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Be Mindful of Your Work-Life Balance So You Don’t Lose Your Mind Running Your Small Business

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These days it seems like everyone and their brother has their own business. With big corporations becoming more soul-sucking by the day, and the job market being especially tight with not a lot of places for early career professionals to go to get ahead, it’s no wonder that 5 million new businesses were started in 2022, a 42% increase from pre-pandemic statistics.

Small business owners face many challenges, and being your own boss can be a pretty stressful replacement for a traditional 9 to 5 job. But punching a clock Monday thru Friday isn’t for everyone, so what do you do to break free of the rat race and still keep your sanity?

As someone who’s done it, I’m here to give you a number of tips, tricks and secrets that I use. Little solves offer big wins that give me more time, remove stress and provide me with a healthy work-life balance.

You can do it too!

Getting Started

Many small business owners could benefit from getting their day off to a good start. It’s important to put a routine in place that sets you up for success throughout the rest of the day. 

One of the reasons you might have started your business in the first place was so that you don’t have to begrudgingly wake up to an alarm every day. But just because a clock isn’t ticking somewhere in the HR office anymore doesn’t mean you can get lazy. Set a sleep schedule that’s appropriate for your needs and allow yourself to adjust to waking up naturally in the morning. 

Once you’re awake, follow a comforting routine that allows you to feel relaxed and refreshed before you put your nose to the grindstone, keyboard, workbench or artist’s easel. 

If you’re an exercise-lover, get up and go for a jog or do a yoga session each morning. Make it a habit. Getting the blood pumping also activates the endorphins and makes you feel good. Getting exercise out of the way, right away, has always helped me approach the day with a positive attitude.

Join a nearby gym, close to home, so it’s quick and easy to get to. Then sign up for regular classes to help keep yourself accountable. I know a great yoga trainer, if you’re in Las Vegas looking for personal or group instruction!

Get yourself a nice coffee maker and learn how to use it, or how to set the timer so that it’s ready when you want it. Making good fresh coffee at home is cheaper and healthier than that sugar-filled $6 coffee shop habit. 

Got kids? Make them part of your getting started routine. Kids don’t drink coffee and maybe you shouldn’t trust them to run the blender to make breakfast smoothies, but that doesn’t mean you can’t incorporate their needs into your routine. Find joy in the little things that make up their routine and smile while helping them create good habits for themselves too!

Staying Organized and Being Proactive

Set up your days so you are successful. By planning ahead, you’re less likely to get off task or be surprised by something that throws you off your objectives. If you know what you want to get done each day, and what you’re up against, it’s easier and less stressful to get through your day with a feeling of accomplishment.

I know a guy who calls this “Make Plan/Execute Plan.” When he makes his plan, he starts at the end of the day with the result he wants to have. Then he works backward.

Say he wants to make 5 widgets, mail the 20 widgets he made last week to his customers, take lunch with his wife and pick the kids up from school.

Well, he knows the post office opens at 8:30 am, so if he doesn’t want to wait in line, he makes sure to know how long it takes to get there, then leaves on time to be there when the doors open. Then he can spend a few hours before lunch working on the five widgets he needs to get done. During the time he’s working he knows that he has to stay on task, so he avoids his phone and puts his inbox notifications on silent, because if he gets distracted he won’t make it to lunch with his wife. If he has to deal with a hot potato before lunch, then he allows himself to switch gears. He can do this because he knows he left himself time after lunch and before school pickup to complete the widgets. If he doesn’t have any emergencies, then he can use the time after lunch to plan tomorrow’s day, deal with things he had to put off yesterday or get ahead for tomorrow.

Breaking the day into manageable chunks of time and tasks allows him to be proactive and stay organized. The plan he makes is evolving but rigid. If he has goals and milestones to reach, he builds them into his daily and weekly schedule, so that at the end of the day and the end of the week, he can relax knowing that he executed his plan.

I think his key is that he doesn’t overload himself and is realistic about what he can get done each day. 

When the plan goes haywire, he chalks it up to learning how to work through the chaos and promises himself that he’ll do better tomorrow.

When the plan works, he takes pride in knowing that doing little things each day adds up to big accomplishments.

Time Management

Setting boundaries is important — especially when you want to have a healthy work-life balance while running your small business. 

It’s easy to get caught up in putting in a brute force effort. But that’s not the only way to get the job done or clear the next hurdle. The non-stop work mindset can lead to feeling stuck on a hamster wheel of your own creation. And wasn’t one of the biggest reasons for starting your own business to get off the conveyor belt?!

If you’re working efficiently, you are able to give time back to yourself. 

Setting dedicated working and non-working hours (and sticking to them) isn’t always easy, but honestly, I’ve found it a must-do. My passion doesn’t turn off when I close up shop for the night, I just give myself the latitude to feel good that I made progress that day and call it a night. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is any part of my branding photography business.

My friends and family appreciate it, my kids know I’m there for them and I get to spend time enjoying the fruits of my labor. 

Using a day planner, calendar tool on your phone, personal assistant app or keeping it all in a journal you can reference every day in order to ground yourself, can be so helpful. Don’t worry — if it’s not your style, you don’t have to get super fancy or take up time-consuming bullet journaling to stay organized.

