Transcription in English
I’m Marko, a photographer. I started my own company while I still was a salaried worker. Starting a company is the challenging part, I mean, if you go straight into the deep end, into cold water. But if you can gradually start up your business, it’s a good situation.
When I started, I tried to get customers by sending messages to all the emails I could think of. I’m not good at making cold calls, it makes me anxious – it makes my Finnish self-esteem raise its head, and I think, “Why would they want to buy anything from me?” But it’s useful to send an email and call afterwards. The percentage of hits is around one in ten: you send ten emails and get one hit. You shouldn’t take it personally, that’s just how it is.
I sell usage rights. Usage right for a long period costs more. Selling a permanent usage right is not the aim, but the customer gets a right to use the image for a limited time.
Clearly, there’s a lot pressure for the usage right to be for everywhere and forever. Here lies a problem: young professionals come into the industry, and they don’t know about this and sell their products at a too low price. It’s understandable, they need the gigs.
I had one case where the customer didn’t pay their invoice, and I forwarded it to a collection agency, but then the customer paid it. It was nice, but they only paid the original invoice. The collection agency didn’t get their share from the customer, and they hoped that I would’ve taken the case to court as their representative, but the heck I will for a few hundred euros. So I ended up paying the share of the collection agency.
Liability insurance is a must. I pay the minimum YEL insurance. I have another plan for saving money. But if you break your leg and have paid minimum YEL insurance, you get minimum compensation too. And it’s virtually nothing.
Finding customers and continuing the relations, holding onto customers, that’s the challenge for everyone, of course. And, running a one-man show, scaling is difficult, if I happened to get a bigger assignment. In that case, all contacts are really valuable. It’s good to know make-up artists and stylists and location scouts, light technicians – all these networks are really important. So, the much-touted networking is an absolutely necessary thing.
I try to keep up a rhythm where I and my family are on a vacation at the same time. We usually try to have a three-week vacation in July.
Having a family kind of does and kind of doesn’t complicate matters for an entrepreneur. The birth of our child brought order to things. I have a set time for leaving my workspace and picking up our child from daycare. It gives me a lot and also protects me from working around the clock and burning the candle at both ends. When I’m with our child, I forget about work. Having a family has brought a schedule to my life. Sometimes I feel like I’d like to work longer hours, but I can resolve these things pretty well with my wife.
If we both had irregular income, especially from the same industry, it would be a risk. In the marketing business, economic depressions bring about strict budget cuts.
My advice is that you should ask questions and listen to those with more experience and be interested in things. The people working in the industry will tell you stuff, they’re pretty solidary. A humble attitude is good, better than tooting your own horn. You should put your ego aside, this is a customer service job. It was hard when I was younger. I used to be hard-headed and have a clear vision. Now I can see that, hey, there are different ways to do this, not just one.
You have to be on time, and you should do background research. Adhere to schedules. You shouldn’t waste time complaining and mulling over negative stuff. You can let difficult customers go and move on. Things often change. You shouldn’t get stuck with your idea about how things should go. It’s better to adjust to the changed situation. And if things go sour, you shouldn’t take it personally. People deal with all kinds of stuff, they can just be having a bad day. You should take care of yourself, do meaningful and fun things and make sure that you have something else in your life besides work.
You should think carefully about how much it’s sensible to hone something. The customer might not even notice a detail that you’ve spent hours perfecting. But, then again, I also believe that you can make something out of that sort of fine-tuning. Your work should be on point, not just a haphazard attempt. Good news travel fast, but it’s the whole that matters. Produce a steady quality, adhere to schedules and communicate clearly. When the customer trusts that you can do your job, they have one less thing to be stressed about.