Change is good

Everything in life seems to be changing and, in an ever-shifting world, just how do you ahead plan for your business?

It’s the beginning of another new year, and I usually regard it as all-new, shiny and optimistic. But, if we’ve learned one thing recently, it’s that we shouldn’t count on predictions; 2023 has every opportunity to be the wayward younger sibling of 2020, 2021 and 2022, throwing caution to the wind and rebelling against its tiresome parents.

At this time of year, tradition has it that we set (and promptly forget) a resolution or two – Dry January being my particular bugbear. If there is one month of the year when I need a glass of wine, it is in the post-christmas gloom. But maybe that’s just me.

I have never fathomed New Year’s Resolutions – if you want to change, why wait until January of all months?

Nevertheless, there is a definite beginning to a business year for a photographer – especially if you shoot portraits and weddings. But then the year ends with a mass of orders while the shoots drop away during those dark, damp winter months.

And this hiatus provides a valuable respite to take a breath and plan for the following year.

The right strategy

There is a caveat on many financial adverts that goes something like “past performance is no indicator of future success”, and, of course, it applies to us as a business – recycling what we did last year may not be a course to success.

But how do you know the right strategy for a successful future? We use the Light Blue database in the studio, and my home screen has three everpresent charts (plus my endless task list!):

1. The number of enquiries over the past 10 years

2. The number of bookings over the past 10 years

3. The incoming payments over the past 10 years

So why do we use these three charts? Firstly, enquiries show how well we will be doing in the future – they help us figure out the need for marketing, promotions or campaigns.

The bookings chart shows how good the enquiries were and how well we converted them into bookings. It signals the here and now.

Finally, revenue is a bit of a ‘vanity figure’ – strictly speaking, margin or profit is your accurate guide. However, revenue has its use: it is simple to calculate and indicates how willing the client has been to buy from us how good those bookings were. It shows how we have done (rather than how we will do).

Back to the future

Enquiries are the future; bookings are the present; revenue is the past, like the three Dickensian Christmas Ghosts! Over the past couple of decades, the charts have been reassuringly predictable with busy periods, cash-rich periods and times when it is quieter, allowing us to catch up on all those studio tasks that are hard to fit in when things are hectic.

Then Covid-19 arrived and the charts since 2020 only bear a passing resemblance to the familiarity of those before the pandemic. Using past data to predict what we will do in the future will not be as simple as rinse and repeat. Not that it ever was, of course, but you get the point.

The charts don’t differ completely – the summer months are still the summer months – but the pandemic has changed people’s habits, and the energy-price crisis has only added to that uncertainty.

If I could describe our clients’ behaviour in one word, it would be ‘evolving’.

A world of change

In 2008, when we first switched from part-time to full-time, the world was experiencing the greatest financial meltdown it had ever seen. There we were, all starry-eyed with our brand-new business – a new company with a minimal track record to baseline.

And already, 2023 feels very similar. When we started, we did not know if we were doing it right until we got it wrong. But we had the drive, determination and belief to try things, ditching those projects that failed and holding onto those that worked.

When you’re an established business with its brand, clients, revenue (and costs), things are a little trickier: there is a degree of momentum and inertia.

However, in a world of change, we cannot stand still. As we did back then, creativity, energy and optimism will fuel the business.

We will undoubtedly make some missteps, but we will learn from those.

So is there a definitive answer to ‘what do you need to do to flourish in the coming years?’

Not exactly. Or if there is, I don’t profess to know it.

But I am as excited, energetic and focused for the coming year as I was when we first set up the business.

Happy New Year!

If the past is no indication of the future, planning takes on a whole new level!