And I know you’ve seen it.

It is the Thinkpad x220, the model on all the TV and YouTube video commercials that shows a guy jumping out of an airplane with this laptop to prove it can boot in under 10 seconds.

But this model has another very cool feature: the screen swivels and transforms into an iPad. That means you can work on the laptop all day, then transform it into an iPad to make sales presentation to clients.

With the rapid-boot drive, the touch-sensitive swivel screen, and the extended 9-hour battery, the total price came to about $2,000.

And it sits on the desk every day like a plain-old PC. No client has ever seen it.

The fact is, buying technology is always the easy part. It makes us feel like we’ve gotten something accomplished, like we’re one step closer to our goal. We imagine all the amazing things we’ll be able to do with it.

Unfortunately, many of our technology purchases become expensive paperweights because we don’t count on the time and training it takes to master it. TV commercials make technology look easy and sexy and empowering, but they are lying.

Learning new technology is hard, it is painful, it takes time, and your time is valuable.

So stop buying technology because it’s cool. Smartphones, tablets, and PCs can be important tools–but learning and supporting them can drain your productivity. Only purchase devices and programs that actually help you grow your business.

What high-tech gadgets are laying around your studio gathering dust? Share your secrets below. We probably own the same thing, so we won’t laugh.

This means that even if potential clients know your name, 48% won’t consider contacting you without reading positive online reviews.

While that number should scare you, the solution is easier than you realize. Here’s how:

1. Write a list of the most important websites in your area that accept online reviews. The first 2 should be Google Places and Yahoo Local Business. Once you have these, Topix, MerchantCircle and Yellowpages are also good national sites for reviews. Here are more good ones. After these, check for any important review sites in your local area or field of photography.

2. Make sure your business information is properly listed in each of these sites. Most of them offer free basic listing services. The important thing is to “take control” of your business listing, and make sure all the contact information is current.

3. Copy the link from each page – so you can send it to clients. For example, here’s the link to our Google Places account for the lab. I copied the link by clicking the word “link” in the upper right corner. You’ll have to do the same for your studio’s Google Places page, as it will be different (don’t copy mine). Do this for each account you want reviews in.

4. Create an email, paste in the links and a write a request for a review. It doesn’t have to be complicated. For example,

Dear ——-
I need your help.
If you’re satisfied with the work we did for you recently, please consider writing an online review for my studio.
This will help other folks in our community when they search online for a professional photographer they can trust.
Rate my studio on Google.
Rate my studio on Yahoo.
Rate my studio on ——-.
It will only take 2-3 minutes of your time, and it will really help us.
Thanks in advance,
Tom Hicks, Photographer

Notice each of the underlines in the middle? These are the hot links to your studio’s Google Places page, Yahoo Local Business page, etc. By including these links, it makes it absolutely simple for folks to quickly give you some stars or write a review.

5. Customize the email with the name of each new client and send it out the day you deliver photography to each client. DO NOT WAIT. They are most likely to give you a positive review while they are still feeling good about the photography. If you’ve got enough reviews on one site, remove it from the list and push another one.

In case you were wondering, website or Facebook testimonials are not the same as online reviews. While each is still important, testimonials will be read by someone who is already at your website or Facebook page. Think of it this way: online reviews are found earlier in the sales process, and are what bring customers to your website the first time. However, if someone has sent you a testimonial in the last year or so, don’t be afraid to ask for an online review today. Same goes for any friends or family you’ve done work for (no cheating with fake reviews – Google’s heuristic algorithms will flag them and penalize you).

If you get in this habit, in a few months you’ll have collected a dozen online reviews. Over time, this will have a definite impact on the number of calls you receive from your website.

Is the money you’re “saving” really costing you more and not allowing you to grow your business?

Are you printing your own? Have you become a lab? Be honest; how much time are you really spending making prints and how much money are you really saving?

As a photographer, you make the most money and grow your business by marketing, shooting and selling. Everything else is secondary and non profitable. Here’s why:

Making your own prints involves purchasing equipment, an inventory of ink, paper, canvas, a service contract and/or maintenance on your printer(s) and possibly software, etc. How long will the equipment last? How many prints will it take to pay all of this back? What’s more, if you’re not happy with a print (and there will be many), you pay for the remake as well as the original.

A high-quality, reputable Pro-Lab will always stand behind their work. If it’s not right, they’ll remake it free of charge. This means they will do their best to make it right the first time because of the additional cost of a remake and back and forth shipping.

Here’s how human nature plays into this. First, you will tend to let a less than perfect print pass because of the additional time and money to remake it and as a result, your quality will drop. I’ve seen this happen over and over. Also, because you cannnot possibly offer all of the products and service of a high quality Pro-Lab, the tendency is to sell the products you produce in house rather than those you have to outsource. Before long, you’re not offering all of the exciting products available today and your customers aren’t showing them to their family and friends.

A high-quality, reputable Pro-Lab will offer a large selection of products for all types of photography. They do the volume of business that makes it profitable for them to do so.

Now, the real important part: You (and your staff, if you have employees) could be spending the time that you make prints on promotions, marketing, shooting and selling. You will devote so much time (or perhaps already are) printing and producing orders that you just don’t have the time to market and grow your business. You won’t spend the additional time with a customer for a face-to-face sale where you can really increase your income.

The bottom line is that you will become a $15/hour lab tech instead of a $150/hour photographer and salesperson. Who do you want to be and how do you want to see your business grow?

