The Things They DON'T Teach You in College!!

Hey, I have a college degree in marketing, and spent 25 years as an account executive in the computer business. Running my own small business should be a SNAP! Shouldn't it?

Yeah, right.

When I started my studio, I naively thought so. In fact I had a three year plan:

Year 1 - the Learning year.

Year 2 - the Growth year.

Year 3 - the Success year.

But no one told me there would be about 7 other years scattered in between these three key years.

Funny thing. I was well prepared to go to work for Proctor and Gamble, managing a soap product launch. Or talk to executives about multi-million dollar computer systems.  But I really didn't have a clue when it came to small business marketing (or the other many disciplines needed when you are the one wearing most of the hats.)

I stumbled along for a number of years before I really got serious about learning small business marketing.  Made every mistake in the book, and learned from all of them, but didn't have the business success I wanted, or at least on the schedule I wanted.

So I finally got serious. Set a goal of learning everything I could about effective small business and photography studio marketing. I read (and still read) everything I can get my hands on.

I started trying to learn about how to create effective direct mail, and it just mushroomed from there.  Then I started speaking to groups of photographers on the subject, which led to writing marketing articles for the industry (shared on a subscription basis). Then it led to teaching marketing classes for the local Small Business Development Center, and now to MyPhotoMentor.com.

While I got into the portrait industry because of my "perty pitchure" passion, I've come to find that I have an even greater passion - learning everything I can about marketing, and, and sharing what I've learned with others in my industry.

I've discovered that every day of my life is one big marketing lesson. I study my own buying habits, and share those observations. I watch other businesses who are successful and study what they do and how their techniques and ideas might apply to what I do.  And I'll pass these lessons along in articles and on the forums here.

There's a common perception amongst photographers - create wonderful images, and the world will beat a path to your studio. That's why so many studios struggle and eventually die.

It's much better to be a reasonably good photographer with great marketing than to be an outstanding photographer with awful marketing.

So my goal, my passion, is to help aspiring photographers be successful, and in doing so make myself that much more successful as well. Because the very best way to learn something is to teach it.  And I'm looking forward to working with you!