Making the Most of Your Mentoring Experience

While everyday mentoring happens quite randomly with just a few questions here and there until a regular relationship forms with someone over time, a consultation or set-aside time for mentoring requires more preparation and focus in order to get the most information possible in the shortest amount of time.  Since 90 people will win great mentors in the Thirst Relief Mentor Auction ending THIS evening, I wanted to share some tips to help you get the most out of your mentoring experience!

Know Your Goals

Start by writing out what you need to need to know, or do, in order to move forward in your business. This list is just for you, so write everything that comes to mind. After you've listed everything you can think of, start prioritizing items by what is most important right now, versus things you'd like to do eventually. Once you've identified your top priorities, pick 3 that you'd like to explore with your mentor. By sticking to 3 prioritized goals, you'll be able to focus on what you can start implementing right away, which will help you feel a greater sense of accomplishment.

Communicate Difficulties

It's one thing to have goals, but you also need to be able to communicate why you've had a hard time moving forward with your goals. Understanding the difficulties you're facing will help your mentor provide solutions or alternative approaches to the problems. Everyone faces similar difficulties at some point in their attempt to build a business, so be honest about the challenges you're facing, even if you think they might seem personal, insignificant, or silly.  This is not the time to hide your insecurities, because sometimes the smallest things can make the biggest difference.

Create Action Steps

Once you've worked with a mentor to create solutions for difficulties in achieving your goals, turn those solutions into action steps. Action steps should be small and concrete. For example, your goal might be to create a new website, but that involves many small action steps like: selecting favorite images, writing a new bio, getting an updated headshot, updating pricing information, etc. Your mentor should be able to help you identify exactly what those small steps are and possibly even help you accomplish them by providing feedback on what works best. When solutions are broken down into small steps, suddenly the goal doesn't seem so overwhelming or impossible to achieve, and progress can be made.

Set Due Dates

Deadlines are the ultimate motivator for actually accomplishing goals. Your mentor can help you determine reasonable due dates for each of your action steps and if they're really cool, they'll even check in with you to make sure you accomplished everything. To help yourself, put your due dates in your calendar with reminders along the way to set time aside for getting everything done, because sometimes things only get done when you've set time aside for them.

Get Feedback

Once you've accomplished the goals you worked with your mentor on, share your success with them and invite their feedback on your accomplishments. Mentors love seeing the results!  Be open to what they have to say and welcome any suggestions for further improvement. Often times the biggest mistake we make is in thinking that we're "done" when there's always more that we can improve upon. Great mentors will care about your results, so don't be afraid to reach out to them after the time they've committed to giving you. Just make sure that you're respectful of their time by only asking for responses that can't be found elsewhere online.

Good luck with the final hours of bidding!  I hope you win a great mentor!

Anne Ruthmann is a lifestyle & wedding photographer from Boston, MA. She spent 10 years practicing marketing & management in corporate and non-profit businesses before pursuing her passion for photography as an independent small business. She loves helping others find creative and low-cost solutions to business problems. Follow her on Twitter to see her daily adventures and thoughts.

Thirst Relief EBay Auction Tips

This is the 3rd year that I've participated as a mentor in the Thirst Relief Mentor Auction sponsored by Thirst Relief International and ShootQ.  With the help of an EBay savvy family member, I've put together a few tips to help you win a mentor and put your donation to good use.  Check back tomorrow for tips on getting the most out of the mentor that you've won!

Tips for bidding & winning mentor auctions on EBay:

Identify your mentors.  Select your ideal mentor, and then identify two or three more people that you would be interested in learning from.  It's important to identify several possible mentors in advance in case you get outbid on the mentor you initially wanted.

Know what's included.  Some auctions only include a particular product, some are giving you a couple hours of their time and dinner at WPPI only, and some are willing to give everything they have.  Make sure you're bidding on a mentor that is going to give you something that you really need and value.  Personality alone may not be enough to help you out in the ways you need it, and some people you've never heard of may actually end up being the most helpful.

Watch your favorites.  Once you've identified the mentors you'd like to work with, click "Watch This Item" under the bid button to help keep track of the mentors you're interested in so that you have a quick link and summary for just the auctions you're interested in.

Place maximum bid.  I believe in having a budget and sticking to it, which is why I advocate placing your maximum bid right up front.  This doesn't mean that you are actually bidding your total budget right off the bat, it just means that you're telling EBay the maximum you are willing to donate and then letting the system incrementally bid for you against any potential competition until you've reached your maximum bid.  It's also useful to place your maximum bid an odd amount above the whole dollar amount you've budgeted.  So, instead of $500, bid something like $507.89, so that you're just above the other people who weren't savvy enough to think outside of the zeros.  With this method you may actually win for less than your maximum bid, or you will be notified as soon as someone has busted your bidding budget, so that you can move onto another option that might be within your budget.  It's the most efficient bidding method, so that you aren't spending your precious time watching an auction instead of doing things that will help your business.

