Olan Mills Reviews

Pros

Exciting, your able to have fun and interact with customers, hourly+commission based pay.

Cons

Mandatory working weekends, competitive sales goals, high-firing rate.

Pros

I love when I am able to create photographs people love and are excited about. I love that Olan Mills has such a high standard of print quality. All nagging aside, a studio manager has a certain amount of freedom. The district manager is not hanging over your shoulder breathing down your neck all the time. Unlike running a studio on my own- Olan Mills has a good marketing, production structure and reputation to back the studio up getting bookings and delivering portraits. Some photographer reviews rant on the ASR's but they are bookings and It is up to us to do such a good job customers want to buy more.

Cons

Managers are expected to run the studio as if it is their own... fine- but that should not mean not getting reimbursed for legitimate studio expenses- or being over booked w/ no help, or forced to work every weekend- told no vacation can encompass an entire weekend. Working most Holidays. Easter defiantly should not be scheduled. Many of the problems are inherent in being a portrait photographer but with less choice of schedule. I do not like that it so consumes my life I have no time for my family. I don't like being told No- cant have a weekend off, No- you cant have help even if you have people stacked on top of people - people mad because you are overwhelmed and unable to give them good customer service, or not wanting to buy more photos because they feel like they are holding up the line. or Yes- you must take on more than you can handle on the supposition not everyone will show up- or maybe they will. How can I make decent sales if I am just processing people through as fast as I can?

Advice to Senior Management

Use your floaters in a more sensible manner. Give studio managers at least one weekend a month off. This not only would help Studio manager morale, it would give floaters more hours and you would be less likely to loose them. Because we do not keep qualified floaters, are too often short handed, using untrained photographers or running the district manager assistants ragged trying to fill in where they can; Where they cant, the studio managers are overwhelmed and feel hopelessly beat down. Many feel there no hope of the situation getting better. Use your floater photographers wisely. Create a form for the managers to fill out for standard reimbursement . Make it clear what is allowed and set some kind of schedule for muslin cleaning. These two things would go a long way to making the studio managers feel like they are not being taken advantage of and browbeat into submission. I understand there is a balance- production costs- profits- The studio is where the rubber hits the road. If we cannot produce good portraits AND sell them- everyone else' income depends on that.

Pros

Interesting to see what you can do for people.
Providing an entertaining time for customers.
Giving people photographs that they love.

Cons

Horrendous management.
ASR sales overloads the studios. The ASR sales people don't care because they don't have to look stupid working in an overbooked studio.
The company offers prepaid 10 and 15 dollar packages that are worth 10 times that much, and then it's the photographer's fault for not being able to get the customer to buy more. Of course they're not going to buy more, they're cheap, that's why they bought a 10 dollar package.
Both managers who "trained" me are very pushy with customers, and many had left in a huff and asked if the managers were fired yet when they returned for pickups.
Employees are spoken to like they're idiots.
Only incentive to get customers to spend more money is keeping your job and not getting yelled at.
When I started I shadowed the photographer for two weeks, was supervised while I shot TWO SITTINGS, and then began filling in for photographers on their time off. I WAS TAKING PICTURES OF PAYING CUSTOMERS, UNSUPERVISED, AFTER HAVING ZERO REAL TECHNICAL TRAINING. That is the most unprofessional thing that I have ever witnessed a company do.
I have been called 3 times in 3 hours about my workday: first to ask me if I can come in later that day, second to tell me "nevermind," and third to tell me to come in the next day. I have never known my schedule more than 2-3 days in advance, and that's if I'm lucky. That is absolutely ridiculous management skill.

Advice to Senior Management

Give your photographers small bonuses to give them incentive.
Have more than one photographer working in a studio.
Stop selling ASRs, they're not working.

Pros

Only good reson is Merit Awards

Cons

Mangment has no respect for others. They like to push the little people around.They dont care if some one has worked 60 hrs that week they still keep pushing you to work. They will take days of for them selfs and the others below them will have to work 1st. Training was > Here learn it your self ! Read it in the book ! Its all in the book.... ! If you are in training and you take a great pic on your own. The person that is training you can claim the photo as there own and claim Merit Awards on them because you are still in training. My Manger claimed 3 of my photos and won Merit Awards on them and they got published in the local coupon ad. What a shame....... ! She got all the glory for my photo's that i took.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employee's when they tell you something is not right

Pros

Morning hours.
Photography is the fun part.
 You don't have a manager breathing down your neck all day.
So-so pay rate.

Cons

The holiday seasons are the worst times to be a photographer.
You're not allowed to leave until you send in an email with everyone you've talked to that day.
Cold calling to make appts.
Pulling random people off the floor to con them into buying stuff.
Being expected to get 15 different poses and 7 backgrounds with a newborn.
If your studio has a slow day, you're still expected to make 100 dollar averages.
You work mandatory weekends, all day.
I could go on.
Forget having a personal life. You live for Olan Mills.

