Matt protested, “I like walking up and down the aisles,” “this takes just as long as real shopping,” “what if they don’t have what we need,” “now we won’t pass the Starbucks and get frappuccinos on our way to the store,” etc…

I just kept clicking and had my groceries delivered the next day.

It was divine.  I’m going to housewife hell for it.  (…oh well.)

See, I have this silly notion that good wives enjoy grocery shopping.  Um.  I enjoy food.  I enjoy wearing an apron and making dinner.  I do not enjoy toodling up and down endless aisles of food THAT I CANNOT EAT RIGHT THIS SECOND.  The online/delivery solution is quick and it gave me an hour and a half to sit on the couch soaking up a Sunday afternoon.  End of story, silly notions be damned.

What’s TOTALLY worth the cost of convenience in your life?

Maybe it’s a diaper service, a weekly housekeeper, a babysitter for date night, or a personal trainer to kick start your diet.  Maybe it’s just buying a book at the store, where the smell of coffee and books mingles delightfully, instead of getting it cheaper from Amazon a few days from now.

I dare you to pay for the convenience — it could turn your most dreaded task into a joyous moment.

• Consider reading a few of my favorite posts about Sales and Pricing in downloadable, free-PDF form.
• Stay tuned on Tuesdays and Thursdays for FAB guest authors (you know I’m a classic overachiever and have had them lined up for weeks, right?).
• Read this post about turning failure around — and quickly — by my dear-God-I-would-love-to-meet-her-but-then-I-would-just-smile-awkwardly-and-not-say-much-’cause-I’m-fairly-shy-like-that writing hero, goddess of small businesses everywhere, Naomi Dunford.
• Get the free ebook, What Matters Now, by Master of the Business Universe Seth Godin.
• Sip a lemonade.  Now’s the perfect time for sipping lemonade.
• Read some comics.  Specifically, the ones found on Stuff No One Told Me (but I learned anyway).  When this dude starts selling prints, the entirety of my office will be covered in 5×5″ framed squares of these pearls of wisdom.
• And this?  This brought tears to my eyes and made me wish for world peace, in a decidedly soul-stirring but non-patchouli-incense-burning kind of way.

Who will projection benefit?

Those who have a studio space will see immediate benefits from investing in projection equipment. As you already have the overhead of rent, you want to maximize the sales of existing and future clients!

Those who are ready to take their portrait sales to another level will benefit from projection. If you’ve been averaging sales of a few hundred dollars because you’re selling 5×7′s and nothing else, prepare to be wowed. Part of in-person ordering covers the needs of individual clients, allowing you to make individualized recommendations the client didn’t know he or she wanted. (Clients don’t just buy groupings of canvases. They need your expertise to help them know which images to choose, where to place the gallery, whether it should come in black and white, etc…)

Those who wish to provide their clients with a high-end portrait experience will benefit from personal consultations in clients’ homes, complete with wine and even dinner. In-home projection is a spectacular form of customer service.

Who will NOT reap the benefits of projection?

If you deal in volume photography services, projection may not be for you. It is a time-consuming process. Clients find themselves running late. They want to chit-chat. They have trouble deciding on their order. They want to see seven versions of the same wall mockup you made, then decide on the first one they saw.

If you do photography on a very part-time basis, projection probably isn’t for you. It’s a heavy investment that requires commitment to hard deadlines and to your clients. If the ordering appointment is at 7 p.m on Tuesday in the client’s home, you can’t wait until Wednesday to edit the photos.

If you can barely keep up with orders placed via online proofing, projection may not be for you – though you might consider hiring an assistant to complete ordering sessions for you!

Where can I find out more about projection and in-person sales?

The Projection and Sales Merit Badge, love.  It’s full of sales-y goodness in the most compact format possible.  Click here to buy.

1.) I went to Borders and ran into my friend Gwyn.  (Pictured left.)

2.) I ordered black coffee because I had no interest in a froufrou drink.

3.) I was offered a sample of Cookies & Creme frappa-dappa-shake-y-thing and a brownie.

4.) I had a sample, and so did everyone around me.

When people are given samples, they take them.

This is human nature. There are only two questions, then:

What can you afford to give away at free or greatly reduced rates?  How can you provide a reasonable sample size of your work?

Giving away wedding coverage might create a buzz, but it’s not a sample size.  Samples are tasty, delicious, and lead to bigger purchases.

Let’s say your goal is to get more weddings on the books for the next six to twelve months, so you want to get facetime with brides.  Giving a free bridal portrait session to anyone spending more than $4,000 at your town’s fab bridal salon is an option.  Perhaps that’s too much sample, and giving 1/2 off a bridal portrait session is more like it.  Perhaps giving an 8×10″ print from the finished, paid-in-full bridal session is right for your business.

There’s no right sample size.  There’s no wrong sample size.  There’s only choosing the sample that will create demand for your product and then meeting the demand with gusto.  And whipped cream, if you can swing it.

