensive e that's an objection in the beginning, but yes, I will answer it well, there are many different types of photographers out there. There is the wal mart, the target, the north terms and the product of photography. People have different desires and needs for photographic art, and what I produce is our it takes time, it has customization associated with it, and it has our complete emotional devotion into the process. So what you're hiring with us is an experience and custom work that takes time and effort, and we have overhead to cover and expenses that a lot of other foot harbors don't have. So that's why the price is where it is because you're really hiring training, you're hiring years of experience of someone who has crafted and perfected her art into something that's, unique and different and that's what I want to provide, teo and something that will last forever and be an heirloom. So, yes, it is expensive, but the images will become more value to will you two as time goes by, and once this time of your child's life is different, dawn, it'll make a difference in how you see the price, so I understand it's something you can't afford, I totally appreciate that I'm happy to refer you to someone who maybe isn't a easier price point for you, but I really ask you to consider who we'll ask you to consider who you're putting your trust into your images and make sure it's a decision you are absolutely comfortable with because what happens later when you look at the images is what's most important? Not what happens now? I have one from porn from the internet. All right, k v photo says, why can't I see all of the pictures that you took? I can't I have everything going? Why can't I have all of the digital? Why can't I have a whole digital files? How would I say? Well, you're right when I do photograph a session, I'm photographing two to three hundred images of your child, several of them are duplicates, some of them have eyes closed and blinks and stuff that I really don't want to show you, because it's not very exciting when I go through the session, I am really calling it down to the images that I feel are the most artistic representation of the work that I want to produce for you that have the expressions that I feel most represent your child and I don't want to overwhelm me with too many choices. If I show you every single image you're going to be, you're so emotionally connected to that little girl of yours, if I show you every single one, it'll overwhelm you so completely you won't know what to pick and that's not good customer service I want you to be thrilled with the image is excited about the process and enjoy this experience if I provide you with too much I've learned in the past that it can be extremely overwhelming that's probably what I'd say just, you know, honest and to the point and the truth hurts sometimes um and it's important to be honest and speak from your heart what you really believe for a client? Okay, I'm gonna get tested again. Yes, don way may not necessarily apply to you. Okay currently, but maybe sometime in the past. Okay, have you had a parent that says we didn't really get the images that I wanted or baby didn't sleep the baby wasn't cooperating that baby, you know, for for your baby I know your reshooting babies, maybe more often than newborns, but do you get that from the parent? Or is that strictly your call? You're going to reshoot it orjust a parent say we didn't get the poses I wanted my baby wasn't happier my you know yeah, yeah really good question I in the pat well, nowadays most of the reshoots happened because I want it to happen I don't feel that I got what I needed I have had in the past people see the images and be unhappy with them and be like oh, I just really don't like what it is and it's I mean it's just kind of a relief team blowing kind of thing oh it's george's on your head just going on u s oh I've been there done that and got multiple t shirts I do offer a reshoot I mean if the clients truly unhappy tonight yeah I do want to make them happy so I'm going to bend over backwards to try to provide that where it really gets sticky is when you think it was a good session and they don't perhaps the baby was awake but you still got beautiful images they really wanted that baby sleeping does that make sense? So what I would say that it's like well, you know I try to do everything possible to prepare that baby to sleep through the session by extending you preparation instructions and doing what we can to maximize our chances of your child sleeping however we can't control everything and there are some babies who just don't sleep with that being said I know that something that you really really wanted the images that we did get her awake are still charming and beautiful but if you really do want a couple images of her sleeping I'm happy to do a mini in a reshoot I would do that if that if she's so adamant about it and really want it then I would um but if if if I would before doing that, I would encourage her and say, you know, the images of her awake are just is beautiful and it's so rare to actually get the baby's awake, and we still managed to get gorgeous shots. So which is not always the case, so I hope you can kind of see the benefit of having a child awake, but if you truly truly want that baby asleep, then we can come back and do a mini one one set up or so of her sleeping and get that sleeping shop, is it? I would