©2009 Natalie Fobes, www.fobesphoto.com

Please download and print this grading sheet. Hand it to Christopher Conrad when you introduce yourself.

Name:

THE BASICS

60 pts

Description of the business you are starting

The market and trends in the industry

Your competition

Your unique qualities or skills that will ensure success of the business

Anything else you think is important in selling your plan

Score_____

SUBSTANCE & DEPTH

20 points

Ability to respond to tough questions

Knowledge of particulars in your plan

Attitude and final Impressions

Score_____

PRESENTATION

20 points

Introduction of yourself and manners, ie thank you for meeting me…my name is…

Posture, eye contact, voice control

Proper grooming

General impression

Score_____

©2009 Natalie Fobes

The goal of any accounting system is to track your money. You need to know where your money comes from and where it goes. This knowledge helps you plan for the future, figure out your taxes and see trends in your business.

The easiest way to do this is to use a program like Money or Quicken that works with your bank. You want to be able to download your bank transactions directly into the program. You will need to enter the payee and a category for each transaction. For deposits you’ll need to enter who paid you and the category.

While this may seem like a lot of work it will save you lots of time in the future. It will allow you to track your business success and plan for future.

For example, every month or so I check to see how much money I’ve made. I compare it to previous years and can then estimate how much I will owe in taxes at the end of the year. I adjust my Estimated Quarterly tax payments accordingly.

In November I look at my tax-deductible expenses to see if I am comparable with previous years. If the deductions are less than the previous year’s I might make some purchases before the end of the year, or pay my professional associations’ dues a little early, or pay off the advertising invoice that will come across my desk in January to boost my deductions.

I can track how my marketing and promotion expenditures are doing by comparing income year over year.

Below are some of the categories that I’ve set up on my business software

Income

Weddings

Portraits

Stock

Lectures

Assignments

Salary

Misc

Sales tax collected

Expense

Employee Wages 1099

Employee Wages W2

Telephone

Storage Unit for slides/equipment

Equipment repair

Rental

Promotion and advertising

Processing and printing

Travel other than hotel, plane, auto

Meals, in and out of town

Office supplies

Misc

Internet

Computers

Auto expense

Plane

Insurance

Hotel

Shipping fed-ex, stamps

Education

Dues

Cost of materials (albums)

Sales tax is collected on retail sales only and is entered as a line item in my accounting program. I do not include it in my total income as it is only money I collect for the state.  I charge sales tax on my fine art print sales, my weddings and portraits. The tax is on both services and products for my weddings and portraits.

I do not charge tax on my assignment, stock, lecture or royalty income.

Taxes

Next quarter you will be required to get your local and state business licenses. After that you will be required to file forms for the state and city B&O tax (Business and Occupation) on either a quarterly or yearly basis. The state and city will let you know which schedule you are on.

If you have employees you must pay Labor and Industry and Unemployment taxes. You will be required to with hold money from their paychecks and contribute half of their medicare and social security taxes. If your employees are contractors, and you paid them more than $800 during the year, you are required to send them a 1099 at the end of the year.

Other taxes may include personal property tax on your equipment, an employee commute tax and a usage tax on equipment bought out of state that you didn’t pay the state’s sales tax on.

Taxes are complicated.

Check with a tax preparer to make sure you are doing your taxes correctly. Better yet, hire a cpa to prepare your taxes. It is tax deductible.

©2009 Natalie Fobes, www.fobesphoto.com

A mission statement is a succinct summary of your business/personal principles coupled with your business specialty. It is difficult to write because each word carries tremendous importance.  Think poetry, not prose. Just as each word in a poem is chosen carefully, you must thoughtfully choose each word in a mission statement.

The mission statement can help you make difficult decisions. You can ask yourself: does this fit with my mission. One of my friends was offered the long-term contract for a cigarette company’s advertising campaign. It was lucrative. After a few days of thought he turned it down. He told me it didn’t fit with the mission of his photography.

The mission statement can be private or it can be public. Here are a few that I found online:

BEA: Supporting photography that makes a difference (this is the non-profit I co-founded in 1996)

Bullitt Foundation: To safeguard the natural environment by promoting responsible human activities and sustainable communities in the Pacific Northwest.

Starbucks: To inspire and nurture the human spirit— one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.

Costco: To continually provide our members with quality goods and services at the lowest possible prices.

Gatesfoundation.org: has 15 guiding principles instead of one mission statement.

Class will start at 9 a.m. on Nov. 20th.

Please work up a draft mission statement to read to the class. It should be one or two sentences. Think poetry where every word is critical and not prose. This is to help you focus on the mission statement for your business plan. While it is an ungraded assignment it is required.

©2009 Natalie Fobes

Due December 4th. Your Assignment Must Follow This Outline.

This is 40% of your grade. You will be presenting your plan on December 4th to a professional photographer. The presentation will be an additional 10% of your grade.

The Business Plan

Adapted by Natalie Fobes from the SBA website

www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/

Most people think a business plan is only for entrepreneurs and those looking for financing. It is a valuable tool for every business person. A good business plan will crystallize your thoughts about your business, help you see weaknesses and strengths, enable you to make and achieve goals.

