Hey Girl, Nice Shot

Totally Rad Actions - More Help

Um, so tomorrow is the first day of the Austin secret workshop.  How excited do you think I am? 

I had three sales last week that averaged about $450 each so that was very nice.  I still have 12 outstanding galleries where orders have not been placed.  But at least I was able to make some deposits to ye old bank account, right?

Okay, so the real news....I get a lot of questions about the Totally Rad Actions mix (which I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE).  Well, the nice Boutwells who put together those actions have started a forum where they post some of the common questions and answers they get. Worth a browse if you want to get some help with your actions.

And because I don't like to post without a picture here is a picture of my son from a birthday party we were at over the weekend that included a petting zoo...he loved the turtles.

And here's the straight from the camera version of this image.  I ran the Totally Rad Action "Oh Snap" which gives it that boost, and the vignette on the image.  That's it.  Quick, easy, pretty (usually I mess around with layer masks but for this image I didn't need to do that).

Featured as Lijit

The nice folks at Lijit noticed me and my little blog and asked if they could feature my blog as a user of the Lijit Wijit.  Yeah, say that three times fast!  Well, of course I said "heck yeah" and now I'm one of the rotating featured users on the lijit homepage!  There are about 20 featured users so you might have to refresh a few times until you see me!!! 

What is Lijit?  Lijit is a search tool that will let you create a network of trusted information to be searched.    When you setup your account with Lijit you start out with linking all your various published internet content so it can be searched in one place.  For me, that means my four blogs, items I have stumbled upon or dugg, pictures in flickr, YouTube videos, linked in, facebook, and a few RSS feeds that are populated by other people's blog entries that I flag.  Add to that links that I share as part of my network and you have a subset of information that I considered trusted for searching instead of searching the whole Internet.  Think about how cool that is!  You can search all that information that I publish in ONE SPOT.

Definitely worth checking out for your own blogs/websites especially if you also publish content all over the Internet or just have a great blogroll!  Lijit

Could this be the WEEK?

Hi All!  I've been asked if I have any updates on the whole ordering situation and I do, kind of.  I haven't made any decisions on changes to my system since I have the Secret Workshop (!!!) next week and I want to make changes all at once if I can.  I had one order placed which was a smallish order but from a baby plan mom so that isn't shocking since it was her second session and she has two more to buy from! 

I had one review session last week where I worked with the mom on recommendations and I expect her order will be placed this week so she can get her discount.  It should be a nice sized order-she is moving to a new house and wanted to create a photo wall in an art niche that she has built in.

I have THREE ordering sessions schedule this week.  One of whom emailed me to say "we are ready to spend some money" and another one that I have seen out a few times since her shoot (our kids go to the same preschool) and she seems interested in storyboards and an oil expression so I again, have high hopes.  I've also had several customers email me to ask questions about things they want to order so this could be a very good week! 

This is a really good time because I'm going to be spending some money next week on travel.  Um, did I mention the SECRET WORKSHOP  in AUSTIN is next week!!!!!  I just can't believe it is finally almost here.  And our guest speaker has been announced...the lovely Natasha Cuevas in Florida.

What the Duck: Tax Time

If you are a photographer and you don't already read the What the Duck comic strips you should definitely check out the site.

The comic from yesterday was especially timely given my "In the Red" post yesterday.

DIY White Balance

I have an expodisc that I use for custom white balance and I love the results.  The colors are so much truer straight out of the camera...when I take the time to set it!

If you don't want to shell out the $$ for an actual expodisc you can take the DIY approach to make your own.  What a great idea!

Check out the post on the DIYPhotography blog.

First Quarter - IN THE RED

I've reconciled my accounting through March so I figured I would go in and take a look at my numbers for the first quarter and I have to admit, they are dismal despite working myself like crazy.  If you are my husband you can just stop reading here because it isn't pretty.

I took much of the month of January off because I really needed to spend some quality time getting my house out of the state of chaos it was in after the craziness of the holiday season.  I didn't really do many sessions, we had out of town guests, and I spent most of my time cleaning and organizing my house.  In February I spent a lot of my work time developing my new workshops for moms that want to take better pictures of their kids and that took up a bunch of my time so I didn't do many sessions.

So in the first quarter I had 14 portrait sessions, the majority of which were in the second half of March. I spent a bunch of money on thinks like the Secret Workshop, marketing materials, templates, and all those recurring expenses like web hosting, telephone, and online gallery hosting.

Of the 14 portrait sessions I have 10 with no orders placed to date (although all swear to love their pictures and just having a hard time getting their orders together).  I have three sessions left to proof.  So I've only had *1* order placed which was below my average order by a bunch so you can imagine my spending has vastly out paced my income.  This is what we call a cash flow problem!!!!

So help me!!!! What are some ways you've gotten your clients to get their darn orders in to you in a timely manner?  I hate to get mean and give them short deadlines for placing their orders because I know how busy everyone is but I'm really feeling like that is the way to go.   I've tried incentives like discounts for ordering in a timely matter, ordering bonuses, and even guilt trips and none of those things are working!  I know, I know, the Secret Workshop is only a few weeks away and I'm sure I'll learn something there about this but honestly, how do I not feel like the bad guy and still get my $$.

24 days....

...until the Secret Workshop in Austin.  I can hardly wait!