Prince Edward Island is a small province, and one of the quirks of this place is how well connected everyone is. If your fridge stops working, chances are someone knows someone who can help you out (often at less cost than a YellowPages repair person). People often joke here that it’s not “what you know,” but “who you know,” and yup—that’s not far from realty around these parts!
But, is this a good mentality to have as a business person?
Let’s look at our fridge scenario. Sure, there are many people who could fix your fridge for you and save you some coins. No doubt, many of them are good at what they do! A risk you take, though, is getting a ‘handy’ person who will either fix your fridge completely, fix your fridge temporarily, or make it worse. You’re not only out the money you spent on your random not-so-handy person, but you’re probably looking at forking out some dough to hire a pro to fix your “fixed” fridge.
Probably should have went with the pro in the first place huh?
This has very likely already happened to you at some point in time. Maybe you hired your cousin’s paperboy’s uncle’s neighbour to do your website with disastrous results. Or perhaps you saved some money on your bookkeeping by hiring your dog groomer’s sister’s husband only to learn the hard way that you get what you pay for.
It’s the same idea in the modelling industry.
Consider this: you own a business and you want to shoot a TV commercial. Now, commercials aren’t cheap to produce, so you start thinking of ways to reduce your budget. You have the “brilliant” idea of hiring your neighbour’s teenage daughter and your cousin’s friend to star in the shoot. They are both nice enough looking people with great photos on Facebook and they have offered to work in exchange for movie money aren’t charging you much at all. Great deal, right?
Well, shooting time ends up taking twice as long because you have to explain to the “models” various techniques. The makeup artist has to be called back to the set because the teenager forgot about not smudging her face when she made all those phone calls on her break. You end up paying more to the tech crew and other people on set who usually charge by the hour.
And then, when the commercial finally airs, the feedback you most receive has nothing to do with your business or product, but how great it was to see so-and-so on TV!
Not exactly the message you were hoping for. In fact, this familiarity ends up making you look less professional.
Professional models will get the job done. They’ve been trained to represent your vision, your brand, your business. They know the scene and what is expected of them. They know how to take care of their looks and present themselves so that they are highlighting your product, not putting themselves in the forefront. Even if you know who these models are (let’s face it—on PEI, that’s bound to happen!), their professional training means that their face won’t be what you (or your customer) are focusing on. Reshoot that same TV commercial with a model from PEI Panache Models and the only feedback you should hear is about your business.
We represent models of all ages, sizes, ethnic backgrounds, and looks. Call us today to talk about how we can help you put your best face forward.
PS: If you think your neighbour’s teenage daughter and your cousin’s friend might have it in them to be models, send them over to Panache and we can train them into professionals. Then you can hire them!
PPS: Here’s a sneak peek at our pros, Robyn C. and Daniel R. at work!
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