Week 12 Post 2

Yelp:

I have a real business, but I have not set up a Yelp account for it yet. Once I have a few more jobs completed, I will get one. The reason for waiting is that I don’t want 5 reviews and then nothing while I build my business. In the first of the year I will open my Yelp account of my business.  

When I visited Yelp and looked up photographers, I saw ranges from 5 reviews to over 100 reviews. There was 100 pages of photographers, which made me question if this is indeed a good route to take. It was in order from 5 stars and moved downward from there.  

Yelp definitely has an impact. Both good and bad. It is a good way to back your business up and it is comforting to read what others experienced wether it be good to bad.  An educated decision is always best. All of the reviews I looked at had great reviews, which can only be beneficial to their business.

Coupon Networks: 

When I first started researching Coupon Networks, I thought this would be something I would like to use. There is a good success rate in driving people to your website and using your services. It all sounded like a great return of investment. 

One of the coupons I would offer would be a photoshoot for 1 person for $100, 2 people for $150 and a family for $200. I would need to include specifics including how long the shoot would be, how far I would drive, how many photos are included with the shoot and how much each additional photo would be. 

After doing some extensive research, I don’t think that using Coupon Networks will be something I am interested in using. At this point, it is just myself running the business with no employees.  With a huge push in business, I fear doing more photoshoots for less money. I don’t want to become stressed trying to service a ton of customers and devalue my work by working for super cheap. It's important to be careful who we attract to our business. We want them to love our work and not just be price hunting. It’s important to have a good return on investment as well and selling yourself short is not a good way to achieve that. Most coupon networks take a commission as well, so that is taking more money out of your pocket.  I may revisit the idea of using a Coupon Network, but at this point I am not convinced.  

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