Maximizing Productivity

As a small business owner myself, I wasn’t always as productive as I am now. And I’m still learning!  🧑‍🎓

When I wanted to get better at maximizing my productivity, I turned to an expert. Amber De La Garza and I have known each other awhile now, and I’m thankful she is able to help me be more efficient at running my business. Many small business owners find her podcast helpful because it offers simple tips for increasing your productivity, improving time management and, in turn, maximizing profits.

One of her typical case studies reads like this:

[A client’s] business was thriving, profits were climbing and the phone never stopped ringing. But running her business didn’t feel good. She was investing everything she had into her business and very little into herself. She wanted to be more present with her family but kept feeding the monster, giving the business more and more of herself. And no matter how much she gave, it didn’t feel like enough.

Now she is no longer bogged down working IN her business and actually works ON her business. She weighs opportunities against her goals and only goes down avenues she deems worthy of her time and energy. She anchors down her list of priorities and makes them happen instead of making excuses for why they can’t.

If this sounds like you, and the solutions you’re looking for, drop Amber a line. She’s helped me a bunch and can do the same for you.

Dealing with Distractions

I just found this great tool for avoiding the habit of letting my emails and phone app notifications interrupt my workflow.

When I am busy plugging away on a task and my phone dings with a notification or message of some kind, it used to be hard for me not to drop what I was doing to attend to it instantaneously. When I am on deadline, or trying to get something done, the last thing I need is bothersome notifications staring me in the face.

Now, I use the “Focus” feature on my iPhone. (Android phones have a similar function.) It’s highly customizable and allows me to pause these distractions at certain times, while I’m using specific programs, at certain places or doing certain tasks. Working with the other hardware and software in your phone, Focus can be set up to do its thing based on your location, time of day and many other useful parameters. It’s a great way to block off time. 

Taking Control of Your Email

Speaking of email… it’s the great necessary evil of our time.

I like to focus on inbox management. This means I’m in control rather than it controlling me.

There are different schools of thought on the Inbox Zero Method, but I like to use the framework it provides. Instead of reacting to every new email as it comes in, I set specific times throughout the day to sort and deal with email that has accumulated. I’ve adopted a routine of taking half an hour at the beginning of my day, half an hour after lunch and half an hour before I check out for the evening. During that half hour I “Delete, Delegate, Deal With It or Delay.” 

The first two Ds are the two biggest time savers. Straight up deleting emails that don’t need my attention gets rid of things quickly. This includes periodically making sure to unsubscribe from newsletters I do not read or archiving old threads I no longer need. 

Meanwhile, delegating moves the things off my-plate that are really better handled by someone else. Use this polite language to send it along in the right direction with the right attitude:

“Hi <Sender>,

I’ve received your email and am looping in <Appropriate Person> so they can get you what you need. 

<Appropriate Person>, can you please help <Sender> on this?

“Dealing With It” is best if the response can take 5 minutes or less. If that’s the case, then I’ll get it done right away.

“Delay” sounds like you’re avoiding it and hoping it goes away, but actually, delaying it means I know the email requires a more in-depth response or isn’t a priority, and I can set it aside and come back to it later. I file it into a “Reply Later Folder” or I assign the task to my to-do list so that it has a place to live while I tackle it and make sure to assign a deadline. Then I reply to the sender to let them know what they can expect of me and when I’ll deliver on the promise I’ve made.

This simple method keeps me on top of my inbox without being chained to it.

Outsourcing

The benefits of outsourcing are numerous. If you’re a successful small business, you’ll notice that you’re quickly running out of time to get everything done that needs to be done. Keeping up with existing tasks is hard enough. Taking on new ones can feel impossible. When you reach this stage of small business ownership, you need to start outsourcing.

Don’t be afraid to hand off some of the tasks that keep your business humming. Paying someone for a few hours of work each week to do even one time-consuming task, like your payroll for example, frees you up to handle more important things — and more of the things that you love about owning your own business! 

Quick Wins

Here are a few simple ideas you can implement right away to gain some quick wins leading you to an improved and more sustainable work-life balance.

  • Take advantage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to do menial tasks that stress you out. For example, give ChatGPT a chance to create a meal plan and grocery list by inputting your dietary restrictions, ingredients you don’t like and budget.
  • Keep a notebook handy at all times to make it easier to separate work and leisure. This way you can get things out of your head and move on. If you make a habit of writing important things down, the benefit is twofold; you won’t forget it, and you can jump straight back into the present and enjoy the moment (or even fall asleep) knowing that it will be there for you when you are ready.
  • Make a dedicated physical space for work and keep it separate from the rest of your life. When you associate a particular place with work, you’ll find it far easier to get into gear when you’re there and easier to leave work in the work-zone when you step away.
  • Prioritize your to-do list each day by writing down your “3 Most Important Things.” If, at the end of the day, you can say that you’ve completed each of them, then you’ve had a good day, even if you didn’t get things beyond the top three done.
  • Implement some form of reward system. For example, a golf-lover may agree that a Friday afternoon round of golf is a fair reward for completing a pre-specified amount of work by Friday lunchtime. The important thing is to make the reward something that drives you to work productively to meet your targets, so you won’t miss out on the prize.
  • Make a “30-Minute Job List.” Fill in the small gaps throughout your day by working off of a list of tasks that would otherwise hang over your head for a while but really only need 20 or 30 minutes to complete.

I hope these strategies have given you some inspiration and can allow you to create your ideal work-life balance. As you’re implementing some of these ideas and planning for how to move forward please, be sure to include some time to book a session with me so we can get you in for your next branding photo session.

