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Running Your Business

this is like my ah hall. Like, this is what I was excited about. How to properly answer that. How much are you? Eight by 10. Question. How much are your eight by tens? Question. So let's say that you get hired to work in a bakery. It's your first day. It's busy. It's crazy. The phone rings and they look at you and they go, Hey, can you answer that? Okay. I don't have any training and just maybe just clocked in my first day. Okay? So you pick up the phone. Hi. ABC Bakery. How can I help you? Hi. I was wondering how much your wedding cakes are. What do you say? I would say that all depends. Do you want chocolate or do you want vanilla helping? You wanted to say so many questions? I can't answer that. Okay. It depends on a lot of stuff. Anyone else? Same concept that I'm not sure you're totally going along the right lines. So what I would say is, while congratulations is this for you, or is this for your daughter? Oh, this is for me. Oh, congratulations. When you get engaged. Oh, just abo...

ut two weeks ago perfect ones. The wedding. Oh, the weddings in about eight months. How is it here in town, I assume Because you're calling us? Yeah. Oh, is that where you guys air from? How long have you and your fiance been together for? So are you doing certain colors for your wedding? Yeah. We're gonna do lavender, cause that's kind of my favorite color. And we're gonna have little lavender pit. That's perfect. It's a bride who wants to talk all day about her wedding. When these people are calling you, it's their pets who they love. They want to talk all day about their pets. So in the bakery example, you should be able to stay on the phone with that client for at least 10 minutes, and you have won them over. Done. Doesn't even matter how much your pricing is. Because everywhere else they're calling. Hi. How much your wedding cakes? Well, they range from to 2200. Oh, okay. Clients don't know what to ask. It's not that they want to know the price. They just don't know what else to ask. They're not going to call you and go. Hi. Can you sell me on your experience. No, they're just gonna call and go. How much is the price? They don't really want to know what eight by 10 is. They don't know what else to ask. So again, with this wedding client there want over because they told you all about what they're doing and you're interested in their colors. Well, how many people are you thinking of having? You have no idea what the price is for the cakes, because it's your first day working there. But you have won this client over. She is getting her cake through you because you care because you asked all the questions. So it's just something to keep in mind when clients call. Hi. I was just climb to get some information in your pricing. Oh, perfect. How did you hear about us? Oh, my friend Dana does. Portrait's with you. Oh, what's her last name? Smith. All we love Dana. We just saw her last week. We did her portrait with her daughter in the dog for their birthday portrait. Oh, I saw those. Yeah, I know. That's awesome. I love it. So how do you know Dana only went to school together? Oh, I know she went to Arkansas. Is that were you? Whatever you're gonna talk about, but you're hooking that client. You're making those connections. So what kind of pets do you have? These are the kind of pets. All I love be Shawn's. Perfect. So where they both are? These from the same litter or they Oh, no. So there to your own. You adopted one. Very. Who'd you adopt it from? Oh, we love small paws Rescue. We actually do adoption. Portrait's for them. Oh, that's great. I can stay on the phone with this client for 10 minutes and they're sold. The price doesn't matter because I love them. I love their dogs. I care about who they are, and they're emotionally attached. Now we've made that. It's not just Hi. Can I get some pricing information? Yeah, sure. We have three different sessions. They range from 50 to $200 our prints start at 78. Oh, okay. Why? I mean, why? There's no I shouldn't know what else to ask, but you're not giving her anything. So those are the types of questions and we actually have a script that we taped to our front desk. So we're training people. Here's questions. Get all of the answers to these. Number one is right. The client's name down if she calls and says Hi. My name is Becky. I was just calling Becky because later in the conversation when she books a consultation, you don't need to go. I'm sorry. What was your name again? I'm so interested in who you are, and I have no idea what your name is. So, Becky, how did you hear about us? You can make that connection. Maybe. Sometimes you can't. That's OK. But that's good. Just for you to know because they could say, Oh, I saw you on especies website. Oh, perfect. We love them. We do adoption portrait, sorrow so and so referred me. Oh, well, we need to make sure that we get their information later, because we do referral certificates, and we love to send them one. Um, for referring you. So what kind of pets do you have? Oh, perfect. Yeah. We like to know what colors they are because we like to recommend colors that you can wear in the portrait's. Do you want to be in them or you thinking just the pets alone. We have a couple different sessions or you're thinking studio sessions or you thinking outdoor sessions. And that sounds so simple. Such a simple concept. But so many people just