First, Here’s The Bad News:

Professional photography is a lousy industry. According to the US Department of Labor, median photographer earnings in 2013 was $29,280.

What makes the industry so bad? Take your pick:

Zero scalability: With a photography business you are simply trading your time for dollars, and you have a finite amount of time. Compare this with a retail store that can sell more items, or open up more stores. An online business like Google has nearly limitless capacity. A manufacturing business like Apple can open up sales to more and more markets/countries around the world and build more/different products. You, on the other hand, can only shoot a limited amount before you run out of time or drop dead from exhaustion.

Zero barriers to entry: Every day you probably see a dozen new photography businesses open up in your area. Photography businesses are ridiculously easy to start. Since just about 100% of new professional photographers started out as hobbyists, they already have the gear, Photoshop and a computer. And photography web design companies make it cheap and easy to start a website. How about a beautiful website design, free domain name, blog and hosting for $8 a month?

Zero equity building: Most entrepreneurs start a business with an exit strategy in mind. How are they going to cash in on their hard work? It may be an initial public offering, it may be getting acquired, but in one way or another the entire point of the exercise is to build a valuable property that can be monetized. Now let’s look at Sally Smith Wedding Photography. On the day she decides to call it quits, what exactly is there to cash in? Nothing. Maybe she can get a few thousand dollars by selling her gear, but that’s about it. There’s no business to sell.

Now, How About Some Good News:

You can still run a great business, even in a lousy industry.

It’s hard to imagine an industry worse than professional photography, but if I had to name one, I’d pick the airline industry. The airline industry sucks for a few reasons:

Extremely high capital expenditures. A single Boeing 737 (one of the most common planes in the industry) costs anywhere between $52 million and $87 million.
Extremely high labor costs. Skilled pilots, mechanics, ground crew and air crew are expensive and labor disputes are common.
Extremely high fuel costs. Not only does fuel cost a lot, the price is always varying, making it hard to plan and/or expensive to hedge.
Extremely high vulnerability to exogenous events. Weather, air traffic control delays, terrorism, you name it. A big negative event in any of these things can cause millions of dollars in added costs and/or lost revenue.

The result? It’s hard to name an airline that hasn’t gone bankrupt. Let’s just look at a few of the big names that have gone bankrupt in the past 20 years:

Continental Airlines
Frontier Airlines
Eastern Airlines
Pan American World Airways
America West Airlines
TWA (Trans World Airlines)
US Airways
United Airlines
Air Canada
Aloha Airlines
Northwest Airlines
Delta Airlines
Frontier Airlines
American Airlines

So just about every single airline that you’ve ever heard of has gone through bankruptcy. Some reorganized and re­emerged, others simply disappeared.

The bottom line ­ the airline industry sucks rotten eggs.

And yet, there’s Southwest Airlines.

If you invested $10,000 in Southwest Airlines in 1990, your investment would now be worth $508,667.

How did they do it? Why have they thrived while almost every other competitor has gone bankrupt? There have been many, many articles written about the success of Southwest, so I’ll just give you some highlights:

They treat their customers well. How about “bags fly free?” The last time I flew Southwest, the pilot announced that our flight saved $3,300 in fees by not charging for checked bags. Flight changes are easy and relatively painless. And they move fast.

Efficiency. Southwest turns its planes around faster than any other airline, which allows them to fly nearly one extra flight per day per plane compared to their competitors. Everything is standardized ­ they use a single plane (the 737) on all their routes. This saves on maintenance time and training. Their simple point­-to-­point routes means that they have the fewest percentage of lost bags in the industry,

Happy employees. Southwest has never had a strike, despite being the most heavily unionized company in the industry (87%). The employees are on a mission to provide excellent customer service. You’ll never see an airline employee smile more than you do with Southwest. Happy employees make happy customers.

By doing simple things: running efficient operations and treating their customers and employees well ­ Southwest has managed to thrive in a lousy industry.

It sounds simple ­yet it’s easy to lose sight of. You can succeed, even in a lousy industry.

Now, getting back to your photography business. Is business not what you hoped it would be? Are you struggling competing with all the newbies in your market? Phone not ringing? Running any business is hard, but trying to succeed in a lousy industry is even harder.

If you’re doing great ­ that’s awesome, you’re probably doing the right things! If you’re not, what are you going to do about it? Complain? Spend a few hours today online reading camera reviews and lens-sharpness charts?