Headshots vs. Personal Branding Photography

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In my capacity as a professional photographer specializing in brand photography and headshots, there’s a question that comes my way a lot, “Is headshot the same as branding photography?” 

I’m going to answer that question to clear up the differences, point out the similarities, give you examples of each and provide justification for using both headshots and brand photography types of photos.

What is a headshot?

Headshots are exactly what they sound like; a front on and close up photo of your head and shoulders. It uses a standard formal pose that almost always has a plain single color background., usually white, grey or black. It accents the person in the photo (the subject) rather than the environment, background, wardrobe etc. 

Think of this like your school picture day photos taken every year between kindergarten and 11th grade.

What is a branding photo?

Branding photos allow you to show your personality and emphasize the environment, props, and interesting backgrounds. Whereas headshots are taken in a studio, personal branding photos are taken on location in informal, organic, natural, and even outdoor type environments. Depending on your business needs, you might have photos taken while you interact with clients, type on your computer, or pose with your hot rod. 

Think of this more like your high school senior photos.     

 

Front on photo of subject. Cropped close to include just the head and upper torso/shoulders. Nondescript blurred background.

Subject looking away from camera. Shot and cropped wider to include the environment. Casual pose. ¾ of body.

What are headshots used for?

A headshot is a time-tested business tool. Today it can be used for your social media profile,  the “About” section of your website, or “Meet The Team” type materials. Real estate agents often use headshots on their business cards.

Headshots are great for these applications because they are usually small and tightly cropped for these placements. There’s only enough space in these thumbnail uses for your head and shoulders.

What are branding photographs used for?

Branding photographs are used for a variety of different content. You’ll find them on website banner images, advertising pieces, blog posts, email marketing and many more.

You’ll want a handful of brand photographs so that you don’t have to place the same one everywhere. Because they show your personality they are great at making people feel like they know you by having only seen your picture.  

Your brand needs both headshots and branding photographs. 

Each type of photo serves a purpose. Using personalized and unique brand imagery on your website is one of the best ways to build your company. It’s very useful for instilling confidence in potential clients.

High-end photography which is completely custom to your business is key to gaining instant trust. This can’t be accomplished by stock photography.

Added Bonus: Personal branding photographs that are unique to your company are by-design 100% on brand! Plus you don’t have to spend hours and hours searching for usable stock photography that fits.

Using headshots gives your business a face. Potential customers research businesses before they make contact. They like to see who they are dealing with before they call.

A headshot shows a professional attitude and demonstrates a commitment to your brand. It shows that a real person is in charge, which is a very comforting thing in the world of computer automation, outsourcing and impersonal online connections.  

 

The headshot gives an authoritative and serious feeling. The mood should be businesslike yet friendly and inviting.

The branding photo gives a candid authentic off-the-cuff feel. The mood should be light and spontaneous but not silly or contrived.

What happens once I decide to book a personal branding photo session with Taylored Photo Memories?

During the booking process and prior to your session we’ll ask questions so we can learn about you and your business to prepare for your photo session. Knowing what makes you tick helps us bring out your best on the day of your session and ultimately gives you the pieces you need to complete your branding puzzle.

You’ll start by picking one of our comprehensive packages which are tailored to meet your usage requirments no matter where you are on your small business journey. They will give you exactly what you need for a successful website and a beneficial social media strategy.

Our two main packages provide anywhere from 25 to 75 or more final images. There’s a range of packages offering in-studio, city park or urban environment sessions. You’ll also have the option of selecting a package with a single wardrobe or with several wardrobe changes. Plus, you can choose according to the desired length for your personal brand photo session  –  a short, long or recurring session.

Personal Brand Starter Kit

$897
  • Monday - Thursday only
  • 30 Minute pre-session consultation
  • Up to 30 minute photography session
  • In photographer's pre determined Studio location
  • Minimum 25 photos with light editing for color correction and exposure
  • Package available only in Studio, see Professional Collection for outdoor locations

Instant Professional Brand

$1897
  • 30 Minute pre-session consultation
  • Up to 2 hours of photography time and 30 minutes of travel
  • Choose 2 locations options include, studio, model home, downtown or park location (Location ideas will be discussed during consultation session)
  • Minimum 75 photos with light editing for color correction and exposure
  • How-to-Guide for using your photos (for website and socials)
  • Recommend bringing at least 5 wardrobe changes

Personal Brand Portfolio

$3224

  • Instant Professional Brand x2

  • Bundle and Save, book 2 Instant Professional Brand packages to be used within 6 months of each other, save 30%!

  • 30 Minute pre-session consultation
  • Up to 2 hours of photography time and 30 minutes of travel
  • Choose 2 locations options include, studio, model home, downtown or park location (Location ideas will be discussed during consultation session)
  • Minimum 75 photos with light editing for color correction and exposure
  • How-to-Guide for using your photos (for website and socials)
  • Recommend bringing at least 5 wardrobe changes

Next we’ll put together a strategy that will ensure you get everything you need and nothing you don’t out of your brand photo session. On your photo day our goal is to be efficient and thorough so that we can maximize our time with you. Finally, we’ll teach you how to make use of your images to make your brand shine.

The Complete Branding Photography Experience Awaits

Now that you’ve got a handle on the differences and similarities between headshots and personal branding photography and the options available to you, we hope you’ll choose us to handle your personal brand photography needs. Get started today.

