Best Business Practices for Photographers, Third Edition

by John Harrington

Overview

For the first time, John Harrington brings together both Best Business Practices for Photographers and More Best Business Practices for Photographers, creating a complete and comprehensive guide for photographers starting, maintaining, and growing their business in order to achieve financial success and personal satisfaction.

The photography industry is advancing and changing more—and more quickly—than ever. Right along with changes in camera technology, photographers are witnessing shifts in the business landscape that can be a challenge to understand and navigate, whether they’re just beginning their business or growing it after 25 years of shooting.

Best Business Practices for Photographers, 3rd Edition, is an updated and expanded version of John Harrington’s bestselling books on the topic. For the first time, Harrington brings together both Best Business Practices for Photographers and More Best Business Practices for Photographers, creating a complete and comprehensive guide for photographers starting, maintaining, and growing their business in order to achieve financial success and personal satisfaction.

In great detail and with a friendly, conversational voice, Harrington covers all the key points of the business of professional photography, and he provides today’s best practices that you need to know. This book covers:

• How to establish your business (Sole Proprietor vs. LLC/LLP vs. S Corp)

• Whether or not you need a physical, brick-and-mortar location

• The equipment you need

• Planning a shoot

• The value of internships

• Setting your fees

• Pricing your work

• Why you need insurance

• Surviving an IRS audit

• Contracts for editorial, commercial, and corporate clients, as well as weddings and rites of passage

• The art of negotiation

• How video can be incorporated into your business

• Marketing, branding, and social media

• Publishing a book of your work

• Practical finance advice and guidance, from working with accountants to setting up QuickBooks

• How to protect your work

• Releases for models, property, and more

• How to handle a breach of contract

• Licensing your work

• Digital asset management

Whether you’re just starting a photography business or you’re a veteran shooter looking to improve your finances, Best Business Practices for Photographers, 3rd Edition, is for you. Harrington’s Best Business Practices books have long been recognized throughout the industry as the go-to resource for photographers, and this new, complete 3rd Edition is your key to a successful career in photography.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681982663
Publisher:	Rocky Nook
Publication date:	11/08/2017
Edition description:	3rd ed.
Pages:	832
Product dimensions:	7.60(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

John Harrington has worked for more than 25 years as an active photographer in Washington, DC, and around the world, working with both editorial and commercial clients. His successful photography business has seen income rise tenfold since he launched it. He has spoken at courses and meetings of The NPPA's Northern Short Course, The White House News Photographers Association, Smithsonian Institution, Corcoran School of Art and Design, and the American Society of Media Photographers. He is the author of the bestselling first and second editions of Best Business Practices for Photographers, as well as More Best Business Practices for Photographers.

Editorially, his credits have included the Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, US News and World Report, The National Geographic Society, USA Today, People, MTV, and Life. For corporate and public relations clients, John has successfully placed images with the wire services (Associated Press, Reuters, Gannett, Agence France Presse, and UPI) over 300 times. Commercially, John has worked with well over half of the top fortune 50 companies, and even more of the top 500. Ad campaigns for Seimens, Coca Cola, General Motors, Bank of America, and Freddie Mac, to name a few, have been seen worldwide.

Table of Contents

You Are a Business—Now Let’s Get to Work

Professional Equipment for Professional Photographers

Planning and Logistics: Why a Thirty-Minute Shoot Can Take Three Days to Plan

After Staff: Transitioning to Freelance

Working with Reps, Assistants, Employees, and Contractors: The Pitfalls and Benefits

Setting Your Photographer’s Fees

Pricing Your Work to Stay in Business

Overhead: Why What You Charge a Client Must Be More Than You Paid for It

Who’s Paying Your Salary and 401(k)?

Insurance: Why It’s Not Just Health-Related, and How You Should Protect Yourself

Accounting: How We Do It Ourselves and What We Turn Over to an Accountant

Insights into an IRS Audit

Contracts for Editorial Clients

Contracts for Corporate and Commercial Clients

Contracts for Weddings and Rites of Passage

Negotiations: Signing Up or Saying No

Protecting Your Work: How and Why

The Realities of an Infringement: Copyrights and Federal Court

Releases: Model, Property, and Others

Handling a Breach of Contract: Small Claims and Civil Court

Resolving Slow- and Non-Paying Clients

Letters, Letters, Letters: Writing Like a Professional Can Solve Many Problems

Attorneys: When You Need Them, They’re Your Best Friend (or at Least Your Advocate)

Office and On-Location Systems: Redundancy and Security Beget Peace of Mind

Digital and Analog Asset Management: Leveraging Your Images to Their Maximum Potential

Licensing Your Work

Care and Feeding of Clients (Hint: It’s Not About Starbucks and a Fast-Food Burger)

Education, an Ongoing and Critical Practice: Don’t Rest on Your Laurels

Expanding into Other Areas of Creativity

Charity, Community, and Your Colleagues: Giving Back Is Good Karma

Sole Proprietor versus LLC/LLP versus S Corp

Brick-and-Mortar Locations

Pros and Cons of Insourcing and Outsourcing

The Value of Offering Internships

Principles, Standards, and Ethics

Cognitive and Subconscious Thinking and Photographers

Marketing: An Overview of Its Importance

Your Brand and Your Image

Do You Need to Have a Niche or a Style

The Wordsmithing of a Linguistically Accurate Language Lexicon

Social Media: Etiquette, Expectations, and the Law

Professionalism on the Job

The Client Experience

Establishing the Client’s Needs for Level of Production (and Associated Budget)

Price Is What You Pay, Value Is What You Get

Using the eCO for Online Registrations

Licensing Your Photography: Managing It Yourself

On Being Published

Publishing a Book

Fine Art, Art, and Selling Prints: Valuation

Working with Nonprofits, Foundations, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

Valuing Video (or Motion) Production as an Adjunct to Still Photography: Know Your Limits

Step-by-Step: QuickBooks and Downloading Credit Card Statements and Charges

Interviews

The photography industry is advancing and changing more—and more quickly—than ever. Right along with changes in camera technology, photographers are witnessing shifts in the business landscape that can be a challenge to understand and navigate, whether they’re just beginning their business or growing it after 25 years of shooting.

Best Business Practices for Photographers, 3rd Edition, is an updated and expanded version of John Harrington’s bestselling books on the topic. For the first time, Harrington brings together both Best Business Practices for Photographers and More Best Business Practices for Photographers, creating a complete and comprehensive guide for photographers starting, maintaining, and growing their business in order to achieve financial success and personal satisfaction.

In great detail and with a friendly, conversational voice, Harrington covers all the key points of the business of professional photography, and he provides today’s best practices that you need to know. This book covers:

• How to establish your business (Sole Proprietor vs. LLC/LLP vs. S Corp)

• Whether or not you need a physical, brick-and-mortar location

• The equipment you need

• Planning a shoot

• The value of internships

• Setting your fees

• Pricing your work

• Why you need insurance

• Surviving an IRS audit

• Contracts for editorial, commercial, and corporate clients, as well as weddings and rites of passage

• The art of negotiation

• How video can be incorporated into your business

• Marketing, branding, and social media

• Publishing a book of your work

• Practical finance advice and guidance, from working with accountants to setting up QuickBooks

• How to protect your work

• Releases for models, property, and more

• How to handle a breach of contract

• Licensing your work

• Digital asset management

Whether you’re just starting a photography business or you’re a veteran shooter looking to improve your finances, Best Business Practices for Photographers, 3rd Edition, is for you. Harrington’s Best Business Practices books have long been recognized throughout the industry as the go-to resource for photographers, and this new, complete 3rd Edition is your key to a successful career in photography.