Are you proud of your work? What's it worth? Where do you sit in the marketplace? Cheap and cheerful? In the pack? At the top? If you're not happy with where you are, what are you doing each day to change that? I believe it's very hard to achieve our goals if we don't have our heads and hearts straight, and at Queensberry we have fierce internal debates about two questions that directly affect what we do each day. The first is about our relationship with you, the photographer. You're our customer, right? Our job is to package your images, enhance their perceived value and create new sales opportunities To View More >>

It's not all about "strategy". When young @stephenbaugh was working at Fuji Xerox a very successful colleague had this advice for him: There are three rules if you want to succeed in sales: 1. Get yourself in plenty of debt - it motivates you to go out the door in the morning ;) 2. Don't let anybody see the fear in your eyes. If you're so scared of losing this piece of business, people will wonder why … are you unsuccessful? 3. Build a relationship with the prospect. Is there a personality fit? Nothing else matters until you do, and a bad relationship doesn't work for you or the prospect. Check To View More >>

Four years in, and Suzanne Black could teach a lot of people a lot of things…especially about marketing and surviving when times get tough. I had a chat with her about what she thinks are the keys to success, how she turns 90% of her enquiries into bookings and why albums are so important to her business. Positivity is contagious. Suzanne is feeling positive right now. I haven't heard that response to a question about the state of the economy in a long time, but after chatting I've decided describing her as "positive" is an understatement... She says, “In the current climate I think it's more To View More >>

I just made a couple of new friends, Jeff and Erin Youngren from San Diego… And it took all of a couple of minutes. Stephen and Danny first met these guys at WPPI in Vegas, and we’ve been in touch ever since. You may remember our post about their new website and promo video so I asked them to share some of their experiences around online marketing, business and their album strategy.  But it was their philosophy, not only to business, but to life, that dominated the conversation. Let’s be friends Jeff and Erin had just returned from a holiday to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, with To View More >>

I see the Druids are celebrating the sun at Stonehenge, but Down South 21 June is the shortest day. Not that we have much to complain about. We don't even get frosts in Titirangi (loosely "fringe of heaven" in Maori) but it's sure cold in the wind and shade. Early morning I rugged up and took the dogs down to the beach and thought that, even when the tide's out on an overcast day in Winter, life's not too bad. Hopefully it's the shortest day for the economy too. The worst of Winter may still be ahead – the moneymen (and some of us) screwed up, and the consequences are still playing out ... but To View More >>