When a potential customer wants photos..

[scottymc]

Yeah, I'm not sure I like the way you choose your goverment, from an outside view it looks more like a popularity contest and then you have people running the country that never had to be voted in by the people, have I got that right?

[kodydog]

The problem with the popular vote is a lot of people who vote have no idea what is in the constitution, how the government works or what the three branches of government are. They'll vote for a guy who promises a bunch of hope and change even though he never really explains what that means. The more the person looks and talks like a movie star the better chance he has to get elected. Most people don't bother looking at their history or past political record.

Our presidential voting system is based on electoral votes that can get very complicated but basically each state gets a certain number of votes based on population. If a politician wins that state he wins all the electoral votes from that state no mater how many people voted for the other person. It is possible to win the popular vote and still loose to the person who won the most electoral votes.

This became a huge controversy in the Bush vs Gore election.

[bobbin]

I also think people underestimate the uncontrolled power of the paid lobby in Washington DC.  There is major corporate money spent on lobbyists who are very slenderly controlled and they wield a tremendous amount of political clout with those representatives who are elected by the good citizens of this country.  For a taxpayer to believe that he is not "out moneyed" and under represented is the height of folly.  Money runs this country (and all the others, too) no matter how long and loudly the representatives claim otherwise. 

There needs to be very strict regulation of lobbyists and huge, multi-national corporate entities need to be brought to heel.  Until those things are accomplished the taxpaying citizens of this country will have a small voice in the Washington chorus. 

[scottymc]

I have never understood exactly how your elections work, the only thing I know for sure is that it goes on for to long while they sort out who is going to be running for president, though we get to see some of your best nut jobs, if it's annoying to us to hear about all these presidential hopefuls it must be hell for you guys.

Down hear we basically vote for a representative in our electorate, which ever wins  the most  seats governs, the leader of the leading party is Prime Minister but he can be replaced by his party at any time, so you vote for the party not the leader, in theory anyway. A lot of people migrate hate this system as they say we don't get the leader we vote for, but only the people in the electorate that the leader reside actually vote for him/her.
Also by law all Australian citizens have to vote or be fined.

I can see the advantages of a dictatorship, no election campaigns, and no lies cause they don't go through the charade of consulting the people or caring what they think.

[josh]

Hi i have been going through d same problem for a while now what try to do is document my jobs on my pocket pc n up load them to my face book account then refer my customers to that address so they can easily view what little i have to show ;)

[Mike8560]

I've got years of photos of my canvas work not as many of ulholsterry i only take pix of complete Interiors I've done and most are cushions  and not complete boats so I don't have as many. That fine I can show a customer what his can look like.  It when they ask for references that they can call and go see.
Then I have to think of a boat like
there's who I've done if there still in thebstate indont know  ind the type of job that asked it generaly one kind and I only vet a couple
a year any more. And I don't have thee name and number probly anymore or if they want to be bothered. I feel funny asking. 

[stitcher_guy]

I'm very late getting into this conversation, I know. And normally I don't dredge up old threads because you folks generally hit every detail so well. But, oh my, I looked through the first few comments and about fell over dead. Never EVER use someone else's work as your own. My God. Legally you are infringing on copyright laws by stealing images knowingly owned by another. Morally you are misrepresenting yourself which does nothing but tarnish your image.

I have a shop who is (geographically) considered a competitor. His website has pictures of other people's work. His logo uses cars taken from clipart. He has claimed work as his own that he marginally helped with at another shop. His image and business is nothing but a huge joke to us. He has no respectability with anyone and his business suffers because of it.

If you don't have pictures of jobs you've already completed, then you yank the seats out of your daily driver and redo them. Hit the Salvation Army and snag an old ottoman or wingback chair and redo it. Either keep it in your shop to show off, ALONG WITH taking scads of pictures. Or, put it out for sale.

We have been cataloging our jobs for the last 11 years, finished work as well as in-production. Our portfolios are the centeral focus at car shows when we set up our booth. People stop and begin to describe their "different" or "unique" interior desires, and I almost always can flip to a job that closely resembles what they desire. It's a great selling tool. BUT, from day one, every picture ever used by PRO Stitch has always been work done BY US. Never ever taken from any other source. That is just wrong.

[sofadoc]

I just went back and re-read this topic. I see that most everyone is adamant about not using pics of work other than your own. I stated earlier in this thread that I "didn't have a problem with it".
Just for the record, I've never tried to pass off a pic of someone else's work as mine. I suspect that my competition has, but I really don't have the energy to challenge him on it.
I don't post a lot of pics of my work on my website. In a town where everybody knows everybody, I have a lot of customers that really would rather I didn't put their furniture on my website.

For example, one of my best customers is an insurance agent, who has my competitor for a client. He'd prefer that my competitor doesn't know that he gets his upholstery work done elsewhere. Another good customer is a divorced woman who doesn't want her ex-hubby knowing how she spends her money.

I realize this topic wasn't about public display, but moreso about a private portfolio to show potential customers.
I've always had more customers than I can serve in an 8 hour day, so I never felt any sense of urgency to put a portfolio together.

At 53, I may be getting crotchety before my time. ;D 
But I certainly understand the opinions of Russ, and others here who are still at a more competitive stage in their careers.

[kodydog]

Sofadoc you can tell me to mind my own F'n business if you want but 53 is way to young to NOT be "competitive."
Quite frankly I hate that word. I'd rather call it growing my business. Don't know if I'll ever stop. I'm only a year older than you.
Of course we all run our business differently. :)

[sofadoc]

Kody,  "competitive" was probably a poor choice of words. I also like the term "growing your business".
But I only see 2 ways to grow my business:
1) Work more hours
2) Hire employees

I have no intention of doing either. I have painful arches in my feet. When the clock strikes 5 PM every day, my body says "enough".
I've played the employee game many times. I'm sure that there are rare breeds of human that are exceptions to the rule, but my observation has been that unless their name is on the sign outside, they don't care.
A couple of exceptions that immediately come to mind are Bobbin at her present job, and Stitcher when he first started out. No one like that has ever darkened MY door.
I believe that my business will always be the type that "There's more than enough for 1, but there ain't enough for 2"

Everything is payed off. I've put 2 kids through college. The insurance, and "nest egg" are taken care of through my wife's job. I take a couple of nice vacations a year. I never missed a minute of my kids growing up, and now I'm ready to do all the soccer and T-ball stuff all over again with the grandkids.
I still love what I do. I don't plan to give it up anytime soon.
Maybe a better word would be "agressive". I'm just not that agressive anymore.

Believe me, I would never tell you that it's NOYFB ;D
I hope you and others here will always feel free to speak candidly.