The business is predominantly all about you. You’re the worker bee.
Most studio's will have the owner doing most of the session both shooting and sales. There can be a lack of systems and procedures.
Or maybe they are frequently changing and infrequently being used. Although you make sales there isn’t always money in your account and paying bills can be stressful. Some weeks are good and some weeks are bad.
You may have an assistant or part time staff member that does odd stuff around the studio. If you are organized and well managed your studio can make between 40% to 50% profit.
The skills you need at this stage of business are;
Knowing and managing your Cost of good sold and your general administration expenses and rent
You start putting in reporting to understand and manage your business
You are starting to understand your accounting.
You’re at the point of needing help, You start hire people to sell and shoot.
You have some systems & processes and you have started to hire people. Then you realize 6 months later your making less in profit than you did at $500K and you don't know why your people are not doing the job well enough to get the results you want.
This requires an new set of set of skill's around managing people and systems as well as coaching a team.
You need to be able to create accountability for your team but you are unsure how to do this or you aren’t getting the follow through and results you want.
You are starting to offer payment plans for customers to help convert sales. But now you notice your profit has reduced to 20 % to 30% of the bottom line and don't know why you have no cash?
The skills you need at this stage of business are;
You need to create reliable and repeatable systems and processes your people can follow as well as the checks and measures to know they are following your processes.
Your ability to lead and manage becomes non-negotiable. You must have the skill to keep your why top of mind and have your team on board with consistently communicating that to your clients and prospects.
You fully understanding your accounting, balance sheet and cash flow projections.
Then if you push through this stage your heading to $1million. Just be careful why you want to achieve this number.
$1M is what the industry tells you creates success, but does it. If your after ego success then sure but there are significant infrastructure requirements at this stage of business that need to be considered.
Now you have a team of people and you have made it right? This stage in business life is the stage where cash is the toughest.
Your sales team are only as good as their last sale. Your sales fluctuate. $30,000 one week and $10,000 the next. Its frustrating and consuming.
Your booking team is missing the mark and you don't know why. You'll start to get a high turnover of staff so you feel like your training all the time
The skills you need at this stage of business are;
You need to become the master of team and culture. It's not about taking photos any more its about management of people and they are unpredictable.
You need to understand what the difference is that makes the difference. This is never the big things but many, many small things done consistently.
You need to operate with precision and intention at all times.