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From a photographer's website I came across recently - under their "pricing" link:

"You're wedding is different than any other I've ever shot, so it would be impossible for me to simply list a bunch of prices without us talking.  I need to know more about you - and your wedding - before I can create a custom quote that fits your needs specifically.  Please contact me today, so we can talk more about your wedding - and how I might be able to serve you."

I’ve noticed, more and more, that a lot of photographers - for whatever reason - are requiring clients to contact them before they will give any kind of pricing information.  And based on what I hear photographers say, it seems that they want clients to engage in what is basically a sales conversation, before they will give detailed information about their pricing.

I think there's a mentality that says "if I am able to talk to someone, I'll be able to convince them of my worth - even if I'm out of their price range."  

Sure, that’s true for maybe one out of every 1,000 inquiries, but it’s not how it usually works in the real world.  In the real world, you are not the only photographer your prospects are considering.  Even if they found you as a result of a referral, most often - they’ll be looking at several photographers. 

As they filter through the choices, they look at whether they like the images, and they look at whether you fit in their budget.  If you make it hard for them to do either of these two things, they’ll move on.  Sure, there are other things that matter before they make a purchase - like whether or not they feel like you’d personally be a good fit - but they’ll never even get to that point if you make it hard for them to get the information they want.

Now, I’m not suggesting you need to put every package, every print size price, every session fee, EVERYTHING right on your site.  I think that generally speaking, MORE information isn’t always helpful.  The key is getting the right information to the right people at the right time.  When someone is browsing for photographers that fit their budget, they don’t need every detail - they just need to know if you fit.

Pricing is one of the issues that photographers - and all small business owners - wrestle with all the time.  It's one of the most important decisions you make, and can impact the health and viability of your business like almost nothing else.  Just as important, is the way you use your pricing - and it's presentation - to reinforce the customer experience.

I think there’s another choice, and it’s the way I’ve chosen to present our pricing.  On my site, I list our starting commission price.  I also give people an idea of the amount of money most of our clients choose to spend.  I help manage their expectations by letting them what we charge, and what people usually spend.  This allows potential clients to quickly decide whether or not our studio fits with their budget.  Does it mean I get a lot less people contacting me?  Sure - and I’m okay with that.  I'm okay with not answering countless emails to couple's that are clearly not our ideal client. 

I send my complete wedding pricing information to EVERY client that inquires.  I let them decide for themselves whether what we're offering is a good fit for them.  I let them know that if they feel like we're a good fit, then I'd love to schedule time to talk.  I don't want to waste their time or mine, so I don't FORCE them to talk to me before I'll give them what they really want - my prices.

I don’t think it does anyone - you OR the client - any good to waste time.  That’s exactly what it does, when you make someone contact you to find out you’re out of their price range. It wastes both of your time.  And it wastes even more, if you make them jump through even more hoops.

So, ask yourself, is your pricing a secret?  If so, why?  If you’re charging what you’re worth, why not at least do yourself - and your potential clients - a favor and let them know upfront what you’re worth.  

They care about getting tan for the wedding.  They care about whether the escort cards look right, and who should sit with who at the wedding.  They care about how they can afford everything they want.  They care about what people will think of their wedding.  They care about themselves.

They don't care about: your website, your blog, your twitter status, the award you won that really everyone won but you pretend like it's a big deal anyway.  They don't care about the type of camera you shoot with.  They don't care if you shoot RAW or JPG.  They don't care about your new brand, or your letterpress cards.  They don't care about the new logo and the colors you spent hours trying to get just right.

They DO care about whether or not they trust you.  They care about whether they believe you can help them remember the way they feel at their wedding.  They care about whether you'll do what you say you'll do.  They are about whether or not you'll add fun to their wedding day, or whether you'll be a drag.  

All those other things - the things we care about so much - are meaningless to clients.  Sure, they matter.  Sure, a professional website helps build credibility.  Sure, L series lenses with big apertures help us produce amazing images.  Sure, letterpress business cards are impressive.  But all of it is meaningless because everyone is focused on these things - except the client.  All of your competition has the same "stuff."

The question we forget to ask ourselves is: what do our clients really care about?  Why don't we spend more time caring about those things?  Can you imagine what your business might look like if your clients felt like you REALLY cared about them - and the things they care about?  Can you imagine what might happen if you spent more time thinking about your clients, and less time thinking about "strategies" to get them to give you more money? 