pick up the phone and go, Oh, Omar sessions start at $50 you know, so you should be able to stay on the phone with a client for five or 10 minutes. It's not that you're trying to avoid giving them the price. It's that you want to build value because in the absence of value, price is always an issue. That's not me. That Sarah Petty in the absence of value price is always an issue. If there's value doesn't matter what the prices, because they value it so your eight by tens could be $10. That's too expensive if there is no value. So just always keep that in mind. When you're answering the phone, think about the bakery example. Think about I don't even know my pricing right now. I'm just gonna win this client over so same thing when clients come into our studio and go, can I just get some information to take with me? Do you have a second. I love to give you a tour. Yeah, I have, like, five minutes. Perfect. It's not that I'm trying to avoid pricing, but I need to know more information from you. Like you said, Would you on chocolate or vanilla? Do you? How many people are at your wedding? It's not that I want to avoid telling you how much I cost, but I need to know more information I needed. You know, maybe you want to do the custom session. Maybe you want to do the mini session I can't give you are eight by 10 Price because you have to pay creation fee first. And I need to know what session fits you best. So again. And you know, if you get people cause you'll get some of people who were like Can you just tell me what your eight by tens are? Well, it's not that I just need more information from you. Just keep that in mind. I don't. That's his groundbreaking for you guys, as it was for me when I first heard it. But yeah, question. I'm finding many people. Don't call the Facebook you or the email you so and it's hard to get that banter going without seeming like you're totally blowing them off with avoiding the question. So any tips for that I actually am totally a responded to email. There's people who say, Don't email them all the information Excuse me if they emailed me, that's how they want to get in touch. That's fine with me. I'm not going to be like I'd like to give you some information. Please call us between 11 and six. They're just not gonna call. And I don't want to be like, you know, can I get your phone number so I can call you because just personally for me, like price is not the issue for me. I just want to know what I'm gonna pay. You know, that's what we're talking about, offset yesterday. That's why I put my pricing online. I'm not saying it's the right way to do it, Not saying it's the best way to do it when I'm going somewhere like for dinner. I don't mind spending $50 for a meal. I just want to know what it iss. I just want to know what to expect. I just want to know how to dress. I just want to I don't really want to spend two hours a dinner. If it's a $50 plate, I'm probably gonna be there for two hours. You know, I'm saying so. That's the type of clients I'm looking for. Some people don't agree with that because they say, like, No, you don't need a win him over. But what I do, I do respond to emails. So I actually have scripts and it's in this slide here. So I actually recommend Is it my first slide? Yeah. So war documents have frequently asked questions for email enquiries. 90% of your emails are going to be the same question. Give me some information on pricing. How does it work? Or do you sell your high rez disk or whatever these questions you're getting over and over? Just make a word document. Why are you typing that six times a week? That's silly to just make a word document, and I do my where document is pretty long and I try and make it the whole T white gloves. Yea, so it's not just like our sessions rain from this this you know, thank you so much for contacting us if they gave us information. We would love to meet your dog. We do consultations. We love to have you come by the studio and give you a tour. But let me give you some information the way that it works, and I just kind of walk it through in the email, you know, our sessions. You know, we have different session fees. What to where? We want you to start thinking about where you're gonna be displaying your portrait. It's eso way, say all those little things that we talk about in consultations. We say that in that email. So it's not just like a two second email. I mean, the emails kind of overwhelming that I send back to them. But call us or emails any time we love to do a complimentary consultation with you. Another suggestion for running your business, having a shooting and ordering scheduled to mentally prepare. I'm sure all of you were doing this now, too, because when I first started my business, I was like, I'm available whenever, like, you know, calling the book a session on like, yeah, whenever. And the main reason was just to mentally prepare, like I need to be mentally prepared, and I was just getting so exhaustively. Okay, a 10 o'clock. There's a shoot. At 11 30 there's an ordering. Oh, and then there's another ordering and end the day with the shoot. Like I just want to know what I'm doing. I just want to shoot one day. I want to order the next day, whatever it is, but I need to know. Just so I wasn't jumping around because it is a different mindset when you're shooting. It's a completely different mindset than when you're ordering. I love ordering days because you're just like cool, chill, Hang