You are an Orange County Photographer who has experienced great growth. You have hired an associate photographer. You now want to promote him in a profitable way.
Associate photographers can be a great addition to any photography business.
They allow businesses to take advantage of job opportunities that would otherwise have to be turned down because the owner was booked or busy. They can bring new perspectives. However, the form of the relationship and the means of promotion are items that a business owner should consider and deal with before promoting other photographers publicly. This article provides a list of ideas to consider when a business owner takes this step.
1. What is the legal relationship between you and the new photographer?
Will a new photographer be hired as an employee or will you contract work for this photographer? There are advantages to both. With hired employees, you have more control over how the job will be accomplished. With contractors you have less control but you don’t have to deal with benefits, taxes and other administrative duties.
2. How broad will the role of the new photographer be defined?
Will she be meeting with clients before the wedding or photoshoot? Will he do the photo selection and editing? Will he take orders? Clarity about the answers to these questions will prevent many misunderstandings in the future.
3. How will new photographers be paid?
Are you going to pay him a piece – where he gets paid so much for editing, so much for shooting and so much for meeting clients or will you pay him by the hour? Will you offer incentive payments – say 5-10% of any order? Incentive payments can pay for themselves with larger orders. This will give the photographer enough motivation to produce an excellent product so that the order size is increased by more than 10%.
4. What is your policy on non-competitive agreements?
Are you going to be looking for an agreement that prevents the photographer from doing work on the side while he’s working for you or Will you just require him not to contact clients who come through you. It’s a good idea to get advice from a lawyer before making a decision at this point.
Promoting new photographers in your business is very exciting. This is proof of successful growth. Taking the above ideas into account will help make the trip more enjoyable for you and your new photographer.