Tired, listless, lacking focus? You could be suffering from production fatigue.
Never heard of the term? Put simply, it’s the inability to focus on important parts of the business because you’re bogged down in production details.
In the image business, that means worrying about every single set that comes in and goes out, and getting through the daily grind of hiring, training and managing staff. All of that takes your focus away from organising and running the core business better to maximise revenue.
“Work on the business, not in the business”, is the adage from business consultants – it seems obvious. So why do so many image agency owners and senior managers fall into the trap? Here are some reasons:
1. Lack of trust of staff – The wrong people have been hired, and/or they’ve been poorly trained and managed. Now they can’t be trusted, so micro-managing becomes the order of the day.
2. Systems are cumbersome and convoluted – Because so much time is spent working on production, nothing has been done to make it run more smoothly, so there’s more work than the staff can cope with.
3. There’s an all-consuming production rush each morning – Because production staff aren’t employed 24/7, work piles up most mornings, demanding everyone gets involved with clearing the backlog.
4. You’re mesmerised by each new set of images – New images are important, but it’s easy to get transfixed with the images coming in and going out if that’s the be all and end all of revenue generation. Time needs to be spent on other revenue streams such as brand images. However, if you’re suffering from production fatigue that probably isn’t happening.
To find out how Picsell Media can solve your production fatigue issues, click here.