VPPA Blue Ridge Newsletter August 2013
In This Issue From the Governor From the Lt. Governor Upcoming Events Quick Links
Blue Ridge Board
Governor Sharon Davidson, CPP Email Sharon
From the Governor Hello Blue Ridge! I hope you are all having a great summer so far! Our July meeting was at Kevin Hurley's studio and Michael Corbin presented his copyright program. Thank you Michael for helping us navigate through the rough waters of this very important step in protecting our work and thank you to Kevin for hosting! Our district elections will be held at our next meeting. Please make every effort to attend on August 5th. I hope you are in the process of registering for the Summer Seminar in Portsmouth. Registration forms are due by August 31st and the $99 hotel rate is only good through August 14th. Don't let these dates sneak up on you! Go ahead and get both of those things done today. You can register online or print out the registration form at the VPPA website under Education. I came across a quote the other day that I wanted to share with you. So often we talk about the number of new photographers that enter our industry every day and how this affects our businesses. Our industry has a low barrier of entry. Get a camera and hang out a shingle and you are in business, for the most part. That may be how we got our start in the photography business. But we also see everyday that a low barrier of entry can have a low barrier of exit. So as business people, we need to not worry about what everyone else is doing. Henry Ford said: "The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time."
Lt. Governor, Michael Corbin
We need to be that competitor. I am not saying that we should put on our blinders and not pay any attention to what is happening around us. In a previous article, I mentioned doing a SWOT analysis where we look at the Opportunities and Threats that exist outside our business. But we should not be distracted, or threatened, by the entry of other players into the market. They may not be here in a year and the time you spent worrying about them would be wasted. I look forward to seeing you at our next meeting and at the seminar! Sharon