Strictly Business is a blog by the ASMP, and they recently had an entry that caught my eye - it was asking the simple question, 'What is a Professional?'

Thomas Werner, the author of the entry, points out that maybe our opinions of ourselves are less important while the views of our clients are more important - they are employing you, after all. I hadn't really thought of it that way. It's a great point and shouldn't be overlooked.

Instead of boring you with my opinion (which I'm sure I'll talk about sometime on the podcast), I'll just link to the article. Check it out here. 

Photopreneur just released a great post that, I think, will really strike a chord with real estate photographers - check it out here. The tagline of the entire article is 'Get Big or Get Niche'. Five words that make a whole lot of sense, to me at least.

See, I've said it before - I think real estate photography is a niche market. Let me qualify that statement: I think real estate photography is a niche market today, I don't think it will be a niche market tomorrow (metaphorically speaking, of course). When someone says, "What do you do for a living" and your response generates a pause, followed by, "I didn't even know that job existed"- or when you're the only person in your area that fulfills the demand for real estate photography - you work in a niche market. Make sure to capitalize on your niche market - do your job well - treat your clients right - always follow-through. 

The tagline is great, but the article is even better.

We gave an overview of QuickBooks Online a ways back, so how about another online option? Enter LessAccounting.com.

Less Accounting is another cloud-based accounting 'program' designed to manage cash-in and cash-out. It creates invoices, manages expenses, gives you summary reports, and a few other things as well. Best part: it's free. When you search the web for online accounting software, you'll be offered a bunch of options, almost all of them will make you pay a monthly fee - rightfully so. If you want barebones accounting at the barebones price of $0/month, Less Accounting is good choice. Don't forget about QuickBooks Online  - that online suite still offers an incredible package at $0/month, with the limitation of only having 20 clients. Less Accounting doesn't have that limitation - but if you want things like tech support (a good thing to have!), proposals, mileage logs, etc., you're going to have to start shelling out some cash.

Check this out:

See what I see? The ability to upload digital copies of your receipts! So maybe that doesn't warrant an exclamation point, but it's a small detail that is overlooked in QuickBooks Online.

Of course, you could keep digital copies of your receipts on your computer, but that sort of defeats the purpose of the cloud. The point is to keep your data off your computer, and in the hands of a supposedly more reliable, more accessible system. Some may still be weary of cloud-based solutions, especially with something as important as accounting - but I'm not. I really like having my books be 100% available wherever I am, not wherever my main computer is. You can export your data whenever you want if you're that worried about it (something else you can't currently do in QuickBooks Online unless you are running Internet Explorer on a Windows machine).

Check it out at LessAccounting.com and watch the video tours here. Did I mention that there's an iPhone App…?

QuickBooks Online is an incredibly powerful tool to manage your business' accounting - and it's free.

Well, the 'Free' version is free - there's also the 'Basic' and 'Plus' versions of the online software suite. More than likely, you will be able to use the 'Free' version of the software for some time. One of the largest restrictions the 'Free' version has is the inability to utilize more than 20 clients (yes, there's a loophole where you delete old clients), but if you want to actually save more than 20 clients, you may want to bump up to one of the paid options.

So that's essentially the mini-interview QuickBooks Online gives you after you start it up for the first time. If you want to change something it didn't ask you at this time, you can always delve into the preferences section of the software and customize it.

Notice how it asked you if you charge sales tax? Big question, really big question. Don't mess that one up. Remember, in most cases, if you deliver your materials through electronic means (meaning there is no physical or tangible exchange of products), then you are providing a service, and services are not subject to sales tax in most states. Be sure to check with your state's tax office, but more than likely, you won't have to charge sales tax.

There's a sample invoice - I have my fictitious setup to show the date the service was provided (if you are billing a firm, as opposed to an individual agent, you want to let them know which date the service was provided on to help keep the records straight), the agent's name, the address of the listing, then the amount. You can then save it, print it, or even have QuickBooks Online email it (A topic we'll go into further below). Pretty neat for free, eh?

If you do decide to print it to mail or hand-deliver, this is what the invoice winds up looking like. Nice and clean if you ask me.

