Candid Color Systems® is making it easier than ever for customers to buy their images online by offering Express Checkout from PayPal (ECS).

We use a spreadsheet called a matrix to analyze all photography opportunities in our area and we associate a dollar amount to each of these events. This allows us to see the potential money out there waiting to be realized and it allows us to forecast the amount of revenue we expect for events already booked.

As Graduations, Sports, Parties and Events ramp up this Spring, the typical focus is on how to get enough good photographers; how to train those photographers, how to field enough equipment, how to upload images to the lab quickly, how to get proofs I.d.’d and posted quickly, and how to get manual orders input and to the lab. All of these steps are certainly important and must be done early to insure good sales.

There are probably more than 7 reasons to take multiple shots when shooting youth sports, but here are a few that come to mind. Let’s dive in….

Proms, which used to be the golden goose of the Spring photo season, have now become a financial challenge for photographers in the digital age. Proms are still being held all over the country, and expensive tuxedoes and fancy dresses are still all the rage at these events; but pre-paid posed photographs have taken a serious hit.

Increasing sales has several different meanings. It can mean increasing the number of events booked, increasing the size of the average order, or increasing the percentage of customers purchasing. Green Screen can have a positive affect on all of these ways of increasing sales.

Candid Color Systems has developed a new online report called the Event Sales Aging Repor. This new, beneficial business tool displays a sales cycle for specific events or market type over a defined period of time. This data can be compiled from any online event orders placed across multiple CCS software platforms and can be filtered in a variety of ways.

There is much more to being successful in the youth sports photography business than taking good pictures. Good photography is necessary but won’t get you the business alone.

Every business likes to think they do a good job. Most businesses believe they are the “best” or excel at something. Even for those businesses who truly are at the top of their field, it takes work to stay there. Being “your own customer” occasionally is a great way to uncover potential problems and to discover areas for improvement. I cannot begin to express how important this concept has been to our business. Making sure that your customer’s experience matches what you believe it to be is paramount. I hope the example below from Jeffrey Gitomer will serve as inspiration for you to become your own customer and make improvements where necessary.

Faux Groups are a unique way to create group photos from a collection of individual shots photographed in front of a green screen background. These new style of groups can open doors to more portrait opportunities, provide additional sales, are great booking tools and give you options to overcome the physical challenges of actually shooting groups.

Why offer faux groups? Many groups can be difficult to photograph due to a lack of space, bleachers, time or even photographer skill. Faux Groups offer you a solution to these challenges since you only need a limited amount of space to photograph the individuals and the lighting/background setup is fairly simple to learn and execute. They can be shot indoors or outdoors, though shooting green screen outdoors does require additional control over your lighting conditions.