Are all your eggs in one basket?

To "put all your eggs in one basket" is to risk losing everything all at one time. For me this applies to two aspects of my business.

First, if you have a niche’ market it is good to develop a second niche’. Kodak saw the writing on the wall years ago and diversified beyond making film products only. If they hadn’t they would no longer be around. For me I have my interests directing my photography. I love sports and this is really where I first started in photography. In college shooting all the college sports was exciting. I didn’t out grow this interest, but added other areas.

My faith has always been what drives much of my passion. I have worked for Christian denomination’s mission organization covering missions around the world and continue to do so today. I really enjoy things that challenge my heart the way my faith does for me.

I also love technology. This challenges my mind. I love to figure how things work and how to fix things. This has driven my interest in research and technology photography through the years. All three of these loves exist in higher education. This is why I have helped many schools, colleges and universities through the years with their recruiting and public relations photography.

There are times when each of these has peaks and valleys through the year. By diversifying a little and yet still being niche driven and not all over in my work I have been able to keep my eggs in separate baskets with my work.

The second area where I have divided up my eggs is in marketing of my services. One of my best marketing is done through networking. This is getting me involved in my communities. By joining a photography association I learn from others and plug into friends who occasionally get over booked and refer to others they know in the industry. I have joined the Atlanta Press Club because many of those who are members go to the social events and meetings that I would not meet anywhere else. I have been able to meet people who not only might hire me, but become good friends.

I have gone to the library and found every list of people in the markets I am interested in working with to build a database. This database of 3,500+ names is categorized. I have categories for family, clients, prospects, and broken into almost every imaginable group I can think of. I have phone numbers, mailing addresses and emails. Each of these is a different way to contact the people. I call them, I send postcards and I send out an e.newsletter as well as individual emails.

When someone writes me back to unsubscribe to my e.newsletter I don’t delete their name—I add them to my no newsletter category. They still get postcards and occasional phone calls.

Lately I signed up for a new cell plan that lets me make unlimited phone calls as long as I am using the Wi-Fi feature of the phone. This lets me make lots of phone calls. I am learning how to have meaningful short conversations with many people. They are meaningful because I really do care about each person. If you don’t feel genuinely interested in people you have to be one incredible actor (which I am not) to pull this off. This is why I work hard to find as many new people I can to add to my list. If you are not genuinely interested in a person, it is important to have someone else to talk to if they don’t exist.

One of the gifts I have which I have learned to use more each day is my memory. For some reason once I learn something (really learn it) I usually don’t forget. This has helped me in ways I am now only beginning to realize. When I meet someone I haven’t talked to in a long time I can remember so much about them I can almost remember our last conversation. So, I tend to ask how they are doing and how something we talked about last time is going. I know others who call a lot for business need to write down something about a person when they talk to them to remind them to do this later when they call them again. I started to do this to help me and just by writing it down once I remembered it, so when I met them again in a grocery store and not planning on contacting them, I remember to ask about how they are doing with what we talked about last. This isn’t asking like I am doing therapy and they have a problem. It usually is asking about something exciting that has been going on in their life.

When you think you have done all you know how to do in a particular niche’ in your field try to apply those principles to a new niche’. When you are trying to find a new client or knowing how to keep your present ones, remember dating. Be persistent and try many different approaches.

What’s the biggest room in the world? Room for improvement.

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Share Your Calendar with Your Clients to Get More Bookings

I recently got a BlackBerry Curve after some friends convinced me it would help me in my business. They were right; it's made a huge difference -- particularly in conjunction with Google Calendar. Here's how I've used these tools to communicate better with clients -- and to win more bookings.

The learning curve on most new technology takes just a little time for me, and I guess this is why they call my model the BlackBerry Curve. But it's been worth the investment.

With the Wi-Fi feature, I now have much easier Internet access on assignments. Before, I was relying on my laptop and cell phone to connect. It has worked pretty well for the past seven years, but the time it takes to turn on a laptop and hook up to the Internet to check messages can be easily 10 minutes. Now, I can glance at the e-mails as they come in as I work, and when I take a break can easily respond to my messages.

It synchronizes with my Outlook, so my calendar and contacts are with me all the time. My Outlook calendar, in turn, synchronizes with another tool that has become indispensible to me -- Google Calendar.

Out with the Old, In with Google Calendar

"Honey can you send me an updated calendar?" was one of my wife's frequent refrains. Sending her my calendar not only helped me with our family plans, but also helped her to answer client questions when I was out. To accommodate her, I would go into Outlook, print my calendar to a PDF, and then e-mail her a copy. This system worked well enough -- until the business became so successful that I needed to update the calendar more than once a day for her.

I realized I needed a better solution. And since the solution for just about every problem I encounter is to Google it, that's what I did. I Googled and found Google Calendar.

Google Calendar synchs with Outlook every five minutes, once a day, or as often as you need it to. With the calendar, you can set up what I like to call visibility layers. You can let the world see every detail of your calendar, parts of the calendar, or nothing at all. You can invite people to have the ability to edit your calendar as well.

I chose to add my wife and let her have the ability to make changes. Sometimes I am on the road for a few days, and she needs to let my clients know what I have open and reserve a date. I also gave my uncle rights to see the details, since he has been assisting me on many of my photo shoots.

Sharing Your Schedule to Increase Bookings

As for the rest of the world (especially my clients), I decided to let them know when I was free and when I was busy. So I added my Google Calendar to my Web site. Google gives you the html code, so it's easy. You can customize whether the day, week, month or agenda is the default page, as well as the colors and look of the calendar.

Adding this tool to my Web site has not only improved my business's efficiency; it has also helped me increase bookings.

For most of my career, I've banged my head against the wall trying to convince clients to plan ahead -- so, for example, we can take advantage of the time of year (like spring or fall) to show off the landscaping of their business. Until I had Google Calendar, I really believe most everyone thought I was blowing a lot of smoke and just trying to book myself.

In the past, clients would contact me and I would give them the dates I had open, and they typically would take their time and come back to me later -- only to find some or all of their times had been given away to someone else who was ready to commit.

Since adding Google Calendar to my site several weeks ago, I have had people commit to dates and times right away. They have already checked my availability, and when they contact me are ready to book. (You can see my calendar on the left navigation at StanleyLeary.com.)

By the way, I no longer have to send a copy of my calendar to my wife; she is better informed than ever before. Maybe this can help you as well.