Show Yourself – Don’t Hide Behind a Business Logo
I hid behind my company logo when I started my first site; I was afraid to show my headshot or share personal information about myself. I feared that I would look small by showing myself, whereas by comparison a big company would give the impression of a large and experienced enterprise. Then about one year into my business, I took a marketing course about marketing from Copyblogger: its first suggestion was to show yourself. It ended up being the best business decision I ever made.
The moment I put my photo and information about myself on the site, everything changed. The tone of my blog posts and email newsletters instantly seemed more personal. People started emailing me questions, greeting me by name and posting comments on my posts. I received more requests to contribute to other sites, and to be interviewed. People took notice of the personal information I included on my about page (for example, that I like the TV show Seinfeld), and they told me we had something in common.
I learned that a person is more approachable than a company, that photography is a service industry and people want to feel comfortable working with you. Clients want to hire photographers who are just like them. But you can only accomplish these things by overcoming your fear of sharing personal details. You have to show your face. Now every page of my website has my face!
Start Your Focus with an Ultra Niche
I’ve spent my career consulting small businesses and have an MBA. I’ve started three businesses for myself. My experience qualifies me as an expert and people should want to hire me … right? Unfortunately it wasn’t quite that straightforward. The problem I faced when starting my new business was that nobody knew me; I was simply another business consultant in a word with tens of thousands to choose from.
So I made the decision to narrow my focus to a subtopic of Search Engine Optimization. SEO is a broad and fiercely competitive industry, but I specialize in SEO for photographers. Instantly I narrowed the playing field from thousands of potential competitors to only about two people — me and someone else.
Instead of settling for being an average small business in a global industry, I became the foremost expert in a specialized niche. When I proved myself in the industry as an SEO expert, I started a new company with a broader focus: web marketing. After running that successfully for two years, I expanded to general business.
By starting small, I was able to quickly become the best. Then I expanded incrementally as time went on.
Your niche might be a single venue or one specific style; you can quickly and easily be the most well known expert for a specific type of photography. With hard work you’ll establish the trust and relationships needed to expand into additional niches.
Work for Others Before Yourself
The best question you can ask someone is, “What can I do to help you?” It immediately puts your main focus on meeting the customer’s (or partner’s) needs and makes selling much easier.
For example, instead of paying money for advertising on a major photography site, I email the website owner to tell him or her I really like what they’re doing and ask what I can do to help or promote them. It usually leads to FREE advertising for me. Through this approach I’ve received opportunities to mentor, guest post, moderate forums, speak at events and develop a wide range of new friends and partners who can help me in the future.
Focusing on others first also increases your reach beyond the people who already know you. IF you focus exclusively on your own business and website, how will new people hear about you? I like to work on other people’s sites or events so I get my name out there and am introduced to their contacts.
Last, it never hurts to do favors for people. When you eventually need a favor, whether it be advice or promotion, you’ll have a handy list of people who owe you one!
Business Planning Cookbook
Do you wish you could find a way to sit down and plan out your business’s growth?
Are you eager to earn more money right away, without blindly dreaming up ways to make that happen?
Do you want to stop dreaming about success and actually take action to make success happen?
Just about every creative entrepreneur out there has the same goal: get more clients and earn more. However, only the ones that are growing and successful week over week and month over month feel confident in their business’s ability to succeed. Why? How are they growing so steadily?
I’m willing to bet these successful business owners didn’t just flip a switch and suddenly become lucky. Nope, I know they have a business plan that’s keeping them focused and keeping their business on a steady upward track.
View elements of a sample business plan
About Zach Prez
Zach has spent his entire career in the web marketing industry and is featured by photography sites around the world. His Photography Spark blog offers articles to help photographers grow their small business. His SEO Cookbook has helped thousands of photographers find new clients.