out with the client, have ta Let's pick. Images were in the shooting day you're on. You just have to be on the whole time. So for me it was just so helpful when I made a schedule for myself and I decided I'm gonna do sessions. There's a through Sunday. We're closed on Mondays. So that's my one day off A week Tuesdays and Wednesdays, Air office days for us. So because I have a retail storefront I am open were there from 11 to 6. I'm not a morning person, so I open 11. And so do what you want. Don't feel like you have to conform because there's so many people who will talk to us and say, Cost you guys open at 11. Yeah, I'm not a morning person and I want to walk my dogs and hang out with them in the morning and I open 11 you know, so but have a schedule. Whatever your schedule happens to be one of the things we talked about yesterday, this is kind of off topic. But when people call you and I was telling one of my girls this because she was starting her photography business and I said, You can't always be available, have an appointment book and put available appointments, even if you're just kind of pulling them out of thin air. I have an appointment book. So when someone calls you go, well, let me look at my schedule. Even though you're available every single hour of every single day, no one wants to book a session with someone that's available every single hour every single day. They're just going to go. Oh, I'm calling to see like when you're available, all we have a bunch that whenever okay. I just wanted to check. I'll give you a call back when I'm ready and they never call back. So the story I was telling yesterday was my family photographer. Why did Portrait's with And I really wanted to portrait with her and I emailed her and said, Hey, do you have any sessions available coming up? And she said, My next available, This is two years ago. My next available is July 1st, I think, she said. And in Vegas it's hot, and I was like, We're doing it outdoors is too hot for the dogs. I'm fine in the heat, but they're just gonna be panting. They're not gonna look good. So I guess we're gonna have to wait till October. So I said, Well, if anything opens up, if anyone reschedules, let me know. So about a week later, she emailed back and said, Hey, I had someone reschedule. I have one appointment available this month. It's on June 17th at 4 30 Would you like it? Absolutely. I have no idea if that really was her only appointment available. Or maybe I was her only appointment for the whole month. I don't know, but she created that demand, and I closed my studio early and I I book the session with her right away. I need that session because she made it a demand for me if she said, Yeah, yeah, whenever it's not that I wouldn't book it, It's just that I'm just gonna put it off. Oh, John, Hey, Dana said. She's available whenever. So, like, just let me know when it's good. He doesn't get back to me. I forget about it. Oh, shoot. It's July. Now it's too hot. But if you create that demand, um, totally off topic but have a shooting and ordering schedule, that was the point of this slide. All right, three folders for workflow do whatever works for you. What I do. I have three folders, so one says, waiting on Client one says, waiting on photography. One says, ready to print. So obviously, and all of my clients fall in one of those three folders until they've been sensor print. So obviously the ones that are ready to print are ready to print anything that says waiting on photography there, waiting on album design there, waiting on a holiday card design. Maybe they requested something special on Oh, my kid, a scratch on his leg and you re touch that out yet will prove it to you. Whatever it is, they're all waiting on photography. Waiting on client. That's Hey, I thought he wanted a 30 inch, but now that I see the 36 inch on the war might wanna upgrade, let me take my tissue paper back. Um, I thought I wanted 50 holiday cards, but I might want to do 75. Can you just hold off on the order for a little bit? Whatever it is, but it's just organized. So when they call the studio, any of us can grab the folder. If they're like, Hey, I just wanted to tell you that I'm 50 cards is good. I counted my list. We know there in the waiting on client file and then we can go. Okay, They're good. Put him and waiting on are ready to print. So I know that sounds really simple, but that's like, really what keeps me organized when I'm doing that pull images is you edit for Facebook and Blawg and Twitter, cause we love Twitter. I'm so good at it. Um, so this is a big one. Like how many of you guys are like, OK, I havent posted images from, like, three weeks, right? But so much effort. It's like an hour that I have to sit here and, like, I don't remember all the sessions that I did and like, Did that one have cute images? And you're like, I'll just do it later, Right? When you're editing images, you have to edit them if you're sending him to print or if you're getting them ready for the client's order, their open. If you like the image, drop it in a folder. Done. You see right there, and you have this reserves. When you go, I havent posted images on, like three weeks, Boom open, have a bunch of images. You can just go post really quick done. And people were like, Wow, Darcy's really busy Look at all these sessions he's doing, but it's just being it took you two minutes to do because you are had the image open for retouching