The Portrait Studio Doctor: Steve Saporito
PhotoMerchant: Tell me about yourself and your business.
Steve Saporito: I run a business called The Portrait Studio Doctor and I mentor portrait studios all over Australia. I focus on the business side of studios, working with my clients and their staff to increase bookings, referrals and sales which in turn increases turnover. I love that I can walk in and change someone’s life.
I’m trained as a chartered accountant and used to work for a big accounting firm. I did a feasibility study for a client who was looking to open a photography studio and was exposed to the industry through that assignment.
I didn’t like accounting much, so I bought a photography studio which I owned and operated for around 15 years. I focused on the operational side, generating new business and selling, and employed a team of photographers, makeup artists, managers, sales people as I grew the business into multiple locations. We mostly did glamour portraits: families, couples, babies and nudes. After I got married and had children, it was time for a new challenge, and after a number of requests from different photographers, I started coaching and training photographers.
I did a course in neurolinguistic programming (NLP), which is a study of human behaviour. It was interesting because it allowed me assist my employees to grow further not only as employees, but personally. I was also better able to understand clients’ motivations for buying and why some marketing initiatives worked better than others. It became apparent that the layout of the studio premises and product placement made a major impact on what people bought. I found that the right combination increased average sales without any sales training. Working to people’s strengths meant that I could align my team’s strengths to the right roles so they’d do their best work. I could also see how to build strong relationships with clients and to identify what they desired from a photographic shoot.
I now make my portrait photography clients focus on developing a rapport with their customers; they’re aware of how to greet customers when they come into the studio, where to stand on the floor and all those little details. These days the public can’t discern between a professional photographer and a rising amateur, and that’s partly because the industry is moving home and out of the professional environment of the studio.
My clients typically see me for six months to one year, and I coach 10-12 clients at one time.
PM: What’s the biggest mistake that photographers make?
SS: They assume their clients will only want or be able to afford the cheapest option and are afraid to sell the more expensive option.
Part of the coaching that I do is to show businesses the difference between a complete professional service of photography versus just selling prints. It’s important that clients have a product they can aspire to, meaning not just offering them the cheapest package because you assume that’s all they can afford or want to spend. People put their own prejudices on what their clients can afford and build a business around that prejudice. The cost to the business is opportunity cost; who knows what the client would have purchased if you’d just asked them about more expensive options.
PM: Are there any issues photographers can fix quickly that will make a big difference in their business?
SS: Be efficient and use your time wisely. Value your time! Seek people who are better than you at specific tasks. For example, many photographers hate call prospective clients to make bookings. They don’t have the time to educate them about how they can serve them and what having a professional photograph taken is all about. Finding the right person who loves the phone and people can add $50,000 per month to your takings.
PM: Do you have any tips for photographers to improve their profitability?
SS: I look at efficiency. So in effect yes, I look at the profitability of something. My job is to remove hurdles and inefficiencies.
I have some clients who compensate for inefficiency by hiring too many staff. One client with nine staff didn’t set goals for her team. She had four people on the phone making bookings, and between them they would only book two per day. Realistically one person should be able to make five bookings a day. It’s because she hadn’t trained them properly, wasn’t monitoring them properly and hadn’t set them targets. Now that client has four staff, and went from a $30,000 turnover per month to $150,000 per month.
If there is no goal, what is motivating people? How do they know if they are a valued employee? Everyone needs validation, and we need to celebrate wins. Focus on celebrating wins; it’s far more empowering than pointing out fault. Focus on that art of delegation; it is very different to abdication, which is what many managers do. Some people need to be micromanaged when first learning a new task. That will change in time, but the need to monitor your team will decrease but never cease.
We have such good margins if we sell and focus on our average sale. A lot of people don’t understand acquisition cost of the client. They have this false sense of security because the client has spent $300, but it’s probably cost you $400 just to get the client to walk in the door and be photographed, between the cost of marketing, paying people to call them, educating them, booking them. You need to factor that in. Even if you are doing it all yourself, you need to factor in a cost for your time.
At an average sale of $300 ì 400, you’re losing money. My goal is to get the average sale to $2500 ì 3000 and all my clients are there or above it, so in effect, the profit is taken care of.
PM: What’s the most important thing you’ve learned about running a business?
SS: Have multiple streams of marketing and never stop a stream of marketing, only add.
If something is working and you decide to abandon it because something new comes along, you’ll have a period where you have no effective marketing. Everything has a start up time. A lot of things take a long time to implement and perfect. Meanwhile, what’s paying the bills?
I recommend minimum of five different streams of marketing. For example, birthday cards, referral vouchers, third party alliances. It doesn’t have to be different mediums. You might have two third party alliances that are working well, and they would count as two streams because you’re getting clients from two different sources.