say it's one in twenty sessions that I have a baby who didn't sleep the entire session, I usually have some sleeping shots and I always try to balance it with oh my gosh, you got both, you know, you got post baby awake and the baby sleep? No, that doesn't happen that often. So how great is that that's kind of message? I try to communicate to the client, but yeah, that is more with newborn with baby plan sessions. Yeah, there's most the time it's me asking for a reshoot it's me going, you guys mind coming back? You know, she's, a little fussy and nine times out of ten the reason they're fussy is because they're getting sick because kids get colds that fishing the winner this time of year it's like I can if I start working with the baby and they're fussy and they're not comin down and I can't make him happy there's a point where I go I wonder if this kid's getting sick and I'd say six seven times out of ten the mama call me the next day I go yep you got your infection something going on there was something happening that reason she wasn't feeling good but we just it wasn't obvious right away so keep that in mind so always have that your back your head I have a child of the year age you know the annual plan age is not cooperating there may be something else going on that you're not in control of okay any other objections if you want to go to before I move on one more do you want one more show you one more okay all right the cayman mostly myself thiss was it was from jorge lebanon that says I have appreciate all your work and I know that it should be printed beautifully but I wonder if I can get only the digitals to lower the price no, I mean really this is one of those ones where the truth hurts and granted well living or not I actually do have ala carte pricing which is digitals only so but they're priced a lot higher so I would say yes, we do offer digital files only in our ala carte pricing menu I'd like you to take note, however, that we greatly encourage you to do create a collection if you look at the way it's structured, then you'll notice create a collection is a better value so for the same price is getting the digitals you could get an art piece and all your digital files instead of just a few, so they quickly go oh yeah, so if I do critic election, I can not only get all my general files and an art piece but that's better off than doing ala carte we're looking only get twelve or twenty files, so the pricing is structured to almost a void that now if they say if that's not the case in your studio and they say they just want the digitals, I don't want to print say I perfectly understand that you know, the digital negatives are what most people I care about because that gives you the most flexibility for your images. I hope you understand that when those files leave my studio there's a lost opportunity cost associated with them as much as I'd like to just provide the fouls for you, I can do that however the price will be the same because we as a business have to make our numbers procession we understand that that would be the truth. Hurts, honest answer. My sometimes saying no in a nice way. Sorry. The one more. Yeah, whatever. I'm rapid fire where I know people like this. This is the one we see all the time. I had been looking for it. But is is that from m l w the client says we need to think about it. Can we call you a tow order this and or can we set up another ordering? It happens to me all the time. Okay. That is the one in production that I get more often than anything. And what I will say them is, of course you can think about it. I want you to be comfortable with this decision. Your session fee includes the time we take to photograph a session, the post processing of the images and this ordering appointment. If you'd like to come back for an additional order an appointment, we can block off another two hour time. An additional order. An appointment is one hundred dollars. I have space available next week. Would you like to come in then? Okay. So basically, I got a hundred bucks out of the deal regardless. If they do or not, I really encourage you. You've hired me to help you with this process, and I understand it's overwhelming, but use me, you're paying me right now to help you decide and weed through this. So take advantage of what you're paying for, and investing in that includes the artists help to decide what will be best for your images, don't you think? Finally, I will say, I'm happy to fulfill a minimum collection order, get yours, they want the large files, I'll give him the larger files if they pay for it, so they'll pay for the minimum and step one cause that's usually what they have a problem with. They want all the digital images that there's no decision to make there. You just get him all, you know, it's, the art product that they have issues deciding on, so I'll say, well, let's put you in for a minimum collection order, and then I'm really going to hope. I really need you to call me within three days with the finalization of that art product so that we can keep you in our workflow system, because if you wait too long, you're going to fall out of that system and that I'm not able to deliver your port, your product in the time that we say we will so I'm happy to fulfill a minimum collection order, and then if you feel like you need to increase the size of the image, you want to go home with your digitals and see what we'll look in the space we've