Hey Peeps,
I hate wasting time. You do too.
I won't even ask - it's pretty much a given.
If you're going to say,"Hey Mike, I love wasting time." Well you're an idiot and we should devour your lifeforce to distribute amongst the rest of us.
Moving away from the darkside now.
I know you find that when working on something important, work, play, crosswords, nuclear reactor in your basement, etc, other things tend to come up.
Distractions and interruptions.
Your spouse, kids, favorite TV show, best friend, mother, in-laws, siblings, boss, employees - I could do this all day.
But what about the least obvious and yet most insidious things of all?
The thing you are trying to work on.
I'm as serious as a heart attack here, but let me state that this is mostly found during work.
We all try to get as much going on as we can being business owners - and if you are an independently, starving photographer, well you are a business owner believe it or not.
This overwhelms and most times burns us out.
Which sucks.
If we are done in, we can't work. Which is what this is all about right?
So what should you not do?
Let's answer that with a story:
I had a call from my mother yesterday to donate something in a silent auction for a community group she is a part of.
She wanted a few photos, but what does that get me? Nothing. No new clients, no income, nada.
Someone would bid and win the images and put them somewhere on a wall or in a basement or give them as gifts to someone else who would put them on a wall or in a basement, etc, etc, etc
So I decided to give away a portrait sitting instead.
This gives the winning bidder incentive to come into my studio, meet me, discus photo options, print sales, CD/DVD purchases, creating a walking, talking billboard telling their friends about my business while still making me money.
Good idea right?
When I started to explain some of the in's-and-out's of connecting and product ordering with her, she found some things restrictive to more elderly and/or less web educated clients,"You have to cater to everybody right?"
My flat out response,"No, I don't."
That's the thing, I don't want to cater to everyone.
I don't want to treat every person like they are my ideal client.
I want to treat my ideal client as my ideal client.
I don't - and you don't - need to make everyone on the planet a paying client. That would be insane. But if you focus on your ideal client, and what they are about, you can make all of your clients your ideal client.
So no, I will not have a million ways of contacting me(email, phone, carrier pigeon, locomotive, etc), instead I have the ones that serve me and my ideal clients.
Just like I will not have a million different products to sell my clients - how could you keep them all in your head and still come across with the confidence of knowing what you are talking about?
I find my ideal client, I learn what they are about - everything. I cater to that. Everything else that I do is for my own creative expression.
And everything after that is garbage.
I won't do it.
It is a waste of time, energy and happiness that could better be used on things that matter.
What do you do "for" your business that is actually taking away from your forward motion?
Tell me and I will let my favorite story-teller guest post on this blog!
Cheers!
Michael Carty
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