Daniel Doyle Pleasantville Discusses How Photographers Can Survive The Next Recession
There was an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll recently that stated 70 percent of the American public is angry at their government and at Wall Street. One reason has been that many people have known that the economy never truly recovered for Main Street America after the last recession. Now, the mainstream media is suddenly announcing the truth – that the U.S. economy is heading for a recession.
Professional photographers are scrambling to figure out what to do in order to survive the next recession. Looking for answers, we spoke to Daniel Doyle Pleasantville. Doyle is a successful photographer with a studio in Queens, New York. He has carved a niche in studio, wedding and event photography in the area. He also trains rising photographers and is opening a studio in his home town of Pleasantville, Ohio. Doyle is a graduate of Ohio State University with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts.
Find Your Niche
Doyle was able to stave off the last recession because he had a niche and then carved out a few more. He gained his following in Queens, New York, by appealing to the local entertainment community. He provided unique and compelling portraits and head shots of his subjects that they could use in their publicity. Word of mouth spread his appeal. This helped him create a base from which he could add wedding and event photography. The latter, of course, was an easy lateral sale to the entertainers. As stated by Forbes Magazine, it is so much cheaper and easier to upsell or create lateral products for existing customers. It is harder and more expensive to earn new customers.
Don’t Undervalue Your Product
Fstoppers warns professional photographers to not get into price wars with one another. It just keeps denigrating your costs and perceived value, until no-one in the local area can earn a living in their niche any more. Just ask contractors what happened to them in the Great Recession.
Focus Upon the Recession-Proof Industries
Fstoppers suggests that, although many industries will falter during recessions, some are recession-proof. The ones that are not recession-proof will consider photography a luxury when times get lean and will likely buy stock photos, but recession-proof industries will not falter and will continue to need professional photography services.
The following are recession-proof businesses, according to Franchise Business Review:
- Food, beverage and groceries
- Retail consignment shops
- Information technology: Franchise Business Review stated that IT continued to grow and was the economy’s fastest growing industry during the Great Recession.
- Repair industry: For example, the automotive repair industry is benefited when it is better for consumers to repair their existing car, rather than buy a new vehicle.
- Health and senior services
- Cleaning services
As you can see, all of these industries are absolutely necessary, so they will continue to expand during recessions.
Add Videography and Drone Work
Doyle has added videography and drone work so that clients see him as the one place for all of their photography and videography needs. That is another way to make lateral sales to existing customers.
Provide High Value and Tout Value
By providing the absolute best in customer service and reminding customers in your sales literature about your value, you will go a long way towards helping the customer see why they need to continue to use your services.
Daniel Doyle Pleasantville reminds his fellow photography professionals that they can survive and maybe even thrive in the next recession if they are willing to position themselves in recession-proof niches, sell laterally to existing clients, add photography and drone work and ensure that the customer can easily see their value through high quality service and through sales literature language
