In Looking Back

We talk a lot about expanding and growing to keep competitive. We push this issue, because we see the benefit of it, first hand.

When we started RGP, we were photography oriented. It was all about the images, and building our stock portfolios online. But we realized quite soon that we would need to expand, to keep competitive. Robert was always an illustrator, so we added Vector illustrations to our portfolio. We started a commerce site, one where we could sell our prints and merchandise, as well as have galleries for our clients to review their images. This was a good step for us, it gave us a new avenue for revenue. But this avenue would do nothing, unless we promoted it.

We hired someone to help us out with our sales and networking, however that didn’t pan out as well as we wished. The lack of effort on their part was astonishing to us! For someone who had talked their skills up, we couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t make a move without us handing them a direct lead. This relationship was shortly terminated, and in an effort to recoup our losses, Robert made an attempt at marketing and networking himself. It’s possible that he did this out of necessity, but more probable he pushed himself out of spite. But in 2 months time, he pushed himself and our company to the large network of friends and associates we now hold.

We also started writing. Everyone has a story, some stories are easy to relate to or learn from. We started with our blog, and ended up with our book (I, Creator ISBN# 978-0-9824214-1-3) and several motivational/inspirational pieces that we have up at different sites online (eHow, Associated Content, Bukisa, etc).

At this time, we are being asked for radio interviews, directly from the interest of our book. We also receive emails daily from others, telling us how we are motivating and inspiring them to keep going, to not let the small stuff get them down. The word seems to be getting out, and our readership is growing.

We feel, at this point, that we have created a concrete base for our business to grow on. We have done our research, and progressed slowly and wisely. But, while money seems to be a motivational factor in most businesses, in ours inspiration, growth, and ethics are most important.

We aren’t sure what’s coming up next, but let me tell you, we are open to the next suggestion, and look forward to the challenges it may bring!

Jim is Also a Model

We have been so busy, trying to get everything set up. We had a ton of research to do while getting our books ready, ISBN numbers, Bar Codes, press releases, etc. And Robert has been doing a bit of writing for eHow, Associated Content, and a handful of other sites. Robert also keeps up with our marketing and advertising. And I’ve been working on the stock side of things, keywording and submitting, as well as all the paperwork side of the house.

Oh, and we just got new lights. So, in the midst of all we are doing, we got some people to come over and take a few pictures. This is James Burns, creator of the Flowers at Night series, as well as others. Sometimes we can get him to step in front of the camera. Here are some of the shots we got. Sorry, I don’t edit, so those are converted straight from RAW. And, yeah, I think they will go stock.