It’s a little hard for a business to relocate from one state to the other while keeping overhead associated with the move at a minimum. But that’s what John Lynner Peterson, owner of Global Village Photography, did in his shift from North Carolina to Lexington. He was able to set up shop with relative ease.
Where Peterson needed help was in marketing.
“He wanted to figure out how someone well established somewhere else could penetrate this market, get noticed in Lexington and Kentucky. He didn’t know who to talk to or how to connect or raise his profile,” explained Sean Moore, a counselor at the Bluegrass Small Business Development Center.
The SBDC provides one-on-one consultations at no cost to existing and potential entrepreneurs in central Kentucky.
Peterson’s career had mostly been in nonprofit communications and marketing nationally and internationally.
“Now I’m a 65-year-old, second-career guy,” he said. “We moved from Washington, D.C., to North Carolina to be near grandchildren, and I started Global Village Photography. But when the grandchildren moved to Lexington, we followed.”
Being on the move is nothing new for Peterson, who has visited 50 countries. He inherited his love of photography from his father. He handled a lot of radio, TV and video production and web development when he worked in Chicago as director of public media for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Peterson has had a colorful and varied career. “But it was fun to come back to photography, because it’s satisfying and it creates a very distinct experience and product,” he said.
Moore sees Peterson as a talented entrepreneur. “When he showed me his work, he had seen things that I would have never thought to see,” Moore said.
Peterson found the Bluegrass Small Business Development Center online.
“It’s a great help in providing perspective on what Kentucky and Lexington, in particular, are like as markets,” he said.
Since Peterson already owned all of his own photography equipment, he didn’t need to go down the financing path, which would have included writing a business plan, running the numbers, going to a bank and asking for a loan.
“John’s issues were more about market penetration,” Moore said.
Moore made Peterson aware of arts shows he may not have heard of.
“As well known as he was in North Carolina, he wasn’t making strides here in Kentucky as he would have preferred,” Moore said. “But once people begin to see his stuff, it won’t take long.”
Lexington has a good arts community, Moore assessed, but it is small compared to New York City and other large markets, and it may be harder for outsiders to penetrate access points to raise a profile. Moore also helped Peterson with the proper use of social media such as Facebook and also Pinterest, which is one of the fastest growing sites of its kind in cyberspace. It’s a community of people with similar interests who “pin” their items of interest on the site. It is overwhelmingly female oriented, but Moore believes it could be useful for small business owners like Peterson. As for Peterson, he said he is fine with Facebook as a conduit but wary of Pinterest — at least for now. He is understandably protective of his photography and doesn’t want images used without his permission.
Among other things, Peterson needed help understanding some of the tools necessary for setting up a successful business, things such as incorporation and other legal ramifications and hurdles.
“It’s a business — a struggling business, but most of us are,” he said.
Peterson is often hired for portrait work by artists and musicians and has done some commercial photography for people who are developing community-based residences for low-income people. He has documented some of those work activities.
Community service photography is a big emphasis for Global Village Photography and part of what Peterson is all about. He has shot photos for an organization called Climb for Innocence, a group of climbing enthusiasts who are trying to create more awareness of child sexual abuse, and also for the Arthritis Foundation and its annual fundraising walk.
Developing relationships also can lead to additional business, as Peterson has found. Most recently, he had an exhibition at the Lyric Theater Gallery.
“This is a new business, and finding the business niche with my variety of interests is a real challenge,” he said.
As a professional photographer, Peterson also sees a need to tutor the uninitiated.
“It’s a continuing challenge to educate clients that good photography is more than snapping a photo with your iPhone,” he said. “Just because you can take a picture doesn’t mean you’re a good photographer.”
Moore had a final message for Peterson and other business transplants like him: “It takes a lot of patience with few overnight successes. It’s knocking on doors and giving yourself time to be successful. That may mean having enough money to sustain yourself during this time and not being afraid to try new marketing techniques.”