A couple weeks ago, I started a new series, “Tuesday Tips” and started talking about how to start a freelance business. If you missed the last couple posts, click on the titles below or just scroll down.

Disclaimer: I am NOT an expert on everything and every person is different. These are just my thoughts and opinions, which don’t always work for everyone. Here are the topics I plan on discussing over the next several weeks.

1. Know Your Market
2. Know Your Competition
3. Know Your Stuff
4. Build a Brand
5. Develop Correct Pricing
6. Target Your Market
7. Smart Advertising
8. Create a Unique Experience
9. Keep Improving
10. Develop Balance

So this week, we are doing to discuss…

Build a Brand

Okay, so this is probably my FAVORITE topic! I am hoping I can narrow this all down into one post and not go on a rant! Hehe.

Having a graphic design degree, branding yourself and your business is to me, one of the MOST important things you can do. You aren’t just promoting your great service, but you as a person and as a business.

During week one, we talked about knowing your market and I made a list of several adjectives that describe my target client. Use your list and create one that describes, you, your business and your style. Now ask yourself, does your branding match? It is SO important that your branding matches what you are portraying. If it’s off, your business just seems disjointed and confusing to clients. Your branding is the first impression you make to your clients and it should SCREAM what you are about. If your branding is busy or confusing, people will think you are unprofessional.

Here are some steps I would recommend you take to develop the best branding possible:

1. FIGURE OUT YOUR STYLE
The first thing I do when I design a logo for a client, is I write down several adjectives that describe them and their target market? What is your style? Classy or modern? Bright or dark? Black or brown? Clean or frilly? Cute or sophisticated? What describes your style and your clients you want to have? How can you make it different? DON’T do something you have already seen! I can’t even list all the logos I have seen that have damask patterns, script fonts, bad typography and are just BORING! Set yourself apart! You want your branding to have something unique and interesting that makes people stop and notice it.

2. HIRE A DESIGNER
Unless you can show me your graphic design degree, YOU ARE NOT A DESIGNER! So do yourself a favor and don’t design your own logo! Please! It’s just tacky. Find a graphic designer who’s work you really like and pay them whatever it costs for a new logo! THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT EXPENSE for your business! I can’t say it strong enough! Don’t spend money on more camera equipment! Invest the money into a great brand that will make you look like a true professional. Yes, it may be a couple hundred dollars to develop a great brand, but I’m telling you, it will pay for itself. Having a professional logo, website, blog and marketing material will be the best thing you can do for your business!

3. KEEP IT CONSISTENT
The one thing I see so many new companies doing is bouncing around trying out a different logo or blog watermark every week. STOP! You are confusing potential clients. Get a good brand and STICK with it! The average lifespan for a good logo to become well known is five years. FIVE YEARS! If you are changing up your colors, logo, fonts all the time, no one will recognize your company. Get your branding set and then put in on everything! Get your logo out there. People will remember your logo, not your company name. Get everything from your business card, to your blog, to your website, to your facebook fan page, to your CD packaging to your email signature to match. Use the same fonts, colors and design on everything. Get it out there and then don’t even think about changing it for quite some time.

Put This To Use: Evaluate your branding. Is it you? Does it all match? Could it be better? Figure out these things and then hire a designer to work with you to create a new strong branding for your business. Get everything to match and keep it consistent.

I would love to work with some of you in developing a new brand and identity. I am offering discounts on the following:

25% OFF IDENTITY DESIGN AND CONSULTING

IDENTITY CONSULTING | ONLY $75
Need a designer’s eye to look over your branding? Send me all the material you’ve got and I will give you some feedback about how you can improve your identity and help market your business better. I will send you a detailed list of things that can improve your overall look and help you improve your company’s presence.

LOGO DESIGN PACKAGE ONE | Only $360
Logo Package One includes:
3 Logo Concepts
Custom Color Palette
3 Revisions
All Final Logo Files

LOGO DESIGN PACKAGE TWO | Only $440
Logo Package Two includes:
3 Logo Concepts
Custom Color Palette
3 Revisions
All Final Logo Files
Business Card Design
*printing prices not included

LOGO DESIGN PACKAGE THREE | Only $680
Logo Package Three includes:
3 Logo Concepts
Custom Color Palette
3 Revisions
All Final Logo Files
Business Card Design
Letterhead & Envelope Design
Notecard & Envelope Design
*printing prices not included

You must pay A 50% deposit before Wednesday, March 31 to receive the discounted price! Contact me if you are interested!

