Searching for stock photos? If so, here’s something to consider!
Recently, a friend of mine, after spending a long time searching for the right stock image on Canva to go with her message, wrote this little gem on her Facebook page:
“Dear Canva, I really love you, but many of your stock photos of women are so stereotypical. When I search for ‘businesswoman,’ I’d like to see women that are more than 20 years-old without having to add the word ‘mature’ to my search. Why do you feel all women are eating something when I search for stock photos with keywords ‘feminine desk work’? Btw, I hate macaroons, no matter how pretty the colors.”
Hysterical, yes. But, we all feel her pain, right?
My Un-Scientific Research
I recently did a little unscientific poll with a group of entrepreneurs of whom I asked the question, “How much time would you say you spend, PER WEEK, looking for stock images for your content?”
The answers varied of course but many people said they spent an hour or so searching for images every week. While that may not sound like a lot, adding this up over time means people tend to spend 50 to 100 hours a YEAR searching for images to post with their content.
Is that really good use of your time? I mean, when you are making decisions about what you need to do for your business, don’t you consider whether it is WORTH your time to take on a particular task?
Now, I don’t know about you but I started my business so that I could help people! Tasks that I don’t love and that take me away from helping my clients only serve to drain my energy and make me ultimately feel like being in business is no fun!
Let’s break this down
Just for fun, let’s see if searching for stock images is worth your time.
Let’s say you have figured out that you need to charge your clients $175 per hour in order to make $10K per month in your business (because, as a business owner, you spend only a fraction of your time actually working with clients each week, right?)
If you do the math with the time estimates from my “research” above, you would essentially forego $8,500 to $17,500 in revenue over the course of a year by spending time searching for stock images rather than serving your clients.
Now, imagine spending one glorious day with a skilled brand photographer capturing a bunch of different stories, and themes, essentially a big variety of images? These images might even include people on your team, your family, your fur babies, etc.
After a day like that, you’d end up with a library of your own custom images, enough to last at least a year or two! If you invested $3,500 in that one-day experience, doing the math with my sample numbers above, that’s a net gain of $5,000 to $14,000!
Not only that, you’d have more energy for serving your clients, making them happier in the process, and really, isn’t that the BEST brand promise?
Want more help and inspiration?
Need more help designing and creating your brand images? I offer complimentary clarity calls during which we will talk about what images you must have for YOUR business and determine whether hiring a professional photographer is the right next step for you.
Whether or not we are a good fit to work together, you’ll walk away from our call knowing:
- What images you need for your unique brand
- When the time is RIGHT for you to invest your marketing dollars in a photographer
- How to prepare for when you ARE ready to take that step
So, grab a 30 minute call time on my calendar and let’s talk!