Contact Us Today

How to Use Outsourcing to Boost Your Small Business — Helpful Tips & Suggestions

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The benefits of outsourcing are numerous. If you’re a successful small business, you’ll notice that you’re quickly running out of time to get everything done that needs to be done. Keeping up with existing tasks is hard enough. Taking on new ones can feel impossible. When you reach this stage of small business ownership, you need to start outsourcing.

Outsourcing means  to purchase goods or subcontract services from an outside supplier or source.

Don’t be afraid to hand off some of the tasks that keep your business humming. Paying someone for a few hours of work each week to do even one time-consuming task, like your payroll for example, frees you up to handle more important things — and more of the things that you love about owning your own business! 

Experts exist to do the work they are good at so you can do the work you’re good at.

Why Should You Outsource?

Outsourcing can be the answer to reducing and controlling costs of your business. In fact, this is usually the main reason people decide to start outsourcing.

Outsourcing can improve the company’s focus. It will free-up you and your employees (if you have them) and internal resources for new purposes. It will also increase efficiency for the time-consuming functions your business currently lacks the resources for.

Improved Focus on Core Business Activities

Outsourcing can free up you or your people to focus on their strengths.  Allowing you or your staff to concentrate on their main tasks and future strategy will make yours or their work less stressful and more fulfilling.

Increased Efficiency

Choosing a freelancer to specialize in a process or service can help you achieve a more productive, efficient business of your own. Many people find that their business gets better when they outsource, and they are able to offer a higher quality experience for their customers, as well as their employees. All of this leads to customer loyalty and employee retention, two of the most resource-saving goals in any business.

Controlled Costs

The cost savings you’ll achieve by outsourcing can help you release dollars for spending on developing other areas of your business and retaining top talents. Strategic outsourcing allows you to save on labor costs and operating expenses.

Increased Reach

Outsourcing can give you access to capabilities and facilities otherwise not accessible or affordable.  You may have the need to use an expensive specialized tool that you don’t want to purchase, like a paint booth, an automatic quilting machine or a 3-D printer for example. Let someone else take the financial hit of buying the machine and gaining the expertise, then outsource your need for the use of the tool to them.

Greater Competitive Advantage

Outsourcing can help to make your business more flexible and agile, able to adapt to changing market conditions and challenges, while providing cost savings and service level improvements. Outsourcing can also help you leverage knowledge and skills in your complete supply chain, giving you an advantage over your competitors.

Improved Productivity

Outsourcing gives you access to expertise, technology and resources. Your hired service provider can improve your performance by meeting key metrics, such as efficiency, quality and customer satisfaction.

Successful Outsourcing Without Losing Quality

To successfully outsource some of your processes, you should take a 2-step approach.

First, identify your business needs by examining your current business processes and workflow. Make sure to identify areas for improvement and determine what outsourcing services your business requires. After identifying your business needs, you can determine which specific tasks to outsource. This task may take a couple of months so that you can accurately see where your time and efforts are being spent, where it makes sense to keep something in-house and where to outsource.

Second, be sure you are able to maintain control over your business by creating a comprehensive service level agreement that sets expectations between you and the service provider. Make sure to describe the products or services to be delivered and constantly collaborate with your new partner to ensure you’re maintaining business control.

Maintaining Your Brand

If you’ve reached the point of needing to outsource, then chances are good you didn’t get there without knowing what makes a good brand. But if you need a refresher, check out our ultimate guide to get your brand up to par.

The guide has sections about visuals, tone, voice, audience and more,  making it easier to be consistent with your marketing efforts, stick to your values and provide a consistent solution to your customers’ problems. Having a brand guide for your company makes outsourcing so much easier; if there are questions about what is on brand and what isn’t, you and your new partners merely have to refer to the brand guidelines. This goes for marketing materials and physical products. Give a blueprint and make sure it’s followed.

If everyone is following the same rules, the results will be more cohesive.

It’s helpful to provide the outsourced team with some guidelines and examples, but you can’t stop there. Always have an internal person or team review the completed outsourced work to be sure it aligns with your expectations. Have someone on your internal team go through a rigorous review and inspection process that evaluates uniformity and consistency.

The Bottom Line

Employing strategic outsourcing can be a game-changer for your business. This strategy gives you access to real expertise, modern technology and the resources necessary to succeed. 

Further, the right partner helps improve your service efficiency and business productivity. They ultimately help you scale your operations, grow your business and achieve competitive advantages on a larger scale. 

Eventually, all successful entrepreneurs figure out when outsourcing is the next necessary step. Doing it right can be a great way to increase your own efficiency and that of your in-house team of subject matter experts, ensuring your outsourced work has the same impact on the projects you finish in-house.

Like my tips and suggestions? What was the most helpful part of this blog for you? 

Tell me which piece of advice you’re going to implement on your small business journey by connecting with me on your favorite social channel. 

The Power of Professional Photography in Building a Stronger Brand Identity

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In today’s fast-paced digital era, where capturing and retaining the attention of consumers is paramount, building a strong brand identity has become crucial for businesses of all sizes. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is through professional photography.

The power of high-quality images in creating a lasting impression on potential customers is undeniable. Brands that invest in professional photography are often able to communicate their message more effectively and build a stronger connection with their audience.