I hope this post was helpful and gave you some things to think about! If you liked this and want others to learn, please share this link on your blog or Facebook!

A couple weeks ago, I started a new series, “Tuesday Tips” and started talking about how to start a freelance business. If you missed the last couple posts, click on the titles below or just scroll down.

Disclaimer: I am NOT an expert on everything and every person is different. These are just my thoughts and opinions, which don’t always work for everyone. Here are the topics I plan on discussing over the next several weeks.

1. Know Your Market
2. Know Your Competition
3. Know Your Stuff
4. Build a Brand
5. Develop Correct Pricing
6. Target Your Market
7. Smart Advertising
8. Create a Unique Experience
9. Keep Improving
10. Develop Balance

So this week, we are doing to discuss…

Know Your Stuff

So, now that you know who you are going to target and who your competition is, you better figure out what the heck you are doing! Like I said last week, it’s so easy for anyone to start up a freelance business, especially photography. But you will not have a successful business unless you know as much as you can about your industry.

Everyone has to start somewhere! But before you dive in head first, you better do some research and learn about what you are getting into. I have been doing photography since I was 15. I saved up as much money as I could and bought my first film SLR camera! It was a great day. When I got it, I didn’t know the first thing about how to work a SLR camera. So you know what I did…I sat down and I READ THE MANUAL! Shocker! That is how I first learned about what aperture and shutter speeds were and how they worked. I started playing around and experimenting and reading some photography books.

Over the years, everything has become more digital. I bought the first DSLR Canon Rebel when it came out and that helped me so much because I could instantly see what I was doing and how to adjust it. But for the longest time, I just let the camera do most of the work. I mainly enjoyed photography for myself and documenting my life. It wasn’t until the last couple years that people started noticing my photography and asking me to take photos for them. I hadn’t really ever thought of being a wedding photographer until a close family friend asked if I would photograph their wedding for them! I was totally flattered and of course, totally nervous! I took my dad along with me to help, but mostly for moral support! It was the first wedding I had ever shot and it was less then three years ago in April 2007. I shot the wedding for about $300 (enough to cover the cost of some extra memory cards) and it was a great first learning experience. I thought it would be fun to share with you a couple photos from that wedding!

My First Wedding: April 2007

I am so thankfully to that family for giving me the opportunity to shoot their daughter’s wedding. If you wanna see more photos from my first wedding, click here and here.

About a year and a half later, their other daughter asked me to photograph her wedding as well. I had just gotten married and went through the long process of trying to find the perfect wedding photographer and realized how hard it is to find a wedding photographer that you really connect with! I already had my graphic design degree and had been successful with that, but wanted to pursue my passion and love of wedding photography. I charged about $700 + a plane ticket for my second wedding and I LOVED it! I after I photographed this wedding, I knew I wanted to make wedding photography part of my studio.

My Second Wedding: August 2008

You can see more photos from my second wedding, here and here. After this wedding, I started actively promoting myself as a wedding photographer, but it wasn’t until about one year ago that I launched my photography website. During that time, I did all the researching I possibly could! I read blogs, listened to podcasts, Googled stuff and learned all I could about equipment, the industry, pricing, competition and what you need to do to start a wedding photography business.

I wasn’t planning on telling you my life story, but I thought it might help some of you to realize that you can’t become a wedding photographer, or start any business overnight and plan to be busy and booming right away. For most people, it takes quite awhile, and I still have a long ways to go before I am where I want to be. I wasn’t charging $3,000 for a wedding overnight! I started at $300, went to $700, then booked a wedding for $1,600, $2,300 and eventually $5,000+. It takes time along with the right marketing and skills. And of course, LOTS of prayer and trusting God! I was so blessed to have a very successful first year as a wedding photographer!

