Business

Running a Business with a Full Time Job

Kat

August 22, 2012

Some of you may already be aware of my story. I've written about it many times before. Gareth has even shared his side of my journey from full time shopping TV producer to full time wedding blogger. While, looking back it may all seem very idealistic and easy, it was far from it. Trying to kick start a business whilst holding down a full time job is hard. There were times when I didn't sleep. There were times when I cried. There were times when I was constantly sick.

The Inspirations: Don’t Fit In…

Kat

August 21, 2012

Everyone reading this knows this don't they? You all understand that the best way to get the clients you really connect with is to showcase yourself and what you, and no one else, can do. Then why, for the love of god, are we all still shooting/designing/editing the same way?

The Power of Positivity: What’s the Nicest Thing That’s Been Said to you Recently?

Kat

August 17, 2012

Yesterday's School of Rock was magical. We were a room full of girls (and er... Gareth - although I don't think he minded at all!) chatting about business, blogging and everything in between. I left on a total high, feeling proud of the little space I was able to create and excited to have made a gaggle of new friends.

The Inspirations: Do Not Work for Free…

Kat

August 15, 2012

Personally, and particularly in the wedding industry, I think there are times when 'working for free' is worthwhile. Mainly when it comes to collaborations with other suppliers for mutual gain or publicity (styled shoots etc), when it comes to building your portfolio (everyone has to start from somewhere) or when it comes to networking and building industry connections and allies. However I don't believe in discounting for customers or clients who just want to try their luck. I am a strong believer in thinking "what's in this for me?" if there is no money exchanging hands. That may make me sound hard-nosed and selfish but if I said yes to every project I'd have no money to eat (and erm... shop!) and no time for any paid work.

Looking Back, Moving Forward

Kat

August 14, 2012

Did you ever wish you could go back in time and experience things they way they used to be? The genius thing about living online is that you can - all your favourite blogs are there, archived forever. And they don't just hang around for future humiliation ("OMG I can't believe I wore/thought/said/wrote that?!") Oh no, I really do think there's a lot to be learnt from looking backwards at how other people have improved - particularly if you are struggling with how to to take your own blog to the next level.

The Inspirations: I’m not Telling you it’s Gonna be Easy

Kat

August 8, 2012

Over the past 7 months I've interviewed some of the most amazing and incredible people. It's been one hell of a trip! I've loved delving deeper into what makes these critters tick and sharing their wonderousness with you. I hope you've enjoyed the ride too. But from now on, I'm going to morph the Inspirations feature into sharing some of the most inspiring business/life realated titbits that I find on my travels around the interwebz. I hope you enjoy them. I'd personally like to print every single one of these things out and stick them up around my office. Who's with me?

Dealing with Stress

Kat

August 7, 2012

AARRRGRAAASSSTTTEEEERRRRRPHUUUDDGEEEEEE... ...is the noise my brain makes when it feels like it's literally 2 seconds away from exploding with information overload. And yours? We've all been there. There's too much to do and there's too little time to do it in. There's someone calling you and there's a zillion people emailing you. Your mental 'to do' list is longer than your arm and you don't know where to start. So save from allowing your brain to explode all over your computer screen, how do you deal with stress? If you Google 'dealing with stress' there are a million and one websites with lists of things you can do to combat those dreaded stressful episodes, however these are the things that work for me...

Another Level

Lisa Devlin

August 3, 2012

I often get asked how can someone take their wedding photography business to the next level? Today I am going to give you some examples of things I did that worked for me, and offer some pointers for the direction you could go in. These are from my perspective on the industry. Sadly I'm not going to give you a magic formula to success but can start by saying that sheer hard graft plays a large part. What makes me qualified to talk about this? Well a few years ago I was maybe a lot like you. I was trundling along nicely and year on year the bookings came in. Yes, I was probably getting a little complacent.... If things were looking quiet I would take out an ad somewhere or submit to a magazine and boom, the phone was ringing again. But then things really slooooooowed down. My home life had been super busy... Hello two small blondes who are the best thing I have ever done but also the most demanding. Looking back I have no idea how I juggled things or got myself to any weddings at all but I did keep working. Then when the Winter kicked in and I had time to review the business, I was a little bit concerned that the next year's diary wasn't very booked up and being completely honest I wasn't that excited about many of the weddings.

Tough Love & Advice for Struggling Bloggers

Kat

August 1, 2012

Someone once said "Your dream job does not exist, you must create it" and never is this more prevalant than in the blogging game. There are few rules, there are limited guides and the most sucessful players are those that forge their own paths and do something unique. So how then, can you know where to turn when you start to feel sluggish? When the dreaded plateau hits? Or when you feel fresh out of ideas? I read an interesting article by Penelope Trunk, entitled, "Reality check: You're not going to make money from your blog" last week. In it she said, "Almost everyone should forget about making money directly from blogging. It’s so unlikely that it’s a total waste of your time trying. I am actually shocked at how ubiquitous the idea is that blogging is a get-rich-quick scheme. Or even a get-rich-slowly scheme. It’s not. Blogging is a great career tool for creating opportunities for yourself."

Let’s Make the Web Faster – Images

Gareth

July 31, 2012

Beautiful photographs are our bread and butter. They're eye-catching, enticing and transcend language barriers. But they are often the heaviest elements on a web page and so they're the focus of today's article on speeding up your site.

Let’s be Frenemies

Kat

July 27, 2012

Work friends are a strange concept. You're thrown together 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and expected to not only get on but to combine your differences to work together. And then you're expected to want to hang out in your own time, go to office parties... oh and add each other on facebook too. If not you're bring rude right? I guess that's why, no matter how much we say it won't happen, when you leave a place of work you rarely end up keeping much contact with these people. There are exceptions of course, but as harsh as it sounds, when the inevitable does happen it usually becomes pretty obvious that the friendships were never really that genuine in the first place.

