Inside the Photography Business: Debbie Foley
PhotoMerchant: Tell me about yourself and your photography business.
Debbie Foley: My business, Studio 562 Photography, has been running for about 16 months, and I’ve been doing photography for about two years. It started out as a passion. I took millions of photos of my children and I wanted to find a career that I’m passionate about. Something that I could wake up to every day and say, I love my job. There are some people who do that every day!
So I joined a camera club in Frankston, Victoria. They are absolutely brilliant. They have meetings every week, with lots of experienced photographers in the club to help you and they also have competitions once a month with experienced judges from all over Victoria. I learned a lot from the competitions because their critiques are very technical. My best accomplishment was to get accepted into an overseas competition and have my work published in a book.
Through the camera club I took PhotoShop and Lightroom courses at a huge discount, which saved me a lot of money.
I photograph a lot of dance schools, kindergartens and I also do portraiture and families. I have a daughter who does classical ballet and I loved the behind the scenes images that were taken in class. So I started advertising with local ballet schools and going to schools to take candid photos of ballerinas in class and I started selling them to the parents. I had great feedback and I loved to capture the children in the moment, dancing ì something that they love.
PM: Is there anything you would change about your business since you started?
DF: Yes, I think I could have done my marketing better. I hand out photo collage cards to parents, who always intend to get online and buy photos. But the sales come in slowly. I’m not a naturally a saleswoman, I didn’t want to stand there and spruik off my photos at the door. So I think I have to find of another way of selling and keeping the pressure on people. Maybe putting a time limit or a date of closure.
PM: Why do you think your customers like working with you?
DF: I’m very approachable, I’m friendly, and I work very well with children obviously, having my own. I have three kids: 14, 12 and 8. I haven’t come across a child yet I can’t get around. They can be quite difficult sometimes, especially the two and three-year-olds. I have a personal touch. I always personalise my correspondence really well, to make them feel that I’m friendly and importantly, I always let the client know that there is nothing I can’t do to fulfil their needs.
PM: How do you manage your workflows and calculate the costs of running your business?
DF: For the dance schools, it’s just my time and I hope that they love and buy my photos. If you work out my time and effort, I probably don’t make a lot, but because I love it, it doesn’t feel like work. I love going to dance schools and working on the photos. If parents buy them, that’s a real bonus. But if I actually sat down and figured out exactly how much work I’m putting in and what I’m getting out of it, it probably doesn’t work out very well. I’m sort of getting to a point where if I don’t start charging appropriately and putting money on what I’m doing, I’m going to have to go back to work in another job because I’ll need a more reliant income.
I love that I found PhotoMerchant because it took selling out of my hands. Customers can go online and choose the photos and sizes they want. I don’t have to sit there and go through prices with them as it’s all on the website.
PM: What do you do to stay competitive with other photographers in your market?
DF: Obviously there are millions of them. It’s crazy. I advertise a lot at local schools in their newsletters. And whenever I advertise I put a small collage together which contains about 20 different photos that cover the range of work I do. I do other advertising too, but mostly work comes from word of mouth: people who are happy with my work and pass on that information.
PM: If you could go back in time and give your younger self a piece of advice, what would it be?
DF: People always want something for nothing; I’ve learned that I’ve got to toughen up with prices, know that I’m good at what I do and remember a lot of time and effort that goes into perfecting an image. I also need to factor in the cost of classes, equipment, computers. Although I love doing it, I’m running a business! I need to make money and will only be successful if I do.
Be confident in what I deserve. I’ve come a long way to get where I am. So I’ve got to stand by what I believe I’m worth, otherwise it’s not going to happen. I’m going to go backwards.
PM: Do you have any tips for new photographers?
DF: I think the best tip I got given to me was to join a local camera club, because they’re full of people who have been doing this for years who are keen to teach new people.
PM: What do you think is going to happen in photography in five year’s time?
DF: It’s endless what could happen. The computer software is changing all the time. PhotoShop is doing amazing things. I see some amazing works at my camera club that some people have done for advertising and you wouldn’t believe where the image started to where it ends up. It really is a world of art.
PM: What do you do in your spare time?
DF: I do Pilates; I live close to the beach, so I go for walks. I’m fairly busy and photography takes up a lot of my time. But anywhere I do go in my spare time I take my camera. It’s a bit addictive!
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Debbie Foley runs Studio 562 Photography and is based in Melbourne, Australia. |