About Ted

Ted Suss is a former professional photographer who specialized in weddings, high school seniors and on-location printing.  He began teaching various workshops to photographers in 1996 when he became successful selling his photography without paper proofs. 

He currently offers profitable products to professional photographers, along with no-charge consultations to help market studios and increase sales.

Check out his website at www.prismphoto.cc and his blog about “The Business of Photography” at www.prismphoto.wordpress.com

People like “new”. It generates excitement. It gives them bragging rights.

Why should professional photography be any different?

To say that great photography is timeless may be artistically correct, but it doesn’t mean more sales.

For example, look at our iPhone 4 covers. These turned out to be one of the most appreciated gifts I gave this Christmas. I’m 100% confident if you order a studio sample, you’ll be selling these to every one of your clients with an iPhone.

So here’s the challenge: Start by asking yourself, what am I offering new this year I wasn’t offering last year? What reason can I offer clients to come into my studio that I didn’t have last year? What’s different?

It doesn’t have to be a bunch of things - just one thing is enough to get started.

Once you’ve picked your “new thing”, you must make a commitment to it. Have JD make you a real studio sample (not a picture of one). Show it to your employees, family and friends. Does it make their eyes light up? If it does, add it to your sales presentation, then add it to a marketing flyer and/or postcard to send out to old customers.

On the other hand, if it doesn’t get people excited, throw the sample away and try again.

Make a commitment to yourself to add something new to your sales presentation this year.

We’re proud to be a Kodak lab and proud of their products.

That’s why I was so excited to find this article over at SearchEngineLand.com. They asked 1,790 consumers across the country to rate what they felt was most important on a local business website. This simple graph says it all.

There are no technical tricks or customizations you need to make to your website to make it more useful to potential clients. In fact, many of the items listed in the graph are ones you look for yourself when searching for another local business.

Here’s a checklist of questions you can ask yourself when looking at your own website. Better yet, give this list to a friend and ask them to rate your website for you.

1. Are my prices easy to find?

2. Is my list of services on the front page?

3. Is my phone number and email visible on every page?

4. Is there a contact link in the upper right corner of every page? Does it link to a new page with all my contact details: an address, phone and email, hours open, and a link to a Google, Yahoo or MapQuest map to make getting driving directions easy?

5. Do I have customer testimonials on every page (best), or a link to a testimonials page on every page?

6. Do I have a photo of the entrance to my studio (or home studio) on my studio so a potential customer knows what to look for when they arrive? (Extra credit if you have a video of yourself shooting a client in the studio so they’ll know what to expect after they arrive).

7. Do I have a personal bio describing my style of photography and history?

8. Do I have obvious links to Facebook (extra credit for email newsletter and LinkedIn) on my home page so they can follow me?

Sometimes the ROES program just behaves strangely, and there doesn’t seem to be anything you can do to fix it.

The solution in either case is to clear the ROES cache. Here’s how:

1. Click the blue-circled question mark in the lower left corner of the ROES program main screen

2. Choose “X – Clear Caches”

3. Choose “Clear Both Caches”

4. Click “OK”

ROES will close automatically. Wait about 20 seconds before restarting ROES for all the files to be deleted. The next time you open ROES, it will re-download the program and update the artwork for every product.

Note that clearing the caches WILL NOT delete or change any orders you are currently working on.

This has the additional benefit of gaining you more space on your hard drive, since it removes obsolete artwork that is no longer in our catalog.

You do not need to do this very often. Once a year is fine.

True lagniappe can’t be faked or forced. We banter the word authentic around too much these days. But for lagniappe to work, it must be just that — real and offered without expectation of anything in return.

In other words – you do it because you want to, not because it’s in a marketing plan document or because your ROI calculator told you it would generate a 42.36% return. (And no…there’s no such thing as an ROI calculator!)

This is absolutely true.

We all hear about “delighting the customer.” We try and think of things we can add to their purchase experience to set us apart, and maybe, if we’re lucky, to get them to brag us up a bit to their friends.

But that’s already the wrong attitude.

Instead, think of your customers like your best friends: It makes you happy to make them happy.

If you can hold that thought when you’re thinking about your customers, everything else will follow.

According to Kirk, “Studios who aren’t finding ways to attract, motivate, and engage clients quickly find themselves hung out to dry. How are you hanging?” During the session, Kirk will show step-by-step examples of how to reinvent a photography studio. He will share great ideas for new products, marketing, and new processes that move people to action.

Complete information on the PPM Expo and training seminars are here.

Unique and durable, these iPhone 4 cases protect phones with style. Create an image from your photography, designs or text using our easy Photoshop templates, then order it in ROES.

These iPhone 4 cases will be an amazing gift for any iPhone 4 owner. They are compatible with both the Verizon and AT&T models of the iPhone 4. In fact, our custom iPhone 4 cases offers the perfect fit for any carrier!

Each cover is vibrantly printed on durable metal, then affixed to a raised black poly frame that protects the edges of the phone.

Covers are $14.99 each. Similar covers sold online retail for $35-40 each.

Product Details

• Compatible with AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S
• Hard-shell case with metal photo insert
• Access to all ports, buttons, camera, speakers
• Lightweight, durable, and easy to grip
• Raised front edge for extra screen protection
• Form-fitting case is easy to take on and off

Order your iPhone case in ROES from the Metal Prints catalog.