is dropping in the folder Makes sense. Keep detailed client notes. Put everything on your appointment book. I've already mentioned this. We have really detailed notes and it sounds silly sometimes when we hired a new girl, she's like, Seriously, you guys were talking about her dog having allergies, and we're like, But that's so important, cause right now that's the most important thing in her life. And if we run into her at the grocery store, or if she happens to pop in or receive her at that outdoor event, we want her know that we care. So put everything on your appointment book on, and that's just the same thing. If Donna's daughter's birthday is next month, put it in your appointment book. You can send her an email, say, Happy Birthday. Or you can send her an email or give her a call and say, Hey, I know her birthday's in a month. Just want to check if you want to do a session because you know it takes three weeks for printing. So just checking in question, your appointment book and everything. Is that a physical book along? That's insight. That's insight, really detailed. Question. You have multiple staff. Can they access that from the mold devices like, Is it is it cloud? Or is it no insight does offer that inside offers that option, but mine is just in my studio. You have the retail storefronts. Obviously, that's easier for you. But they do. Yeah. Any of those Softwares you can get in a mobile device, And it would you put something in the updates right away. And just so you can carry your calendar with you. Totally. Yeah. All right. At e mails to email list have a system. So all of these things kind of sound silly, but they're all things that if you don't do them, they kind of fall through the cracks. So you guys have clients who come in, they spend $1500 with you. And guess what? You don't keep in touch with them anymore because you didn't Adam to your email list because he didn't have a system for it. So I did that for years. I was like, all I need to make sure you put them on, And then I would just file it and I would forget about it. So just have a system. Our system is as simple as when I sent it to print and I put an order number on it. I put a big or big box on the top next. Their name and that box. If it gets checked off, it means they went on to her email list from somebody. But before it gets filed, that thing needs to be put on her email list. So it's a simple, simple system, but it's what we do before it gets filed. That's the one thing we look off. Is that checked or not? All your clients are on your email list. So do whatever works for you, but have a system for that, um, logbook for orders. This is one of the things that sounds so silly. How many of you have a logbook? Okay. Do you like none of you? Have a logbook for orders. Okay, so you're just sending orders to print and just like, well, no show up when they show up. Perfect. Okay. I did that, too. Yep. I would send seriously, I would send orders to print on like, Ah, well, it's gonna be here in, like, a week, and I would just, like, wait for it to show up. And it was seriously, two years into my business, I had a client show up, and she's like waiting outside the door was on a Monday. We're closed on Mondays. I happened to be at the studio, and she's kind of like looking inside and I'm like, What is she doing here? So I opened the door and she's like, I just want to check if that print was here yet And I'm like, Ah, it's kind of ringing a bell that you ordered something, but I don't really remember. And as she kept talking on the coast for your husband's birthday anyway, I forgot to order the thing. I mean, it happens, but I had no idea. I was just sending orders. Two prints alike send it off into the universe, and then somehow it'll come back to you. So, like, it's so simple. Just have a logbook. Just a binder. Three hole punch. Put paper in there and just this is the client's name. This is the order number. This is when it's due, and you can open that every single day And look hope this clients doing a week, their frames not in. Let me call GMP, make sure their frame gets here on time or the girls would be like, Hey, they're doing nine days. Have you send them to print yet? Oh, no, I'll do it today. Okay, so at least you have a system. So when that's done, check Mark. Done. And when the pages air all checked off, you throw it away. So just have a system like that. So you're not just like I have no idea how many orders I have out. You can open your book and be like, Oh, there's five things not checked off. I'm waiting on five orders. These are just things that we do. And again when I sam out loud, it sounds silly. So if it's silly, tell me. But for me it was, like so important just to be organized. Rafia. So we tile of our bags with Rafia Bose whatever you want to dio. So we have all over things lined up. And if you have a home studio that could be in your kitchen wherever you're putting all of your orders that are ready to deliver a ship or whatever it is, if the bow is tied, the order is in. If there's a bow hanging on the bag and it's not tied, I know that it's not finished. I can walk in the room in the morning and go not done. Not done. Not done. All of these air readyto be picked up their finished. So again, that sounds silly, But it's just such a little easy system. And when I can look at the client's order and their names on the bag and be like it's untimely, what are we waiting on? Oh, that's