photo by photographer via iStock
While I’ll admit it may not be the best time to open a photography business, it’s the perfect time to start learning how to build a photography business so that you can really hit the ground running in a few months.
It has taken me years to build my photography business to the point it is at today, and even still I’m definitely feeling the strain of the pandemic (and the screeching halt to our industry as a whole). As such, I feel like I’ve learned some simple photography business tips that I can pass along to those just attempting to start in our industry.
Here are six of them.
Streamline Everything
photo by Wavebreakmedia via iStock
The first tip I have for your photography business is to streamline everything.
And when I say everything, I mean everything.
This is the perfect time for you to do so, as well, since you’re probably spending a lot of time on your computer as is. Create pricing sheets, product offering sheets and marketing that will run itself.
You are basically trying to create a business that barely needs your attention so that you can use your attention where it’s really needed: on creativity.
One of my favorite tools for streamlining your photography business is Podium, which acts as a communication streamline.
You’ll never learn how to grow a photography business without proper communication habits, since clients expect to hear back from prospective business partners sooner rather than later.
Podium helps you to do just this by gathering all of your communications and putting them on a single platform. This means you aren’t jumping between Gmail to Yelp to text and back to Gmail again in an endless cycle because you can respond to all of these messages from Podium.
You can even send invoice reminders off of Podium, so it also helps to streamline your accounting.
Plus, Podium is offering a free trial right now so you can try it for your business during your down time to figure out if it will really help you!
Focus on the Details (or Hire Someone to Do It)
photo by PeopleImages via iStock
There are a lot of details when it comes to running a photography business. If you don’t focus on the details now, you’re either going to lose money down the road, or worse yet, be sued because you neglected to fulfill your contract with a client.
The same is true with your business plan. Building a solid foundation for your company now will save you a lot of time, money and frustration in the future.
Understandably, a lot of these tasks are pretty daunting and it’s totally fine to hire someone to either do it for you or to teach you how to do it so that, when you need to change up your business model down the line, you’ll be able to.
Don’t Be Afraid of Outsourcing
photo by Svitlana Hulko via iStock
If you find yourself sitting at your computer either incredibly frustrated because you need to get something done that you aren’t good at, it’s time to think about outsourcing.
Trust me, I had to do it and it wasn’t fun discovering that I’m terrible with numbers. I wanted to be self-sufficient and learn how to get a photography business off the ground by myself. But, after months of desperately trying to learn things I wasn’t good at, I realized my time would be so much better spent on things I rock at.
photo by poba via iStock
You need to create a list of things you hate doing for your photography business and you need to be okay outsourcing them. Especially right now, there are a ton of unemployed workers looking to bring in money, which means you can hire someone on a freelance basis to do whatever you need them to, even if it’s just for a couple hours per week.
I’ve used Upwork and Fiverr in the past for my freelancing needs and they’ve both yielded incredible results.
Learn More:
Take a Long, Hard Look at Your Numbers
photo by damircudic via iStock
I was undercharging my clients in my photography business for years. Partly because, as I already discussed, I’m terrible with numbers, but partly because I was worried to charge too much and be judged by it.
Learn from my mistakes and be okay charging what you need to.
Start by writing down how much you would ideally like to be making every single month and how many hours you would like to be working every month.
Then, figure out how many clients you want to have.
Finally, you can figure out how much each one of those clients needs to be charged in order for you to be able to hit your goals.
If you are mainly working with high-end clients, you’ll need to shoot with fewer people, but charge more. Conversely, if you are mainly working with everyday families, you’ll need to shoot with more people, but charge less.
Use the Internet (Sometimes)
photo by Orbon Alija via iStock
The internet is a great resource for your photography business, especially right now when very few events are occurring in person.
You need to build a great website and social media platforms. You need to spend at least an hour every day working on building out that social network.
While you’ll obviously want to create a network of potential clients, don’t forget to create a network of other professionals in your business. You may grow so large as a company that you need to outsource your editing and it’s a lot easier to reach out to your network of editors on Facebook than it is to post to Indeed.
But, while the internet is great, there’s also a time and place for in-person networking. As your photography business grows and the event industry starts to come back, don’t forget about joining local photography associations and groups. You may even want to apprentice for a photographer in your area that you admire.
Diversify, Diversify, Diversify
photo by milindri via iStock
Especially right now, it’s important for you to have money coming in for your photography business from a variety of places.
Use stock photography websites to try and build some monthly passive income. You may also want to help tutor younger photographers or simply sell your old gear. Just don’t forget to diversify your income.
Learn More:
- Things You Can Do Right Now to Help Your Business After Covid
- Free Marketing Ideas for Your Photography Business