How Can You Afford A Corporate Headshot?

Before we delve into this blog on how to afford a corporate headshot, it is super important that we make a few assumptions together first.

Why Invest in A Corporate Headshot

In addition to all of the more unique ways of using a killer Corporate Headshot to promote yourself in your career and business, there is no getting around the fact that Linkedin is STILL blowing up.  Let’s take a look at this stat:

[Tweet “Having a PROFESSIONAL photo on Linkedin makes you 14 times more likely to be found on Linkedin.”]

That’s taken from the November 2016 report over on https://expandedramblings.com/ on Linkedin’s performance. They update their stats on a regular basis.

So whether you are in the business of using Linkedin to nurture referrals and promote your own business, or you are using it to climb a career ladder, that Professional Photo on your profile makes a huge difference to you and your career.  Why?  Because it paints a rapid picture to all who look at it about the type of person you are in work.  Let’s do a whistle-stop tour of all of the work and business-related photo opportunities there are.  

Just for fun.

1. Your first day when the security guard uses a Web-Cam to get a crappy photo of you for your works pass.
2. That day when the website dude comes by your desk with a compact from their holibobs to add a staff photo to the about us page.
3. The Christmas Party.
4. That time you were asked to hand over that big cheque/cut a ribbon with some big scissors/shake that person’s hand for a press photographer.
5. That lovely picture of you on the best holiday of your life sipping that amazing cocktail where your tan was the best it has ever been.

Which of these is the corporate headshot folks?

NONE of them!  Not a single one.  If you picked out 6,  yes, yes I know, you did look beautiful.  Go and make that amazing picture your profile picture on Facebook.  Go and get it blown up and made into a giant print for your bedroom, but please…..  Take it down from your Linkedin profile.  It is doing you and your professional rep zero favours.

What Is Your Brand?  Right Now?

I know I know, you are not like Kim and Kanye.  But because of social media and Linkedin… actually you are a little bit.  Let me explain.

As you have a profile and a career, it’s important to be objective about yourself and where you are planning on heading with your career.  Have you ever heard of this saying before?

“Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.”

I’m unable to find out who said this originally.  If you know this piece of trivia, do share it in the comments below.  Anyway, having a great headshot is just like this…

“Show a Headshot for the career you want, not the career you have.”

It fits in with the same category as that “fake it till you make it” stuff.  Let’s use this example:

If you are working in the post room of a large company and really you want to progress up in that company with a promotion, how are you going to do it?  Many people would say you have to:

1. Be punctual every single day.
2. Have no absence.
3. Do a great job.
4. Be qualified for the next job up.

Ok great.  But what if everyone else in that post room is the same as you?  What if they all have degrees?  What if they all did internships?  Who is going to get this golden promotion?  Like it or not the job market right now actually looks just like this.  It is so tough to stand out and look like the most attractive candidate.

This is where branding comes in.  You need to start marketing yourself.

Let’s go back to that lovely stat from before:

[Tweet “Having a PROFESSIONAL photo on Linkedin makes you 14 times more likely to be found on Linkedin.”]

3 Clever Ways To Save for Your Perfect Headshot

So now you know you want a proper Professional Corporate Headshot.  You have approached your manager or even the top dog at work.  They laughed at you and declared “Get outta my office punk! You think I’m made of money?”

So you realise if you want to brand yourself up to get ahead in your career, then you are going to have to spring for this.  How are you going to make this happen?  I have 3 clever ways to save.

When I began my Photography degree course way back when I can distinctively recall my tutor saying these words to me.

“Laura, welcome to the course.  As a photographer let me tell you that from here on in you will never be able to have spare money.  The more you develop this passion the more equipment you will want to buy.  It doesn’t matter how successful you become.  Accept this now, and you will be fine.”  Then she handed me the pen for the enrolment form.

Since then I have found that there are a few ways with money. Saving is the best bet.

1. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.  It’s a whole money mindset book around turning your whole life around about everything there is to do with money.  If you just did that *bullshit* cough upon reading my last sentence.  Y’know that one when the teacher at school would say anything you found to be preposterous.  You need this book first and foremost.
2. I divide up the thing I want into months.  So by 12 in the first instance (as a year is really long to hang on for the thing I want). Then if I can work that into my budget, that is what I set aside to save till I have the money for the thing I want to buy.  If I can do it in larger amounts on a shorter timeframe, I alter the sum accordingly.
3. I have savings set up (refer to point 1).  In the case of a Corporate Headshot, this would fall into the ‘Self Education’ pot.  I would simply refer to the current balance on this and adjust point 2 as needed.

Alternative Clever Ways To Pay For Your Perfect Headshot

Any entrepreneur out there will do this instinctively and probably on a regular basis.  This idea is based on the notion that whilst money does indeed run the economy, there is, of course, the stuff behind all of that paper and gold we trade with.

Go into your Rick Grimes mindset for a second and imagine that a zombie holocaust is fully in swing.  Get really rough and ready.  If you are a slick professional with benefits this can be very tough to do.