The attitude and harsh words, the tough love, the no-nonsense…that’s much easier to create than a blog post that reveals so much of who I am and where I come from and what hurts in my life right this second.  But I did it.

Grandma lives in a nursing home.  When I found out her possessions were being divided, sorted, and otherwise rummaged through before selling her dormant house, I traveled back to photograph the objects that hold meaning for me.  To observe and remember.

I found many things were just the same: the divine light in the kitchen, the bird clock, the jar of spoons on the table (yes, spoons – I never asked why), the grapevines in the backyard.  The fixtures, the furniture.

But the tricycles my cousins and I raced around the back porch were gone.  The tire swing, the toy yellow telephone I used to place calls to China, the album full of newspaper clippings about my family.  The bright red whistle I filled with water to chirp like a bird at all hours of the day and night.  The toys we loved that had to stay at Grandma’s house so others could enjoy them, too.

All gone.  The beehives buzzing in the backyard, the smell of dinner, the come-in-anytime policy that happens when you grow up a few hundred yards from Grandma’s house.

And Grandma?

I walked in and her eyes lit up.  She knew she knew me.  She knew she loved me but didn’t know why.

“Oh, it CAN’T be….um…uh…”

“Kristen, Grandma.  It’s Kristen.  Hi.”

“Yes, Krista.  Hi.”

Grandma’s gone, too.  She’s lost the present, but I hope she’s gotten to keep her memories of life twenty-something years ago, when her grandkids chased each other around the back porch and caught lightning bugs way past their bedtime.  And I pray she knows she is loved by that kind lady who gave her a lingering hug, even if my name never does turn up.

You might think the state of your closet has nothing to do with the state of your business, but I beg to differ.  Anytime you get a chance to make clutter disappear in your life — anywhere at all — your mental state will be lifted and your vision will be clarified.

This week’s dominatrixed assignment is all about making room to breathe.

Task #1:

Remove every single item from your closet.  Put back only the items that CURRENTLY fit you (too big, too small, tags on, tags off, I don’t care).  You may save two sentimental items (and ladies, you get the bonus of keeping your wedding dress.)

Just two. Because that makes a bit of room for those items you can’t get rid of, but doesn’t leave space for the eighteen pairs of leather pants that haven’t fit since 1976.

Oh, and if an item fits but hasn’t been worn in more than six months, it goes.  This is generally the case with forlorn shoes living in the back of your closet…

Task #2:

Remove every item from your desk, and replace only the items you need daily.  Find a way to store the non-everyday items (like client file folders, copies of contracts, etc…) near BUT NOT ON your desk.

Bonus task:

Go shopping for super-fun and pretty desk organizer-goodies!

Limit the number of choices a client is given!

Three album sizes x four possible covers x three paper finishes = 36 possible combinations for your client to consider.  And that’s if you’ve already narrowed your selection down significantly!  (I used to offer more album choices, but clients literally groaned at the thought of making another decision. So I chose the one I like best and offer it exclusively.)

Adding tons of images from a portrait session to the mix only muddies the decision-making waters.  It makes order-finalizing even harder.

How many images do you show a client during an ordering session?

Twenty-five to forty. Clients are paying for editing a shoot. (That includes deleting images, not post-processing-every-photo-that-doesn’t-suck.) They don’t need to see seven variations of the same pose. They just need to see the one deemed ‘best’ by you, the portrait professional.

But I take at least 327 fabulous images per portrait session!

Tough toodles!  Become a brutal editor. If you have any hesitation about an image, delete it and move on.

Don’t let your ego get in the way of delivering manageable results to your client.

This is awesome!  Hook me up with a Brand Camp promo code for the Projection & Sales merit badge, Kristen!

If you’re interested in learning more about projection and/or in-person sales in as few words and pages as humanly possible, you want the merit badge.  You might want to download the Pricing & Sales Remix to get it a lil cheaper.

Why hasn’t my business grown faster?  Why isn’t it bigger?  I’M GETTING NO EFFING BOOKINGS, KRISTEN!!!  What am I supposed to do now? Why am I a failure?  What am I doing wrong?

You may be doing everything wrong, but I doubt it.  My guess is that your marketing efforts come after your editing and your tax-paying and your shooting and your blog-stalking and your Tweeting, so they simply aren’t getting enough attention.  Here are some quick tips to get your business baking without getting your crusts burnt to a crisp.

1.)  Set realistic marketing goals.

Schedule a marketing meeting once per week, EVEN IF IT’S WITH YOURSELF, to create goals for your business.  Try doubling your current number of X in the next 3 months. X can be blog hits, Twitter followers, vendor meetings, Facebook fans…whatever gets your business name out there more is a good marketing goal.

Then create a task list to carry out those marketing goals.   Work on the tasks throughout each week, every week, forever and ever, amen.

2.) Don’t be stopped by possibility paralysis.

Yes, there are 7,894 things you can be doing to market your business right now.  Focus on one at a time.

