Budget Vs. Vision

Picture this: You’re a business owner signing on with ACD to carry out your vision of fresh, clean, branding photography. You have all these ideas in mind as to what you’d like to see out of our photographers, and we put together a package for you that will accomplish exactly that vision. Then you see the package price. Suddenly, it doesn’t fit into your budget, or you didn’t create a budget at all and you don’t know whether or not you can “afford” to have these photos and videos created as you dreamed. Trust us, we’ve all been there.

The first step in carrying out your vision is to create a budget for each of your marketing endeavors. 

When it comes to budgeting, it is important to understand what you are getting out of a package and how it can best support your vision. 

Oftentimes, one of the biggest mistakes we see, is that clients don’t fully understand what they’re going to get with their whole budget in mind. When budgeting for a full photoshoot, clients often have a vision of what they want to accomplish and don’t realize what it takes to execute that vision. 

When it comes to completely executing a branding photoshoot, or a full vision, we can’t just pick and choose what parts of the package we want; we carefully curate a full package to enhance your brand, and you need all parts of the package to achieve your goals.

It’s like going into a restaurant and saying you don’t want certain ingredients to make the dish cheaper. You’re not getting the same product in the end.

So, first and foremost, you want to have a budget for what you are willing to spend and we will curate a package around that budget.

Looking to stretch your budget creatively? Be honest with what your budget is and what you’re looking for. We always provide our strongest offer of what we can bring to the table. That way we can guarantee satisfaction of services and final deliverable product. 

You’ll find that working with ACD, we always put in the effort to try to give clients a little bit extra, knowing how sometimes it is difficult to get everything you’re looking for while staying within your budget. 

Our goal is to show you how to stretch out the content we’ve captured and how to reuse content to create more reels and more still posts for social media and your website. 

Our process: 

We work together to agree on the type and amount of content you are looking for, and make sure you are getting the most out of the work that we are doing together. 

Negotiating is key in this process. As we curate your package, we work together to decide what we can best deliver in relation to what your budget is.

When it comes to delivering a product, it all comes down to hospitality. When it comes to hospitality, creating a memorable experience is essential. When it comes to having a minimal budget, make the small moments count, including a trip to coffee or including a gift basket that clients can really take away with them. Offer them a print of one of their favorite photos. The small gestures really go a long way. At the end day this is about being a service to the client and about making every moment memorable. 

What happens when budget aligns with vision vs when it doesn’t? 

When a budget aligns with the vision, everything moves smoothly. The client and agency know exactly what they’re going for and can execute accordingly. The client is happy because they were able to communicate their budget and their desired deliverables, and the team is happy because we were able to provide a service that aligns with your vision, with little to no hassle.

On the flip side, when a budget doesn’t align with vision, things are left up in the air and we have to try to make sure to achieve expectations as best we can. Oftentimes, this leaves clients feeling empty-handed, like they didn’t get what they were looking for even though their budget didn’t allow for it. Similarly, the team is left unsatisfied, knowing that we were not able to deliver extreme hospitality to our clients. 

As a hospitality group, we are always thinking about marketing in terms of food!

The recipe is there for a reason. When the recipe is altered in any way it becomes a completely different dish. As much as you want to try to get everything into a budget, in the end, when we try too much or try too little, it ends up being a completely different product than was originally envisioned. 

The goal overall is to make sure we provide the ideal product or service desired, let’s say needed, by the client.

Our final, and most important tip, definitely try to go in with a budget and stick to it. Every once in a while, though, you want to take a risk to meet the outcomes you’re looking for. You have to be able to see and strategize when you can take that risk when possible. Taking that risk is how we make it further in life and business.