Oh, I see.

Not to attack the OP or anything, but I remember my grandmother saying something about the value of free advice.....

But wait-- wasn't your grandmothers advice on that free advice? :_/

for the majority it is by word of mouth and building up relationships.

I have found tie-ins with other companies is the best and quickest way to make decent progress and into the front door of other companies.. not like a "I'll scratch your back, you can scratch mine." or kick backs as most companies have working standards and ethics

when looking to tie yourself in with a company if you can provide great pictures for their or their clients needs they are more than happy to hire and recommend you because it makes their product / service look better aswel.

companies like website/graphic companies, AV companies out there dont hire a full time salaried photographer as part of their team because they wouldn't want someone sitting in their office doing nothing for 9 months of the year so they hire as they go.

some will recommend you directly to the company and you deal with them directly , some will hire you as a representative so it can be horses for courses.

In the end if they know your work is good (by looking at your work / or through recommendations), you come across professional (you look and sound the part) then there's no reason for them not to hire or recommend you if your pricing is reasonable. If you then go on to deliver good results you can build on that relationship further

so yes in the beginning it can be about knowing what companies to get in touch with but it does build up momentum on its own after that if you provide decent work, have a fast enough turn around time, are professional and they dont need to look over your shoulder

www presence , facebook , marketing becomes less important the more you build up those realtionships..

And my grandmother said 'never look a gift horse in the mouth'...

you stay just 40 minutes away from manchester so there's no reason why you can't be seen or heard in manchester and work/commute from your area. i think the outer manchester population is 2 million manchester city is like 500k

like you, i live in a smaller city.. mine is around a million i found it beneficial to cast the net quite wide to make a living. being specialist or niche (concentrating on only one thing) doesn't really work in my experience in todays market (so hands in many pies so to speak)

if i took my fashion work down to a fashion capitol like london i might have more of a chance at making all my wages from fashion but thats just the way it is

the key for me has been keeping them all separate from one another. for instance not having conflicting genres on one particular website where one client would not really like to see that you do the other just as an example.

there are plenty of agencies in manchester meaning there is plenty of work for their models you'll have a pocket area of fashionistas and opportunities if you poke around in the right places.. uni and college graduates make good sources of info and collaborators when working on your portfolio and with agency models

Some people wouldn't recognize the difference between a Focomat II enlarger from a Ansco 35mm enlarger. Considering how many threads are posted about "how do I make money from photography?", some words from a actual successful advertising/commercial photographer should be welcome. Seeing value in things takes talent.

A printer once spent many days answering my questions about printing images and picture quality. Most of my knowledge about how to get great looking image on a page came from that free advice.

the majority of my work does not have an online presence .. I concentrate more on word of mouth and building up relationships

I'm thinking about putting up a website for the rest in the near future as i can direct interested people and the people PMing me.. (didn't expect such a good response)

the 5% that is online is a fashion specific based website i will PM you the add

in terms of paid fashion work if you list all the manchester based companies. its a good place to start narrowing down who would be worth getting in touch with.

independents are easier cause you know who owns the store or label. small and medium size businesses have departments and staff that work on PR and advertising side of things so you get in touch with them. large well known brands have their pr department in the fashion capitol (london) so concentrate on whats in your area. you can work  with boutiques and advertising for local business

if you have a polished and well put together portfolio you can list all the ad agencies in the manchester area and contact them direct. they are always looking for good creative talent to work with (remember you only have one chance to impress so make sure your work is as good as you can make it to bowl them over)

if your at none of these stages yet and are putting your book together and need a team go along to the universities in manchester or wigan (if you have fashion, hair and beuty related courses locally in wigan) and speak to the department managers / tutors and they will be happy to point out or put out word to their students that your looking to work on some collaborations

if your looking for a step up in experince from the uni or colleges then source local or manchester art workshops/ centers where graduates, new starts and some experinced fashion designers and stylists set up shop

You're right

Hello,

I am a budding professional based in Crofton, MD, saving my pennies to move to LA or NYC and building my portfolio until then. You mention something many photographers do (I've gotten a lot of "free advice") but if you could please clarify:

When contacting these agencies, what and how exactly are you doing so? Lets say I wanted to pick up Coach as a client, at this point I've put together a great portfolio of product imagery showcasing my various styles and capabilities, so I just call and say "Hey, look at this, hire me?" Whenever I am looking for freelance work, especially when it comes to commercial work, I very rarely see ads looking for this sort of thing i.e. the PR department doesn't post on craigslist- so if they aren't openly advertising that they are looking for creative talent to work with, how do you get on their radar without forcing your portfolio down their throats?

It just seems a bit awkward I suppose, perhaps because I have yet to approach a larger business in this way. One of my dreams is to shoot for Ferrari- could you use this as an example and how- literally how- you would approach this? Lets assume the portfolio is all squared away and all that is left is getting the client.

hi thanks for the q..

the thing is there are never really any adds looking for photographers (in the way that people would see shop assistants job advertised ). well there is some out there but in the 10 years that i have been doing this i can count on one hand how many in my local area and its normally as staff. after having applied for one of these rare ops that do come up 78 people had already applied for this job and just 2 and a half hours after it was advertised i.e i got the email through at 6.30/7am and phoned them to see if they got my application and if they needed anything else like example work etc (all this and the job is advertised for 2 weeks)

in a nut shell what you describe is really how you go about it. just make sure your speaking to the right person/department that can make this decision or if they don't then you ask them to direct you to that person.

some connections you talk to are 3 decision makers away form the actual person that decides if they like your work or not so it can be tough but it is a numbers game. the cold caller is slightly less likely to get through than someone that has already built up a side relationship but yes you basically do as you describe until eventually you get the right person at the right company at the right time

you have to be ready for when they do say yes we would like to see your work. if you have great work and you have a good attitude your in. if your not what theyre looking for just yet you keep moving on down the line

as described in an earlier post (or may of been a PM) the tie ins are where its at . a ad agency is like a website or a AV company that can get you half way there. either that or yes your buddy just got a job there. but it is they way of things building up word of mouth and building relationships.

your only one job away from the next big job

im off to bed now as i wanted to quickly reply to the above but ill do the research and get back to you with how i would approach it

thanks

your welcome

Extremely helpful, thank you for your time!

FKW Studio wrote:
It is refreshing, many pros are unwilling to help others. I look forward to helping as many as I can once I am in the position to do so. Thank you for the reply- back to building my portfolio...

most of them have been chased off by negative trolls over the years,

...or changed jobs lol

I'm just down the road from you. There's a relatively small and tightly knit community of models & photographers & MUAs in the area.. but not *that* much actual commercial work. Some companies do outsources their catalogue work this way though - it can be cheaper to ship the model up here.

If you really want to make it, you really need to be in London. But then you have a lot more competition.

It's tough.. but if you really want it, get your name and face out there

How do you show people your work without a website? Do you do it using in person meetings? Perhaps a printed portfolio? Word of mouth is great to generate leads, but at the end of the day you need something to show the prospect what you are capable of?