You should care about what your clients care about.  You should care about them.

Ok, reality check time.  Being passionate about something isn't enough.  If it's going to be a business - it HAS to be profitable.  It HAS to make money.  Not only is this common sense, but the IRS won't even let you call it a business if you don't have what they call a "profit motive."  There are several indicators they use to determine whether an endeavor is a business or a hobby, but the bottom line is - you have to be acting intentionally so that the result will be that you make a profit. 

On the other hand, it takes 3+ years before a new small business makes money.  Read that again - you should be prepared to operate in the RED for 3 years before actually drawing a paycheck.  Knowing that, wouldn't you want to do everything you could to increase your chances?  Then stop treating it like a hobby, pull it together, and start acting like a business.

The reality is, that many creative/photography businesses don't understand or even manage their expenses in a meaningful way.  This causes them to make decisions about their business without all the information.  For many photographers, bookkeeping is simply an exercise in making sure you can do your taxes each April.  You keep a loose understanding of how much you brought in, and somewhere there's a box of receipts (or post it notes, or whatever).  

While it might be true that you have enough information to file your taxes (assuming you're actually filing them, declaring all your income, paying your sales taxes, etc), you still won't have any understanding of the health of your business.  A few months ago, PPA released their Benchmark Survey.  It's got some great information, and I HIGHLY suggest you read through it.  I'm going to summarize a few things for you - and hopefully help you think about how you can have a healthy business.

1. Start by understanding what it costs you to be in business.  This means, how much does it cost you to do business, whether or not you ever sell anything.  These are fixed expenses.  This includes your lease, your capital expenses like camera gear and computers, insurance, business licenses, employee costs, advertising, accounting, and legal.  It includes your utilities, your telephone, your website, and everything you spend money on just to keep the businesses alive.

For most photographers, this number is staggering when you start to really look at it.  Most photographers forget that the wear and tear on their vehicle is an expense of their business.  Most photographers don't consider that there additional utility costs (even if you're a home based business), associated with the additional work you do. 

According to PPA, these expenses should be no more than 30-40% of your revenue, depending on whether you're a home-based, or retail-based studio.  

2. Most photography businesses fail to accurately account for Cost of Goods.  These are all the things that go directly into the production and procurement of your products.  Materials, Prints, Labor, equipment use, consumables, and more, all add up to the expense of selling your product.  

If you really want to understand the health of your business, doesn't it make sense that you'd want to know how much it costs you every time you sell an 8x10?  How would you even know where to begin to price that 8x10 if you have no idea what it costs you?

PPA suggests that these expenses be no more than 35% of your revenue or 25% if you're a retail-based studio (to make up for the additional overhead associated with a storefront).  

3. Treat yourself as an expense of your business. My recommendation is that you start early by managing your cash flow - and pay yourself a set salary.  In the beginning - this probably won't be much, but if you have a good understanding of your expenses, you'll know what you're able to pay yourself.  Often the temptation is to simply pay yourself out of the "proceeds" of a wedding.  You deposit the check in your account, and figure you'll just pay for the album - or whatever other product they order - as it comes.  

Realistically, this NEVER works.  You end up paying for albums with your next clients retainer.  You end up paying your studio expenses from your personal account.  The minute this starts - you can start counting the days until your business fails.

Instead, be realistic about what your pricing will allow you to make.  Be realistic and start the habit now of paying yourself a set amount - based on your revenue and other expenses.  This will allow you to manage both your business AND personal budget/cash flow - especially during off-season. 

4. Only buy it if you NEED it AND you can afford it.  New gear doesn't make you better.  New gear doesn't get you new clients.  A new website won't automatically increase your bookings.  

There are a lot of cool gear that I'd like to buy. I don't need it and I can't afford it.  That's why I won't be buying new gear anytime soon.  Sure, it's true that if you can afford it, sometimes you can buy things you don't "need."  That's the entire point of making money right?  But if you're borrowing money to buy gear that takes you 4 years to get a positive ROI out of, and 5 years to pay off, do you think you're business stands any chance?

You can't pay for groceries with the appearance of success.

The appearance of success doesn't help you provide for your family.

Eventually, people figure you out.  Every time.

Appearing successful doesn't pay your mortgage. 