Another great feature of QuickBooks Online (this isn't unique, most accounting software does this for you) is the ability to run reports on just about everything under the sun. Here's a quick look at profits and losses, year-to-date. It's very simple to run these reports, as well as create presets to run specific reports that you find yourself running frequently.

This screen will give you a run-down of all or your transactions by date. Since this is all made-up stuff, there's nothing more than the sample invoice. Yours will mostly look like a bunch of invoices with a whole lot of small purchases here and there.

This screen allows you to customize the automated message your clients receive when you have QuickBooks Online email it for you. Change the message to whatever you want, check the box 'Copy me', and you're probably set to do paperless business.

One gripe I have with Quickbooks Online is it's incompatibility with certain browsers, even it's incompatibility with browsers it supposedly supports. For example - Safari 4 was in beta for quite some time before it became an official release. Well, many mac users were left in the dark when they 'upgraded' to Safari 4 because QuickBooks Online didn't support it. If you were sly enough to change the user-agent on your browser, it didn't matter, it honestly didn't support Safari 4. Certain links were inaccessible, things displayed incorrectly. It was a mess. Even today, when Apple updates Safari 4, if you update, you may experience problems.

You may be asking yourself, why not just use Firefox? Well, guess what, Firefox isn't supported on the mac - not yet anyway. I know, it's a pain, it really is, but you just have to play with the cards you're dealt, especially when you're playing for free. I imagine Firefox will eventually be supported for the mac, but in the meantime, you have to use Safari and cross your fingers when you update.

There are plenty of features QuickBooks Online has, I just didn't get to them in this brief look at the online software suite. Just go to the site, sign up (you need a credit card, even though it won't bill you anything), and try it out.

One of the largest advantages of QuickBooks Online is the fact that your data is in the cloud. Some may be a bit weary of having all that sensitive data 'out there', but really, it's as secure as your email or making a purchase online. The fact that it's in the cloud means that you can access your accounting records from your computer, your phone, or even someone else's computer if you are away from yours. Also, if you computer ever crashes (more like, 'when'), all that data is still accessible. One less thing to have a heart-attack about, right?

Visit QuickBooks Online here. 

Lighting-Essentials had a great post about failing at photography as a career. 'Fail' is a harsh word, but it needs to be said. Now that it's out there, read the article and learn about the many pitfalls people fall - and gripe about - when things don't work out for them in their photographic career.

My two favorites are #1 and #8, Gear and Time.

Gear: I've said it before and I'll say it again - I don't have the 'best' gear known to mani (I openly admit I shoot with one of least expensive wide-angle lenses on the market) - and guess what - it makes virtually no difference in my workflow or my results. Buying a $5,000 camera and $2,000 lens won't make my work any easier - it'll most likely just make me feel more nervous when I lock my car door when I stop somewhere for lunch. 'Better' gear doesn't ≠ better photos. Better technique, yes. Better use of light, yes. But 'better' gear - sounds like an excuse to buy something new and shiny.

Time: Give your business a fighting chance. It can take a good long while, even only making calculated and responsible purchases, to make your truly livable salary. Many people want their numbers to work out in their favor in a month or two - the simple truth is that it's not likely to work out that way. Set reasonable goals and achieve them with your business. Plant your name in your community, live up to it, and give it time.

Check out the complete article here.

Just like our on-going series on delivery options, we're going to keep a running review of various forms of managing your business' accounting. If you do your own accounting, this information will be of use to you. Some software keeps your data on your local machine - others store it in the cloud. Each has it's own set of advantages and disadvantages. Stay tuned for more analysis into this topic and we'll investigate the industry leaders in software and cloud-based accounting.

We're doing an ongoing review of different ways to deliver your photos to your clients - other than burning them to a DVD, that is. Two reasons discs are a pain: first, burning files to a disc wastes time and plastic. Second, it wastes energy physically delivering the disc either in-person or through the mail.

There are a number of ways to transfer your files electronically, one of the simplest being email. However, email has a number of drawbacks. Attachment size limitations, full mailboxes, junk mail filters, attachment filters, clients accidentally deleting emails, etc. The list is endless. The most efficient method for delivering your files to clients is on a server of some sort. Clients have access to their files, the clients can't mess with the files, the files are always there, etc. This list is also endless.

