Bellissima Design

Business Workshop D.C area

2007-05-07T15:20:00.000-07:00

Business Workshop

What: Plan your business success.

You will be developing a business strategy and model for your business. A fluid plan that will help you structure your pricing, goals and policies.

Where:
http://pleasantvalleyumc.net/

When: Thursday, May 10th
9-5

What to bring:
Yourself. All materials and lunch will be provided.
You may want to bring your laptop, but it is not necessary.

How much:
$150 collected the day of the workshop
(10% discount for pre-paid fees) payable through Paypal at busybee1@gmail.com

Neal did a great job on his blog! Thanks, neal!
http://www.nealjacob.com/blog/?page_id=106

While I usually collect the fee the day of, please ‘register’ by dropping me an email to let me know you’re coming – I need to prepare enough materials for everyone! Thanks! ( email: busybee1@gmail.com )

Hope to see you Thursday!

Please pass this email on to anyone you think may benefit!

OSP West

2007-02-13T08:05:00.000-08:00

Lumapix has very generously forwarded a discount code to me because OSP West! I'm not sure how long it will last, but if you are interested in activating this awesome software for 15% off, shoot me an email and i'll hook you up!

~ciao!
robin

p.s. I've been using v4, and while it's still being tweaked, it is AWESOME!

LUMAPIX! Fotofusion

2007-01-12T15:21:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!

I'm so excied to share this with you! I use Lumapix Fotofusion to design my albums, and i just LOVE it! This is a PC based software for album design, but it will run on macs that can handle the windows operating system. (I don't really know what that means)

I spoke with the company, and they allowed me to become an affliate. SO, if you would like to try the software for FREE, just click this link to get the download.

Just **CLICK HERE** or on the logo at the right to download your free trial version!

Then, check out the details HERE.

The new version 4 is coming soon and looks even more powerful! I've played with the BETA a little and it's great. Super easy and fast, with more options, including being able to save files as .psds! I'll hook you up with links to the tutorials, and *hopefully* get to making my own for you. In the mean time... Take it for a spin!

Yikes! I've got to get all my Portals hooked up.

Ciao for now
~robin

The Portal is coming!

2006-11-08T07:55:00.000-08:00

Pricing.
I get a LOT of emails with questions about this, Hmmmm…

Wow. This is one you could really struggle with. You know I want to say ‘make a plan’, but you need to do more than that for pricing. I think people go about pricing a little backward. Let me explain what I mean, and then I want you to think about a few things before we actually go about pricing YOU.

I think what most people do, when starting in a new business venture, is look around and see what others charge. Good start, but JUST a start. I struggled with this, too. I looked around at different studios, and thought, ‘we’re as good at them, so we could charge that much.’ ‘we offer more than them, so we could charge a little more.’ Let me just say, that this worked for a while, but there is a HUGE problem with this.

I’m pretty sure that you are probably doing something similar… you see Studio A and you feel you are ‘better’ (offer more, have more experience) and so you feel you should charge more…. You see Studio B, and they are bigger, more experienced, and ‘better’, and so you feel you need to charge less. Well, I’m going to suggest that this may work, but it is too random. Pricing is not random, it’s math. There is no one magic formula, and prices can vary, and you can still be profitable, but you need to do some thinking.

While we priced ourselves with our competition in mind, at first, at the end of the year, when we balanced our ‘books’ there was very little left over in the form of profit. Bummer. (does this sound familiar?) Oh, and we had a rather high booking rate. (We must be really good, if people all want to book us!) This is great, at first. You need to build your confidence. But, once you know you’re good enough to get hired, you need pay the bills. And when there is low profit after lots of work, something needs to change.

Then we did something different…. And this is where you need to go off and think a little bit…

How much time do you spend on the ‘average’ wedding? Six hours? Eight hours? 12 hours? After all, a lot of you are pricing your coverage by the hour. May I suggest that you probably spend more like 40 hours? You need to now get out a piece of paper, or a napkin, and a pencil, or pen, or crayon, and write some things down….