You’re going to have to reinvent yourself. Learn from Southwest Airlines and do what your competitors aren’t doing. Kick yourself in the butt.

Phone isn’t ringing? Then get on the phone and make some calls! When was the last time you met a wedding planner for coffee? When was the last time you got together with some other photographers to talk about cross-­referrals? When was the last time you met with a realtor who could give out some of your gift cards to families who just purchased a new home in your area? Get off the internet and get on the phone! I guarantee you your competitors aren’t doing this.

No shoots because it’s the slow season? Then start shooting! How about collaborating with a local wedding gown designer or bridal shop to set up some awesome winter bridal fashion shoots? Split the cost of hair/makeup with the designer. Make it a production that turns into an epic blog post and portfolio material.

Influential bloggers in your area? When was the last time you called them and offered a free headshot session?

Still have a 2008­era website? You know, one of those Flash­-based template sites that don’t work on an iPad or iPhone? Get going now on making a new, awesome site that’s also optimized for mobile.

Only write one blog post a month? Or less? Writing blog posts is one of the best ways for customers to find you. Get going.

Sitting alone at your desk all day without talking to anyone? Call some other vendors (florists, planners, DJs, caterers, cake bakers etc.) and put together your own Mastermind group.

Do you know most of the financial planners in your area? Why not? Have you called them to meet for coffee (yeah, I know, I’m big on coffee)? They have the same target customer base that you do ­ affluent clients. They’re always looking for gifts for their clients, but gifts are expensive (e.g. $75 for a fruit & cheese basket). Why not see if they’ll offer one of your portrait photography gift cards to any client that opens a college savings plan?

How about you try to stop asking for stuff, and instead start giving. Grow your circle and find ways to help them. Why not do a photo shoot of one of the caterers in your circle? Make it magazine­-worthy. Blog about them with links to their site. Shoot portraits of them and their food. Help them put together a blog post for their own blog linking to your site, of course). Make them look like the best caterer in town. When you help others it will all come back to you.

The new year is always a good time to kick yourself in the butt. Stop moping. Stop wishing. Stop wasting time. Be the photographer that makes a great income despite being in a lousy industry. Just get out there and start making things happen!

It's January and snowstorm #Colbie just dumped a ton of snow in the north-eastern seaboard. My first inclination is to slide back into the bedsheets and stay there till April. But I have photography businesses to run and that means the hustle is on, 24-7.

But does it need to be always on? Is it not conceivable that the photography businesses could continue to grow even without my presence. Oh, sure, I will still be the visionary behind the images, but as you all know being a photographer is different – vastly different – than being in business as a photographer.

I can feel this frustration in the industry today. How do we create a sustainable and thriving photography business and remain sane? Right? Right. We are all in this together. Thankfully, we don't have to look too far for answers.

You could sign up with a business coach. And, business books are aplenty. Yet, I only read a select few every year that are immediately helpful.

In my opinion, Mike Michalowicz' books – The Toilet-Paper Entrepreneur, The Pumpkin Plan and Profit First, are three books that are within reach of my workstation. They are full of anecdotes and analogies that drive home themes and topics that are easy to understand and better yet, easier still to put into practice.

When I found out that the Connecticut chapter of the ASMP had invited Mike Michalowicz to speak on February 5th, at Yale University, I swung into action to see if I could speak with him about the book and his upcoming presentation. Special thanks to Jane Shauck and Mike's assistant, Kristina Bolduc, for making this interview happen.

If you enjoyed that short conversation, feel free to subscribe to Mike's incredible YouTube channel, where you can experience his wit and wisdom in short bites.

If you are going to be in the New Haven, Connecticut area, make plans to register for this presentation by Mike Michalowicz who will go into much greater detail about using The Pumpkin Plan for your photography business. I expect to be there in the audience taking notes. Join me!

Lara Woolfson and Kate Harper run Studio Nouveau, a wedding and boudoir studio in Boston, Massachusetts.

Studio Nouveau is known for being as colorful and bold as their imagery. Their passion for their work is not only evident in the photos that they take, but also in the lasting relationships they build with their clients. Studio Nouveau's work has been published in several issues of Boston Wedding Magazine, Conde Nast's Brides Magazine, and the cover of Seacoast Bride Magazine as well as showcased in such blogs as Style Me Pretty, Snippet & Ink, Wedding Bee, Carats & Cake, Once Wed, Ruffled and Rock'n'Roll Bride.