As a wedding photographer, it's tempting to believe that our clients have a wedding photography problem.  We think 'these people are getting married, and they want some photos taken, that's why they called me.'  Not only that, but they clearly want the best possible photos that they can afford - so they called me, the best in town.  

In fact, more than a wedding PHOTOGRAPHY problem, our industry has tempted us to believe that our clients really have a "wedding PHOTOGRAPHER" problem.  We seduce ourselves into believing that it's about our style, our personality, even our ability to entertain and impress.  We have convinced ourselves that it's really not even about our photography - but about US.

I do think that there is certainly an important connection that we make with our clients.   And I believe that connection helps us to solve their problem.  The mistake we often make is that we're trying to solve a wedding photography, or wedding photographer problem.  It's understandable - since most of clients believe that is their problem as well.  

Unfortunately, it's not.  I think there's a different - deeper - problem that our clients really bring to us.  I believe strongly that the problem isn't that they need pretty pictures of their wedding, it's that they want to remember the way they feel at their wedding.  See, our clients call us because deep down inside, they want to know that they'll be able to experience their wedding every time they look through their album, or watch their slideshow.  

Clients don't hire photographers because they want to remember what their wedding dress looked like - they want to remember what it felt like when they first put it on and looked in the mirror.  They don't need detail shots so they can remember what the reception venue looked like - they want to remember what it felt like to walk in and be surrounded by the people they love most.  They don't care about first dance photos - they care about remembering the first time they embraced as husband and wife.

They come to us because they hope and trust that we'll be able to offer them a solution.  They bring us a huge challenge - to create for them, images that bring them back to the emotion of their wedding day.  

It's about them.  It's about their wedding.  It's about the story that started long before we ever got involved.  It's about the details, the people, the moments, the smells, the light, the color, and the excitement.  It's about everything they've dreamed about, coming to life before them.

When the phone rings, they have a problem.  They want to remember the experience - and the feeling - of their wedding.  Our job is to be the answer to THAT problem.  The photographers who truly succeed, and build businesses full of happy clients, are the photographers who dedicate their craft and their art to solving that problem.

The next time the phone rings - or you get an email inquiry - think about being the solution to the real problem.  What might you do different?  

1. PRACTICE PHOTOGRAPHY.  Practice a lot.  Practice on your friends.  Practice on your dog.  Practice on your kids.  Take a class, better yet, take two.  Take pictures constantly.  Take at least 20,000 photos for free before you even think about calling yourself a pro. Learn about exposure, composition, color, and depth of field.  I don't care if you shoot film or digital, but shoot until you burn up a shutter.  

Make photographs.  Experiment.  Do crazy things with your camera.  Learn what it can do, and push the boundaries.  Look through photography books and learn how the legends make their shots.  Then go out and take more photographs - at least 10,000 more.

2. FIND SOMEONE TO APPRENTICE WITH.  Second shoot a few dozen weddings.  Seriously.  There's no better way to learn than to learn with someone who has experience.  Find a respected photographer and work your tail off.  Carry their bags around and set up light stands.  Learn how they approach a wedding, how they handle formals, how they manage their clients, and how they create incredible photographs.  

I still second shoot a few weddings every year because it's the best way I know to experiment and practice things I can't always do at my own weddings.  Even once you've mastered your camera, that doesn't mean you'll have a clue what to do when you show at a high-stakes, high-energy, high-emotion event like a wedding.

3. GET A REAL JOB.  You know, the kind that pays your bills.  It's unlikely that your photography business will support you for the first 2 or 3 years (if you're lucky).  With that in mind, get a job - or keep the one you have.  For whatever reason, photographers seem to be eager to quit whatever job they have that puts food on the table.  They are in a rush to jump off a cliff and hope that they suddenly figure out how to fly.  How on earth does that make sense?  Do something to make money - you're going to need it if you're serious about starting a business.

4. SAVE AS MUCH CAPITAL AS YOU CAN.  Put 3-6 months of living expenses in a savings account before you "launch" your business.  Only purchase gear when you can afford to pay cash - and build up your gear as you go.  There's no reason to go into debt.  After all, the average photographer spends $5K in gear a year.   If you put that on a credit card, the average american will end up paying $7-$9K to pay off that gear over 8-10 years.  By then, 95% of photographers will be out of business, paying off gear that's only worth pennies on the dollar.