Advice to Senior Management

Take the time to teach your employees the proper way of management. Hire more than one person per studio. I love having hours, but it would be nice to have a life also. Trying to take time off when your sick is like pulling teeth without novacaine. Lastly, thank you for selling out to Lifetouch. Now I have more workload.

Pros

Working with church leaders
Name recognition helps with credibility
Generally has a good reputation
Compensation can be good with a good territory

Cons

100% commission makes compensation up and down
Market has changed - do-it-yourselfers are hurting the business, also online providers
Mgmt is slow to adjusting territories to match today's marketplace

Advice to Senior Management

Use natural attrition to make territories larger so more reps can be successful

Pros

The duties prepare you to produce good portraits while handling a large volume of subjects.
$50,000 plus is possible if you are willing to travel.
Get to interact with many different, interesting subjects.
You can develop people. technical, computer and creative photographic skills.

Cons

The company doesn't do much for you ($50 per day base). You must do it for yourself. Don't expect to sit in your home town area and make decent dollars. I traveled six states. Never turned down a schedule and was rewarded one year with $70,000 income. With the bad economy and slow bookings, this may not be possible today.
Income depends on successes of marketing department. A weak Marketing Rep means you don't work much. You work with a portrait sales person. Most are good. If not, it hurts your income.
When you are busy, work can be gruelling. This is not a job for people with low stamina, endurance or weak work ethic.
You must have a suitable vehicle with cargo hauling capacity. The reliability of your vehicle can greatly affect earnings. $.20 per mile barely covers your total expenses. When gas prices spike, workers are not real happy.
Most church people subjects and coordinators were easier to deal with than in the studio situation. A minority could be a problem. Watch out, because Olan Mills takes complaints very seriously even when they are not justified.
When in small towns, bring your food with you or you may not eat.

Advice to Senior Management

The key to a successful Olan Mills manager is in their social style. Worked for two managers who were "drivers".Their attitude was "do your job like a big boy and leave me alone!" Sometimes, I would go weeks without hearing from a superior and that was productive time. The entire region was in the top tier. Two other managers were "amicables" in that a person's age, gender and company politics affected your income and future. These managers tended to play favorites with employees who they felt "fit in". The top management needs to pay more attention to high evaluations and consider the dollar value the teams brings in.

Pros

It's a job in a HORRIBLE economy.
It's SO rewarding to take the portraits that parents or grandparents absolutely LOVE to the point where they can't leave without the CD and copyright.
I RARELY see my District Manager.

Cons

District Manager is condescending. Rarely around. (Maybe that's a good thing.)
Information sharing is pathetic at best.
Don't know which is worse - the pay - the benefits - or the hours.
Lack of consideration when personal time is needed.
The woman who "trianed" me is the most obnoxious and biggest witch (with a capital B) that I've ever encountered in my life.
The programmers continue to add mandatory steps to the sales process that useless and time- consuming.
Plant support is arrogant and condescending.
Plant adherence to spec sheets created by the photographer have totally lacked in quality!

Advice to Senior Management

The photographer is the source of all the income for the company. Pay and treat them appropriately. Ignore the computer programmers who add useless, mandatory, time-consuming steps to the sales process.

Pros

When I quit, that was a pro for me. Everything else was terrible. Management was bad, customers were rude, the company is totally backwards and greedy.

Cons

Horrible place to work, treat you like worthless dirt. No opportunity for growth and they make you work 12 hr days 7 days a week Oct-Jan, forget family. Forget anything but that greedy company

Pros

You get to do some creative photography and meet interesting people.

Cons

The Church Marketing is terrible in that they stress the number of people who sign up for directory photos than sales. When you do try to sell or the photographer shoots additional images, the customer complains and accuse you of pressure selling. Olan Mills takes complaints very seriously even when they are not justified. There's no prospect of promotion or any bonuses or any incentives for employees, other than getting additional work assignments. The $.20 a mile is a joke. It barely pays for fuel and do not pay for the wear and tear on your vehicle and replacing your tires. It seems like we are breaking our back for way below minimum wage. At times, I have traveled a long distance set up my studio and end up only photographing 5 families who do not purchase anything. This was time taken out of my life with no compensation. This company seem to only care for the bottom line and do not care about their employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Raise the cost per mile and the base pay for employees. Pay more attention to what your marketing reps are doing. Photographers and Consultants are always taking the blame and get penalized for things the Reps promise but never deliver. I think marketing should be responsible not only for delivering numbers of families in the directory, but also consister and encourage sales at the given locations.