The Inspirations: Austin Kleon – Steal Like An Artist

Kat

July 25, 2012

I was introduced to the work of Austin Kleon by a reader who emailed me a link to his latest book, Steal Like an Artist, after attending my School of Rock workshop. She thought I'd like it (thanks Emily!) and she was right. I bought it straight away and devoured the whole thing in one sitting. Austin uses drawings and simple analogies to share his vision of what makes an artist... theft. Sounds controversial huh? Well it's not... it's awesome... and hugely enlightening. I'd enourage you all to go out and read it right now. I wanted to know more so I decided to interview the man himself... enjoy!

Let’s Make The Web Faster

Gareth

July 24, 2012

At the School of Rock Kat talks about the importance of serving up a snappy website experience to your visitors. A statistic from Mashable claims that one in four visitors will abandon a website that takes over four seconds to load. While visitors do tend to be more tolerant of slower websites in image-heavy markets such as photography the underlying message is still important for us to hear.

The Purple Cow: A Guest Post by Charlotte White

Kat

July 20, 2012

"Well, it doesn't really have anything to do with cake. Shouldn't it be something a bit more 'cakey'?" he said. I was really excited to be sat in my first proper 'grown-up' business meeting, up until this moment. It was my first year as Restoration Cake and I was trying to get to grips with the concept of charging strangers for my creations. The afternoon was to be spent with a colleague who knew all the financial stuff. I went to the meeting with a website, a Twitter account, a growing list of orders, and a name.

Decompress

Kat

July 17, 2012

I wake up with a jolt. CRAAAAAP I've missed my flight. Bollocks I've forgotten to pack. Boo-hiss I forgot to arrange a car to pick me up... I've been having these dreams over and over for the past few weeks. Waking up at 6am in a panic is not fun let me tell you. I'm not sure if they're happening more and more because I've done so much travel this year and I hate to be late or if they're just my brain's way of informing me that I'm stressing out and feeling overstretched (er yeah thanks brain, I'm well aware).

“How Do I Get More Likers?!” – Facebook Tips For Wedding Professionals: A Guest Post by Cathie Watts of Phunkey Photography

Kat

July 13, 2012

Originating from New Zealand, wedding photographer Cathie Watts of Phunkey Photography is a Facebook wizz. With just shy of 11,500 'likes' on her photography facebook page she boast more 'likers' than many full time wedding bloggers! So how did she get so popular on the social network? What things did she do to get herself 'liked'? This week I asked Cathie to share some of her top tips for getting started when using Facebook for your business. If you have any more specific questions for her, hit us up in the comments. I'd certainly love to read a follow up from her! Over to you Cathie...

The Inspirations: Lisa Devlin

Kat

July 11, 2012

Gareth & I joke that we should change the name of The Green Room to The Lisa Devlin Room in honour of her services to guest posts! I'm always so thrilled when Lisa offers her insight into something as she's pretty much always spot on with her advice! With 20 years as a professional photographer under her photography ninja belt Lisa has got to be the perfect candidate for an Inspirations interview right? She runs the phenomenally successful Photography Farm, sells PhotoShop actions, shoots weddings all over the country... oh and she's the 2011 British Journal of Photography Wedding Photographer of the Year. NIIIICE!

Why You Should Get the Hell Off Your Computer & Market Yourself Offline…

Kat

July 10, 2012

Wedding blogs are amazing. Getting featured on them is a fantastic way to elevate your business and put yourself and your work in front of hundreds of thousands of potential client's eyes. But what if it's not working for you? Are wedding blog features reeeally the be all and end all? You might think this is a strange thing for a wedding blogger to say... but erm... no. No they're not. At last week's School of Rock workshop I had a few students saying "I love blogs but I know my photography wouldn't get featured. It's just not the style they promote." And while initally I was taken aback "but i like to promote as much diversity as possible!" I thought, in retrospect they were actually right. Wedding blogs do have their own very specific criteria for featuring real weddings, wedding suppliers and products. And more of often than not, that criteria doesn't hugely deviate from blog to blog. No matter what style of wedding they're promoting (alternative, vintage, traditional, regional etc) they all still want to basically share the same things - cute, affordable, aspirational wedding ideas. They want to show cute couples, inspirational (and attainable) wedding ideas and lots and lots of details for brides to copy.

Changing Your Persective: A Guest Post by Casey Fatchett

Kat

July 6, 2012

Ansel Adams famously said, “A good photograph is knowing where to stand.” I find myself coming back to that quote a lot. Not just as a photographer, but in life, I say to myself, “Why in the hell am I standing here? I should be standing over there!” As photographers, our job is to observe and document. Wait, that is oversimplifying. We look at the world and we choose a way in which to convey what we ‘see’ to others. That better? Anyway, sometimes, we get so wrapped up in what we are seeing through our lens that we don’t stop and take a look at our surroundings.

The Inspirations: Made You Look Photography

Kat

July 4, 2012

Where on Earth do I begin introducing the made u look girls? These vivacious, ridiculous talented, infectious and crazily-generous women really do make my heart sing. After chatting to them online for years, I was exceptionally honoured to be able to shoot with them when I was in New York earlier this year. They flew all the way from California to do it and gosh... I owe them so much. They really did make me feel beautiful. If you're not inspired after seeing these girls' images and reading about their incredible journey... well there may be no hope for you. Christina, Alie & Marielle rock my frickin' world. I love them more than life itself and I really hope we get to hang out again one day...

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