My First Full Year: 2009

You won’t be successful if you don’t know what you are doing though! If you really want to be a wedding photographer, you have to have a huge passion for it and start learning and absorbing all the information you can. Here are several ways that you can start learning:

1. READ BLOGS
This is the cheapest and quickest way to learn about photography. Find the photographers that you love and aspire to be and read their blog! Most photographers have a FAQ or Photographers section where they share information and what they have learned. Read all you can, watch their tutorials and look at what equipment they own. They know what they are doing, so use them as your example. Several photographers that really helped me when I got started was Becker, Jasmine Star, Millie Holloman and Melissa Jill. They are all amazing, high-paid photographers that have a wealth of knowledge on their blog! Go to as many blogs as you can and read, read, read! Also, I subscribe to several wedding blogs and whenever I see a photographer I like, I make sure to check out their blog!

2. GOOGLE IT
There have been a lot of times that I would see a photographer mention something or do something, and if I didn’t know what it was, I Googled it! I also visit other photography websites and forums to learn about what vendors people like, tips on how to use a camera and editing techniques. I just recently got a new camera and before it came it, I went to Canon’s website and watched ALL of their video tutorials on the camera. Even though I knew a lot, I learned some new things! Keep researching! You can never stop learning.

3. DO A WORKSHOP
So many photographers and other professionals offer classes and workshops to help you learn. Do these! The easiest way to learn is hands on! They can walk you step by step on how to effectively use your camera, market to your client and become successful. This is the best money you can spend! Don’t waste your money on fancy equipment when you don’t even know how to use it! Invest in learning and I promise you will have success!

You don’t have to go to school to be a photographer (I didn’t), but research all you can, practice and practice some more! Shoot for free for practice and learn what you like and what you need to work on. Get help from professionals and learn from them. And don’t stop! I am continually learning and striving to learn more to make myself a better artist.

Put This To Use: Find a professional you admire and learn everything you can from them! Read blogs, search the internet, email questions and do a workshop or conference! Know your stuff before you dive in!

Since this post is all about learning, I thought I would offer a HUGE discount on my Clone Kayla sessions! If you want to learn everything I know and get one on one instruction, I am offering:

50% OFF ALL CLONE KAYLA SESSIONS

Clone Kayla All Day Personal Workshop | ONLY $400
For aspiring photographers and graphic designers, spend a day with Kayla Barker learning anything you would like to know about photography, design and running your own studio. This could include a live photoshoot, time spent in my studio learning on the computer or help with developing marketing strategies. You have eight hours to pick my brain and learn as much as you can!

Add an Hour | Only $50
Add additional hours for $50 each.

Clone Kayla Half Day | $250
Don’t think you’ll need a whole day? Come and cram as much information as you can in four hours instead.

Clone Kayla Skype | $50 per hour
Can’t make it out to West Texas? Skype or iChat per hour to ask questions, get feedback on your work and learn how to be successful.

You must pay and reserve your mentor session date before Tuesday, March 16! One week only! Contact me if you are interested! These are not available for anyone living within a two hour driving radius of Midland.

I hope this post was helpful and gave you some things to think about! If you liked this and want others to learn, please share this link on your blog or Facebook!

Two Tuesdays ago, I started a new series, “Tuesday Tips” and started talking about how to start a freelance business. If you missed the last post, click on #1 or just scroll down.

Disclaimer: I am NOT an expert on everything and every person is different. These are just my thoughts and opinions, which don’t always work for everyone. Here are the topics I plan on discussing over the next several weeks.

1. Know Your Market
2. Know Your Competition
3. Know Your Stuff
4. Build a Brand
5. Develop Correct Pricing
6. Target Your Market
7. Smart Advertising
8. Create a Unique Experience
9. Keep Improving
10. Develop Balance

So this week, we are doing to discuss…

Know Your Competition

Competition…this is something I really don’t like. I have NEVER been a competitive person at all. I am not a sports person and could care less about winning or beating someone. I am, honestly, happy with just being in my own little world and not paying attention to my competition.

But in my type of business, there is LOTS of competition. Anyone can walk into Best Buy, buy a DSLR and start a photography business! It’s SO easy! It seems like photographers are everywhere…which isn’t true. It just seems like it to us other photographers. But when you start any freelance business, it is very important to see what your competition is doing.

Whenever I develop a logo for a business, one of the questions I always ask them is, who is your competition and how can you stand out or differentiate yourself from them? What makes you different from them? Start by finding out who your competition is in your city, state and in the country that has the SAME market (we talked about that last week) as you do. If you are a portrait photographer, then you probably wouldn’t consider a wedding photographer as your direct competition. You want to look at other businesses that are competition for your business and see what they are doing for several reasons.

