Years back when I got serious about photography, I started to make a name for myself in the model photography world and quickly realized that it was MUCH more difficult to chase the penny vs chasing dimes in general portrait photography. I had decided I was going to do everything most people said NOT to do-ads in the newspaper, yellow pages and planned out a tv ad. A few weeks ago, I saw the Sunday paper and it had this in the funnies:

It took my really getting started in model photography to learn that what I was doing for general portraits wasn’t working. This Dilbert comic is VERY true of a lot of photographers, model and general portrait photographers, that I know.

Are you wasting away money and time doing marketing you know isn’t working? Are you not focusing on valuable market avenues because your not seeing a valuable and quick return of investment? At my Meeting of the Masters event in 2010, one of the featured speakers said something that I’ve since applied; “WIIFM” phonetically sounded out says “WIF-UM” or “Whats in it for me?” EVERY where I go, I use this philosophy every place I go. I’ve cut back on making the same mistakes twice as well as spending more time in places that counts.

How are you avoiding the Dilbert?