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Creating With Light - The Power of Two - part 3 of 1 2 3

by Dave Montizambert Published 01/02/2017

These mailings (pre-internet marketing) were inexpensive and always got work;we even continued it into the internet age and it was still a success – people still love tangibles!

As we got busier we also realised we wanted more time off – why work like crazy only to flat line on the weekend, not a way to live. Besides like most photo businesses shooting doesn’t occur every day, so tighten it up, don’t let the bookings spread out too much. This we did so that we could shorten our working week. At first, we did this in small steps – Friday either Dave and I or Mark would have the day off while the other(s) would man the studio.
vThat wor
ked and we loved it so well that pretty soon we all took Friday off – the three-day weekend was born. How did we handle this with our clients?

Easy enough, we didn’t say we were closed Friday, we instead would say, we have an opening Thursday this week or Monday next week or something like that. This way you are not saying no, just that you are available on these other days. Never tell a client no, just give them the option you want. Did we lose business? No, in fact we did better because we had more energy and vigour for the work – that’s working smart. Also we weren’t totally rigid on this, if something was truly time sensitive we would relent and book Friday, but then that shooter would take Monday off. Surprisingly this didn’t happen that often.

I then thought about the future – here were two vibrant young men doing what they loved and determined to go to their graves with a camera in their hand! We revised the partnership agreement, updated life insurance policies, strategised with our accountant, made conservative investments and thought about the future. It was a good thing too because Mark dropped dead one day shortly thereafter from heart failure while doing some really heavy-duty mountain biking.

Real estate investments seemed a good fit for Dave and me to secure steady passive income in the coming years. Nothing risky just sound rental buildings that we could manage ourselves and secure funds for a long time to come. Buy and hold. We didn’t know anything – so we did some research, talked to friends, colleagues who had such investments and just jumped in and quickly learned from our many mistakes. We started in 2003 with three properties and now in 2017 we have nine. That’s our retirement portfolio.

Which leaves Dave to be 'the gentleman photographer' exploring and explaining the wonders of photography in our new/very old 1914 schoolhouse/home studio, (okay don’t laugh, 100 years old is about as old as it gets for architecture in western Canada).

D: So the Power of Two can be two or more, it’s really about multiple people working together, identifying strengths and weaknesses then building your business with and around these. Go forth and multiply! … because I don’t think you should do it all by yourself.

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1st Published 01/02/2017
last update 09/12/2022 14:53:03

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