Their Branding
Look at the way they brand themselves and display their identity on their website, blog, etc. How can you do something that is even more professional and unique? How can you make yourself stand out from the rest of them and target your specific market at the same time? Clients don’t pick photographers just based on their photos, but also their brand and how they present themselves. What can you do to make yourself different from the rest? How can you make your website better?

Their Marketing
How is your competition marketing? Website, blog, Facebook, etc.? Is it working? What could you do that is different? How can you market to clients that they may not even be reaching?

Their Pricing
What is their pricing? For this, you will want to look at your more local competition and see what their prices are. Are they booking jobs at that price? Should you price yourself the same? We’ll talk more about setting up pricing later, but for now, you’ll want to collect all the information you can to make sure you are priced fairly.

Once you have gathered all this information, think about what you like and don’t like. Who is successful and what are they doing to become successful? What can you do differently?

You NEVER want to copy your competition! Hello! That is not unique at all! (This makes me think of Windows always trying to copy Apple’s advertising. Lame!) My advice is be the best yourself that you can be. Make your business the best it can be and make it your own. You want to make sure you know what is going on around you, but you want to be yourself and create a unique experience for your client.

I thought I might leave you with a non-photography example of companies competing. One that came to my mind was insurance companies. They are always competing with each other. Check out these two competing commercials below.

Two companies with the EXACT same market, but totally different approaches. Allstate’s gives a feeling of it being safe, secure and that they will be with you forever. Geico on the other hand tells you that it is so easy, even a caveman could do it. Two totally different approaches to the same market. Which did you like? And why?

Put This To Use: Now that you know what your business is and who your market is, research your competition. What are they doing and is it working? What could you do that is different? How can you make yourself stand out?

I hope this post was helpful and gave you some things to think about! If you liked this, please share this link on your blog or Facebook!

I’ve had several people ask me for tips and advice on how to start a photography business. I feel totally unworthy on being asked this because I just officially began my photography business a little over a year ago, but I have been a full-time self-employed artist for almost three years! So, I thought I would share some tips on starting an artistic and mainly a photography business. I want to share some tips from my design schooling where I learned LOTS about freelancing and how to market and promote yourself as a professional artist and most importantly, be successful and LOVE it!

I don’t know how many topics I will have on this subject, but I figured I would just go for it since a lot of these things have been on my mind to share with other beginners (and pros!). Disclaimer: I am NOT an expert on everything and every person is different. These are just my thoughts and opinions, which don’t always work for everyone. Here are a couple topics I scribbled down that I am thinking about covering over the next couple weeks. These may change….we’ll see!

1. Know Your Market
2. Know Your Competition
3. Know Your Stuff
4. Build a Brand
5. Develop Correct Pricing
6. Target Your Market
7. Smart Advertising
8. Create a Unique Experience
9. Keep Improving
10. Develop Balance

So this week, let’s discuss…

Know Your Market

So, you have decided to start your own business, or maybe you already have one! The most important thing when you start is to know your target market. Who are the clients you want to have and want to work with? Who are you marketing your services to? I would recommend you write down a list that describes who you are marketing to. If I was to describe the clients I want to have, I would put down:

fun, fabulous, great style, brides, love photography, classy, Texan, destination brides, love great design, mid to high-end budget, easy going, in love, willing to spend $3,000+ on wedding photography, willing to spend $800+ on invitations and wedding collateral, very computer savvy, loves my work, very friendly, will tell others about Spink

Basically, that is what my ideal client would be. Not all of my clients meet all these descriptions, but I would like most of them to. Now, this may be different depending on where you live and the type of client you are wanting to get. You may want a more artistic or organic type bride or you may be marketing to a higher or lower budget client.

The important thing is that you are reaching the right people in your market. If you live in a really small town (kind of like me), you may have a hard time finding brides that will pay $10,000 for wedding photography. You want to make sure that who you are trying to reach is within your reach and if not, how can you reach that market? We’ll talk more later about how to reach your target market.

