SkipCohenUniversity
  • Home
  • SCU Blog
  • Our Podcasts
  • About Us

the SCU Blog

Time to Clean Up Your Approach to Planning

8/18/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
by Skip Cohen

​When the pandemic hit in 2020, and we had to hunker down, we all had to change how we were doing things. That was especially true with every business. Unless you worked for Zoom, revenue slowed down dramatically. Every manager had to look at what they could cut back on expenses and survive. The pandemic forced everyone to be more disciplined. So, what happened to the discipline?

It's mid-August, and fall seasonality is right around the corner. It's a relatively slow time of year with nothing particularly unique - no holidays, vacations ending, and kids returning to school. Labor Day is coming up, officially marking the end of the summer. It may be slow and a nondescript time of year, but it should be anything but slow for building a list of ideas to bring 2023 to a record-breaking close for your business.

  • What do you have in store for a Halloween promotion? From kids to pets, it's a no-brainer to offer something exciting to your target audience.
  • Thanksgiving Opportunities: It's perfect for a day-in-the-life shoot as families prepare for Thanksgiving. It's often multi-generational as Mom, Grandma, and the kids prepare for Thanksgiving. That makes the timing perfect for a photojournalistic approach to capturing and telling a family's story. 
  • Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa - whatever holiday, you've got the skillset to tell a client's story. First, there's the approach I mentioned above in capturing multiple images for an album. Second, there's never been a stronger sense of family than we have in the world today. That sense of family is ideal for portrait photographers working with families to update their family portraits. 
  • You don't have to do it all alone! Look for partnerships and cross-promote with other vendors in the community. The fourth quarter is perfect for photographers to work with florists, restaurants, salons, and travel agencies, for example. Create exciting promotions.
  • What's your holiday card look like for 2023? No photographer should ever use store-bought holiday cards. Instead, use one of your own images on the front of the card; add a message inside and your contact information on the back. You've got to remind people what you do for a living!
  • Video Holiday Cards: Now's the time to remind Mom about your ability to create a short video for this year's holiday season.

Need help with ideas? Start with a call to your lab and just ask, "What's new?" From prints to albums to metal prints and even canvas - find something new and stop offering products that could put a rock to sleep. Let's raise the bar on your game! Even canvas is still a product most consumers haven't seen. We might be tired of canvas, but the public isn't.

Here's the bottom line - the forecast for your business as a photographer and artist couldn't be more predictable if you keep procrastinating. So, take a couple of hours and scribble out some plans to bring 2023 to a strong finish. You're the only one who can create the excitement!

And if you're stuck on ideas - you know where to find me.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Your walk is just a click away
    Picture
    Picture

      Sign Up for Our Newsletter!

    Subscribe to Our Newsletter

    Our Partners

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    "Why?"

    Check out "Why?" one of the most popular features on the SCU Blog. It's a very simple concept - one image, one artist and one short sound bite. Each artist shares what makes the image one of their most favorite. We're over 130 artists featured since the project started. Click on the link above and you can scroll through all of the episodes to date.

    Categories

    All
    Alzheimer's
    Beyond Technique
    Business
    Business Breakthroughs
    Clean Up Series
    Customer Service
    EDU10
    Excire
    F64 Lunch Bunch
    Faculty
    Fast Food Friday
    Guest Post
    Humor And Sarcasm
    Hump Day
    In The News
    Lessons Learned
    Lighting
    Luminar
    Lumix
    Marketing
    Mark's Corner
    Mind Your Own Business
    Miscellaneous
    Motivational
    One Step At A Time
    Photodex
    PhotoShelter
    PhotoTexting
    Platypod
    Podcasts
    Profoto
    Sales
    Search
    Skylum
    Social Media
    Sunday Morning Reflections
    Tamron
    Tamron Recipes
    Technique
    Throwback Thursday
    Wedding Photography
    Westcott
    Why?

Categories​

Business
Marketing
Technique
Sales
Fast Food Fridays
​

Podcasts

Tamron Recipes 
Beyond Technique
Why?
Mind Your Own Business
Pro Photographer Journey

 Partners

Tamron
Photofocus

​Lumix

Marathon Press
​Platypod
©  2019 Skip Cohen University
  • Home
  • SCU Blog
  • Our Podcasts
  • About Us