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Strictly Business 2

ASMP’s Strictly Business 2 is a weekend conference that will teach you real-world business skills and help you thrive in our highly competitive industry. SB2 brings you consultations, lectures, video presentations, a keynote address, workshops, hands-on negotiating training, and social gatherings to share and learn from your peers. This weekend will change the way you look at your business — join us.

Who should attend? Are you struggling to put the business pieces together? Are you overwhelmed with the pace of change in the industry? Is your career meeting your creative and financial goals? Attend SB2 and get a road map of answers. Strictly Business 2 is for those starting out in the business and those needing a boost. Have you been working in retail photography and dabbling in commercial? SB2 is for you, too. Are you a student or emerging professional? Treat yourself to an intensive weekend packed with the information you need to  build a career as a photographer.

The original Strictly Business series was a transforming event in the careers of many of ASMP's most prominent members. Read their testimonials. Today, Strictly Business 2 can transform your career too.

Traveling to SB2? An extra benefit of SB2 is the community it creates. By staying at the conference hotel, you'll experience even more opportunities to interact with fellow photographers, the educators and our sponsors — both formally and informally, on-the-fly. Each location was specifically chosen to ensure ease of travel for those flying or driving. Use the conference hotel and take advantage of incredible ASMP secured rates. ASMP has secured discounted room rates — along with two meals a day and two social hours that are included in the conference fee!

Attendees may audiotape sessions for personal use only. No video recording of sessions can be permitted. Please understand that these presentations are the intellectual property of the speakers and respect their copyright.

The Details

Curriculum   •   Presenter bios   •   Registration info   •   Hotel info

Besides the scheduled sessions listed below, there will be ample breaks for the informal hobnobbing and serendipitous encounters that make a conference truly worthwhile.

Friday

All times are tentative and subject to change.

Registration and check-in: 9am to 5pm

Private Consultations: 9am to 5pm — more info

ASMP Leadership Meeting: 2pm to 5pm — more info and separate registration

Opening Reception: 5pm to 7pm

Special Chicago-only session, 7pm to 9pm

Digital Technology and Your Business
Join Dan Stack, digital work flow and UPDIG expert, for this special session outlining how technical mastery is essential to business success for the digital photographer.

Dan Stack is a photographer and digital work flow expert based in the Baltimore-D.C. area. Dan is currently the principal researcher for the ASMP Preserving Digital Images Project funded by an award from the Library of Congress. This project's primary goal is the expansion and promotion of the Universal Digital Imaging Guidelines (UPDIG.)

 

Saturday

All times are tentative and subject to change.

Breakfast on us: 7am to 8am
Registration and check-in: 7am to 8am

General Session begins: 8am

Setting the stage with Judy Herrmann

Start the day with an overview of the founding principles behind Strictly Business 2. These tried and true lessons, presented as concise take-away points, will help you run a successful photography business.

Industry Overview by Richard Kelly & Susan Carr

Hold on for this fast-paced introduction to professional photography and the basics of owning a small business.

Critical Tools for Your Photography Business with John Harrington

How do you operate a successful freelance photography business?  What paperwork do you need? From estimates to invoices, these forms are the key to being a professional. Learn when and why you need releases. Get a copyright refresher and see just how easy (and important) it is to register your images. Get tips on how to deal with client-driven contracts. John shows you a road map for applying sound business skills to today's industry reality.

Digital Essentials with Judy Herrmann

Judy will cover the digital tools every photographer should know and use. Learn how to protect yourself and your work (and your client) in this age of file sharing and perfect duplication.

Marketing with Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua

Marketing is in some way in everything any business does. It's no wonder it often feels overwhelming, especially for photographers who usually have little-to-no formal training in the discipline. Emails and postcards and websites and books and sourcebooks -- the list of tools alone can get daunting! A better understanding of marketing can make a significant difference in your bottom line, even without a single creative change.

Internationally respected Creative/Marketing Consultant & Coach Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua will discuss some of the larger marketing issues facing photographers: finding and respecting your vision, finding the right targets and developing your best lists, budgeting for marketing, making your marketing tools (like your website and book) more effective, and client relations. She'll also spend some time discussing the rep-photographer relationship and offer some often forgotten marketing ideas that photographers can use to make a big (positive) impact.