right. They got the album or whatever. So you're not just completely unorganized. Don't know what's going on Post. It's the only reason I put this on their post. It's one of two is because I just got so busy when I was by myself for the 1st 3 years of business, I didn't have any employees. It was just me, and I would have my husband come in. Hey, can you watch the front desk? I'm shooting sessions in the back, and he hated it. And he's not the good person, for he's not like the boutique. Have some tea here, you know, it's like What can I help you with Love you, but I quite like I just got so busy clients with pickup Portrait's and I remember this one client came in and she picked up her portrait's and I just I handed her everything I could find of hers. That sounds so silly, but seriously, I was just like, Oh, here's some prints. Oh, here's Owen here, some bright books here. And I showed up the next day and kept on packaging things, and I forgot to give her, like, 58 by tens. So so silly. But like so right now. So what we do? We just have bags that say one of one or one of of two. So just so you know, when clients are picking things up, I've had to deliver. You know, before I had a system, I probably had to deliver about five prints after they came to the studio for their pickup appointment to go. Oh, sorry. Forgot to give this to you as well. So clip orders to the bag. This is just one last thing, and I'll be done with this slide. But the pro select order that I showed you earlier so that goes in my ready to print or waiting on client wherever it goes. I sent it to print waiting on order. And then when the order comes in, we clip it to a bag paperclip it and it sits there because before people, things were coming in and I'm like, Oh, cool, package it Put Parker on it and then wait for her to show up. Not even like checking so that when she showed up, I'm like, Okay, perfect. So here, your for eight by tens. Here's your 30 by 40. Done. So sorry if that's elementary, but those are things that really helped me. So Marketing Calendar. This is so important. Having a marketing calendar just to keep you organized. What was happening in my first few years of business holiday season was great. So then we'd like pay for all these things and then, like February rolls around and I'm like, Yeah, I haven't really made any money Bank accounts kind of going down off Valentine days Coming up. We should do a Porsche special. Okay, so you're Portrait's need to be due by February 13 at least because Valentine's Days on February 14 we quote two weeks when we do like limited edition specials, which I'll talk about today, our normal portrait's we quote three weeks for printing. So two weeks let's back up two weeks. That puts us a January 30th. Well, in order to send them to print by that time, we had to shoot that weekend before slip puts us the 25th and 26. I'm sorry, we have to order 25 26 in order by that date, we have to shoot the weekend before in order to shoot. Then we have to send the email, add so people know that we're having a special In order to do the email ad, we have to be able to design the ad. In order to design the ad, we have to have a model. We have to find the model. And that's usually just Facebook that we find our clients. And then before that, we have to figure out What are we gonna do now? I just want to do the same red couch. Everyone knows the red couch. I should probably go to home goods and buy some cute little props that are different. That puts you at the first week of January. And when you really lay it out like this, you can't If you guys were doing that and just going my bank accounts kind of low what's coming up? Oh, I should Do you know, Spring Portrait? It's well, you're, like, past that date. You know that three weeks ago is when you need to do that. So get a marketing calendar, and it's super simple. Go buy a cheap cent store calendar stick. It's your wall and just put do this portrait to do in the state. So people need I need to send it to print on this state, which means people have to order on this state. Shoot. I need a designed the ad by the state. So just have that and figure out what specials you want to do throughout the year. Um, I'm gonna show you actually might be the next slide. Yeah, limited edition portrait specials. So these are some of the things that we do throughout the year. We don't do every single one every year. We try and switch it up. But, um, the top left one that was Valentine Portrait's that we did this last year, and it was really great, cause the person on the top left that client same dog, actually from the Bernese mountain dog behind me up on Mount Charleston in the snow. That's him there, one of our top clients, and they come to us multiple times a year. And usually limited edition portrait specials attract a lower and client, not lower. And it's still higher end than a fast food photography place but lower than your normal sales average because it's cute seeing because it's fun. But also for people who are your top clients who come to you regularly, it gives them a reason to come back. It gives the reason throughout the year to spend that extra $500 with you, so our average sale for limited edition specials are in the 4 to $500 range, so it's much lower than our regular classic session sales average. But again, we're not spending as much time with the client. I'm not gonna make as much money, so I'm not going to spend as much time. It's