I'm 43 yo/male. On average I make about $60k a year as a photographer. I've been a photographer for 5 years. I also do video, audio, I write and I can install, manage and maintain a wordpress website. I do all these things at a very high level (eg, I did the video of Celine Dion's recently sold Jupiter Island castle.)
I set off 5 years ago to make money as a photographer and I've ended up becoming a master at this as well as a few other key skills I’ve picked up along the way. Today, I'm a full time photographer/videographer doing weddings, real-estate photography, and corporate work.
I am moderately successful and make decent money, but I'm bored with certain aspects of my business and want to push into other areas where my skills could be applied to make more money.
So it’s time to reboot and try some new approaches. In essence I need to start cold calling again and rebuilding my client base. But I don’t want to find new clients who just want photos, I want to offer a more comprehensive product.
So I'm thinking of positioning myself as a website developer and I think I've found a niche I could fit into perfectly.
Millions of web sites share a common problem with this one: http://ift.tt/2smHEvK
They suck.
These old-school H.T.M.L websites suck because the layout and content is dated, cluttered and ultimately boring. They may serve their function of communicating basic information, but they miss their chance to begin the process of building trust and establishing a brand.
From talking to some of these businesses owners over the years, I believe many of them would like to have a modernized website, but ultimately struggle generating quality content. And without quality content, many business people instinctively know spending money on a 'web site' is a waste of time.
Generating content is hard and paying someone to do it is expensive therefore many business owners don't bother updating or modernizing their web sites.
I believe these business owners are aware there is an opportunity cost to showing an outdated website to potential clients, and a risk of being perceived as less trustable and perhaps even amateurish for their lack of effort.
My skills are perfectly suited to help these kinds of clients overcome this barrier.
I can rapidly build a stunningly beautiful website by combining a company's existing digital assets (current flyers, former promotions, headlines, customer feedback, etc...) with new ones (photos, videos, info-graphics etc..) all wrapped up in a wordpress solution.
Using the company's pre-existing materials, fast wordpress development, and stylized layouts generated by impactful media created by me in real time, my service will modernize a company's web site and to do it fast and inexpensively.
Once the contract is signed, I plan on acting fast.
For example, I see a typical contract playing out as follows;
I show up in morning get installed in an unused corner office, kitchen or wherever. I start by setting up my gear and quick introductions around the office.
The company has already advised the staff of my presence and purpose, so everyone is cooperative.
I begin by photographing the office/work space, I take detail shots (close ups or products and store) and headshots. I also set up basic video (timelapse of building, employees working etc..) Armed with the photos and videos I’ve just created, I sit down and begin to configure and instal wordpress. At the same time, I import, organize and edit my photos and videos.
Once this is done, I’m ready to get started. I estimate to get from the point of showing up, to being ready to start re-building the website is roughly half a day.
My next step is to start building the site. My approach to this is to use a one page wordpress site and think in sections. Each element that’s currently on their web site will be turned into one section and spruced up.
I will end up with many sections strung together. These can easily be re-order, or moved to separate pages if needed. But my job on day one is to rapidly build up these sections and propose new ones where I can.
At the end of the first day, my client’s old web site has all been transferred over to wordpress and visually upgraded.
On day 2 we start with a meeting with key players. We go over all the changes, rearrange sections and add whatever pages are needed. We’ll be able to tweak or re-do images, catch up with people who missed the first day of head shots (there’s always someone who can’t be there,) and so on. In other words, day 2 is spent wrapping up, tweaking and closing loose ends.
And that’s it. I hand the owners the keys to their new web site. Additional work can be bought and paid for separately, and judging by the repeat customers I’ve had over the years I bet it won’t be long before these people start calling me for more than just photos.
As you can see, a lot rests on being able to work quickly. But this is really my strength. I am hyper efficient (adhd) when doing intense, time-sensitive tasks like this and for some reason I always seem to produce my best work during these moments.
As a wedding photographer, I must thrive in a chaotic, high pressure social situation and still produce amazing photos (trust me the competition is very tough here.)
It is on this premise, speed and quality, that I plan on beating competitors on price.
Most will charge about $1500 just for a basic empty wordpress site. Photo, video, any writing or extras are outsourced and usually very expensive. I think what I’ve proposed would cost roughly a minimum of $3000 or much more depending on many different variables. My fee would be $1500 plus expenses (so client most pay for hosting, templates etc..) Anything not done in those 2 days are billed hourly. My plan would be to do 2 contracts a week, and leave one day for dealing with loose ends, and cold calling to find new business.
However, I am struggling to understand how to get started and position myself.
What I do know is cold calling works great for me and that's how I plan on reaching out to clients, but what I'm much less sure of is what to tell people once I've got them on the phone.
Am I a photographer selling my photos to enhance their web site? Am I a media company? A web site company? A photography company?
I’ve had this problem of defining myself for years. I’ve always felt the need to separate my services. For example, it doesn’t look good to mix wedding photography with real-estate photography. And many clients like to imagine I specialize doing one thing and imagine I must not know what I'm doing if I wear many hats. So what I am? A one person media company I guess?
So my questions to reddit are this;
What do you think of my idea? How should I go about getting my first clients? What should I build as a website to start (since I have no clients yet?) What should I try and sell people when I cold call them? Ie, am I selling my photography? Web site skills?
That’s about it. Any insights would be appreciated.
Thank you very much!
Also, I currently have a web site now that f
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