How long is your first meeting with a ‘potential client’? an hour? (1)
How long do you consult with a new client – calling them, invoicing them, etc? (2)
Do you include an esession? How much time do you spend shooting it? (3)
How long do you spend editing it? (4)
Do you attend the rehearsal? (2)
How many hours do you spend shooting the wedding? (10)
How many hours proofing the wedding? (8)
How many hours to deliver the proofs? (2)
Do you include a pre-design? How long did it take to create? (10)
Did you invoice the client? Speak to them on the phone? Make any extra slide shows? Put their images on line? (5)

This is really short list and this is just your time…
(as an aside, this is why our 'coverage' is unlimited. The shooting takes a relatively small part of the whole pie.) There will be a lot more on this coming when I discuss adding value with out increasing your cost - totally different post!

If you just do the few things I listed, and it takes you the number of hours I estimated, that is 47 hours. For one wedding. If you are charging $1000, you will be earning $21/hour. Hmmmmm…. You might think, that’s pretty good! Unless you need to pay for ANYTHING. If you offer any tangibles, AT ALL, that number is about to get pretty small…
Do you include an album? What does that cost you? $200? ( this is a very conservative estimate)
Do you pay taxes? (you had better be, if you are a legitimate biz) 15% - right off the top.
Do you include printed proofs? $100

With those few things, you are now at $11.70/hour. Do you ‘give’ away anything else?

Did you buy any equipment, like a camera? Gas for your car? Insurance? Website? Advertising? (ok – now you’re loosing money)

In order to move on to the next step of actually pricing your worth – you need to go off and think about all the things that you are either spending time doing, or paying someone to do for you. AND WRITE IT DOWN!! ALL of it! Be honest about how long things take you, not how long they WISH they took. (That will be another post, too!)

I wanted you to get your feet wet here, so that you could see some actual numbers, and how quickly those profits get eaten up. It’s a SHOCK the first time you consider it all. Don’t be discouraged. Knowing how much it costs to be in biz isVERY powerful, and now you’re on the right track.

So, go do your homework… and the next time I will give you some more things to add to your formula. This is just one piece of the puzzle. You also need to consider a few other things, including what someone is willing to pay.

By the time you are finished with this homework, I hope to have the next PORTAL open. I’m thinking that this might take you a few weeks, but, I will get the BUSINESS PORTAL open as soon as I can, and will continue adding to it as we develop YOUR pricing structure.

BY THE WAY!!! We are having a Business Workshop immediately following the ONE LIGHT WORKSHOP!!! That’s right! We are hosting the one and only, Zack Arias – it will be in Pittsburgh on March 6th and 7th. Separate from that will be our Biz Workshop – more details to come on all that!!!

Oh! and challenge me! Questions? Comments?

Thank you for your patience while I get things up to speed here. I'm learning as I go!

Warmest Wishes,
~robin~

FINALLY Functional!

2006-09-21T07:18:00.000-07:00

Welcome! and thanks so much for stopping by!

I'd love to get you a cup of coffee, or tea...

With help from a few really key friends, I think the .info is finally functional!
Big thanks to:
DAN WATKINS for helping me get my .info domain figured out!
and
JILLIAN KAY for helping figure out how to be able to create downloads for you!

So! What's different about this .info? Well, first off, it's from ME! and while I shoot under my studio name, Bellissima, I am Robin Pesa. Second, people who know me as "Bellissima", know that our clients come first. We will do whatever we can to make sure their experience with us is exceptional. I would like the .info to be no different, and YOU are my clients.

I am working on 'portals' that will go to various areas of the .info. So, if you are looking for 'presets' you will got to one area, or if you are looking for 'biz tricks', there will be another area. My favorite idea is the Action Shack - and once I work out the details, I think you'll like it, too!

I'm hoping to make this a really interactive resource. So please stop back often!.... especially since the DOWNLOADS are coming! (thanks, again, Jillian!)

Keep an eye out on the RIGHT for links to my favorite things. The list will grow like crazy!

Next time you stop by, have your coffee or tea (or maybe a glass of wine with you) and get ready to learn with me! I hope I can become a valuable resource to you, and I'm sure I'll learn a lot from you, too!

Time to share!

2006-09-18T13:19:00.000-07:00

with so many requests of 'how' i do what i do, a .info is in order!

while this site will be geared toward the professional photographer, casual photographers are welcome!