Revisiting Ronnie Owings
What a Difference a Year Makes
This time last year McDonough, Georgia photographer Ronnie Owings was in a terrible funk. After 22 years in business, this accomplished Master Photographer was about to look for another line of work due to his frustration with recessionary pressures on his business and the general fatigue associated with running any small business over the long haul.
In spite of his outstanding portrait photography skills, his winning personality, and the fact that he owned one of the most attractive indoor and outdoor studio complexes imaginable, Ronnie was very close to throwing in the towel: His sales had hit a plateau, his sessions were sluggish, and he had racked up more debt than he was comfortable with. Seeing the recession beginning to unfold all around him, he updated his resume and was weighing options for selling his business property.
Fortunately, he didn’t act hastily; instead, he stopped to analyze his financial options from every possible angle, coming to the conclusion that sticking with his business offered more potential rewards than “being the last one hired and the first one fired somewhere else.” He began to make common-sense changes to his business: Some were easy, but others—such as downsizing staff—were devastatingly hard. You can read about the changes Ronnie made to stabilize his business on Marathon’s blog by clicking on a link at the end of this story.
In that Marathon blog post Ronnie said: “I began to think of myself as the owner of a brand-new business. I was starting over from scratch.” Letting go of valued staff members was not only hard on a personal level, it meant that Ronnie would have to take over the workload. By the beginning of 2009, his biggest worry was how he would cope with doing selling and workflow processing on his own.
Almost a year later, Ronnie Owings is upbeat and truly excited about the future of his business. “My debt is nearly paid off, so that dark cloud has lifted,” he said. “And I was relieved to learn that I can get through a senior seasons by myself, and I’m actually enjoying selling . . . something I never thought would happen. Of course I’m working longer hours, but I’ve learned to be much more productive. And interestingly, the business is more exciting to me than it has been in a long time.”
Most surprising to Ronnie is that he no longer dreads doing sales. The former “sales phobic” reports that his senior season sales are up, and he credits his use of ProSelect projection sales software with helping him to sell more wall portraits than he ever dreamed: “When we sent out proof books, as many as 10 percent didn’t even place orders. With ProSelect, when I sit down with clients and present their images, I can feel out their reactions to the poses. Then I make recommendations as to the best images to purchase, starting with wall portraits. Now 90 percent are buying wall-size prints! What really helps is that I can pull up a photograph of a fireplace in the ProSelect ‘room view’ feature and show clients the various sizes above the mantle, which makes the correct size perfectly obvious to the client. We are also selling lots more images in multi-opening mats and frames because the ‘layouts’ feature allows clients to see the images projected in exact size, showing them in the mats and frames.”
Ronnie’s new approach to sales also has made incentive selling more effective. “Before when we presented incentives, we would say ‘If you hit this level, then you get thus-and-so,’ ” he explains. “Now I can adjust incentives to benefit each specific client. I can say ‘If you purchase this, I can throw in extra wallets.’ This works so much better than just going through a list of possible incentives because I’m understanding the needs and wants of clients so much better.”As busy as he has been dealing with sessions and sales, Ronnie also has kept his eye on marketing activities that have attracted a whole new client base. Last spring, when one client responded to bunny portrait promotional signs he had placed on his studio property, she shocked Ronnie by saying that she had been driving by his complex for years and had never recognized that it was a photography studio! Ronnie immediately remedied this problem by purchasing and installing a large studio sign that leaves no doubt about what goes on at the Garden Cottage.
Ronnie also had Marathon Internet Services update his website via a cost-effective and quick-to-launch Package Site, in which he spotlights two “new” product lines: wedding photography, which he hasn’t offered for years, and pet photography, which he has never actively promoted.
Ronnie reports that just being seen at weddings and at a local wedding show has made his business more visible and helped to attract portrait clients. A hastily produced “model search” for dogs resulted in so many calls that he decided to have Marathon design and print a 20" x 6½" (5" x 6½" folded) promotional brochure that has attracted pet sessions as well as family and children’s portraits including one or more family pets.
According to Ronnie, this past year of reinventing his business has resulted in a renewal of his interest in professional activities as well, and in September he decided to enter print competition for the first time in years at the Georgia PPA Convention. He was delighted to learn that his recent preoccupation with business hasn’t dulled his artistic edge: All of his prints scored well over the blue-ribbon category of 80, and four received “Distinction” honors in the awards judging.
Only a year after Ronnie Owings faced the most difficult challenge of his professional life, his hard work and tough choices have brought about a personal and professional renewal. He sums up the transformation this way: “For the first time in years I know who my customers are. Now I talk to them personally before the session and then do their photographs, so by the time the sales appointment rolls around, I’m chit-chatting with them just like an old lady . . . I’m really having a ball with my clients, and I’m loving the business!
To read about the changes Ronnie Owings made to get his business back on track, you can go to the April 6 post on Marathon’s blog by clicking here.
You can learn directly from Ronnie by taking part in his Marathon webinar, scheduled for January 19. Mark your calendar now and check Marathon's webinar schedule in the weeks to come for exact time. To receive regular webinar updates, click here.
Comments
Chris Boswell Boswell Photo commented on December 19th, 2009
This story excites me as I'm in one of the very slow periods and my bank account doesn't reflect success. Instead of advertising in Phone Books, the Newspaper and Google, this year I decided to invest in education. Pro4um, Sandy Puc, Bruce Hudson and Scott Crosby have received my Advertising dollars to get me over my hump. I'd love to hear what you did to recover. I'll buy your webinar on January 19. Look forward to hearing about your currect success story.
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