You Get a Visibility Boost

Professional photography services can easily help increase the visibility of your business. By producing high-quality images to use on social media, websites or advertisements, you can attract more customers who are interested in learning more about what you have to offer.

Professional photos are also great for press releases or company profiles as they help create a cohesive look and feel that represents your brand well.

Another Layer of Credibility

High-quality images can make all the difference when it comes to creating an online presence that is trustworthy and reliable.

Customers will be able to get a sense of the professionalism behind your brand and trust that you are providing quality products or services when presented with well-crafted images.

Helps Showcase Products or Services

Product shots or images related to your services can be used strategically throughout different platforms from websites to social media posts to printed materials, such as brochures or flyers.

If a customer is unable to physically come into contact with a product, then having quality images available helps them gain an understanding of what it might look like before making a purchase decision.

Pros Come Equipped

A professional photographer has access to all the necessary gear and equipment needed for any photo shoot — from lighting equipment to backdrops — which helps ensure that each image is crisp and clear regardless of the setting.

They also have experience with various editing tools, allowing them to adjust colors, contrasts, saturation levels, etc., ensuring all images appear natural yet polished.

They’re Skilled in Photo Editing

Professional photographers are highly skilled in photo editing, which has become an integral part of modern photography. They use various editing software programs to enhance their photos and manipulate them to match their creative vision.

Photographers can adjust the color balance, contrast, brightness, saturation and other parameters to improve the image’s overall quality. They also use specific editing techniques to remove imperfections, such as blemishes or distracting elements in the background.

An Expert Can Set You Up for Success

Professional photographers have a deep understanding of how to stage a product shoot to showcase the item’s best features. They have a trained eye for detail and can identify the product’s most crucial selling points, such as its texture, size, shape and color.

Photographers also understand how to position the product and how to capture angles that will create interest and intrigue, drawing in the viewer’s gaze.

Put Your Images to Work

Having professionally-taken photographs can put you ahead of the curve when it’s time to design marketing materials. And, if you’ve decided to put most of your budget toward a photographer, you can save money by using a free design platform like Adobe Express to get the most out of your photos. Here are some of our favorite ways to use professional images in marketing:

  • Brochures: The Adobe Express product brochure creator is a user-friendly tool that enables businesses to create stunning product brochures. With a wide range of customizable templates, it allows brands to showcase their products and services in a visually appealing and engaging manner.
  • Flyers: The Adobe Express flyer maker is a great tool for designing visually striking flyers that incorporate business photos. With easy-to-use templates and powerful editing tools, you can create custom flyers that effectively communicate your business offerings while showcasing the unique characteristics of your brand.
  • Opening Soon Poster: Using the Adobe Express opening soon poster creator, businesses can easily create professional-looking posters to announce their opening. With a variety of templates, graphics, and fonts to choose from, the process is quick and seamless.
  • Photo Collage: The Adobe Express photo collage maker is a great tool for businesses to showcase their products, services, and events in a visually appealing way. With a variety of layouts and creative options, businesses can easily create high-quality collages to share on social media, websites, or other marketing materials.
  • Web Page Design: With the Adobe Express website page maker, businesses can easily create beautiful and engaging web pages to showcase their photos. The drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to design pages that are visually appealing and display images in a creative and professional way.

Professional photography is a powerful tool for building a stronger brand identity. It helps to create a visual language that speaks directly to your target audience, conveys your brand values and tells your story in a compelling way.

With so much competition out there, every brand needs to find ways to stand out and make a lasting impression. Professional photography can help you achieve that and more. Invest in high-quality photography and watch as your brand grows stronger, gains more recognition and becomes a force to be reckoned with in your industry.

For more information about how we can help boost your brand, reach out today!

How to Use Pinterest to Plan Your Branding Photo Session

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Whether at home, in your office, or on the go, Pinterest is the ultimate platform to help you plan your branding photo session.

It’s free, packed with many benefits, and a buzzing hotspot for inspiration from content creators across the globe. 

If you’re unfamiliar with it, this step by step guide will help you plan for a branding photo session that’s effective for building your brand. 

Using your brand guidelines as a reference allows you to stay on track and on brand. Haven’t yet nailed those down? Get started with our branding checklist here. 

Using Pinterest for planning 

Step 1: Setup an account.

If you don’t have one yet (it’s free).

Step 2: Create a mood board

Before browsing Pinterest, you’ll want to create a digital mood board first.

A mood board is basically a combination of images, videos and concepts you like gathered in one place, which you can refer back to for your photoshoot to gain inspiration.

When creating it,  give it a quirky name like my “My Epic Brand Photo Session” or something fun like that.

Step 3: Search

Use the search bar to find photos. For example, “woman working at laptop”.

If you’re looking for standing poses, try using search terms like “woman standing poses” or if you’re looking for happy expressions, try using “woman smiling poses”.

Another option is “brand photo shoot poses”.

Step 4: Pin Photos

Pin photos you like to your inspo board.

Top Tip: Remember to add descriptions to your photos later when adding to further help with your brand photo session. You might even want to create separate boards based on different elements of your brand photo session. 

Step 5: Board Review

Once you’ve got your mood boards and pins gathered, you’ll want to review them.

Take some time to look at your board for themes, patterns, colors, layouts, and more.

See if there have been any common trends that you would like to help guide you on the style of photo session you want to create.

