Time, to the creative person, is more important than money. It's something money can't buy -- so if you've been squandering your time, you've been tossing away your potential profits, much like the lemonade stand proprietor who, without disciplining himself, drinks his profits.

Creative people are famous for wasting time by spending it trying to make money to support their creative habit. They spend time moonlighting at a fast-food restaurant or a construction job to gain the money to buy tripods, cameras, disks, lenses. Because they take time away from their picture-taking and picture-marketing, they find themselves going financially and professionally backwards.

THE SQUANDERERS

Others squander their time on activities that have little to do with their mission of marketing their pictures. If you are a home gardener, did you ever figure out how much time you spend in your orchard? One hour a day for 6 months is 180 hours. What kind of solid Market List could you build if you devoted 180 hours to your Market List this spring and summer? Once you discover the editors who are out there with $30,000-a-month photography budgets waiting for your specialized orchard photographs, those golden homegrown peaches won't be so liable to distract you from operating your own real gold-making machinery.

I've heard all the alibis gardeners, golfers, dog trainers, hikers, and tennis players have when I ask them why they are pursuing these hobbies rather than building a solid Market List for their stock photography. I have a three-word reply for them: "Excuses, excuses, excuses."

SAVING TIME

And finally, there is the ambitious go-getter who moonlights as a short-order cook, in-between night classes and a full time job. "I really have no time!" This sounds like a foolproof excuse, but consider this: Just 15 minutes a day is 91 ¼ (that's ninety-one and a quarter) hours a year! In one year a person could be well on his/her way to successfully marketing their pictures, if they disciplined themselves to spending 15 minutes a day on building a Market List, adding text descriptions (key phrases) on-line photo, or refining their business model. In one year they could quit that counterproductive short-order cook job (4 hours a night = 800 hours a year!) and become a valuable resource to a number of editors who have a constant need for photos in the subject areas the photo buyer specializes in.

The time is now to start putting time where, in the long run, it benefits you most… and time to kiss excuses goodbye. -RE