Monthly marketing goal: Create wedding brochure to sell services across the region.

Weekly tasks to reach monthly goal:

• Research graphic designer to help with brochure, or create brochure design via sketch.
• Write brochure copy that outlines point of differentiation.
• Write brochure copy that outlines price points without being too specific.
• Write brochure copy that defines my business’ style and panache.
  
• Choose top ten images for inclusion in brochure.  Emphasize color/black & white/other types of images.
• Send brochure elements to graphic designer or implement myself in Photoshop.
• Order brochures.
  
• Discuss placing brochures in the brick & mortar store of business owner X by meeting for coffee.

3.)  If you hate it, don’t do it.

If you hate blogging, don’t do it.  Maybe you prefer Tumblr or Flickr.  Fine.

Same goes for Twitter, Facebook, weekly networking groups that meet for breakfast, wine & dine auctions, Bing, Digg…whatever.  Find a way to leverage what you love into a marketing opportunity for your business.  Give yourself permission to focus on your strengths and ignore the clutter.

4.) Keep going.

You’ve been putting your business cards at the coffee shop and the hairdresser’s and the baker’s and the candlestick maker’s for six months now, and nothing’s happened.  Should you quit putting your cards around town because you’re a failure?

No.  You should continue to expand the number of places people can find information about you.

Maybe coffee shop + hairdresser + baker + candlestick maker + bridal boutique is the combination that will trip a consumer’s trigger into having seen you everywhere, so you must be worth hiring.

5.) Build a team.

Maybe other business owners have a dire need that isn’t being filled and you can help.  It could be twenty minutes of aide with their new blogging venture or a quick lesson in Google Analytics.  Oh, and be sure to brainstorm ways to improve business while you’re providing a bit of assistance.

You don’t have to have all the ideas, you just have to be open to acting upon the good ones that surface.

6.) Send gifts.

To me, at 122 East…kidding.  Consider vendor marketing part of your wedding marketing strategy.  Create notecards/trifold cards/I-don’t-care-what-kind-of-cards for wedding vendors featuring THEIR work and a TINY logo of yours.  Sell their artistry and rest assured that those cards will be handed out like hotcakes.

Same goes for providing vendor images of the gorgeous buffet spread, the stunning lighting, the wicked DJ setup…don’t go all holier-than-thou-artistic-apeshit and try to charge vendors $150 per image for a picture of their rad new strobe system or lilac bouquet.  Give it to them and ask ‘em to spread the word about your services.

7.) Analyze what isn’t working.

Have you been shooting events for free, but not seeing a return in terms of bookings, web traffic, or inquiries?  Maybe you’re serving the wrong event circuit.  A display in the local retailer is yielding no return?  It might be time to talk with the retailer about creating an event that will highlight both your businesses.  Tweak your efforts a few times before labeling one marketing channel a bust.

My Mom and I noticed that his baked goods were always a touch on the burnt side.  Being supportive family members, we ate what he provided and attributed the crispy edges to a faulty oven.  A slightly-off-kilter recipe.  A wacky timer incident or two.  The little old church ladies were all kind words and compliments.  We were all pretending the crusts were just dandy.

Until one fateful day when my Mom walked into the kitchen and found the pan Dad had just slipped into the oven set to bake a cake for 15 minutes at 650 degrees.

Yes, 15 minutes at 650 degrees.

Dad figured that if 30 minutes at 325 degrees would bake the cake, 15 minutes at 650 would bake it twice as fast, thus saving electricity and time.  Let it be noted that he’s quiet AND industrious.

He was terribly disappointed to learn that baking takes time, no matter how much you want to rush it.

Same goes for business: building a client base takes time, no matter how much you want to rush it.

When people e-mail me asking how they can increase business by 400 to 800 percent in the next month, or how many weeks they should expect to be in business before turning a profit, I remind them of this story.

Patience, patience, patience.  There’s no shortcut to that souffle, my dear.

There are ways to prevent creating everything from scratch, though.  Tune in on Thursday for marketing tips that can shave a few proverbial minutes off your business’ baking time.

No bed is big enough for this dog, as she’s always 1/8 of an inch from where you are.  You can’t get away from her tiny little paws herky-jerking throughout the night.

This situation got me thinking about business.  About the tasks that we think about, that kick us in the night, but that we accept as part of everyday life.

So, what’s the dog in your bed?  The twelve pounds of something-or-other that makes you crazy?

It might be reading that business book or e-mailing that business owner.  It could be designing a brochure, or hiring a graphic designer to do so for you.  Maybe it’s SEO or pricing or marketing or starting to shoot film or fire-starting or just plain tackling your inbox.  No matter which nagging task is bothering you, it doesn’t deserve so much time rolling around in your brain.

Just do it, whatever it is…or forget doing it altogether.  Because your twelve-pound mind block can’t run into the living room and bark at the top of her lungs for the duration of the night when you decide enough is enough.