Buy your gear with cash, but get good gear.  If you're shooting a wedding, you better have at least 2 solid bodies, a wide, normal, and tele prime or zoom lens, a pro grade flash, and multiple pro quality memory cards.  That's not cheap.  You can do it without going into debt, but you're talking about a pretty serious investment.

5. HIRE AN ACCOUNTANT.  You're starting a business, for crying out loud!  You're about to make one of the most significant financial decisions of your life - and you think it makes sense to do it without the expertise of someone who knows how to keep track of your money?  Who cares about what new lens to buy if you don't even know if you can afford it.

6. GET A LAWYER.  For all the same reasons as you need an accountant.   This is a HUGE decision you're making and you want to be sure you set your business up in a way that protects you from liability.  Why on earth would you just use someone else's contract?  Why on earth would you just make one up yourself?  It seems like no big deal until you get sued, realize you had a weak contract, and discover that as a sole proprietor, all of your personal assets are now at risk.  Your bank accounts, your home, your life savings - everything.  All so you could save a few hundred - or thousand dollars.

(you're still practicing your photography right?  You're still second shooting right)

7. DEVELOP A PLAN. How are you going to get clients?  What's your marketing strategy?  Yes - your network is a great place to start.  But how are you going to leverage that to build a sustainable business?  Who are the clients you want to work with - and how are you going to get in front of them?  Are you going to advertise, do bridal shows, have a website?  Write down your plan to market your business.  

As you develop a plan, ask yourself why - of all the things you could do with your life - why are you choosing this?  Does running a small business fit into your life?  Will it provide for your family?  Will it help you have the kind of life you really want?

8. CREATE SYSTEMS.  The average photographer spends 15-20 hours a week on editing, and another 15 on administrative tasks.  Neither of those make you any money.  Before you start taking clients, figure out how you're going to organize your processes.  Develop a workflow, build a relationship with a lab, decide on products and WRITE IT ALL DOWN.  This way you can spend your time doing things that make you money - instead of reinventing your workflow for every wedding.  For many photographers, it makes sense to outsource most of the non revenue generating tasks of your business, including your editing, album design, production and even bookkeeping.

(keep making photographs.... lots of them... practice as often as you can)

9. LEARN ABOUT SALES A large part of what you do with your time will be sales.  When you meet with clients - that's sales.  When you conduct viewing sessions - that's sales.  If you're going to make any money doing this - that's sales.  If you are terrible at sales, read books (by Jeffrey Gitomer or Neil Rackham to start) or take classes.  You might even consider hiring someone to help with this aspect of your business.

10. KNOW YOUR NUMBERS. You hired an accountant - listen to what they tell you.  Know how much it costs you to be in business.  Understand your fixed expenses vs cost of sales expenses.  Know how these relate to profitability.  You are a business owner - ACT LIKE ONE.  Be intelligent and do the hard work when you create your pricing.  For some solid help - read the PPA Benchmark Survey.  Rationalize your pricing, understanding what it takes to compensate for your time.  Know how to create packages, how to move people to action by pricing, and what your margins are.  

Many photographers just make stuff up when it comes to pricing, and the end result is - they don't make any money.  Often they don't even know they aren't making any money until they do their taxes. Ask your accountant to set up your chart of accounts and use managerial accounting practices.

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You know what, I could easily give you 10 more steps before you start a photography business.  If you do these 10 things, there's still a pretty good chance that your business might fail.  Do you love photography and love creating something of value for people?  If so, than maybe it's worth it to give it a shot.  You probably won't get rich (contrary to popular belief), but you can do something you love - with purpose.  

What about you - what else would you add?  Leave your steps below...

Let me say this - I'm not a DJ-hater.  DJ is one of the sharpest marketers in our industry.  This isn't a post about DJ.  It's a post about ThePhotoSystem (TPS).  Regardless of what I - or anyone - thinks of the individual steps, the idea that there are 10 easy steps to starting a photography business is a dangerous proposition.  Why?  Because 95% of small business fail.  

Small businesses don't fail because they don't have enough friends.  They don't fail because they don't smile enough.  They don't fail because they aren't "mother-Theresa" enough.  They fail because they aren't profitable.  And most photographers aren't profitable because they don't understand business.  In fact, The vast majority of photographers really treat their "business" as a hobby.  

