This post is not the one I planned to write next.  It was on the list of post ideas, but not slated to be the next one up.  However, three recent conversations with other photographers made realize now was the time!

Over the past two months I’ve had conversations with other photographers about what’s working, what’s not and just general frustrations that go along with running your own business.  What really surprised and stuck with me is in three separate conversations I heard -

“I have ideas, lots and lots of ideas.  I just don’t know how to wrap my head around them and figure out what to do with them!”

I so get it.  There are times that my brain is spinning with so many ideas I can’t seem to think straight.  What I’ve learned to do is to grab a piece of paper and write them down – just get them out of my head!  I write down every single idea – now matter how silly or grandiose it may seem at the time.  Sometimes it’s just a quick sketch and I always write my ideas in pencil.  Why pencil I don’t know, it a feel thing for me – it feels better to leave it loose and in pencil.

This system worked but not as well as I hoped.  You see I would write on what ever random piece of paper I could find.  Next I learned I had to put them all into one binder so they didn’t get lost on my desk.  Then I was finding that I’d wake up in the middle of the night with this incredible idea but no paper was by the bed.  I convinced myself it was such an awesome idea that there was no way I’d forget it in the morning – yeah not so much.  Finally now I have a small red sketch book that I carry everywhere with me – even if it’s from the bedroom to the kitchen.  I’ve also learned that if the book is in the room but not next to the bed at night… you guessed it, I won’t get out of bed to get it…

So now what do I do with all these ideas?  Periodically, I take my idea book and start writing each idea individually on 5×7 index cards.  Once I get them all written out I categorize them.  Does this idea belong under sales or management?  My main categories are management, marketing, sales, products/programs and what is the experience.  What is the experience can be – what do I want my packaging to look like and how do I want my clients to feel as they are opening the packaging or how do I want my business cards feel in my clients hands.  You get the idea.

The reason I love the index cards so much is, now I can shuffle them – move them around in order of importance or see that one has to happen before another.  I can see that x marketing idea is perfect for my new y product, etc… Because I have an overall vision of where I’m taking my business I can now also see what isn’t going to bring me forward to the next step.  Alternatively, I can see ideas that are ahead of me.  I’m not ready for them yet – be it financially, technically, whatever the case may be.  They now become goals and I can set mile markers for me to reach them.  I never ever trash an idea completely, if I don’t think I can use it now I put it back in the pile.  I may later see it in a different light or maybe it’ll spark something completely new.

In closing I have to restate – you need to know what your overall vision of your business is.  Without out knowing my vision I can still organize my ideas but I won’t really know which one is going to bring me closer to where I want to be.  Ideas without focus are ideas that don’t have a clear action plan!

A few weeks ago I was out to dinner with a fabulous group of people.  I happened to sit down next to a dynamic fun woman, who with her husband, recently bought an established thriving business.  Over the evening, you could tell that she and her husband are passionate about what they do and having fun.  We were talking about their branding and marketing and where they wanted to bring the company. Part way through the discussion, she turned to me and said “The branding that’s in place is working – it’s bringing clients in.  The only thing is, it’s not us.”

With this statement, a million different questions popped in to my head; who is their best client, who do they want to serve etc… Basic marketing questions. With each question she didn’t have a clear answer but she could tell me what she wasn’t – what she didn’t like about the current branding. As dinner conversations go, we moved on to a different topic and didn’t get to delve in as deep as I would have liked.

If you read my previous post – Your Story is Your Brand – you would know that I work off the basis that every company has a story, a vision to help lead them. In a recent blog post Bernadette Doyle stated it beautifully.

Vision is a powerful thing.

It’s one of the most important tools you have to move you from where your business currently is, to where you want it to be. If you have a picture in your mind of what you want your business to look like, you’ll find that it’s much easier to bring this vision into being.

If you don’t know where you want to go, how will you know what to do? You don’t jump into your car and start driving, with no destination in mind. Before you start the engine, you have in your mind where you want to go so you know whether to turn left or right at the bottom of the driveway. The same principle applies to your business.

I believe, whenever someone goes into business, they have a vision whether they are conscious of it or not.  It’s actually very common for people to not know how to put their vision into words, but I can bet you they know exactly what they’re not.  I would love to sit down with the above couple and have them list everything they know they’re not.  Doing this doing this exercise will help them narrow down and focus on who they and their company are, giving them a more direct route to where they want to go.  Sometimes listing what your not brings a clearer more focused vision of what you are.

Recently, I started working out with Paulie, a top-notch trainer.  At the end of the first session, I went over with him what I wanted and what I was expecting to get out of the next 15 weeks. I left feeling really positive about everything.  As I was driving away it struck me.  I had just had a one-way conversation.  Not once did I ask Paulie what he expected of me.  Right there, I had a major epiphany!!

Back in my days of coaching rowing, how much more effective of a coach would I have been if I told my athletes, up front, exactly what I expected of them!  I knew my adult athletes wanted to learn and some of them would eventually want to try racing.  What I didn’t articulate was what my desire for them was.  I moved ahead with my coaching techniques and plans.  Never having had this important conversation about what our expectations of each other were.  How much easier would my coaching job have been if I had only had this conversation at the very first training session??

This led me to thinking about how I interact with my clients.  I realized, when working with clients, I too was like Paulie. I have never clearly, in detail, stated what my expectations were.  Based on my presentation and previous work I assumed they were understood.  With each new job, I have in my head how I want a project to go – scheduling, process and outcome. My clients often have their own expectations and it’s my job to draw it out from them.  We often have a basic discussion and both sides walk away assuming our expectations are the same.  This is where problems can arise.  When expectations don’t match, frustrations and tension in the working relationship start to crop up.  It was a duh moment for me – if I sit down and have a detailed discussion with my clients, about both of our expectations – from the very beginning, not only will we have a great working relationship but better work will also be created!

Moving forward, I plan on having this detailed discussion with each new project, regardless of whether I working with a new client or not.  Are you clearly stating your expectations?