Lara will be presenting at Inspire Photo Retreats, in Portland, Maine, from February 9 through the 11th. Her topic will be about creating incredible boudoir experiences for your clients.

Check out some of Lara and Kate's work below:

Find out more about Inspire Photo Retreats here and register (if there are any spots open) here.

Michelle Turner is one of the top wedding photographers in the US. Her destination weddings have taken her around the world. She teaches other photographers at ClickinMoms, where is also the Director of Programming.

Michelle has published two books about fashionable wedding photography and speaks at numerous conventions and events throughout the year on posing and the use of off-camera flash.

Michelle will be presenting at Inspire Photo Retreats, in Portland, Maine from February 9th through the 11th. We sat down to speak about her presentation at the forthcoming conference. You'll also learn a few tips on posing wedding couples:

Zach and Jody Gray have quickly become industry leaders. They are known for their wedding photography and their ability to teach photographers off-camera lighting and business strategies. In fact, when they were hopping from city to city teaching small groups of eager photographers, I attend one of their workshops. I noticed how particular they were to following a system, even if it was using a tool called the Expo Disc.

They are just as meticulous about using off-camera flash. When I started Connecticut Headshots, I turned to their DVDs to learn how to use a simple reflector. I eventually graduated to their other DVD, In Camera: Light, to learn more about their off-camera lighting system.

Thanks to ShootDotEdit.com, the Gray's are going to spend about an hour going over their simple 3-step system to using off-camera flash. The webinar is free, so why not register here.

I managed to convince Zach and Jody to meet with me early one morning a few days ago to talk about their background and what they were going to bring to this webinar.

Check out their instructional videos on how to use the Expo Disc I mentioned above:

So, those videos should give you an idea of how systematic the Gray's are. Want to learn more about lighting from them? They are giving away a free ebook to those who sign up for their awesome newsletter (lots of nuggets of craft/technique and business wisdom freely shared!). Click the graphic below and you will be all set.

If you are interested, feel free to poke around the Gray's online store to check out these useful video workshops and other resources for your photography business:

CJ Chilvers is a writer, and dare I say, “thinker,” behind one of my favorite blogs for photographers called, A Lesser Photographer. By profession, he is a technical writer based in Chicago. In addition to “A Lesser Photographer” he writes at This Life of Leisure.

I cornered Chilvers into a quick interview because we very rarely see him or hear his voice. I was curious to know more about why he started A Lesser Photographer, what made the blog so popular.

I was pleased to know that Craft & Vision was going to be publishing his book by the same name very soon. Well, that book just appeared today on the Craft & Vision site. You can grab it here – A Lesser Photographer: Escaping The Gear Trap To Focus On What Matters – for only $4 before the price bumps back up to $5! [aff]

David duChemin writes about the book, “The Lesser Photographer by CJ Chilvers is about escaping the gear trap and focusing on what matters: the things that actually make better photographs. Things like creativity and authenticity. So instead of worrying about your f-stop, you can concentrate on doing more with less. Less gear. Less comparison. Less “should” and “ought” and “if only,” and more of you, reflected in your work.”

Anyway, before I get completely sidetracked here is my conversation with CJ Chilvers:

The book on Van Halen CJ mentions is called The Van Halen Encyclopedia [aff]

You might as well jump!! [if you got that reference comment below] Subscribe to TiffinboxTV now and see all the interviews before they appear here!

Please also check out the Craft & Vision interview with CJ Chilvers.

Jared Platt is an Arizona-based wedding photographer who is also highly regarded as a Lightroom instructor. He offers workshops to photographers who grapple with Lightroom and has created presets that help accelerate the time it takes to process a folder full of images.

Whether you are a wedding or portrait photographer, you should pay attention to Jared Platt. Lucky for you, on January 14th, he is offering a free webinar, thanks in large part to ShootDotEdit.com.

The topic for this webinar is “Top Lightroom Shortcuts and Speed Tips.” Register here.

Jared and I sat down to chat for a bit about the need for speed when using Lightroom.

As an early adopter of the program, he knows the program intimately – its strengths, its weaknesses, its hidden features. That's why I pay attention to Jared whether it is a free webinar like this one or if he is on CreativeLive.

I hope you will jump at this opportunity to learn from one of leading authorities of Lightroom from the comfort of your own home or studio.