Step 6: Share with your photographer 

Once you’ve got an idea of the types of photos you like, props, accessories, poses, vibe, and aesthetic, you’ll want to share them with your photographer to discuss.

When sharing, remember to speak about the images, poses, and concepts and why you like them.

Then together, you can see how to adapt them and make them fit your brand photoshoot. 

Other Sources

Another way you can add to your board is by saving images from your phone or computer.

To do this, you’ll want to add the Pinterest save extension.

This extension allows you to save any image from a blog, website, social media site, or anything else as inspiration and pin it later to your board. 

Insider Tip

On Pinterest, it’s quite easy to stray off topic and lose track of your original goal.

Pinterest can be like a rabbit hole full of enticing content, so keep your pins relevant to your brand.

Try not to go for the recommended pins on Pinterest, as they’re not always appropriate.

Top Tip: When pinning to your board, perhaps keep a list of your brand guidelines nearby to help you stay on track. 

Final thoughts 

Overall, Pinterest is a great platform for inspo for your upcoming brand photo session. 

If you want more inspiration or want to book a branding photo session, schedule one with us.

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Corporate Event Photography in Las Vegas

Corporate Event Photography

If you’re in Vegas for business, attending one of the many conferences, or doing some team building, now is a great time to add Corporate Event Photography to your list of to-dones.

Professional photographs of your corporate event have many benefits. They can make sure your team stays motivated throughout the year, showcases the dedication you have to your field of expertise and adds instant credibility to your website, social media channels and digital marketing efforts.

Taylored Photo Memories makes the process easy, pain-free and affordable.

We provide customizable photographer coverage of your corporate events, industry conferences, trade shows and corporate outings.

Our Las Vegas based team is one of the best in the business and is ready to make your corporate event look incredible.

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What Our Las Vegas Corporate Event Photography Experts Do

Our photography services give you comprehensive coverage of your corporate event. We’ll capture all the good stuff. Your agenda provides numerous opportunities for key moments, faces filled with compelling reactions, exciting reveals and much more.

We make sure not to miss any of them.

We anticipate what’s about to happen, and our years of experience being on the scene at various corporate events gives our photographers the skills to be there and be ready.

Secondly, we understand that In the fast-paced modern world our clients want their images returned from the photographer quickly.

We know how painful it can be to have to wait for days or weeks to see the photos of your event. Speed is one of our top priorities because we know it helps you complete your projects faster. Our quick turnaround allows you to incorporate images straight away into more of your programming.

Taking great images doesn’t add up to a hill of beans if the file processing, management, transfer and distribution steps move at a snail’s pace.

Business moves fast and so do we.

The Benefits of Hiring Taylored Photo Memories for Your Las Vegas Event

Our job is to always provide you with high-quality images. The photos we take at your corporate event will end up impacting your brand’s perception. High quality images make that impact positive instead of negative. That’s why the quality of our work is a point of pride for our team and we take this job seriously.

You want your company’s marketing efforts to look their best so that they enhance your brand’s perception and not detract from it.

Our deep understanding of how your images will be used on various promotional materials informs the work we do on event day for your team. The success of your future marketing materials depend on it.

Capturing the special moments and the emotions that make up your event is another big benefit to our photography services.

We do more than just document the atmosphere and the mood, we also strive to tell stories with our images.

Giving our photography the human touch goes a long way to making good pictures. Your attendees aren’t robots and we make sure to treat them like people, not just subjects. The use of candid shots is what it’s all about.

That being said, a very real benefit of our photography is that the photographs do indeed document the event. You can reference them in the future to answer questions or fill in the gaps in your memory of the event. This is Vegas after all.

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Bringing your team together in Las Vegas is only a winning move if you’ve got the pictures to prove it!

Throw the world famous slogan, “What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas” out with yesterday’s Wall Street Journal. When it comes to successful and memorable corporate events, you’ll want to document the wins you had while in town. And you’ll be setting yourself up for more success back at company headquarters thanks to a new collection of photographs.

Backing Up Las Vegas’ Reputation

Las Vegas means business and we host bigger, better, more spectacular corporate events than anyone else. Period.

It’s easy to see why so many decision makers and event planners choose Las Vegas. With a vibrant and energetic atmosphere and plenty of event venues, Vegas is an easy win.

Las Vegas is equipped with all the pieces that make for well executed events, and that goes for photography opportunities also.

The grand ballrooms and meeting venues, and unlimited background possibilities bring your corporate event images to life.

The entire city caters to the business crowd like nowhere else. Beyond the Strip Hundreds upon hundreds of party spaces, coworking laboratories, warehouses, and other infrastructure elements turn Las Vegas into your oyster that always produces a photographic pearl.

Las Vegas’s reputation for hosting great corporate events is unblemished, and it’s on all of our photographers to keep it that way.

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Add a Corporate Event Photographer to Your Guest List in Las Vegas

There are major advantages to booking our services.

One of them is having access to first class photographers. Las Vegas is kind of like New York City, in that, if you can make it here you can make it anywhere. Our visitors demand it and our team delivers.

In fact, Taylored Photo Memories works with the Dell Technologies WORLD conference. While attendees are busy discussing the future of work and learning about modern data infrastructure, our photographer is in the thick of it capturing all the action.

Our professional corporate event photographers, including founder McKenzi Taylor, are trusted by some of the biggest companies in the world, dozens of small businesses and everyone in between.