Remember, your clients are your biggest advertisers! If they are not really in the market you are wanting, then you don’t want to have them as clients. You want clients that are in your target market because they will network and advertise to their friends, who would most likely be in your target market as well. Make sense? I am not saying that you should be turning away a bunch of work, but we will talk more on how you can achieve reaching that market and be getting your ultimate client every time!

Put This To Use: This week, make a list of who would be your ultimate client! Put it on a sticky note and put it on or near your computer and start thinking about how you can find brides/clients in that market. What is the best way to reach them? When you get inquiries for work, find out more about them and see if they are someone that you would REALLY enjoy working with and if they will promote you. Have thoughts or questions? Post a comment below!

I hope this first post was helpful and gave you some things to think about! If you liked this, please share this link on your blog or Facebook! Next week, we will talk about knowing your competition!

I’ve had a lot of people ask me where I get my inspiration from. Well, from God of course! But, I am also inspired by lots of different things around and it helps me come up with new and interesting ideas that I can use for my photography, design, home and other areas of my life.

I thought it would be fun to have a frequent inspiration blog post to share what I have been liking lately and how we can use it in our businesses. I am assuming that most of you all watched the Superbowl and of course, my favorite part is the commercials. Most of them didn’t interest me. But this one below really caught my eye!

You really don’t know what the heck is going on until the end and I loved that! You may not know that I actually have my degree in graphic design and when I started college, my goal was to land a position at a large ad agency. But after working for a short time in the corporate world, I realized that it was not for me at all. I liked having client interaction and being my own boss. But I still love to see what different ad agencies are doing to push the envelope and catch your attention. Ad agency, David&Goliath in California created this commercial above as well as this one below which is one of my all time favorites:

I still laugh every time I see this one. I LOVE how the ad agency took something totally unexpected like kid’s toys or hamsters and put them in a normal everyday setting and made them look like they belonged. So creative and so eye catching!

USE THIS INSPIRATION: I love how the first commercial’s tagline was “A Departure From the Expected.” How can we use this as inspiration in our business? I am going to challenge myself to do something unexpected and take something out of the ordinary, like an object or prop and put it somewhere ordinary. Or, I may take a unique subject and put them in an everyday place that you wouldn’t expect to take a photo in. What do you think? Share some ideas you have!

I have had this blog for almost a year now, and I LOVE it! I got this template from ProPhoto Blogs and it has been great to use! I love the posting abilities and the commenting and contact info along with all the pages and categories I can have. It’s almost like having a second website and my blog usually gets more hits per day than my website.

If you are interested in purchasing the template, use this code to get a discount on yours!

KAYBARK977

Check it out:

BLOG SUBSCRIBERS—> CLICK HERE TO EXIT READER AND WATCH THE VIDEO

It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year since we filmed this video! I am finally launching it now with my new website. A big thank you to my clients, Hannah and Jeremiah who were married last May! We had so much fun on their engagement shoot last year which is featured in this video.

This video was done for me by the talented Nathan Dillow and my logo animation at the end was done by Lane Oliver. They are AWESOME and did a great job! I hope ya’ll enjoy getting to see me in action!

And don’t forget, we are having our biggest promotion ever! We still have dates available for 2010 and we are already booking weddings into 2011! For any brides, if you book Spink Studio for your wedding before January 31, you will receive $500 off ANY of our wedding packages! Contact us with your wedding details so we can create the perfect package for you!

This Sunday I was at the Permian Basin Bridal Fair. Clint and I like to go ALL OUT with everything, including my Spink Studio booth! We had been planning ideas for the last couple months and I think it turned out fabulous! Totally “Spink!”

Clint aka Fuzz Productions and his brother, Tom did an awesome set-up with truss and lighting! We were also able to reuse the coffee tables we made for Clint’s graduation party. They had my booth rocking!

I also premiered my new pricing booklet and new sample albums which you can see in the photos along with displays of my favorite photos from this past year. It came out great and we had so much fun getting to meet a bunch of brides and talk to them. I am so excited about 2010 and 2011 weddings! Yay! Here are some photos of the booth before the show! If you were there, leave a comment below and say HI!

And don’t forget, we are having our biggest promotion ever! We still have dates available for 2010 and we are already booking weddings into 2011! For any brides, if you book Spink Studio for your wedding before January 31, you will receive $500 off ANY of our wedding packages! Contact us with your wedding details so we can create the perfect package for you!