The danger to our industry is that TPS creates a false expectation for new photographers.  Now, before you think that I'm some old-timer that is afraid of newbies coming in and taking over, let me remind you that you're reading a free site with a ton of FREE resources designed just for those who are starting, and want to start out right.

Here's why I think TPS is bad for photographers.

1. The biggest problem is that new photographers equate popularity with success.  

The cult-like, status driven state of our industry leads photographers to believe that they should be like the "popular kids," without any respect to the actual success of their business.   ThePhotoSystem is beautifully designed, and full of slick marketing - but low on content.  That's exactly the problem with 95% of the educational materials available to photographers.  So many new photographers flock to listen to the "popular" photographers, without any regard for whether or not they are truly "successful."  Many have successfully built a platform with photographers, but if you really want to learn how to run your business - learn about business.  

2. It disregards the product.  

If all you do is sell your personality, and fail to deliver a quality product (your photography), you're basically a prostitute.   The idea that the work you produce is less important than the friends you make is a tragedy.  The real challenge - and what separates the best from the rest, is that the best can take a GREAT product and wrap it in an even better client experience.  The very best have spent YEARS building their craft, and years getting better at photography.  All the marketing and friends in the world won't make up for terrible photography.  Sure, it might for a while - but eventually your friends will get sick of bad photos.

3. It perpetuates the lie that there is a "fast-track" to success.

Everyone wants to be super-successful, NOW.  The beautiful thing about our industry is that it's open to anyone.  Anyone can become a photographer.  Anyone can learn the craft and build a business if they're willing to work really, really hard.  TPS gives the false impression that you can boil a lot of hard work into 10 easy steps.  In reality, it takes years of hard work to build something that will add value to your clients - and your own life. 

There are plenty of examples of over-night success stories.  Except that there really aren't.  There aren't any over-night success stories, we just think there are.  Most of the people who built something successful were hard at work for years before anyone noticed - or before it really took off.   We're attracted to instant success because that's what we want.  The problem is that, most often, success isn't instant.  In fact, many times what we think is success, really isn't.  

I think that the number one thing that drives pricing decisions by photographers is fear.  Whether it is a fear of never booking any clients, fear of what other people will think, or fear of being unable to make a living as a photographer - often times, photographers become paralyzed by fear when thinking about their pricing.  It doesn't have to be that way.  In fact, figuring out your pricing isn't even that hard - if you sit down and do the work.  

Let's look at how you can turn your pricing from painful - into profit.

It's not as hard as you think

First, I think that many photographers spend far too much time stressing out about pricing.  Most of the time, I think that even if photographers have an idea of what they "should" charge, they convince themselves that no one will ever book them.  It's simply not true.  (Though, as an aside, what if it was true that no one would book you at the price you need to charge to be profitable?  Sounds like a good arguement that this isn't a particularly good career path for you - not an arguement for lowering your prices.)

In reality, figuring out how to design your pricing comes down to understanding a few principles, and doing some work.  

It's about numbers

Photographers come up with all kinds of ways to pick prices.  They look around and try to figure out what photographers in their are are charging.  They try to determine what "the market will bear," or they even base pricing on what they themselves would pay.  Unfortunately, none of these are based on any kind of rational thinking.  

Consider for a minute, the wisdom of basing your pricing on what another photographer charges.  Do you know anything about that photographer's business?  Do you know what kind of expenses they have, or how much they make?  Do you know how their business operates, what types of products they offer, how they manage their workflow, or what type of overhead they have?  If not, why would you want to model your pricing after them?

What you charge should be based on your expenses + a profit.  It's that simple.  Your pricing is based on the products and services you provide, plus a profit margin.  Add up everything that goes in to providing a product, or a service, and you have your expenses.  

For example, for a product like an 8x10 print, add up everything involved in selling that print (your cost of sales). 

   Wholesale print cost: $2.20

   Mounting: $1.50

   Time involved to produce (including importing, editing, processing, retouching, preparing, sales session, and sending to the lab) 75 minutes @ $30/hr: $37.50

  Total cost of sales: $41.20

Then, you have to also account for your fixed expenses (things like overhead, administrative costs, marketing, capital expenses and non-sales labor) as well as your profit.  The PPA Benchmark survey recommends that your Cost of Sales should be no more than 35% of your income.  If you want to make the math really easy, a good "rule" would be to take your Cost of Sales on a product, and multiple it by at least 3X, to get your retail price.  So for your 8x10, that price would be $123.60.  You can certainly mark your prices up higher, to create a higher margin - but this is a good place to start. 