Your company or industry may come to Las Vegas once a year. But when your plane leaves the tarmac at Harry Reid International, we’re right back at it covering another event.

That’s our job, and we’re good at it.

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“The outcome of working with McKenzi has been phenomenal. What I liked best about working with McKenzi was her kindness and her truly unsurpassed ability to put me at ease and take photos that represent the spirit of MANN|MARK in a relevant light. The whole experience was the best that I have ever had with a photographer!”

– Laurie Mann, MANN|MARK

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Brand photography client logo.
Brand photography client logo.
Brand photography client logo.
Brand photography client logo.
Brand photography client logo.

How To Book Our Corporate Event Photography Services in Las Vegas

Booking our corporate event photography services in Las Vegas is easy. We look forward to adding your event to our calendar and can’t wait to help you with your photographic needs.

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Don’t miss the moments that happen during your event or ignore the potential of great branding photography.

Get it right by hiring a professional.

Photography that impacts your bottom line is worth every penny. Your marketing team, your social media gurus, and your stockholders will thank you.

Book the Taylored Photo Memories team today

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How Your Photos Affect Your Ideal Client’s Perception of Your Brand

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When you think of world-leading brands like Coca-Cola, American Express, Apple, what comes to your mind?

I bet, whatever it is, you have a distinct image for each brand. Perhaps, with Coca-Cola, it could be the clunking or cheers of the iconic Coca-Cola bottles. For American Express, it could be happy families or people enjoying the small moments like on holiday. With Apple, it could be a minimalistic image of their iPhone, Macbook, or any other product.

Regardless of the company, I’m pretty sure you can differentiate them quickly. The reason you can do this is that they have bold and powerful brand photos showcasing their products or services that resonate with you. 

The right brand photos can raise your authenticity and shape your target customers’ perception of your business.

There are a lot of psychological elements and benefits associated with them. So let’s jump right in.

How can brand photos alter your clients’ perception? 

Having the right brand photo can make a crucial difference in influencing the buying behavior of your customers. Potentially, brand images can help create a connection by doing the following:

Enhances your credibility 

When selling something online or offline, everyone is looking for a way to trust you. One of the best ways to trust your brand is for others to see it being used by someone else. This is why you see companies like Walmart, Disney+, Samsung, and more constantly promoting their brand by having families in their branded photos. 

Research even supports this, showing that firms who use family brand photos are more likely to experience increased brand authenticity from their consumers. This is because the families they’re targeting can more visualize their own family using their product. 

In all honesty, you don’t have to use families in your photos; just having your target audience in them can act as a form of social proof, showing your reliability and popularity. 

Establishes identity and recognition 

Where are you selling your product or service? Is it strictly online, or do you have a physical presence within a store? Wherever you’re positioned, you want to capture your consumers’ attention over your competitors in the 8.25-second window you have. 

Brand photos are highly effective in you doing this, as it quickly captures the visual elements of your brand, allowing people to associate with it before their attention diverts elsewhere. Consistent, high-quality brand images can allow you to stand out from afar and create a connection in a chaotic marketplace.

Forms a strong impression 

It’s not really rocket science, but having a brand photo over a stock photo is more appealing to your consumers. Brand photos are high quality, more visually attractive, and elevate the desired value of your product. Whereas poor stock photos may not be well pixelated, used elsewhere on the internet, and cause consumers to question your product’s or service’s quality.

Cultural and socially relevant 

By using brand photos with real people, you will look more culturally and socially relevant. They reflect all the different aspects of your target audience, celebrating their values and experiences and allowing you to connect with them personally. 

Creates a story 

Brand photos can help evoke emotion amongst your consumers if captured well. If experiences, moments, or situations with you are captured, they can create a narrative and story, making you look more meaningful and authentic. The more your consumers see the photos, the more likely they can resonate with your brand and connect to it. 

Showcases your personality 

Your products and services must speak for themselves when you’re not around. Before your customers even use or engage in them, they have to represent you on and off the shelf. Working with a photographer to capture your products and services can help showcase the values and personality of your company. 

For instance, if you are a sustainable company, you might want to conduct a brand photo shoot highlighting your green practices and commitment to the environment. If you have a strong company culture and want that highlighted, you could have a brand photoshoot showing team-building activities. An experienced brand photographer can learn about your values and help you highlight them effectively in photos.

Brand photos vs stock photos

When showcasing your brand to the world, using stock photos may seem pretty tempting. After all, many websites provide free stock photos without any royalties, and at the moment can seem like a cost-effective option at the time.

But the truth is, it can significantly damage your brand in the long run. Why?

Because stock photos are everywhere and are used by many across the internet. If you use them for your brand, you could confuse consumers and businesses with your identity, preventing them from knowing who you are as others use the same photos. As a result, it’s unlikely to create a lasting impression and be able to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

Investing in high-quality brand photoshoots can give you a distinct voice and allow you to stay consistent with your identity. Often, stock photos can’t align with your brand guidelines, values, and personality.

After all, you can’t customize stock photos or alter them to suit your brand. With brand photos, you’re in control of what to shoot and how to fit them in line with your brand.

Helping with E-E-A-T

One of the hidden benefits that’s often overlooked when using brand photos is that it helps with an SEO strategy called E-E-A-T. If you’re unfamiliar with E-E-A-T, let me explain how this concept works. Basically, E-E-A-T stands for:

  • E: Experience
  • E: Expertise
  • A: Authority
  • T: Trust

Basically, it’s a framework that Google uses to review the quality of content on your website. It helps determine your website’s value and ranking on search engines. To fully explain the strategy and guidelines behind it involves another post in itself. But brand photos unique to your business can help with this, as they help establish trust and authority and aren’t being used by other businesses online, allowing you to stay original. 