usually a $99 or 1 25 thing that we have. The only thing it's a little bit more is the Christmas in September, because it includes holiday cards, but it's usually $99 are 1 25 and that includes a 10 minute session, an eight by 10 8 wallets and a Facebook image of one pose Onley one posts, and the reason we do that is because most people, like want the eight by 10. Why not throw in the wallets? It's $2 more wholesale for printing on low rez. Everyone wants the low rez for Facebook eso. We have packages that we put together, so when clients come back, they can actually order off a special menu. And that's the only time that we do packages in our studio for these specials. If you did all a cart, everyone's like ma'am, good or like we'll get one more five by seven. So we have to do packages in this situation because it's not the type of clients who are like decorating their walls with art. So our packages range anywhere from I think they're 2 to $500. Somewhere in that range, they're not really Wall Portrait's within. The biggest print that we do in the packages is 11 by 14 because usually when you get bigger than that, it's kind of too cute. Sea of a style toe have is like a big wall portrait. The it is a discounted pricing from a regular prints when we do the packages, and it's only available that day one day only. When you come in for your portrait, we shoot the session. You wait 50 minutes, we present the images to you. Here's a special pricing that we have one day only you order it. We sent it to print, so we save our images on file for a year. You can order any time throughout the year, but it is our regular price. It's a $78 8 by 10. Um, so that discount only applies to that one day. But this does kind of show you just some of the different things that you can do where it is much more cute. See, it's a very adoption portrait style for us, but it's not cheesy. People still like it. So Christmas Christmas in September. That's one of the ones that we talked about yesterday. 20 minute session 25 holiday cards. The reason that we do the Christmas in September is to not have the holiday card client who's coming in November and taking that prime spot. I don't want you to come in November. Just order holiday cards because I that I could be shooting a client there who might spend $1500. But I'm shooting your session instead for holiday cards and people who just want holiday cards they wanted discount. They want to come in, make it quick. So it is a modified session. But the difference between this and our mini session as we do the combinations, we don't do just the postcard style. So there's an image on the front and you flip it open and there's a top and bottom, and you can dio two or three images on the inside their custom design. We offer 14 different designs of holiday cards, whatever font you want. So I don't want to do in mini session for a Christmas card because it's the same subjects in every shot. And that's really repetitive for, ah, holiday card that has multiple images. So Christmas in September is perfect, and we're not super busy yet for a holiday portrait. So I'm happy to shoot those clients, make a little bit of money, get them out of the way, they're happy. So are we good on limited edition, we have any questions on that. Good. Okay, I'm actually good on my slides. So good, because we have a time questions. Yeah, let's do much. You and a everyone. We'll start with you folks. If you are actually hear anyone, right, take it right to phones. Then we have one very special message from John who says I love you. Back way. We'll give you a minute. Really lost. I had a really long that was Let's start with actually, we have a couple of people who have asked you get that. It was totally Photoshopped wasn't really Yeah. So it was way Photoshopped that in it? No, we actually were trying to get him to hold it and we kept sticking in his mouth and stick it in his mouth. And he was like, What are you doing? So there was one shot where he kind of just bit his lip funny if his lip was normal, I think if his lip was normal, I don't think it would have worked as well. But he was kind of doing a little funky thing with his lip, and that was a lot of work for that shot. But this was my This is literally my top client. They have come to us for. We've been photographing Ruckus since he was three months old, and he was one of those I was talking about, where we did him on a certain couch, and then they came back three months later and in three months later. And it's the coolest collage with him like And when you have people like this, that the same dog and you look at his markings and it's like it's the same dog and he's like growing on this couch and he's huge. And he was one of the outdoor session examples That client has a cabin in Utah. They had us come up to Utah and spent two days with them. Hang out with them, photograph rockets all around the lake. We've been to their house to do sessions. They've come to the studio to do sessions, so that's kind of an extreme example on. We only have a couple of clients. We probably have about three or four clients who regularly do 4 to 5 sessions with us a year, and they're spending $10,000 a year with us. But so I took the time to photo shop that that's not a normal thing I would do. But for Ruckus. Yeah, it's Photoshopped has also wanted to know about the bubbles. It is? Yeah, totally. That was just something I bought on, like a scrap booking