So enter the question: how do I get a file server of my own? Well, you can set your own up with relative ease, but there is some cost involved. For those out there who are less interested in the simpler route, that's where we come in. We're going to make some recommendations of various file-delivery services and weigh in on the pro's and con's. So stay tuned, there's one coming around the corner.

The last thing you want on your hands as a successful business-person is the issue of back-taxes. Some of the time it's because you decided not to pay them - most of the time it's because you didn't know you had to pay a particular tax. Depending on which state you reside in, and how you deliver your photos to your clients, you may or may not be subject to sales tax.

Check out an excerpt from a Photopreneur article on this matter:
"West argued that the demand for sales tax was wrong because even though he gave the completed film to the clients and didn’t even retain copyright over the images, his transactions were for services rather than tangible personal property. He also claimed that his relationship with his clients was that of employer/employee – a definition even few photographers would want to support. That meant the client always owned the photographs and he didn’t need to pay sales tax for what was effectively a salary. The court, perhaps not surprisingly, didn’t agree. He was ordered to pay 4.5 percent of the gross receipts of each sale for the three years covered in the audit."

Read the complete article here.

Also, Read Dan Heller's article, specifically the licensing guideines:
"Another situation in which sales tax is not charged is when you license images. (Licensing is when you sell someone a right to use an image, but you're not transferring a physical asset.) In California, licensing images is not subject to sales tax, but some states have different laws on this."

Read the complete article here.

MacWorld posted a quick summary of some accounting programs for Macs. I know that not everyone out there uses Apple products, but half of the article was geared towards web-based solutions as well - so I figured the post was worthwhile.

One of my favorites is QuickBooks Online. Here's what they have to say about it:
"Intuit’s online version of QuickBooks offers a lot of options, even at the free level. All versions provide you with the ability to create and send invoices, charge sales tax, track payments, print checks, and track expenses, for example. Some of the more sophisticated features, like creating estimates, time-tracking and billing by customer, and importing data from the desktop version of QuickBooks are limited to the $35 per month QuickBooks Online Plus product. It’s also accessible on smartphones including BlackBerry devices and iPhones." 

Check out the complete article here.

We all know by now that Google's new (currently beta) service, 'Google Voice', is pretty neat - it allows you to have a single number that rings all of your existing lines. We just wanted to point it out as a great potential business tool. If you are starting your business, have a cell phone, but don't want to give that out to a bunch of strangers - then put in for a Google Voice invitation. Even if you don't have 2 or more phones you want to ring, it can easily be used to mask your personal cell phone number as you add a bunch of other features such as voicemail transcription, free SMS messaging, and assigning rules to particular groups/call screening.

If you have your own business, you more than likely have a BlackBerry, iPhone, or an Android Device. Both the BlackBerry OS and Android already have Google Voice apps. These allow you to dial out using your Google Voice number so the receiving caller sees the number they know. The apps also allow you to send and receive SMS text messages. There's a bit of a snag with the iPhone app, so we'll see where that one goes.

The one question that many people aren't asking is, 'Is Google Voice reliable enough for my business?' Well, at the moment, the hard truth is that the experience isn't trouble-free. As frustrating as phone companies are, they do connect calls reliably. Personally, I've had issues with Google Voice - some calls coming from Verizon Wireless phones were receiving a message telling them that they were calling a non-working number. I've been talking to friends when Google Voice has prompted them for a 2-digit code in the middle of a conversation. Little issues like these tell me that it's not ready for prime-time use yet, but it's an impressive start.

It should be noted that you can get a phone number from a variety of places online - one with the intended function of call-forwarding exclusively. However, watch the fees for these numbers. Many of the phone numbers you can get online (including the Skype's) will charge you forwarding fees per minute. Yeah, that's right, per minute.

So score an invite to Google Voice, test it until there's nothing left to test, then decide whether or not it's right for your business.

Check out Google voice here and submit a request for an invite here.

Great article from Photopreneur.

Opening Clip:
"The recession might be bad news for banks and terrible news for Realtors but it’s been good news for at least one group of professionals. Real estate photographers have reported a rise in demand for their services – and at least some of those photographers are responding with higher rates."

Read the complete article here.