The Bottom Line 

Overall, fresh brand photos can elevate your identity and demonstrate a strong sense of authenticity to your customers. Depending on how you conduct your shoot, they can tell a story, evoke emotions, and create a connection with your customers. 

If captured effectively, they can create a strong identity and increase the likelihood of long-term engagement amongst your customers. Whereas choosing stock photos can do a lot more harm to your brand image than good, causing a lot of confusion. 

If you’re not sure how to capture the right brand photos for your business, I can help. I work with you to capture your values and give you a distinct look from your competition.

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What to Look for in a Personal Brand Photographer

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You know that personal brand photography is one of the best ways to make your small business stand out, but which photographer should you use for your photo session?

You could flip a coin or go with the first one that comes up in your search results, but photographers aren’t all the same, so those aren’t strategies I’d recommend. 

You’ll need to interview potential photographers as if you were hiring a full-time employee, because, in a way, that’s what you’re doing.

Your images will be pulling overtime for you once you’ve got them and begin using them in your branding materials, so it’s worth it to open up the check book for a personal brand photographer who will do the job well.

Find the one that you vibe with best by using these tips to interview them. You’ll be happy with the final results and you’ll see significant returns on your investment in branded collateral.

Experience

First and foremost, do they know what they are doing? You’d think this would be an easy one, but some photographers out there are still faking it ‘til they make it. Thankfully this interview question is an easy one.

“How long have you been helping small businesses with their personal branding photography needs?’

Notice it’s not just, “How long have you been a photographer?” Because they could be counting their high school art classes in their “experience.” That’s not what you’re looking to learn about them.

You want to ask a pointed question to get a detailed answer. Use this softball to learn exactly about the specialized kind of photography work they’ll be doing for you.

All photography is not created equal. You’re looking for someone who specifically has experience doing personal brand photography.

Portfolio

Ask to see their portfolio with resulting usages, not just the images they’ve captured. See if they can show you how their clients used the photos they took.

Do the photographer’s photos tell a good story about the company that commissioned them? Do you as a consumer think they are effective?

Seeing the photographs in context can tell you a lot about how a good photographer uses their creative brain to make effective artistic decisions, rather than just their index finger to press the shutter button.

You may find that photographers with a journalistic background do this well.

First of all, they’ve been professionally trained on how to use their camera to tell a story. And secondly, because the news is a hungry 24-hour-a-day content guzzler, these types of photographers tend to get really good at what they do really quickly. The beast must be fed!

Client Testimonials

Once you’ve weeded out the pretenders and have your list of contenders, check their references. What do former clients have to say about them? The things you might be worrying about — Will they make me feel comfortable? Can I be myself in front of their camera? — might have been addressed by previous clients in the Google reviews.

If a long list of testimonials mention the photographer’s great ability to put them at ease, then chances are they have a good rapport with their clients during their sessions.

Former clients will also give you great insight on how the photographs they received have been helpful or unhelpful.

If there are rave reviews about the success of their company thanks to the use of “Photographer Smith,” you can be assured that the images have actually made a positive impact on the clients’ bottom lines.

Style

Here’s where you’ve got to start making some decisions. These decisions should be based on the personal brand you’ve already established. Everyone who has made it this far on your list should know what they are doing. Now it’s time to find out if they know you and your customers and your brand.

For example, if your company is an automotive aftermarket specialty parts dealer, then you may not vibe with a photographer who preaches the virtue of public transportation and walks everywhere they go.

If they photograph a lot of earth-friendly companies, their portfolio may be filled with light, airy, whimsical photos and their style may not be for you.

On the other hand, if they have demonstrated use of a wide range of styles, you might be able to overlook your differences because you like their art.

In the sport of boxing, they say styles make fights. What this means is that you don’t want to be stepping on your opponent’s feet, and getting tangled in a mess when you should be landing blows. Nobody wants to pay $59.99 for HBO to watch that.

The same goes for choosing a good match in a personal brand photographer. No one wants to see a jumbled mess of styles.

Make sure your style can be complemented by theirs. Your styles don’t have to be exact copies. Remember, for every yin, there’s a yang and opposites do attract. Don’t dismiss a photographer whose style you like just because it’s out of your comfort zone. 

Share Reference Photos

Here’s where a little recon can get you closer to your target. Look for brand photography out in the wild and save examples of images you like. Share this collection with your personal brand photographer and see if they can do something similar. Make sure the techniques you like are in their bag of tricks.

This is another good opportunity to talk specifics. You’ll have a tangible image you found and should be able to tell them why you like it. Ask them if they can execute that shot, especially if it’s technically advanced.

You’ll know right away if they love it or hate it. And if they hate it then ask them why. They may have a very good reason for deterring you from trying to replicate your show-and-tell piece. If they can steer you in a better direction, even if it’s a different photographer, then you’ve asked a good question and are one step closer.

Using these techniques, tips and interview questions, you will be well on your way to finding the personal brand photographer that’s right for you.

Let us know what sort of personal brand photography session you need and we’ll be glad to help your small business shine. Connect with our team to get started today!