website. Digital scrapbooking website. Yeah, despite it in there, I have a question here from Best Shot. Who said Do clients ever asked Where do you get your printing done? And if so, how do you respond if they're asking? I'm like, What kind of photography do you dio? You're a photographer, and you want to know where I get my printing done? I don't know. No client is gonna ask that are No. Yeah. I mean, I How would I answer that if someone said if someone asked that, I would just say actually have a bunch of labs, They're all over the country. When we go to a bunch of different photography conventions throughout the year, they have big trade shows. So that's refined all of our vendors. It's probably what I would say. Yes, it just so you're not like I'm not telling you years. You're just like, Oh, yeah, I know. They're really great. They specialize for photography studios and yeah, okay. We have a question from Jean WGN from New Hampshire? Asks ARCA. Talk briefly about your emergency sessions. Is their discount on these sessions or can you just expand a little bit more on the sessions can Totally full price, No discount. Just what we're doing is fitting you in. So if you need to come in tonight, I will stay here tonight because we've literally had people who've walked in. I had someone who walked in and said, I'm not sure if she's gonna make it And I was like, Well, I can help you do to me that and he's like, No, I'm not sure if she's gonna make it from the car to the studio Seriously So he did the session and literally when they left, he said, and he served tearing up. And he said, We just need to make a decision if we're taking her home or for going to the vet to put her down right now, they were either going home or they were going to the vet and, yeah, so I will fit them in whenever. But it is full price. There's no discount for it. It's still our time. It's still our art. Um, we're bending over backwards to do the session for you at any time. Yeah, so there's no extra charge, which is the Yeah, there's no extra charge. Yeah, it's just I'll do it any time. But the thing we will do is the gift for them will make him, like a little charm. So I have a question from just Rob who asked, Do each of your in place systems have an accompanying checklist related Teach each of your systems have ah. Checklist accompanying checklist for each of your place systems maybe like a process, documents and other systems in place. And then, you know I don't, But I actually I know photographers, and I think that's a great suggestion. If you want to just make a list of did a consultation check, you know, shot the session, burn a disc check, gave them a tissue paper packet check and whatever things that you need to do with that client and keep that with wherever there order goes. So their orders and waiting on client their orders in ready to print their orders and waiting for order to come in. And you have that checklist in the beginning. So you're not like, Oh, that I put their email on the email list. Oh, did I try the bow? Did I? You can make a list like that and just have a little checklist that you go through until it becomes second nature. That point. What are you putting in the folders then that say that it's waiting on the client or waiting on photography Core ready approach. Electricity. It's the process. So I have to so identical receipts. One goes to the client. One stays with me. So it's just their pro select receipt that saying exactly what they're getting on and then the one that I'm keeping. Obviously, I have their signature for the model release and copyright notice and all that, and we have a lot of questions about the type of software that you used for this slide show today. Us. Familiar with Anna Mota. OK, that you just pay a flat fee every year. I think it's like 250 bucks or something super affordable, and it's so easy you just drop your images in, arrange them in whatever, um, order you want. Go to songs, pick a song and there's thousands of songs to choose from. And if you want to use specific songs, you can use companies like Triple Scoop music if there's certain, like recent pop songs or something that you want to use instead of royalty free music that they might have in their category. But it's super easy use Pick a style. So like how the images were like flipping and cool like it looks like I spent three hours on that. I just dropped the images in from Pro Select. I picked a song and it made it this morning at five in the morning when I was editing those images. So yeah, and you can. There's two different slide shows that I showed you guys this this morning. The very, very first. It was really simple. Visit his side out. Slide out where the second when you saw with adoption Portrait's it was like flipping and twisting. That's all an emoto. You just choose what style you want, and it's super easy. It's one of those up. So products we do DVDs and we just say your entire session, Um, all the images. It's not like our albums. Like our albums we say 25 images in the album, just in case we shot more and show them more than 25. But we put everything if there's more than 25 in the slideshow, but it's just a slide. Show the music. It's not images that they can take off the disk. So user friendly hunk so user friendly. All right, I have a question from Christine Pause Republic. Who who says, Do you have any ideas or suggestions for businesses like my boarding and training center that want to