Get notification.  You can set up EBay to notify you in a variety of ways, so set up a notification that works best for you- whether it's email, text to your phone, skype, or some other method.  That way you can be on the ball when you need to and not worry about it until then.

Note ending times.  Each auction ends at a different time in order to allow losers from one auction to find another auction they can win.  Note the order in which your favorite auctions end so that you can be proactive about the plan you'll take to find a great mentor so that you can put your donation budget to good use. (Note: It appears that this year's auctions end in alphabetical order by last name.)  If you find that all of the auctions you're interested in are bidding higher than your budget, than it might be a good time to start considering other mentors out there. Remember that your budget was established as what you are willing to donate to the Thirst Relief cause, not just what one person's time is worth.  Everyone in the auction has been invited because they have something valuable to offer, and they've all agreed to participate because they want to help others.  Taking a chance on someone you've never heard of means your bidding budget still goes to a good cause, and you may be pleasantly surprised by what you can learn from someone who spends most of their time working "out of the spotlight".

WPPI 2010: PLC Meetup

There has been a lot of questions asking if there is going to be a Photo Lovecat party during WPPI like in the years past. Sadly, the answer is no. Our fearless leader Anne will not be attending this year and quite frankly, a party isn't a party without Anne! ;)

Before Anne decided not to attend, she had expressed the hope of instead of having a party to have a retreat area where readers and Lovecats could go to during WPPI to chill out and just chat. While parties are fun, they are not remotely conversation friendly with the loud music, hot rooms and people galore! This ended not being a reality but the idea of a more serene setting to meet up may not be totally gone (yet).

Christine and I will be at WPPI this year and we have been discussing the idea for having a low-key meetup for readers of Photo Lovecat. No throwing out of items. No crazy contests. No dancing. Just people and talking.

We're thinking either a meal or a drink meet up that's coordinated so it doesn't conflict with other goings-on for WPPI. Ideally we'd try to organize this event for the early days of WPPI so that you could meet some new friends to enjoy WPPI with. Perhaps we'll even Skype Anne in ;) Maybe drinks Sunday night before the festivities begin or a breakfast meetup Monday morning?

Would this be something you're interested in? If so, commet below and let us know what day would work out best for you and what your thoughts are!

Corey Ann is a wedding & lifestyle photographer from North Canton, OH. She is a mix of everything - fashionista, travel guru, deal hound and geek rolled into one. She's had a website online since 1997 and a blog since 1999. When not plotting world domination or her next trip, she can be found reading one of the 100+ books she reads a year. Follow her on Twitter.

12 Terabytes of Fast File Storage for less than $2000

In my previous article, A Strategy for Data Backup, I committed to outlining what I think is a solid, cost-effective, and reliable solution for wedding and portrait photographers.

Now as a little up-front disclaimer I would like to say that the equipment and software recommendations I list in this article are my own and I am not compensated in any way, shape, or form by any of the manufacturers or sellers of these products and services. I also offer this advice without an guarantees that they will work perfectly for anyone else. This particular setup is basically an updated version of the one we have been using the past three years.

About the system
This system is designed to offer the best compromise between access speed, raw storage space, backup automation, flexibility for rotating backups, and accommodating future growth for file storage needs. It's a bit of a DIY solution, but in my opinion it's preferable to a Drobo, which is essentially a proprietary RAID system.

System components
The basic components of the system are:
• A port multiplier-capable box, used for housing the hard drives
• Eight hard drives
• An eSATA card, for accessing the box at faster-than-USB/Firewire speeds
• Anti-static hard drive cases, for the offsite drives
• Chronosync, automated and configurable backup software

Recommended Components
Burly Port-Multiplier box ($500)
Mac Pro eSATA card ($200) OR MacBook Pro eSATA card ($200)
1.5 TB Hard Drives ($115)
Weibetech protective cases (10 for $55)
Extra Burly drive tray ($30)
Chronosync (Backup software for $40)

Putting it all together
1 x Burly Box @ $500
8 x 1.5 TB drives @ $125 = $920
1 x eSATA card @ $200
10 pack of protective cases = $55
2 x Burly drive tray @ $30 = $60
1 x Chronosync software @ $40
Total = ~$1755

Using the system
Since duplication is key, it's important to note here that this system is not designed to be the only backup. Ideally this system would be one of three total copies that exist of the work a photographer is attempting to back up -- and have it readily available for taking off site as well as restoration (if necessary).

Four of the drives will be in use regularly, the other four drives will be for offsite/emergency purposes, so the idea is to split data across the drives in a way that makes sense.