put you in for a sixteen by twenty, but if you want to upgrade that, you can. If you want to change out the image, you can just make sure you tell us within three days or so. So really I have structured all the systems and all the pricing and all the package. This is all done to prevent these issues to prevent the problems delivery. I'm giving us the files at the order implement to prevent people from colony and saying we don't want it anymore. It's all been strategized and that's what I'm encouraging you to do think like a business person strategize this stuff so you can't you won't run into these objections, or you'll run into them as minimally as possible. Does that make sense? Yeah, just a thank you from emma in the chat room. Who says I just have this again yesterday happen and it's always a struggle. Teo nicely say no thank you for you, for some words of advice for your basic thing, yes, but no. I mean we're saying yes you can delay and front and procrastinate and you all they want but it's gonna cost you it's what? Okay, so I think the conclusion to all this is it's important to draw your line in the sand and this is my sandbox you can come in and play with me but you have to do it in my rules and if you do that I'm going to build something rocking for you okay but if you start to throw sand at me I'm going teo basically I mean I have fired clients before and it's no fun and you don't like doing it but there are clients I don't want to work with again because they were so challenging and we all get it you will all have clients who are a pain in your butt you get through it you move on it's much better than having a pain about boss in corporate america for the rest of your life okay, so think about it that way why do problems happen? Your client's upset because the baby we just went over a lot of these so I won't go too much but your plants upset because his name is misspelled on her holiday card she approved the design what do you do? This is one of those the truth hurts kind of thing not at a time times it's because you didn't communicate your policies well enough okay the policies of design you can approve the tax you must do it here in studio it is final make sure all spelling ages names are correct and punctuation is accurate is your responsibility to check that? Would I reprint the cards? Of course I will because I'm a nice person. I want that customer service to be stellar but I will make damn sure she knows she approved the design before I do that that way when it comes time to affirm ichigo. Yeah, I missed spelled my child's name, approved the design she went back anyway and changed it and reordered the cards for us that's what I wanted to say not she misspelled the name julia misspelled the name and screwed up so we had to get her to reorder it. No, I want her to be able to admit that she screwed up and I fixed it anyway. Does that make sense? Okay, so when problems happen analyzed love crying babies I think they're so cute I love smiling babies tube in the crying babies are just so sweet little tears welling up in her eyes she's a pillow take a moment to analyse when problems happen squirrels boy, that was a squirrel moment ask yourself where you went wrong, okay, and ask yourself where you went wrong because usually it's your fault not always. Sometimes there are clients out there who are just nightmares anyway, and they do this with everybody they go to, you know, every customer in the world, but nine times out of ten, most people are good people. Most people are kind. Most people want to work with you in a positive way, so usually it's something you for ought to do, you missed. So if that's the case, fix it, okay, this is for that old adage. The customer's, always right, kind of comes in and it's true it's. True, in most cases, even if especially a few, pinpoint the area where you screwed up. Fix it, okay.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Customizable BP Postcard Templates
Customizable Recipe Tag Templates
Customizable Stat Card Templates
Baby Plan Images
How The Baby Plan Works
Baby Plan Resource Guide
Baby Plan Success Checklist

Ratings and Reviews

Natalia Malinko
 

I just finished to watch this course. And I confess: I've been struggled all the time during the viewing to say already: I LOVE IT! So, I LOVE this course! Julia is so nice teacher, and photographer, and person. And she is so incredible organizator of whole child's photography business. She is amazing, so meticulous, so persuasive trough all and each one of the important points of this business. And she is just great in the part of studio´s shooting examples with the babies. This is one of the best and most valuable courses I found in Creative Live, thanks!

Dawn Potter
 

I've been so fortunate to be able to be a part of the Live audience experience with Julia. She is an amazing person, photographer and teacher. She does a fantastic job of explaining in detail, the steps she has taken that have helped her success as well as the steps that have set her back. We are so lucky to be able to learn from her experiences and to have someone who is willing to put herself out there to teach us and help us to grow as photographers. For anyone considering adding a Baby Plan to their portrait offerings, this class is a MUST have. Julia, you are #awesomesauce !! xoxo - Dawn Potter www.dawnpotterphotography.com

Student Work

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