hold pet photo events for cross marketing? If you flip, if you flip it around and say, How did they find the photographer? People know, so contact a photographer. But the way that I do the events just so she can kind of have an idea. And this is with the places that, like I don't love to do the events, but like I get a ton of referral, so I do it with them. I have them book all the appointments, so as the boarding facility I want as a photographer, like I'm not making a ton of money, I needed to be as easy as possible, so I have the place to all the appointments and I say just five minutes apart and it's a quick two minute session and the appointments aren't set in stone. There just meant to spread people outside the events for three hours. They don't want everyone showing up at once, so that's not literally your first and then your next. It's just kind of like to spread people out from showing up. The portrait's are usually I do like $30 all a cart for, like, an eight by or if I by seven or eight wallets. And then we do those little packages the 40 to $99 packages for people, and then I give $5 for every person who books to the facility. So it's not like a huge thing. It's not like a moneymaking thing for them. It's just more like Thanks for your time for booking all those sessions on, and I don't even send it out to my clients. I don't tell my clients I met the soggy dog doing Portrait's. I don't want my clients going there. I'm doing that for their clients. I'm doing that as a service to them so they can offer that to their clients. So I don't want my clients not coming to my studio and going to the soggy Dog. Instead, I'd rather just go to the soggy dog and photograph their clients, so I'm not sure if that answers your question, But just maybe that kind of gives her a baseline for, like, what to expect. Because some people think like, Well, how much do I have to pay for you to come out? And I actually flip it around and I pay you guys because I want you to book the sessions. You take care of it, get their name, get their phone number. I'm just gonna show up and shoot. I designed the fire I wanna design. I don't want them designing it. I want to know what it's gonna look like. That's just the branding part of it. They might do a really cheesy flyer, so I want to control that. But I think that's a great answer. Okay, He said a quick one because I've done a couple of those events so you don't meet with them in order. So then, do you just pick your favorite male? Thank you, Cross. Thank you for asking So with that, I don't show clients the images. Yep, I'm picking the best one. If you want your animal alone, I'm gonna pick the best one of them alone. If you want to. Different shots. If you want one with them and you want one of your animal alone, then you're buying two different images. What size do you want? So, yeah, there's no proofing. There's no Yeah, I'm not making money on that. I'm not going to invest time. I'm picking it. I mean, if you want that luxury of being able to see the images and pick them yourself, come to my studio and pay the price. But if you're gonna pay $30 for an eight by 10 and I should also say those air always floppy I do not mount those those air floppy prints when I do them for charity. That's why before I was saying there wholesale two or $3 they are floppy prints. My studio. I always mount them. Part of the reason I mount just I like framing without glass. I like the look. When you do floppy prints, you almost have to do matting and glass or else it looks kind of real wavy, but also it just sets you apart when you someone picks up their print and it's mounted on a hardboard. They've never gotten a portrait like that before, and it still fits in a regular frame. They don't have to buy a special frame for it. Just tell him. Take out the Maddie and glass and all the cardboard. This is gonna fit in a regular frame, but it's different. They hold it and they can't go. Oh, this is Wal Marts. This is yours. It's just This is so different. You can't compare. It's anyone so. But event Portrait's air floppy and yet I pick him. I picked the images. Okay, so G. F. P asked, What do you do with a new ordered pictures? Do you store them forever or race them after a great question? So in clients, book sessions with me, part of the creation fee is we save the images on file for a year. Not everyone agrees with that. You know, again, a lot of my mentors were like, Why are you saving them for so long? But that's just what were expressing again. That kind of falls into Some people can't afford us, but they want us, so pay your session. If you get your portrait's done, you don't have to order them for six months. But that way you know you have them. The images air safe. Your memories have been captured. If something happens to your animal, we know that we have them. But they're on file for a year. Anything that you purchase, we save forever, forever and ever and ever, because if something happens to your portrait, if there's a fire, if there's a flood, I want to be able to replace those. So I saved them in three different locations there at my studio, their online like a drop box type of thing, and they're at home. So if my house burns down a having with the studio studio burns down and having somewhere else. So I have backups everywhere. Those are safe forever. UNP urchin images are deleted after a year. If you didn't need that image within a year, you don't need that image