The Two Most Important Things you Need to be Doing to Improve your Business - and They're Free

I'm a service provider with a home office.

And it's awesome.

Here are just a few reasons why having a home office is so awesome:

  1. Rent is cheap. Some might even say it's free. Either way, you can't beat using a dedicated space in your home as your office instead of paying rent at a separate location. Factor in what you save on time, gas, and wear and tear on your vehicle, and you might as well be getting paid for your decision to work from home.
  2. You can wake up, stretch, roll out of bed, drink a glass of water, and literally get to working.
  3. You can take breaks to clean up, make a healthy meal, and scratch your dogs' bellies. Win.
  4. It can be as quiet or as loud as you want it to be. There aren't many other offices where it's cool to blast nerdcore on Spotify. 
  5. If you would otherwise work in a major city like Miami or Los Angeles, you avoid the stress of traffic. OH THE STRESS OF TRAFFIC. I think I lose 13 days of my life every time I find myself stuck in traffic.

Living the dream, right? Well, before I made some major realizations about the health of my business, here are just a few things that were going wrong because I have a home office:

  1.  I didn't actually have a dedicated work space. Now that might not be a big deal for everyone who works from home, but it was for me. Don't get me wrong, I had, like, a desk and stuff, with a big girl's chair and everything. But it wasn't long before my work space became one with my personal space and I found myself doing everything but working.
  2. To literally get to working after waking up, stretching, rolling out of bed, and drinking a glass of water, you have to...errrrr...wake up....and get out of bed.
  3. My breaks went something like this: "Oh, look at me just sitting on my couch watching Scandal. It's cool because I work from home. Actually, I'll take a quick nap now and keep working when I'm feeling super duper fresh..." [4.2 hours later...]
  4. Blasting anything and everything on Hulu counts, right?
  5. OK, there's not much to say about this one. I didn't leave my house if I didn't absolutely have to, so I definitely avoided traffic. Like, all of the traffic.

IF YOU DON'T TREAT IT LIKE A BUSINESS,

THEN IT'S NOT ACTUALLY A BUSINESS

Don't get me wrong, at the end of the day, I always accomplished the tasks I had set out for myself and my business. But despite all those long naps I was taking, I found myself exhausted and felt like I wasn't achieving as much as I could be. More importantly, I didn't really feel like I was running a business. Instead, I felt like an amateur hobbyist. Feel me?

So what are the two things I did to change that?

  1. I get out more. Whether it be to attend networking events or to grab a cup of coffee with friends, I now make it a point to interact with others. A home office can be a lonely place, but your business doesn't have to be. In fact, you are hurting yourself by not getting out there and meeting new people and connecting with familiar faces. The health of your business depends on your reputation in your community and among your target audience. After making this change in my own business, my bookings doubled, easily. 
  2. I treat my home office like a "regular" office and I set myself a schedule and gave myself rules and I stick to them. After implementing this into my business, I now find I am almost too productive. No joke. I am tremendously efficient and now I have extra time to tackle new projects or just simply relax without the anxiety of feeling like I got nothing done. My big girl's chair is now a #girlboss chair and my business is no longer just a hobby, but is instead my livelihood and something I nurture almost every day.

It will be hard at first, because breaking old habits and creating new ones is always tough. But trust me, you won't regret it. 

Yours truly,

Christine

 

Why I Love Working With Women

“All societies on the verge of death are masculine. A society can survive with only one man; no society will survive a shortage of women.”
— Germaine Greer

It's not that I don't enjoy working with men.

But if I am being completely honest, I prefer working with other women. And here's why:

  1. Women tend to be more attentive and organized. They put their heart and soul into the things they do and aren't satisfied until it's perfect. And there are few things that I love more than working with people that care about their photo shoot as much as I do.
  2. During a photo shoot, it's not awkward that I'm handsy. Because I won't even ask before I start tucking in tags, fixing tank top straps, straightening out necklaces, and pushing back hair. Which is cool when you're working with women, but not so much with men. 
  3. Women are smarter. I'm not just saying that. It's a science fact. 
  4. Women are better communicators. Also, we can talk and laugh about girl stuff. You know... GIRL STUFF... If you catch my drift.
  5. Women are sexy, even if they need a little help expressing it. And I'm a sexy type of gal.
  6. They aren't afraid to express their feelings; I can't tell you how many spur-of-the-moment hugs I've received from other women. I freaking love hugs. LOVE.
  7. In my experience, women tend to be more confident than men. And I have yet to meet a confident woman that I didn't find stunning.
  8. Last but not least, women are just plain bad ass. They are risk takers, multi-taskers, and game changers. Why WOULDN'T you want to be around them?

 

 

 

Yes, Reposting Instagram Photos is a Copyright Violation

“Just because you used #repost, doesn’t mean you didn’t steal it.”
— yours truly

This morning, I woke up to find that yet another one of my photographs was reposted by a major company on Instagram.

So let's be real - when my photographs are resposted, I'm flattered. Truly. But as more and more of my photographs are reposted, often times with no credit to me at all, I find myself becoming, errrr.... irritated... to say the least.

I love Instagram.

It's a place to express myself, become inspired, and showcase my work. What I don't love is how large companies are taking advantage of the content we work so hard to create.

Before platforms such as Instagram, companies had to create all of their own content. That means they had a budget and had to spend money, time, and other resources on creating advertising campaigns. Now, they can (and do) steal content right off of Instagram, effectively maintaining a very influential social media marketing campaign with little to no cost at all.

On the one hand, we see a #repost as a compliment and oftentimes a goal. On the other hand, we tend to forget that this is our content; we (and by we, I mean every single one of us that takes a picture, whether professional or not, and whether with a DSLR or an iPhone) hold a copyright to it and that copyright has value.

But, in reality, companies are benefiting from your hard work in a way that is unlike any other time in the history of photography. They have free content because we let them steal it. They have more to gain from your hard work than you do from their repost. So start protecting your creativity and hard work, because in a past life, it was worth a lot. In this life, it still can be.

Think about that.