How to Start a PHOTOGRAPHY Business

 Today we’ll be sharing six actionable steps that you can take to start up a photography business. So, the very first step if you're starting with a completely blank slate is to

 

(STEP:1) Identify your niche.

This is easily the biggest mistake that I see new photographers making and it's also something that I did wrong for a very long time. I spent several years shooting everything to try and figure out what it was that I cared about and if you're doing that for a couple of months to see what it is you'd like to specialize in that's completely fine but trying to be a jack of all trades and shoot everything from weddings to automotive, to sports, to real estate, to Concerts, will not help you to build a consistent roster of clients that you can rely on for your work. This mistake stems from the fear that if you say no to an opportunity then you've missed a chance to grow your photography business. Still, the exact opposite is true if you identify exactly what you want to specialize in and then tailor everything else in your business around it, you're more likely to appeal to potential clients. I’ve literally been asked dozens of times, do you shoot weddings, do you shoot weddings and I have turned away every single job because that is not an area of photography that I specialize in but doing this allows me to target my sports and real estate clients more effectively because when they go to my website, they see very specific types of work. So, sit down and think carefully about where your passions lie and what it is you want to shoot, and then stick with it and move on to the next step. The second step is to

 

(STEP:2) Register your business and set up the framework.

if photography is something that you want to do with your life even if you choose to do it only as a side hustle, you should invest the time in properly registering your business. This includes deciding whether you want to be a sole proprietor or an incorporated business getting a tax number finding commercial liability insurance and setting up a client management system with accounting contracts, and invoice templates. You want the government to recognize your business so that you can charge sales tax, pay income tax and then write off your expenses. Now a lot of new photographers push back on this part thinking, I don't want to pay income tax on this small amount of money, or I can set it all up once. I start making money and my response to that is simple, how do you know when you're going to start making money. A lot of photographers give up quickly not because they can't land new clients but because they started as a side hustle and then they have no pressure to succeed, but if you treat your photography as a business from the very beginning, the government is eventually going to expect you to turn a profit. It’s that or you're going to be audited by your local tax agency for writing off that ten thousand dollar camera without having any kind of income. I honestly believe that type of pressure is what will push you to succeed if you're doing this as a side hustle with that. Out of the way we can move on to the third step, which is to

 

(STEP: 3) Identify your ecosystem.

Now, what do I mean by ecosystem, well a lot of new photographers will concentrate on the specific camera they want to buy thinking oh I want the Canon r5 or a Nikon z72 or whatever it might be, I received dozens of messages asking what camera brand is good? What does that actually mean nothing, because your camera is only one part of the equation? You also need to consider the lenses, the lighting equipment, the studio gear, and all of the accessories that you're going to buy with it, along with the price of those things, and this is referred to as the camera's ecosystem. My recommendation for you here is to start by looking at lenses, not cameras. If you actually spent time on step one and you seriously identified your photography niche then it becomes easier to figure out which lenses you need. Now and in the future let's say my dream is to be a national geographic photographer shooting wildlife, someday I know I want to buy a 200 to 400-millimeter f4 lens. So, that leaves me with two choices already Canon or Nikon because no other camera manufacturer offers one of these specialty lenses. My point here is that no matter which niche you're interested in, there will be significant differences in lens options from one camera manufacturer to the next. Now moving on to the fourth step is to

 

(STEP: 4) Launch your website.

There are several great tools out there, you can use to set this up including Squarespace.  Squarespace is an option but I also see photographers using Wix format, adobe portfolio, and several other alternatives no matter what you choose, I recommend designing your portfolio around four key principles, it should establish you as an authority, it should show off your best work, it should build a relationship with your customer, and it should encourage people to take action. Let me quickly break down all four of these concepts. First, establishing authority involves positioning yourself and your work in a way that leads people to conclude that you are an expert. This can be one of the hardest things to accomplish because no one thing establishes authority. You need to build it up through a combination of many small triggers. Second, showing off your best work is pretty self-explanatory. Make sure your portfolio is kept up to date and includes only the absolute best work you have. Third, building a relationship with your customer is an important part of any photography website especially when you work in a more personalized niche like maybe family portraits. For example, the language and the wording that you choose to play a huge part in this. Fourth and finally encouraging people to take action involves the use of cues links and prompts throughout your website reminding the viewer, what they need to do and in marketing, this is also referred to as a call to action. With these four steps out of the way we move on to the fifth step which is to

 

(STEP: 5) Identify a pricing framework.

Now, I am a huge advocate of starting your photography business while working a day job. A lot of people think you need to take this huge leap of faith and just drop everything to try and become a photographer or worse they think that the only way they'll ever be considered successful is if they do it full time. I know many great photographers who also stick with their day job because there just isn't enough work to go around or they don't specialize in a lucrative industry. Now some of you will be thinking, didn't you just say in step two that pressure helps you to succeed, Sure I did but the problem with just dropping everything and going full-time into photography is that it becomes more difficult to start by charging higher rates. You need to work a lot more badly because you have no other supplementary sources of income so you become more willing to compromise instead of just saying no to cheap labor and when it comes to pricing it can be very hard to pull yourself out when you're stuck with a bunch of cheap clients or you're known as the cheap photographer in your area. So, my suggestion is to hold on to your day job and then figure out what other similar photographers with similar experience levels are charging in your area. Once you land on an appropriate rate, stick with that rate and don't budge unless you didn't do your research properly or you've misjudged your target audience, you're more than likely to find someone who's going to give you a chance and then you can keep building from there and speaking of building this leads perfectly into step number six which is to

 

 

(STEP: 6) Identify a plan for scaling your business.

Now there are many different ways to scale your photography business. You can call potential clients, you can get referred by others boost your online presence, and the list goes on but all of those things are external factors. They require somebody else to take action on your behalf and when you're first starting, you have almost no control over somebody else deciding to recommend you other than just asking them to. So, in addition to those things I mentioned, I also suggest that you focus on two internal factors which you can control which are diversification and outsourcing. when I say diversification, I mean that you should be willing to take on different types of work within your niche. This might come as a surprise but most photographers are not just doing photography, they're running YouTube channels, they're writing books, they're working on video projects, as well they're working a day job, and understanding that this is a more common reality than making five hundred thousand dollars a year shooting whatever you want. One day a week will help keep you motivated and grounded while scaling the business. On the other hand, when I say outsourcing, I mean that you should be willing to pay others to do work that will allow you to focus on the high-value activities within your business. In the book, Exponential Organizations author Selim Ismail points out that having staff on demand is a necessary characteristic for speed functionality and flexibility. In a fast-changing world leveraging personnel outside the base organization is key to creating and running a successful organization. In other words, outsourcing doesn't just save you time, it also enables you to access more talented content creators specializing in other aspects of photography. Now content creators hate outsourcing because it means a lack of control over the final product and your final vision, but instead of thinking this way consider what Ismail is pointing out here, if you outsource low-value tasks then you have the opportunity to free up your time and generate additional revenue. For example, if I shoot real estate and I only have time to handle two properties in a day at 500, a shoot I make a thousand dollars a day but if I outsource the editing to someone, who's way better than me and can get it done in 20 minutes for a hundred bucks, well it frees up more time for me to shoot a third property which now brings me to 1200 a day so my point here is that if you outsource some of those low-value activities that take up your time while you're trying to grow your business and work your day job at the same time, it's ultimately going to allow you to focus on taking on more work and then growing your photography business.