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It isn’t necessarily easy to start a new photography business, or to keep one going, in the current situation of economic uncertainty.
But in regards to making your new photography business a success there are many actionable steps you can take right now, today, to make your business more likely to weather the storm.
Let’s take a look at just a few photography business tips to get you started.
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Two Photography Business Models - Diversify or Specialize
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There are two lines of thought in how to improve your photography business or how to maximize your business capabilities. One thought is that you should add to your skills in order to offer more services.
Another valid thought is that a photographer should specialize in one skill in order to offer the best of that to their clients. Either one of these business ideas is valid and has proven workable for many photographers.
Diversify - Offer Lots of Services
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Many photographers have started a business in one of the many fields of photography, such as real estate or weddings, and have been very successful. In order to continue as a successful business in changing times, some of these photographers have decided to offer another photographic genre in their portfolio of services.
How does one do that, though? A way to improve our photography skills in a particular style or type is to get instruction from other photographers in that type. Online classes can be found for low cost, sometimes free, that have excellent instruction for improving our skill.
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A couple of extra styles or types can be added to our portfolio in this way. As an example, a wedding photographer may add environmental portraiture to their services. A real estate photographer may find they have potential clients for product photography.
What this approach accomplishes is the ability for your photography business to survive a business slowdown or the ability for you to grow your already successful business.
Specialize - Offer the Best of One Style
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The other line of thought for helpful photography business tips is to take what you’re already doing, and work at being the best you can possibly be in that field. The idea is similar to having a great talent for baseball and football, but choosing just the one sport to become a superstar.
In order to accomplish this, a photographer should enhance their existing skills by practice, education, and seeking out helpful critique. The practice and education is easy for us to get, it’s that last one, critique, that can prove to be a challenge.
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Why is critique so hard for many photographers? One possible reason is that few people want to acknowledge any shortcomings they may have about anything. Art critique, delivered in a kind manner, is not highlighting out shortcomings, but encouraging our potential.
Which leads me to another business photography tip. Don’t be that arrogant guy. Yes, we might be one of the best in our area or our particular discipline, but lording it over someone else is not good business. A good reputation as a helpful person can be beneficial in the long term, making it good business sense.
Learn More:
- 4 Things New Photography Business Owners Need To Do
- How To Turn Your Photography Hobby Into A Career
Protect Yourself and Your Photography Business
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Inside any stage of the economy, whether booming or slowed, protecting your business from adverse events or action should be a priority when considering how to improve your photography business. A primary means to do this is through insurance for your photography business.
Insurance protects from risk. Your photography business has risks from equipment damage or loss, property and medical liability, and also from contract and job delivery issues.
The necessary insurance can be purchased directly online from companies like Full Frame Insurance that specialize in the unique needs of photographers and photography businesses. Go online and check their different types and levels of insurance without even being required to talk to an agent.
Some freelance photography business people I know have the mistaken idea that their car, homeowners or renters insurance will cover them in the event of something bad happening since they’re not full time professional photographers. That reasoning couldn’t be further from the truth. In any business endeavor, insurance should be part of the operating budget.
Social Distancing and Your Photography Business
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Will social distancing and what many are calling the “New Normal” adversely affect your photography business? In the short term, definitely. With some whole metropolitan areas basically being shut down, many types of businesses are suffering.
At least in the short term. But it might end up being just one really nasty bump in our road to continued success as a photography business.
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Hopefully, everything will soon turn around for the better. When it does, there may be some new ways to conduct business in general. To be honest, it seems like digital photography technology is already part of a New Normal, and has been for some time. Remote work, digital payment, virtual tours, all of these have been increasing steadily.
If you have some time during the current situation, use it to better your skills, increase your awareness of evolving photographic techniques, and get your photography business poised to take off running.
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