Storage system drives
• Drive A: 2010 RAW Files
• Drive B: Work In-Progress
• Drive C: Archived Work
• Drive D: More Archived Work + Business Files

Offsite/clone drives
• Drive E: 2010 RAW Files Clone
• Drive F: Work In-Progress Clone
• Drive G: Archived Work Clone
• Drive H: More Archived Work + Business Files Clone

These silos will allow a photographer to separate the work-in-progress files from RAWs and business files. Separating the work also allows for pairing up these backup drives with the other four drives, giving each drive a same-sized clone.

Chronosync, or a similar smart automated backup program, can run on a set schedule to manage the process of backing up to specific drives. Setting the backup program to do nightly dumps of a local work folder to a Work In-Progress drive is a great way to ensure that a drive failure will only mean one day of lost productivity after restoring.

Sample workflow
Here is a sample workflow for using this system to back up work and incorporate an off-site strategy as well:

1. Shoot a job
2. Download the images to the internal drive of the main editing workstation
3. Copy the RAW images to the 2010 RAW Files drive
4. Burn a DVD of the RAW images (optional but recommended)
5. Process the RAWs in Lightroom and export the corrected Jpegs to a working folder on the main editing workstation
6. Make additional adjustments to the work-in-progress images at the main editing workstation
7. Nightly backup process (Chronosync) store the work folder in the Work In-Progress drive automatically (set up folders & schedules for this up beforehand)
8. Insert the clone drives one by one and sync the contents from the storage system drive to the offsite/clone drive (on a regular basis; weekly, monthly, or after each job)
9. Take the clone drives (in the Weibetech boxes) to another location

What about the cloud?
As of February 2010, the cost of storing data legitimately* with a cloud-based service is still a little high for the average photographer to handle, especially as data grows. I have linked a spreadsheet that estimates the cost of cloud storage for a year.

*After some research I found that, unfortunately, webhosts offering "unlimited" storage only mean unlimited for files that are actually there in support of the website. For example, Dreamhost's terms of service say: "The customer agrees to make use of DreamHost servers primarily for the purpose of hosting a website. Data uploaded must be primarily for this purpose. DreamHost Apps servers are not intended as a data backup or archiving service." Go Daddy's hosting agreement says more plainly: "Go Daddy's shared hosting servers are not an archive"

Backup System and Cloud Storage Calculator

Please feel free to comment and leave your thoughts on this system and alternatives. I'd love to hear/see them!

Damon is the technical (and bag-carrying) assistant to Agnes Lopez, a commercial and wedding photographer who works primarily in Ponte Vedra Beach and Amelia Island, Florida. When he isn't standing still as a lighting test dummy, setting up a c-stand, or holding a reflector, Damon works as an IT Business Analyst, where he gets to solve technical problems on a daily basis.

Haiti Donations & Tax Relief

I received this informational email from Grazier Photography and their accountant today about deducting donations for Haiti relief and thought the info was so good it needed to be shared on PhotoLovecat!

This month Congress passed a law that the President signed, giving taxpayers the choice of deducting donations for Haiti relief on their 2009 tax returns – even though the donation actually happened in 2010.  If you made Haiti relief donations and wish to deduct them on your 2009 returns, be sure to let [your accountant] know!

Here are 10 important facts the Internal Revenue Service wants you to know about this special provision.

1. A new law allows you to claim donations for Haitian relief on your 2009 tax return, which you will be filing this year.
2. The contributions must be made specifically for the relief of victims in areas affected by the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti.
3. To be eligible for a deduction on the 2009 tax return, donations must be made after Jan. 11, 2010 and before March 1, 2010.
4. In order to be deductible, contributions must be made to qualified charities and can not be designated for the benefit of specific individuals or families.
5. The new law applies only to cash contributions.
6. Cash contributions made by text message, check, credit card or debit card may be claimed on your federal tax return.
7. You must itemize your deductions in order to claim these donations on your tax return.
8. You have the option of deducting these contributions on either your 2009 or 2010 tax return, but not both.
9. Contributions made to foreign organizations generally are not deductible. You can find out more about organizations helping Haitian earthquake victims from agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development ( http://www.irs.gov/app/scripts/exit.jsp?dest=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usaid.gov ).
10. Federal law requires that you keep a record of any deductible donations you make. For donations by text message, a telephone bill will meet the record-keeping requirement if it shows the name of the organization receiving your donation, the date of the contribution, and the amount given. For cash contributions made by other means, be sure to keep a bank record, such as a cancelled check or a receipt from the charity. Receipts should show the name of the charity, the date and amount of the contribution.

For more information see IRS Publication 526 , Charitable Contributions and Publication 3833 , Disaster Relief: Providing Assistance through Charitable Organizations . To determine if an organization is a qualified charity visit IRS.gov, keyword “Search for Charities”. Note that some organizations, such as churches or governments, may be qualified even though they are not listed on IRS.gov.

 Thank you Matt & Enna for sharing!