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Agencies - Bookers - New Faces - Models - Booking - Photographers - Resources - Contact

We are not a modeling agency. We are better. We have the best interests of the model in mind.

Model Opinion: Tampa modeling agencies are working conflicts of interest, and should only be used as a source of modeling jobs. They have no business giving models modeling career advice or attempting to manage the modeling career of any model! Would you trust the advice and the guidance of someone who is also guiding the careers of other models who compete with you? Smart models, who only use modeling agencies as a source of modeling jobs, should also avoid exclusive representation and obtain representation with as many modeling agencies as possible. Modeling agencies cannot guarantee that a model will book steady work through them just like they cannot guarantee their clients that a model represented by them and booked into a job will not be unprofessional and unreliable. Why? Why are modeling agencies regulated by the state of Florida? We wonder why it took all of these decades for a group of models to point out the flaws of modeling agencies and provide the first, real, balanced view on them. We are thinking that many have realized the flaws before, but never bothered to bring it up or address them. Well, we are now. Read on for more!

Welcome to Tampa modeling agency, a free resource web site by Tampa Bay Modeling which will serve as your resource for information and modeling career-alternatives to the modeling agency-driven modeling industry. If you want to learn about Tampa modeling agencies, how they work, and modeling agency scams to avoid, we are here for you. If you want information on how to deal with Tampa modeling agencies, we're here for that, too. We will also show you how to book work without utilizing the services of a modeling agency.
Currently, the Tampa modeling industry is a print and promotional modeling market. In the modeling industry, it is considered to be a local market with a close proximity to a secondary modeling market, which would be Miami. If you want fashion modeling, Miami would be it. At this time, the Tampa Bay modeling market is not fashion-relevant, although many are working towards making it a decent fashion modeling market.
Orlando, Florida is another local modeling market which is important to the Tampa modeling industry. Heavy with trade shows, conventions, events, and entertainment companies, Orlando is considered to be Florida's top market for commercial print modeling, promotional modeling, trade show modeling, and convention modeling.
This web site resource is a project of top Tampa modeling resource web site Tampa Bay Modeling. Although we acknowledge that professional models should use modeling agencies as one of their sources of job leads, we do NOT recommend that any model allow a Tampa modeling agency to manage your modeling career. In our opinion, modeling agencies are a flawed business model which have achieved success in the past because there were few alternatives. In the past, if you wanted a professional career as a model, you simply HAD to go through a modeling agency in order to work. This is no longer true, and although Tampa modeling agencies will argue against it, many models can, and do, have strong modeling careers by finding and booking modeling jobs on their own. The best models leave no stone unturned as the use several modeling agencies as one of many sources of modeling job leads as well as find a book modeling jobs on their own.
Expanding upon our opinion that the modeling agency business model is flawed, a modeling agency is a working conflict of interest, especially when they attempt to manage the careers of models or give them modeling career advice. How is this? First of all, the modeling agency works for the model, and it has never been the other way around despite the role that the agencies have tried to take. While modeling agencies are not really a bad thing, and there are many legitimate, professional Tampa modeling agencies out there, there are many which are only set up to scam new models, and you cannot entirely trust the advice that many will give you. You must consider the source and the motivation behind anything that they say.
While having modeling agency bookers finding and providing modeling job leads to models is good, as they are much like salespeople who work for the model, that is about it. They have no business managing the career of a model or trying to give any model modeling career advice. Why? Think about the following statement.
Going back to the booker being the salesperson for a model, the model may think that it is great that people are selling them to clients, but that warm, fuzzy, trusting feeling goes away when the model thinks about it and realizes that those friendly booker salespeople are also selling the competition of the model, which are other models! This is a conflict of interest, and we do not know of any professional business which would be alright with their salespeople selling the services of their competitors. A model is a small, self-contained business; a business of visual marketing where the model's appropriate look represents the product or the service of the business who hires them. Bookers are salespeople, but most are little more than cold callers with less knowledge of the modeling industry and how it works than the average model. Of course, they also sell other models, models which compete with the model for the same jobs. See the problem? Hey, you might think that it is great that an agency booker referred you to a modeling job and you went in and booked it. Pat yourself on the back later, however. Think about how many jobs that you were never told about which were referred to other models! Sold short or sold out? Many models are, and they never realize it, as they never miss what they never see.
We will be expanding this site soon so that new models and established professional models can rely upon it as a resource when they deal with modeling agencies. We will also explore some other issues with Tampa modeling agencies, such as the high turnover and low training of modeling agency bookers, the number of modeling scams which use modeling agencies as a way to boost their own credibility, and much more. Until then, consider the following Tampa modeling agency tips.

1. Get professional modeling portfolio pictures taken before going to any modeling agency!
This eliminates the possibility of some of the most common modeling scams. Some modeling agencies are only set up to make money by doing the modeling portfolio photography for the model, with the promise of modeling jobs which never seem to happen. Other unethical modeling agencies make money by illegal kickbacks by referring model to shady photographers. There is nothing wrong with finding a professional photographer on your won, and it is much safer!
Be cautious about any photographer who is on the referral list of a modeling agency. Get a second opinion form an unrelated source before working with them.

2. If a modeling agency tells a business that the models that they represent are more credible than independent models, have them out their verbal guarantee in writing!
The modeling agency has the nerve to imply that a model who is not represented by them is less professional and less reliable? Make them qualify that statement by putting it in writing and guaranteeing that the models which they refer won't flake out. Don't be surprised when they won't do it.
Businesses and art directors should be smarter than that. Don't fall for the false sense of professional credibility which agencies provide. They cannot guarantee that the models will work out.
Tampa Bay Modeling and Independent Modeling have solved the credibility problem with a new career risk analysis model, which will be freely available on our web sites in 2008. Art directors and business will quickly find out that they can evaluate and book models on their own without any additional time or effort spent by going though a modeling agency. This process will also be applied with other career relationships, such as models looking for photographers and business looking to book photographers, etc.

UPDATED 04/08/08

Agencies - Bookers - New Faces - Models - Booking - Photographers - Resources - Contact

Please note that the Tampa Modeling Agency web site is directly affiliated with top modeling resource web site Tampa Bay Modeling, modeling resource web site Independent Modeling, and Tampa modeling portfolio photography company Aurora PhotoArts Tampa Bay photography and design, as well as all of their affiliates. You are not obligated to use any of these services to use this site.

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