It’s trade.  That “you scratch my back and I will scratch your’s” theory.  But you have to be CLEVER with it now.  So if you want to get something in this world without using the money for it you have to present a pretty good pitch and thought out reason as to why the other party in the agreement would not want to consider using the usually agreed tender for that deal.  You need to get into their perspective and think about what their needs are, heck you may even want to just ask them what they are.

Let’s look at some hypothetical examples of good and bad versions of how this could go down on my Full Sch-Whammy Package.

Good Example

You are a person who does financial advice.  In your business, it costs £100 for consultancy to go out and visit a customer for a 2-hour session to take a look over their finances.  In that time you can hook them up with pensions and then get a discount too, let’s say, some insurance packages.  The real cost to you for this is 3 hours of your time, but you may hit a sales bonus on that insurance policy sign up.

You approach me for The Full Sch-Whammy Headshots Service.  Your boss wouldn’t pay for it, but you really see the value in getting a great on-brand set of images of yourself.  Whilst discussing this, you mention to me that you do this as your usual introduction meeting offer.  I agree that it would actually be worthwhile for me to go over my finances.  So we agree that I am happy to start a negotiation on the service.  I then introduce you to the suppliers who are involved in this service package (the Hair and Makeup Artist, and the stylist)  you begin negotiations with them individually too.

A Bad Example

This one has actually happened to me.

You love to get a bargain.  You fancy yourself as a really good deal maker and you have no problem in making this a topic of conversation at any opportunity you get.  Instead of exploring the mutual benefit of both giving to a negotiation you call me every single day for a week to discuss your headshot.  

On each call, you ask me what the best price is on the lowest service package.  When you see that I am reluctant to enter into a negotiation with you on day 4 of your strategy you offer to “throw in” a cup of tea to the deal.

Investment Analysis of Your Headshot

In a world where the review reigns supreme, I would in the first instance usher you over to my YouTube Channel and show you my reel of testimonials.  My clients all find that having a professional shot, on-brand headshot only ever does them favours in their professional lives.  This is the most succinct way of rounding this up.

There are other ways to slice and dice it though.  You may wish to try these methods on your existing headshots before you take the leap.

1. How did the stats behave on Linkedin?

You can see how people react to what you are doing on your Linkedin profile regardless of what level of membership you have.  Did your profile picture make any impact?  Did it cause shockwaves for the good or the bad?  Or was it like a tiny little yelp of a beige mouse at Glastonbury?  To be clear.  You want shockwaves.  You deserve shockwaves

2. Has anyone ever commented on it? Online and to Your Face?

You can usually times ‘to your face’ reactions of things by 10 or 20 in my opinion.  People rarely have the confidence to walk on up to another human being and look them right in the eyes and tell them precisely what they think and feel about them.  In fact, they hardly ever even send them an honest message direct online either.  So if two or three people have come up to you and said “wow, I love that new headshot of yours”  you can rest assured that it went down really well with the whole circle around you.

3. Do you use it consistently? Or enough?

This next one is all about how you are using your headshots and sharing your brand message.  If you have one lil lonesome headshot your message is like one word on its own.  You need to put that one word out on all your professional things for consistency my friend.  If you have a small collection of corporate headshots (and this is what you come away with from a Professional shoot) you can start to mix and match the consistent look of headshots across all of your channels.  Your Linkedin Profile, Your CV Image, Your Email Footer, Your About Us Image, Your Business Card.  You start building a sentence.  Then perhaps each quarter you mix then around.  Get real value on that investment.  Shake it up a bit.

4. How does it make you feel?

This is really soft arty stuff now.  Are you holding back on my advice in point number 3 because of how you feel about your current headshots?  Do you feel embarrassed about them for some reason?  Are they just so old you feel like a fraud using them (shelf life on a headshot is 2 years by the way)?  If you don’t feel proud at showing the world your professional self you have some questions to ask yourself.  What is that all about?

What About That Creative Stuff?

When you get in touch with any photographer it can be intimidating.  I’m often contacted with requests filled with obscure photographic terms and lingo that don’t always add up to make the best sense.  It is wonderful if you do have a corporate headshot picture in your mind of how you would like to make your corporate Headshot session look.  You should absolutely explain these ideas to your photographer.  We get that this is a foray into something creative and that this is unusual and fun for you.  Let’s create your unique headshot together.  You know your career inside and out.  It’s vital that a consultation, usually done in a mega relaxed way (over cocktails beer or coffees) happens first.

Don’t be surprised or disappointed if your photographer doesn’t say all that much on this first meeting.  What probably will happen is that you get asked a lot of questions.  Sometimes a lot of what might seem like illogical questions.

Then after this, the creative ideas come, and it’s time to plan the detail.

If I had a penny for the amount of time I have been called and told that it would be “wild/clever/zany/fun” for the person being photographed to be holding a camera, I would be writing this very blog from a yacht!  Please don’t suggest this to me for your next headshot, especially if you have squat to do with the photography industry!

Next Step

Aside from going off to read that incredible book I just recommended to you, I would thoroughly recommend you hop on over to my YouTube Channel to find out what my other clients who did make an investment in their Corporate Headshot had to say about both their experience of the shoot, and the results they got from it.

More Inspo:

You may also like this Pinterest Board I have featuring some great examples of more Corporate Headshots.  Why not get pinning and saving at the same time?