Need more help with the numbers? Check out the Photographer's Pricing Guide

Check back tomorrow - and we'll cover how to price your time!

I'm super excited to announce two spring dates for the ONE DAY INTENSIVE.  Even more exciting is the fact that they're located in two of my favorite cities!  Click on the image above for more information and to sign up.  You can also CLICK HERE for reasons why you shouldn't attend the ONE DAY INTENSIVE.

If you'd like to know what others are saying, check it out here.

For everyone else, I hope to see you there!

Before I get into a review of Wunderkit, let me give you a little background.  First - Wunderkit is more than just a task manager, it's really a project management application.  I've used a lot of different applications, trying to find something that offered flexibility, collaboration, and a robust task manager.  I've used "Things," "BaseCamp," and even the task manager in iCal.  As a tool for collaborative task management, Wunderkit is a powerful solution for individuals, or groups of any size. 

Workspaces

Thought, certainly not unique to Wunderkit, I really like the way workspaces are organized.  The idea is that you can create a workspace for every project, job, or area of your life.  I spend my time leading and managing 4 completely different business areas, and Wunderkit makes it easy for me to manage them all.  Each workspace contains all of the tasks, notes, and collaborators relevant to that project.  

On the home screen (above), you see a sort of dashboard that features each of your workspaces on the left, a center section with all of the activity happening in your workspaces, and upcoming tasks.  This high level overview makes it easy to quickly see what's happening, and what you need to do next.

COLLABORATION

Certainly BaseCamp is the gold standard of collaborative project management, but WunderKit has made it much easier for individuals and organizations that are looking for a slightly less prohibitive solution.  I can share workspaces and delegate tasks to anyone I add in my network.  I can have an entire team on a project, and they all have access to the tasks, notes and information they need.  In addition, I'm able to see the activity of each individual as they add and complete tasks and notes.

For me, this is huge.  I was a big fan of THINGS for a long time, but one of its biggest drawbacks was that it didn't allow delegation of tasks to other team members in any meaningful way.  Now, I can keep track of what's happening with my teams, and keep our project coordinated across groups of 5-50.  I simply invite team members to my workspace, and am able to keep track of everything we're doing.

Another unique feature is the ability to make a workspace public, so that people can follow you.  Though this has less practical purpose, it's a fun way to let people see what you're doing.

SYNC

The other major drawback of THINGS was that there was no cloud sync.  Wunderkit is available as a web application, and as a native app on your Mac, iPhone or iPad.  I'm sure it will be available on other platforms as well, but for now I'm covered!  It just doesn't make sense to have an app exist in multiple places without seamless sync, and WunderKit has it down. 

The mobile, web, and desktop apps all have the same feel, and are super simple to use (though notifications don't seem to work on the iPhone quite yet).  I love that I now have a project management tool that syncs across all of my devices.  That was easily the biggest frustration with THINGS, and quite honestly, it was unacceptable in today's world of cloud technology.

USER INTERFACE/EXPERIENCE

The entire user interface is beautiful, and very Mac-like.  Running the native app in fullscreen mode on OSX Lion is gorgeous.  It has custom backgrounds, and I found that it works really well to set a different background for each workspace.  This gives an instant visual cue as to what I'm looking at, and what I should be doing.

I love when a technology company has a passion for the user experience, and creates something both beautiful and functional.  In fact, one of the things I've come to appreciate the most, is that the folks at 6Wunderkinder seem to really get it.  They've shown this by the features they plan to implement in the future (like file sharing - which is a must have for a true project management tool), AND by the fact that they've made WunderKit completely FREE to use!

That's right, it's free.  You can use it on your devices, your Mac, and the web for free.  You can collaborate for free.  You can create as many workspaces as you want for FREE.  There is a PRO level that allows premium support, and additional access to some of the apps, but you can use all of the core functionality for free.  

Ready to take advantage?  Head over to www.wunderkit.com to download and sign up for FREE!  

Have you used WunderKit?  Leave a comment below and let me know what you think!

(I'm not affiliated in anyway with Wunderkit or 6Wunderkinder, and no one asked me to say anything nice or otherwise.  I'm just sharing my opinion on a piece of software that has totally changed the level of productivity in my businesses and my life)