Photo Business Bootcamp Week 2

I just got the email for the second week of PhotoShelter's Photo Business Bootcamp. I haven't had time to finish week one's week one's  lessons as I've been working at my "day job" for about 10 hours a day this week.  But here's what's available for week 2. 

Week 2 - Growing Your Photography Business

1. The Typical Business Mistakes Made by Photographers - a 15 minutes Skype interview with John Harrington, author of the popular book Best Business Practices for Photographers
2. Photographer's Cost of Doing Business - a 5 minute audio interview with Greg Smith; this lesson includes a link to the NPPA's  Cost of Doing Business Calculator which Smith helped develop
3. 8 Ways To Get More Work From Existing Clients - a list of suggestions any photographer can use to market and promote their business, based on an interview with corporate/industrial photographer Martin Vargas
4. The 7 Ironic Truths About Successful Wedding Photographers -  a comprehensive and very interesting 10 page article by Missy Lamb, a very successful wedding and portrait photographer in North Carolina.    
5. 10 Ways a Photographer Can Improve Business By Trusting Their Clients -  an article on using the PhotoShelter's Trusted Client feature as a benefit to the client and photographer
6. Steal These Marketing Ideas - an article on using marketing ideas from other industries to promote your photography business
7. Negotiating with Clients Doesn’t Have to Be Scary - a one hour video presentation with Blake Discher about The Right Way to Negotiate with Clients. 

Next week's bootcamp theme is Your Website: Your Most Important Business Tool.

PhotoShelter and Your Photographpy Business

Yesterday I told you about a free magazine from PhotographyBB and that November's issue included a link to PhotoShelter's free photo business bootcamp.

I signed up for the bootcamp.  I got more than I bargained for.  The bootcamp lasts 5 weeks and consists of an email each week.  I thought each weekly email would probably consist of one or two articles, possible a pdf file, and some pictures.  Boy, was I wrong! 

I got my first week's email today - it looks like it is going to be a knuckle-down, buckle-up, set-aside-some-real-time-to-do-some-work bootcamp.  Here's what I got:

Week 1 - Inspiration: the Secret to Success

1. Brian Smith's Tips on Breaking Through  - an hour long Webinar
2. Ami Vitale on Finding & Pitching New Ideas - a 20 minute Webinar
3. Staying Focused on Your Passion Projects - a one and a half hour webinar with portrait photographer Tim Mantoani
4. Why Passion Matters - a 12 minute interview with sports photographer Ed Mulholland
5. Innovator's Bag: Up Close - a 20 minute interview with David Burnett, a photojournalist
6. 11 Things Photographers Wish They Learned in School - an article featuring answers from 11 well known photographers and some Twitterers answering the question "What do you wish you'd learned earlier in your career?"
7. Why Attitude Matters - an article on the 5 positive traits of successful photographers
8. Reinventing Yourself - a 7 minute interview (and article) with Robert Seale about changing your career direction.  Robert left his safe newspaper staff job to (successfully) pursue a freelance career in editorial and corporate photographer.  (This included a link to PhotoShelter's free 2011 Inspiration Handbook,)

Not to mention access to other free guides and webinars on the PhotoShelter Blog.

Even though I haven't seen all the webinars yet, in my opinion, this one week is worth as much as the "business kit" I recently purchased for $30.