My Strategy For Surviving Coronavirus

By Neil Moore of Moore Photographics. Neil, who lives near Marlborough, provides professional commercial, corporate, product images for businesses and individuals across the UK. He has a passion for Wiltshire, landscapes, agriculture and the sea. He also has an extensive professional photographic archive which business owners can access. He is a member of the British Institute of Professional Photography.

When did you realise the Coronavirus could be a problem for you and your business? 

It became obvious that it was going to be a problem for my business when I returned from a holiday in the Philippines at the end of January.  

However, when Italy went into lockdown, the US stopping flights entering their country it became very obvious that other countries were going to  have follow this procedure to make sure all citizens are safe.  

With the type of work I do, I rely on all my clients being busy and successful. They are currently having to put projects on hold, or cancelling them indefinitely, and this has definitely affected our business. 

What has been your plan to continue? 

As a photographic business most of my work is multifaceted with differing levels of risk.

Corporate headshots should be possible as before but keeping the minimum distance as advised by the government, however team shots where a minimum distance is required just isn't going to happen at the moment.  The best one can hope for is a manipulated image to bring all the team together.

Of course, if the government decision is that “no contact at all” is to be made we would not be able to do headshots.

Products can still be photographed in the my studio. We always use gloves when handling the client's products as a matter of course. Now we have additional cleaning procedures in place so as not to be contaminated by the packaging etc. When we ship the products back to the client we also adopt this policy, minimising the risk from us to our client.  

On-site/location product photo is also possible. We already use risk assessment forms for these type of projects, but have now included elements which cover the current pandemic.

As with all businesses we are always looking to increasing our offering so as to catch work that may be available.  

At present we are working in partnership with companies that do “Aerial photography/video/survey” ; “virtual tours” and “video filming” so as to create complete visual promotional material packages for our current and future clients.    

We can also offer access to an extensive archive of images which are suitable for use on social media, blogs or websites. They are evocative of moods etc and, unlike other massive archives, the images won't be popping up in hundreds of different online places. 

All businesses have always needed comprehensive visual imagery (photos or film) to promote them, and especially through these difficult times.  Standing out from the competition has never been more important.

What advice would you give to others in business? 

Keep in touch with your clients, find out if there is anything you can help them with, but be prepared to do the odd thing pro bono as they are suffering just as you are. 

What can we do to help each other?

In the first instance one can help clients by promoting them through your website and social media.  Secondly the companies you network with can be promoted in the same way.  The added benefit is that it can improve your search engine exposure through links (to them) and back links (from them).

What do you think can be learned from this in the business world?

Business is and has always been a global undertaking with trade passing from one country to the next.  From what we can see throughout history is that there may be a blip when there is a crises, but that after time it does start to continue again.  Even after a pandemic.

Your parting thought?

Safeguarding family, friends and clients, should be our main priority.  We must all follow the advice issued by the government on a daily basis.  From this we can adapt further what we are able to do to safeguard others - both in business and in life. 

Find out more by visiting https://www.moore-photographics.com