I need to whine today. Call it a vent. Call it selfish me, whatever. This is my blog, so I’m entitled. ๐ I have had a few pissy days lately and it’s started to wear on me.
First, Saturday was a total bust photography-wise and NONE of the people that were booked that day can reschedule, leaving me out $$$$ that was all earmarked for paying stuff off! Then, on Monday, I found out that this awesome opportunity I was given for NEXT WEEK, that I have been trying to get the contract for for 3 weeks has gone to someone else without any notification to me. In the last 3 weeks I have called and emailed with absolutely no response. I got verbal and email confirmation that the contract was mine and all the sudden it’s not! Once again, that was money and marketing and referrals that I was banking on — in my business plan no less. There was NO, absolutely NO, reason for me to think I wasn’t going to do it. The person running the show made it clear it was mine and she was going to send the contract. Ugh! I cannot believe this! I had already scheduled to be out of work for 5 days to accomodate this.
To whine some more … I hear about all these photographers who are booked solid in October, well, I’m not! Not only am I NOT booked, but I have NOTHING in November or December. After 1.5 years of business, you’d think the word of mouth would have spread, but maybe there is something else? I get calls from people, talk with them, they want to book, but need to “talk with their husbands about a time” and never call back. I call them back and conveniently it doesn’t work out. Or, I get calls, call back, confirm, send email, send another email and then when I call again, they say they never got the email and made other arrangements. What am I doing wrong? Why are people so flippant when they confirm?
I know, it’s all silly and I shouldn’t take it personally, but it’s MY business. It’s 100% and completely personal and it’s important to me. My quality of life is poor at best these days because I work loooooooooooong hours (when you add up my “real” job and my “loved” job). I’m wearing out and I cannot stand corporate America anymore. But of course, I can’t up and quit. The girls would have to stay naked (not like that’s a problem), Joseph wouldn’t get Healys, Ron couldn’t fly, I couldn’t shoot if that happened. Life as we know it would essentially cease to exist.
A good photography business is 90% sales and marketing. I LOVE that stuff, but guess what? I can’t spend 10 hours a week doing that if my only 10 hours are available for shooting, fullfilling and preparing the few shoots that I have. Can’t grow that way.
Oh I know, woe is me. But sometimes, writing things out helps my perspective, so today, it’s all about me. Me, Me, Me, Me, Me. And Me is tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiired. As Abby put it while sitting in her chair at breakfast yesterday … “Shhhh mommy. I sleeping. I tired.” ๐ Makes me smile just to think about it.
Ok… whine over. Time to get back into gear.