Spending money is not hard to do… Wanting to spend money is even easier! You open your inbox, do a quick rss scan and you are bombarded with offers.
Some are really bad and they’re easy to say no to, some of them are way too expensive but they’re just ‘sooooo pretty’ and some of them actually are worth your money… But chances are you’re not investing in those ones, in fact you may not have even thought twice about the ones that could and even would actually help you and your business.
There is a vital question that you can ask yourself before you make any major purchases that will save you from spending your money on “regret crap”.
“Regret Crap” is all the stuff that you spent your money on in hopes that it was going to make your photography look better, your business be better or your phone ring better… But it turned out that it wasn’t really what you needed. It was a poorly planned and pathetically researched attempt to find an easy fix that turned out to never solve the problem or have any of the qualities that “easy” should have.
I have a closet of “regret crap” that I bought at the beginning of my career. I feel I need to put in a disclaimer… What’s in my closet doesn’t have to be ‘regret crap’ for you, it just turned out to be “regret crap” for me. There is a light meter (because I never used it and bought it in hopes that it would be my easy fix instead of learning manual), a ton of newborn props (I don’t even photograph newborns anymore), about 100 lollipops that I was going to use for a lollipop garden concept-shoot right up until I realized I was going to need ten times that to have any sort of impact. (On a plus note, I now stick these on the top of gifts for the birthday parties my kiddos attend!) …And well, you get the idea.
Each of the items I mentioned, are things that I bought to either try to mask the real problem area or were poorly researched and prematurely purchased. After hundreds of dollars wasted and a list of items added to my ‘someday post on eBay’ to-do list… I’ve learned to ask myself this very important question:
Will _________________(insert the item you’re thinking about buying) solve a problem or is it just masking the real one?
My spending habits seemed to graduate from Kindergarten to High School over night just by asking this simple question! It also had a wonderful side effect of helping me narrow in on where I really should spend my money! For example, after spending a bunch of money on props and such in hopes that this would draw new clients in.. I finally invested the time and money into learning how to genuinely and properly market my photography business.
With this one simple question you can begin deciphering if the item you’re interested in is a Band-Aid or a cure! By personally asking this question, I’ve been able to invest in the right areas of my business! Because of that fact, I finally have the money to buy the things I really want, when I want them… But it’s not with false hopes of making something happen that won’t. It’s because I want it and I can! That is an empowering feeling!
Tomorrow Night (Wednesday the 30th) I will be teaching a live web event: Go4Profit – The Art of In-Person Ordering! If you’re ready to have the cure instead of the Band-Aid, ready to have the money to buy things just because you want them and not have to feel guilty about it. If you’re ready to create amazing summer experiences for your family because of the thousands of dollars that you’re brining in from your photography business, then I highly suggest that you REGISTER RIGHT NOW for Go4PROFIT!
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