Vendors Photographers Need (pt3)
Vendors for Headshot Photogs
As a headshot photographer, establishing relationships with various vendors and professionals can help you enhance your services, provide valuable resources for clients, and grow your business through referrals and collaborations. Some key vendors to connect with include:
Hair and Makeup Artists
Professional hair and makeup can significantly enhance the quality of your clients' headshots. Partnering with skilled artists ensures your clients look their best during the photo session.
Wardrobe Stylists
Working with a wardrobe stylist can help your clients select the perfect outfits for their headshots, resulting in polished and professional images.
Professional Networking Groups
Connecting with local professional networking groups can provide a pool of potential clients in need of headshots for their personal branding or business marketing materials.
Graphic Designers and Web Developers
Collaborating with graphic designers and web developers can lead to referrals for your photography services, as they often work with clients who need headshots for their websites or promotional materials.
Acting Schools and Theater
Actors require professional headshots for their portfolios, making acting schools and theaters a valuable source of potential clients.
Corporate Event Planners
Networking with corporate event planners can lead to opportunities to offer on-site headshot services for conferences, workshops, and other business events.
Business Coaches & Consultants
Business coaches and consultants often work with clients who need professional headshots for their personal branding or marketing materials. Collaborating with these professionals can result in mutual referrals.
Social Media & Marketing Professionals
Partnering with social media and marketing professionals can provide opportunities for cross-promotion and referrals, as they often work with clients who require updated headshots for their online presence.
By connecting with these vendors and professionals, you can enhance your headshot photography services, offer additional resources for your clients, and grow your business through referrals and collaborations.
I Want to Quit My Job (again)
I Want to Quit My Job (again)
Every time I get a corporate headshot gig, I fall in love with entrepreneurship all over again. It’s large amount of work that goes with photographing an entire business’s employees. Most importantly, the financial compensation. Businesses don’t haggle price (you shouldn’t be haggling your price anyway). I would love to quit my job and pursue gigs like this full time but I can’t. Here are the tips I’ve noticed worked for me and maybe you can use them and go full time yourself.
SEO: Consistently blogging about your expertise is great for SEO. SEO, or search engine optimization, is what gets you found in a Google search. Make a Google My Business account, blog weekly on your site, and post images to GMB. 0% of my new clients have come from social media.
Cold Call: Stop being so timid. Converse with humans. Call 20 businesses a day. If you land 2 businesses a month willing to spend $5k that would be $100k a year. Have a few scripts and find out what works. Get the info of people on the fence and foster a relationship. SEO brings clients to you. Cold calling brings you to the client.
Under Promise & Over Deliver: Always sneak a little more in whatever service you provide. Go a little more out of your way. No matter the business, this is always the best practice.
This is the latest corporate session that made me want to quit again. It was multiple headshot sessions for AdVANtage Outfitters.
I Want to Quit My Job!
Don’t get me wrong, I love teaching but photographing an entire office’s headshots was a dream come true. If I can photograph two businesses a week and one newborn a week, I would be in heaven. If you know a business in need of headshots, please send them my way.
These are just a few of the professionals I had the honor of photographing at Capital One. There are always a few camera shy people who decline having their images shared.
Teaching Moment to Photographer Friends
I like to be efficient. I’m always kind and professional. I give clear directions so there is no need to touch my subject. Most importantly, make them laugh. Lets start with why you should make them laugh. Not everyone is comfortable in front of a lens. I personally HATE it. Making them laugh relaxes them. Pair that with being kind and professional and you’ll leave a great mark. I treat it like an assembly line so the day is organized and everyone in the office has the same type of images. My process was a few variations standing, a few variations sitting on a tall stool, a few sitting in a regular chair, and one creative one. This session was in NYC so buildings in the background was a must. One extra thing I like to do is get everyone’s name in the order I shot them. Renaming your files will make you look amazing because you’re making distribution much easier. This is easy in Lightroom (for example: capital_one_ bob_1).
Click on the gallery below to see the images close up.
Always available
Gen Zer's and online presence
Gen Zer's and Online Presence
Generation Z and Millenials don’t really know a world outside of their phones. If you are an entrepreneur and want to get their attention then it’s time to spruce up your online presents. Headshots and branding sessions are the best way to start. It’s also something I can help with.