Lunch on us: 12:15pm to 1:15pm

Pricing and Negotiating with Blake Discher

Do you know how to price your work? Are you a skillful negotiator? Do you know what the three critical elements in any negotiation are? Every negotiation that results in a win-win outcome provides you with the opportunity to work with that buyer and, even more importantly, carries with it the potential for a repeat client and their referrals! This conference will discuss effective strategies and tactics to help generate options that will enable both you and your counterpart (not your opponent!) to accomplish your goals. You'll discover how to take (or keep) control of the negotiation, when to compromise and when to hold firm, and how to sharpen your listening skills. With a fair and trustworthy negotiating style, you'll develop a roster of clients.

Managing Change with Judy Herrmann

Most photographers spend their careers constantly grappling with change. New technologies and tools, rapidly changing economic environments, cultural shifts, political trends and the ongoing demand for fresh creative work force photographers to balance shifting needs and priorities. Learn how to cut through the chaos, act decisively and manage change so it won't manage you.

Keynote presentation

Time to focus on creativity and remind us why we do this.
• Sean Kernan -- The Opened Eye Sees More (presented in LA and Atlanta)

• Joyce Tenneson -- A Life in Photography (presented in Philadelphia and Chicago)

Reception hosted by Digital Railroad: 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Extra: Book signing by Keynote speakers Joyce Tenneson (Philadelphia, Chicago) and Sean Kernan (LA, Atlanta).

 

Sunday

All times are tentative and subject to change.

Breakfast on us: 8am to 9am

Negotiating training

Breakouts into facilitated small groups, in which you will get hands-on experience at honing your negotiation skills to promote better prices and terms. Attendees of the original Strictly Business conferences reported that this exercise was (and remains) tremendously valuable.

Lunch on us: noon to 1pm

Mini-workshops

Each 90-minute workshop is given twice, so attendees may select any two of the four options.

• Workshop A -- Marketing to Move Your Business Forward

  Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua will apply the information from Saturday's talk to teach you in detail how to write your own personalized marketing plan. You'll learn how to define your own unique visual voice and verbalize it, and then to find the right targets for your vision. With these foundations, you'll then learn how to make your marketing tell your individual story effectively and with passion, in ways that will attract your best targets. Time will be spent on the pros and cons of many marketing tools like sourcebooks, mailers, and email promos, enabling you to make the best choices for your needs and budget. Sunday's work will also include practical suggestions for how to actually work your plan, in your real world, even if you'd rather poke yourself with a stick than do your marketing.

• Workshop B -- Business Workflow to Bring You Profits

  John Harrington will give you the perfect balance of sound business practices and practical digital workflow -- a combination critical to a successful photography business. This workshop will cover the need for clear estimates, writing good emails, delivering files (and billing for them), registering your work, building a stock file, and nurturing the client. Through examples, step-by-step instructions and resources, John will show you how to make your production time pay in profits now and in the future.

• Workshop C -- Taking Control of Your Career

  In this session, Judy Herrmann of Herrmann + Starke digital photography will share real-world tactics for developing and implementing a plan that will take your career where you want it to go. You'll learn how to achieve your creative and financial goals, anticipate and adapt to business and technological change, and build a satisfying and stable photography business. Herrmann will also provide important information and resources to help you bring your business practices into the digital age. Whether you're just starting out or have years of experience, the tools and techniques shown in this program will give you greater control over your future. Are you satisfied with the work you're creating? Do your clients appreciate what you bring to the table? Are you protecting yourself from the increased liabilities of working digitally? If you can't answer yes to all these questions, this workshop is for you.

• Workshop D -- Is Your Website Doing All It Can to Get You Work?

  Are you feeling overwhelmed when it comes to optimizing your studio's website for high search engine rankings? Torn between usability and aesthetics when designing your site? In this session, Blake Discher shares his experience in how he succeeds in having his website consistently place at the top of the major search engines. This has led to increased visibility for his business and increased billings.

  You will learn about the importance of proper keyword phrases and links, site design, and copywriting that is search engine-friendly. There are several ways to get your website highly ranked; learn more about pay-per-click search engine marketing and how to achieve excellent organic search results. In addition, Blake will discuss how to effectively implement a link-building campaign to increase Page Rank, perhaps the single most important aspect of search engine optimization.

Closing General Session: 5pm - 6pm

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