001 Greg Fink – Treating Your Photo Biz like a Business

Welcome to the Photo Report Podcast where we talk to top-level Pro Photographers about the business behind their craft, their journeys to get them, where they are and the lessons they've learned along the way. This is Season 2 of the Photo Report; but Season 1 for the Podcast portion of things, you can go online to thephotoreport.com to see past video interviews as well as the videos from this season. And season 3 is already in the works but what we have for this season is a couple of handfuls of talks by Photographers, Bloggers, Editors at the Richard Photo Lab Booth that was held at W PPI conference out in Vegas; they're packed full of valuable info of what basically you wouldn't get unless you attended one of their workshops. So, we're really excited to share these talks with you and think you're going to love them as well. During this season of the Photo Report, the interviews are hosted  by Alan Cohen from Richard Photo Lab, episode one is with French Photographer, Greg Fink; his work is stunning but the insight in this talk, coming from a business background and 10 years plus working in the marketing department of a massive US company is incredibly helpful in thinking through the intentional strategy he has in his Photo Business. Hopefully, you can take some of these lessons and apply them to your own business before we get into this episode though, this podcast is brought to you by Film Supply Club; it's partly the reason why it took so long to get these WPPI videos live because I spent the first half of the year launching it but Film Supply Club is the best place for you to get film, if you're a film shooting photographer; it's a member based community where once a member you get access to discounted prices on film and other photo related products and services like Richard Photo Lab, Cloud Spot, Lens Pro To Go, Bench Accounting and a lot more to come. But ultimately, it's here to strengthen our Photography Community and save you all as much cash as possible. Now, onto the show… Host - Elan Cohen of Richard Photo Lab: Greg Fink, sexy and handsome French Photographer, featured on Style Me Pretty and on Wedding Sparrow, named as Harper’s Bizarre Wedding Photogs of the year 2016. Elan Cohen:  So, tell us a little bit about your story, how you got into photography. Greg Fink: So, basically I've always been a photographer, I got my first camera in the hand when I was 12, I was lucky enough to have a dark home at home when I was a kid because my dad just loved that so he taught me how to process my negatives, how to do my prints. So, I've always done that but then my parents told me that I should get a real job so I went to Business School and I worked 10 years for Procter & Gamble as a Marketing Manager in Paris and I was kind of very sad in that life. So, I started shooting Wedding 7 years ago when I was still working another job, first for friends, then friends of friends and all of a sudden you realize you can have a market. So, I quit my job 3 years ago so I've been full-time since. Elan Cohen: I always tell this story to people that are just starting out; I was really impressed when we first started working together I remember you wanted to do the Book Project and the way you went about it was completely different than other clients do, where you told me this is my budget for the book, this is what I'm looking for, how many books can I get? As opposed to most people who will say: “Okay I need a hundred of this book” and then we give them the price. So, I thought that was really impressive, can you kind of explain a little- talk a little bit about how your prior experience in business has helped your photography business? Greg Fink: Yeah, so my prior experience in business really helps on a daily basis; whether it is branding or accounting, managing a P&L, everything and you need to realize that 70% of Photographers- Wedding Photographers are going to be out of the market in 3 y --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thephotoreport/message