And PPA is making them work for you with a suite of member-exclusive resources and tools to help you measure your current business and set goals to achieve your greatest success including the PPA Business Handbook (delivered in your January Professional Photographer), in-depth analysis Benchmark Report, online Studio Self-Evaluation Tools, along with this webinar series – all designed to help you apply the benchmark learning to improve your own business and your bottom line. Learn more
Archived Webinar
with Ann Monteith, M.Photog.Cr.Hon.M.Photog., CPP, ABI, API, A-ASP & Scott Kurkian
Purchase this webinar as a part of the Online Learning Pass. Get unlimited access to both live and archived webinars for just $99.
Why are some studios so much more profitable than others? How much of every dollar your studio brings in should you be spending to grow your business, and how much should you expect to keep as bottom line profit?
PPA’s latest Financial Benchmark Survey gives us a way to measure success and get the answers. It provides a snapshot of the financial performance of both retail and home-based photography businesses, provides insight into what top-performing studios are achieving, and exposes some serious issues that every photographer needs to consider as they contemplate long-term strategies.
Don’t miss an opportunity to hear first-hand from industry financial guru Ann Monteith who will highlight the findings, and offer her insights into what they tell us about the challenges and opportunities for photography business owners today.
Known as a leading authority on studio business management, Ann Monteith serves as a consultant tostudios throughout the country, both privately and under the auspices of major industry suppliers. A former chairwoman of the board of the PPA International School of Professional Photography and a past president of PPA, she received the Gerhard Bakker Award for excellence in teaching and the Charles H. “Bud” Haynes Award “for encouraging business awareness and practices.” A widely published author, she and her husband Jim are directors of Countryhouse Studios near Hershey, Pennsylvania, as well as a prestige portraiture business and teaching facility in Deep Creek Lake, Maryland.
Scott has been the Chief Financial Officer of PPA for the past 12 years, and is one of the founders of Studio Management Services (SMS), the financial and business management education and services division PPA provides exclusively for its members. Scott has worked with many photography businesses to help them learn and understand the financial aspects of managing a small business and how to use financial analysis to improve profitability.
Archived Webinar
with Scott Kurkian & Bridget Jackson
Purchase this webinar as a part of the Online Learning Pass. Get unlimited access to both live and archived webinars for just $99.
PPA’s Studio Management Services team has created a suite of nifty online tools to answer some of the critical questions that member studios often ask about their finances and their business plans: Can I afford a retail space? Is my marketing effective? Is my workflow efficient? How do I compare overall to the Benchmark?
Our interactive tools will guide you step-by-step to enter key financial data, and then calculate how your studio measures up to the benchmark to help you determine the answers.
Scott and Bridget will do live critiques of a selection of studio financial reports to demonstrate how delving into the numbers can help you “diagnose” issues that arise when recommended benchmarks are not being met.
This webinar will give you the jumpstart you need to start looking at your studio’s numbers, with PPA’s new online tools to help, and how to apply what you learn to become more profitable.
Scott has been the Chief Financial Officer of PPA for the past 12 years, and is one of the founders of Studio Management Services (SMS), the financial services division of PPA available only to its members. Scott has worked with many photography businesses to help them learn and understand the financial aspects of managing a small business and how to use financial analysis to improve profitability.
Bridget Jackson is a Certified Public Accountant and Manager of PPA’s Studio Management Services. She has worked with small businesses for over 10 years and has been at PPA for several years, assisting numerous photographers.
Archived Webinar
Scott Kurkian with Eric Anundi, Meridith Walters & Carolle Dachowski, Cr.Photog.
Purchase this webinar as a part of the Online Learning Pass. Get unlimited access to both live and archived webinars for just $99.
PPA’s latest Benchmark Survey showed that retail studios continue to have a difficult time keeping both their general expenses and cost of sales in line with the benchmark. The unfortunate result, even for many high grossing studios, is low profitability.
We’ll hear from a group of top-performing retail studios who will speak candidly about how they have met the challenges of keeping costs down and achieved impressive bottom line profitability. They’ll share their strategies for streamlining tasks, sales training, hiring a sales rep, selling incentives, and new product ideas that have helped them to achieve business success.
Scott has been the Chief Financial Officer of PPA for the past 12 years, and is one of the founders of Studio Management Services (SMS), the financial services division of PPA available only to its members. Scott has worked with many photography businesses to help them learn and understand the financial aspects of managing a small business and how to use financial analysis to improve profitability.
Eric Anundi
Eric started Eric John, Inc. in 1993 and is today based in a retail location in downtown Salem, Oregon with
five employees. A past president of Professional Photographers of Oregon, Eric has also received 6 Kodak Gallery Awards and 11 miscellaneous state awards.
Meridith Walters
Meridith Walters and husband James are partners in Walters and Walters Photography in Raleigh, NC. 
Always shooting together, they began their wedding business in 2000 and recently moved to Raleigh to be more central for their wedding travels throughout the Southeast.
Carolle Dachowski, Cr.Photog.
Carolle partners with her husband Jeff in Dachowski Photography in Manchester, NH. Her specialty is
stylized, romantic wedding imagery.
February 1, 4pm ET
Ann Monteith, Cr.Hon.M.Photog., CPP, ABI, API, A-ASP, with Steve Ho, Angela Weedon & Carrie Koster
Purchase this webinar as a part of the Online Learning Pass. Get unlimited access to both live and archived webinars for just $99.
Home-based studios starred in the new PPA Benchmark Survey, outperforming retail locations on profitability by keeping their cost of sales and general expenses low. In fact, the top-performing group in our Survey achieved an astounding 48% bottom line profitability – far surpassing the 35% Benchmark!
Our panel of top-performing home studio owners will share their stories, and speak about the obstacles that they have overcome. They’ll address how to effectively separate home from work, how they can price and sell out of a home studio environment, and keep their costs down.
Known as a leading authority on studio business management, Ann Monteith serves as a consultant to studios throughout the country, both privately and under the auspices of major industry suppliers. A former chairwoman of the board of the PPA International School of Professional Photography and a past president of PPA, she received the Gerhard Bakker Award for excellence in teaching and the Charles H. “Bud” Haynes Award “for encouraging business awareness and practices.” A widely published author, she and her husband Jim are directors of Countryhouse Studios near Hershey, Pennsylvania, as well as a prestige portraiture business and teaching facility in Deep Creek Lake, Maryland.
Steve Ho
Steve partners with wife Shannon in Shannon Ho Photography, working out of their Norman, OK studio 
since 2002. For the first four years of the business. In 2006, Steve came onboard full-time as the business manger for the studio. Today the Hos run a very successful portrait and wedding photography studio.
Angela Weedon
Angela Weedon is a Dallas-based children, family, baby and maternity photographer. Starting out in 2000, Angela is the creative force behind Angela Weedon Photography, while her husband Matt manages the business. Angela serves on the Board of Directors for Professional Photographers of America Charities.
Carrie Koster
Along with husband David, Carrie Koster handles the business aspect of their successful studio Portraits in the Sand. A specialist in Delaware family beach portraits, the Kosters utilize the backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean to create beautiful and lasting family portraits.
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