Business of Photography Classes

[Harvey_Chua]

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I am preparing the outline for a 14-week course on the business of photography. What topics do you think I should include? Any suggestions from anyone who teaches business, or anyone who needs to learn the business of photography?

[Winston Baltasar]

For the Business Side, cash flow is always important, especially since Expenses may be due but Receivables may take longer to collect.. May I suggest to teach how to make a Cash Flow Statement?

[Harvey_Chua]

For the Business Side, cash flow is always important, especially since Expenses may be due but Receivables may take longer to collect.. May I suggest to teach how to make a Cash Flow Statement?

Thanks, Winston. That is one of the topics indicated in the outline, but from my experience of teaching this for the past three years, photography students don't know a thing about accounting, or even simple bookkeeping. So I gave a weekly (we meet once a week) assignment of keeping records of their "income" and "expenses." Then, we totaled them for a month, and analyzed the monthly records. After 3 months (the duration of the class), we're able to see monthly variances. Since they don't really earn yet from photography, what we did was to do this bookkeeping with their personal funds. We had fun.

[Jon agner]

I agree with Winston, the business side should really focus on how to cost your services, which would include labor and equipment. Also, I would suggest that a subject on the basics on legal procedures involving contracts for services be included as well.

[edisonalcabasa]

Thanks, Winston. That is one of the topics indicated in the outline, but from my experience of teaching this for the past three years, photography students don't know a thing about accounting, or even simple bookkeeping. So I gave a weekly (we meet once a week) assignment of keeping records of their "income" and "expenses." Then, we totaled them for a month, and analyzed the monthly records. After 3 months (the duration of the class), we're able to see monthly variances. Since they don't really earn yet from photography, what we did was to do this bookkeeping with their personal funds. We had fun.

Oh I would love to join that class! Is it as simple as column a for income then column b for expenses?

[Harvey_Chua]

I agree with Winston, the business side should really focus on how to cost your services, which would include labor and equipment. Also, I would suggest that a subject on the basics on legal procedures involving contracts for services be included as well.

Yes. Since contracts vary, I emphasize that proposed contracts are only starting points for negotiations. Try to make them win-win. If a prospective client/customer presents you with a contract and tells you to "take it or leave it," I suggest you leave it. You would not want to work with someone who is inflexible and who does not respect you.

Yes, we should all present our contract terms and conditions to be reviewed by a lawyer but make sure we keep them short and simple, so we don't scare away customers.

Pricing is included as one of the main topics, with actual exercises on submitting bids/quotations. It's important for us to know how to ask questions to draw out the information that we need to understand the job requirement - this is the first basis of correct pricing.

Thank you for your inputs.

[Harvey_Chua]

Oh I would love to join that class! Is it as simple as column a for income then column b for expenses?

I wish it were as simple as that, but we need to classify expense accounts, and do the same with income. With expenses sorted out into different kinds - transportation, representation, salaries, training, equipment, communication, utilities etc. - we can see where we may be over or under-spending.

Similarly, with income classified into different products or services, we can know where to focus our efforts.

We should also see which of our services give us the most profits. Sometimes, the bigger sales do not necessarily translate into bigger profits. If we are not aware of our cost of doing business, we could be selling more and more of a service where we lose more with each sale. In short, we could be very busy working but actually be losing money in the process.

[Winston Baltasar]

Edison, the Income Statement is basically Revenues less Expenses is Income. But for any business, the cash flow is more important if you want to have sufficient Working Capital.

For example, you shoot a wedding for a contract of 50,000p but you only get 25,000p with the rest a month after May 1. Your costs, e.g. suppliers' fees, salaries, consumables are 30,000 pesos but due 15 days from May 1.

In simplest terms, your income statement for the month of May would look good: Revenues = 50,000, Expenses = 30,000, Income = 20,000. But for cash flow, on May 15, you only have 25,000 in hand but have to pay 30,000p. With a good Cash Flow Statement, perhaps on an Excel Spreadsheet, you should know in advance that you are short 5,000p on May 15 and will have to borrow the money in advance. Otherwise, you will have your suppliers or your employees unhappy with you and they might not work with you again.

[jopbaylon]

Hi maam Harvey,

Just an input how about teaching the fundamentals of management as a requisite to managing a business. The course would include the ff:

Introduction to management: Learning to be a an effective manager vis a vis a photographer

Strategic planning/management: Setting up of goals, plans, actions while organizing, controlling and monitoring or VMOS

Marketing: the 4P's ( product, price, place, position) or add photography + passion x patience = profit

Organizational development: working with people or how does the business unit run such as a small studio

Financial Planning: basic accounting or simple ROI or the exposure triangle explained with balance assets (shutter speed), liabilities (aperture) and equity (ISO) = balanced sheet (proper exposure)


Lastly ma'am i would love if there's s lot of case studies presented such as pricing a clients project, dilemmas in contracts, failure management and the like.

[Harvey_Chua]

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Hi maam Harvey,

Just an input how about teaching the fundamentals of management as a requisite to managing a business. The course would include the ff:

Introduction to management: Learning to be a an effective manager vis a vis a photographer

Strategic planning/management: Setting up of goals, plans, actions while organizing, controlling and monitoring or VMOS

Marketing: the 4P's ( product, price, place, position) or add photography + passion x patience = profit

Organizational development: working with people or how does the business unit run such as a small studio

Financial Planning: basic accounting or simple ROI or the exposure triangle explained with balance assets (shutter speed), liabilities (aperture) and equity (ISO) = balanced sheet (proper exposure)


Lastly ma'am i would love if there's s lot of case studies presented such as pricing a clients project, dilemmas in contracts, failure management and the like.

Yes, indeed, I agree with all your suggestions. However, there is a time constraint. 14 weeks may not be enough to tackle all these. Marketing Strategies for Photographers is another subject that is offered at CSB - also for 14 weeks, but we find that 28 weeks are not enough. I have suggested another subject on the math of photo business - for pricing, financial planning, accounting.

I tried writing a couple of case studies for my students, based on my own experience with my company, Adphoto. I would truly appreciate it if other photographers, especially those not in our specialization (advertising), would share their stories/case histories with a presentation of problems that students can help try to solve.

Thanks a lot for sharing, Jop.