The parts of the business plan are:

Executive Summary

Market Analysis

Company Description, Organization & Management

Marketing & Sales Management

Service or Product Line

Funding Request

Financials

Appendix

1. The Executive Summary

The executive summary is the most important section of your business plan. HINT:  Write this AFTER you have written the rest of the plan.  The knowledge and insight you gain while researching the rest of the plan will help you craft this section. The summary has three parts.

A. The Mission Statement explains the thrust of your business in two sentences, or a paragraph. It should be as direct and focused as possible, and it should leave the reader with a clear picture of what your business is all about. You should be able to use this when a client asks you what kind of photography (or other business) you do. HINT: Practice this outloud.

B. A concise history of the business: when it began, who started it, number of employees, location, services and past growth. These can be in bullet form.

C. Your goals for one year, two years and five years. These can be in bullet form.
2. Market Analysis

In this section describe the industry, the trends, the potential growth areas, your target audience and your competition. Analyze the businesses you are competing against. List their strengths, weaknesses, pricing, advertising and approach. If you find out your competition is having problems try to figure out why so you can avoid the same mistakes.  BE SPECIFIC.
3. Company description, Organization and Management

This is an overall view of how all parts of your business fit together. You should answer the following questions:

A. Is your business an llc, s-corp or sole proprietor?  Who owns it?

B. What are your responsibilities? Are there other people in your business? If so, what are their responsibilities? Who is in charge? Even for a two person business it is important to develop a clear flow chart of duties and responsibilities.

C. What are the needs of potential clients/customers you are trying to satisfy? How are you going to satisfy them.

D. List the companies or individuals you want to target. Be specific.

4. Marketing and Sales Strategies

Marketing is the process of creating customers. You need customers to survive. Simple statements but ones difficult to achieve. Your marketing strategy is a living, growing creature that needs frequent feeding, attention and adaption.

What is your marketing message? Are you marketing a service or a product? This will determine to whom you send your marketing materials. How are you going to get your customers? Advertising, direct mail, word of mouth? Where are you going to advertise?  Are you going to use a service for direct mail or do it yourself?

5. Your Service or Product Line from your customer’s point of view

Pretend you are a consumer of your service or product. Use their words to describe what you offer. For example, “I photograph people, places and wildlife.” It tells you nothing. This statement tells you a lot more. “I create well-lit, compositionally intriguing images that tell a story about my subject. I never miss a deadline and always come back with a great photograph. I am dependable.” Another example: “The Gourmet to Go Shop has 89 foods instock.”   Better  “I will offer busy people a convenient way to buy the food they want by keeping track of their purchases and keeping those items in stock.”  Focus on areas where you have an advantage. Identify a problem that your target group might have and how you can solve it for them. Try to put yourself in the customer’s shoes. What is it about what you offer that they can’t get anywhere else? What is the value in your products and services?

6. Funding Request

While you may not be looking for funding you should act like you are. Create a budget for your first year of operation. This will help you figure out when you might need money and how much.  Obviously your initial costs include camera/studio gear. But what about the advertising and promotion campaign you should be mounting six months later? Office supplies? Taxes? Be sure to include the amount you want now to start your business and the amount you will need in six months.  BE SPECIFIC.

7. Financials

Once you’ve analyzed the market and set clear goals you can get a better idea of your financial needs. It is harder to do when you first start out because you have no historical perspective, ie, your expenses and income statements from previous years.

The documents in this section should include forecasted income vs expenses, cash flow and capital investment budgets. Will you need additional or faster computers? Additional lighting gear? Software upgrades? Where will your income come from? You should include where you are now and where you will be for EACH of the next five years.  You can use your CODB as a basis.

8. Appendix

This is made up of documents on an as needed basis. It should include you resume, letters of reference, magazine articles, licenses,. It may include your credit history, leases, contracts, permits and list of professional service personel like attorneys and cpas.

©Natalie Fobes 2009

Select the photos in Library. Then click on the Web Module.

Scroll down through the Template Browser on the right. These are HTML and Flash templates that come with LR. You can also create your own template. For simplicity’s sake select HTML gallery (default)

On the right you will see another column with options.

Site Info

Fill in the Site Title with your client’s name.

Collection Title can hold anything. I use it to describe the assignment and list the usage agreement if any. “For examination only, no usages allowed without permission from photographer,” for example.

Collection Description: I put my copyright information there.

Contact Info: My name

Web or Mail Link: My email

You can change the color of the web gallery by playing with it under the Color Palette. Double click on the boxes to the right of the words text, detail text, etc. to bring up the color picker. The slider on the right side of that box will bring in colors.

Appearance:

Choose whether you want a drop shadow, section borders, the number of rows and columns, cell numbers, photo borders etc. I don’t check “show cell numbers.”

Image Info

Check Title and then choose Filename that is an option on the right. I don’t check caption.

Output Settings I leave the image quality at 70. I check the box for “Add Copyright Watermark” I check Sharpening and standard.

Upload Settings:

While you can upload directly to your server I prefer to export to a folder on my computer. Don’t check anything here.

Then click Export. You will be prompted to name the folder and choose a location for it. Put your name here without spaces. Click Save.