A lot of the time, studios ignore what’s free. They’re looking for the next big thing, when the most obvious thing, like sending anniversary cards, is right in front of them, and they don’t do it.
There’s lots of money to be made in this industry for everyone. All we have to do is reach out for it.
PM: Many photographers lament the rise of the amateur competing with professional photographers. It’s interesting that you say there’s lots of money for everyone.
SS: My clients are making loads of money! I train some of those lamenting people, and they’re so busy lamenting, that they’re ignoring opportunity. Once they see opportunity, and begin to build consistency and systems into their business, they all make money. The issue is that most photographers struggle to see themselves in the business of photography. They’re photographers.
The public can’t discern between a professional and a rising amateur because the professionals aren’t leveraging off their assets; they’re shutting their studios and moving home. You meet them in their home where you’re stepping over toys and nappies. When they visit the amateur who is quoting under $1500 for a shoot and CD burn, the amateur is also working from home.
If you have a beautiful store that feels like Prada and you treat clients like they were going to spend $10,000, then that’s going to be a very different experience.
PM: Why do you think your customers like working with you?
SS: I give them their lives back. Before they met me, they were working 100 hours a week and they end up working 40-50 hours a week earning ten times what they used to earn. Everything becomes simple, easy and predictable.
I also consider myself a nice guy! Sometimes in business you just need someone to listen. They know they can ring me any time. It’s no nonsense. I walk in and we make it happen.
Sometimes as owners we need to be fired from certain parts of our jobs. I’ll say to clients, “You are fired from selling. You are not allowed to go near a client. We’ll hire someone to do that.” Sometimes we need to fire ourselves from certain roles that we’re just not capable of doing. It actually costs the business more to have someone who cannot sell do the selling, than to pay someone who loves selling to do it for you.
Sack yourself from what you’re bad at doing and hire someone who loves it. The end result is you make more money, the clients have more fun because they don’t have to face Mr Grumpy and the staff is happy.
PM: Do you have any tips for new photographers?
SS: First, don’t be afraid to ask for help. I think it’s a lonely industry that’s full of sole traders and it’s important to ask for advice from people, whether it’s your mother or your mate who runs a successful studio. Even the best athletes in the world have coaches. Choose carefully who you seek advice from and make sure they have proven effective advice that will serve your needs.
Second, surround yourself with successful people who are better than you. Stop complaining about how no one is making money and how hard it is and accept responsibility. You can make a difference to if you remove what’s not working before it rots away your business.
Third, celebrate your successes. Artists sometimes have an issue with self worth and valuing what they’ve created.
When I was first asked to train portrait studios, I didn’t see why people would value what I knew because I thought it was second nature. For example sending anniversary cards seemed so obvious, I thought surely everyone was doing that. What I didn’t realise is that people needed to see how important it was and that they needed a system that made it easy to consistently make it happen with little to no effort.
PM: What do you think is going to happen in the photography industry in 5-10 years?
SS: I think that our industry is no different to any other industry. If you look at the fashion industry ì Prada, Chanel ì there are copies everywhere. There are people who are in the market for copies and there are people who are in the market for the real thing.
If we expect an average sale of $3,000, we need to become Prada, serve our clients well and help them discern between the real thing and a copy. If we begin to raise ourselves and the public’s perception of a professional photographer, because we are creating beautiful stores, we are serving our clients and producing beautiful products for our clients, we’ll all do well.
Look at the car industry. Mercedes Benz brings out a new model and three months later every car looks like a Mercedes. There will always be market leaders and the thing about leaders is that they don’t look behind them. I think professionals have got to become leaders and look at how we can lift public awareness of what a professional does and the service they provide.
People pay for service. I went to a restaurant on Tuesday last week. The cheapest meal was $90 and the place was full. The service and the quality of the food and the experience every step of the way was unbelievable.
If you run your studio the same way, people will pay. They will not pay if they have to walk in and step over toys and nappies. You’ve got to create the ambience with people who are there to serve and anticipate your needs. People will pay if you serve them. I think there are a lot of people out there who have a problem with serving and realistically if you’re in retail, you’re there to serve.
Look at your clients and serve them, and you will have an unbelievable business.
PM: What do you do in your spare time?
SS: I’m with my family. I’ve got three girls ì 7, 6, and 4. I love my wife and daughters.
I don’t actually work for a living because I love what I do. I don’t get up in the morning and think, “I’ve got to go to work.” I do what I love all the time so all my time is spare time.
 |
Steve Saporito runs The Portrait Studio Doctor, mentoring portrait photographers all over Australia. Find him on Facebook. |
