10 Things To Know Before Starting A Photography Business

Starting a photography business comes with it's own set of challenges. Of course, starting any business requires a lot of time, effort, and knowledge. However starting a photography business requires a little something extra. With that in mind here are 10 things to know before starting a photography business.

1. Photography Business Plan
2. Gear Requirements
3. The Legal Stuff
4. Insurances
5. Banking
6. Pricing Your Photography
7. Marketing Your Business
8. Working with Photography Clients
9. Work-Life-Balance
10. Find Long Term Success

As with starting any businesses, photography businesses must have a business plan. That said, there are tons of free examples online and help from groups like the SBA, local schools, and trade groups.

Ultimately, you need a business plan before starting your photography business for several reasons. The following are a few of the most important reasons.

Setting Business Goals

First, set goals with your plan. What are your priorities? How much will you make in year one, three, etc? What opportunities are you taking advantage of? What activities will you be involved in? How will you reach those goals, concretely?

Photography Services

In addition to goals, lay out the services you're offering. Are you a family portrait photographer? Do you want to photograph weddings? Maybe you'd prefer to be a headshot photographer.

Each of the above types of photography are different. The clients, the schedules, and how you market yourself all differ. Because of this it's important to do market research. At the very least see what research is already available.

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Photography Market Research

Photography market research is critical. This is because not listening to the market research is the fastest way to crash and burn.

First, market research tells you if there is a photography market to join. Ultimately you need to find clients to hire you or your business will fail.

The second reason to research the market is information on pricing. Assuming there are clients for your service find out what they're willing to pay. Then multiply a reasonably market share by that amount. Now ask yourself if you can live on that.

Finally, market research tells you about your competition. Find out who they are. Analyze what they're doing right and wrong. Look for areas where you can stand out.

You don't want to offer the same thing everyone else does. If that's your plan you might just invest and partner with an existing photographer. After all, if you're going to do exactly what they do just do it with them?

Again, you need to find ways to stand out. However you also must offer what people need or at least want. Too, if you've got to spend time selling them on the idea then you're losing time that could make you money.

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Some of the gear you need is easy to understand. However, some of it will depend on your specialty. Obviously you'll need a camera. No matter what you're photographing don't skimp on the camera.

Professional Camera Advice

It doesn't matter which brand you buy. That said, a few things are very important. First, you're starting a business. Therefore, people are relying on you. If you're going to events or other photography that can't be redone, you need a camera with two card slots. Cards fail. Because of this you need a camera which writes to two cards at once.

In addition to cards you'll need to backup your work on your computer. A solid state external hard drive is a must. As is a subscription to a cloud service.

Ideally you should have two cameras. Just like cards and hard drives cameras break. Can you afford to not work while your camera is being repaired?

A few great cameras for new business owners are:

• Nikon Z7II
• Canon R6II

Professional Lenses

Just as with cameras, professional lenses are incredibly important. Of course you can get kit lenses with your camera. This is true. However those lenses don't have what you need for nearly any type of photography. As a result it's better to save your money and buy a few lenses that make sense for your business.

If you're a portrait photographer consider investing in an 85mm lens such as this one from Nikon or this one from Canon. Not only is 85mm a very flattering lens the max aperture provides great separation from the background.

Don't miss my article on using macro lenses for portrait photography.

Of course if you're photographing events the 85mm is a great lens too. That said, my advice for event photographers is to invest in a 24-70mm and a 70-200mm lenses. As a result of having lenses that cover this range you're going to be set for nearly anything.

Photography Lighting

No matter what type of photography you're doing you're going to need to invest in some lights. That said, what lights those are really depends in your subject. If you're doing studio photography then strobes that plug-in make sense. However, if you're on-location, you'll want something battery powered.

In addition to the lights themselves you'll need to buy stands, modifiers, and more. That said, what you need again depends on your subject.

Contact me about consulting on what to purchase for your photography business.

Other Equipment

Photography gear seems like the most important but there is other equipment you need when starting a photography business. For example, you'll need a computer to edit on. Additionally you'll need software like Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom.

Most of your time spent starting a photography business will have nothing to do with photography. For example, you need to get the legal stuff taken care of. What is the legal stuff?

First, you want to ensure your personal property is not subject to mistakes you may make in your business. Therefore registering your business is crucial. Additionally, if you want to call your business anything other than your name you need a fictitious name. Essentially, using any name other than your own should be registered.

You want an Employer Identification Number (EIN). This is because you're going to pay taxes as the business, not just as an individual. Too, you're going to want to set up sales tax accounts with your state. Of course that's assuming you're in a state that requires photographers to pay sales taxes.

Obviously, this should go without saying, this article is not legal advice. Therefore you'll want to contact a lawyer in your state to help you figure out exactly what you need. Plus hiring a lawyer will save you time on a lot of this stuff.

Contracts

Because you should be talking to a lawyer anyhow ask about helping set up contracts. No matter what type of photography you do using contracts is important. Have a lawyer write up your contracts. Ultimately this can save you a lot more. Plus you can think of it as a bit of insurance. Speaking of insurance let's talk about that next.

As with the legal stuff, understanding what insurances you need may require a specialist. That said, it's a good idea to carry liability insurance. This is most important when starting your photo business. That's because you're more likely to mess up and be sued (see above).

In addition to liability you'll want to insure your equipment. Things happen and being able to quickly replace something is important. In addition to accidents, fires, thefts, and floods can wipe out your gear in the blink of an eye. If that happens the last thing you want to do is pay to replace everything out of pocket. Plus, let's be real, that is most likely not possible.

Talk to other business owners. Find a good insurance person. Chances are you'll find a few photographers or other businesses who don't use an agent. However, a good insurance agent will make sure you're covered. Plus they'll save you money.

When starting your photography business banking is something you can get out of the way quickly but it's still very important. First you'll need to setup your business and register it. After that you can open an account in the name of your business.

To be clear, you want to keep your business account separate from your personal account. Too many small business owners mess this up. Mixing your funds is a recipe for disaster. Because you're subject to being audited you need to ensure that your business funds are used for business. This is especially true if you plan to write-off expenses.

Salary Questions

In the past I've emphasised the need to separate your personal and business bank accounts. As a result I get asked how a new business owner is supposed to pay themselves. The answer is that it depends. First, you should not start a business without having any money. That said, you don't have to pay yourself a salary.

One solution to the question is to pay yourself a percentage of the value of a job. After all, that's how working on commission works. Plan to pay yourself in the future. Alternatively, if you've set aside money to open the business then pay yourself out of that money. Just be sure to factor that into your business plan.

The first question most people ask when starting their photography business is about pricing. While you should understand what the market will pay, you shouldn't engage in price fixing.

What is price fixing? Price fixing is working with others in your industry to set prices. In other words, asking other photographers what to charge is not a good idea.

That said, asking other photographers what they charge and using that as a factor in your pricing isn't as problematic. Ultimately though, you want to charge what you need to make. Yes, it's true that the market dictates some of that. However, knowing how many jobs you plan do per month is a better way to calculate what to charge.

For example, say you can reasonably do 1 to 2 jobs a week for $1,000 each. That means you're bringing in roughly $4 ,000- $8,000/month in gross income. After paying all the business bills is that enough to pay yourself to live on?

A big reason new businesses fail is a lack of a marketing plan and budget. Assuming you don't want to fail you've got to plan to market your business. A ton of businesses fail within the first year. A big reason for this is a lack of understanding marketing.

Ultimately you not only need to understand marketing but to be honest about the process. For example, as a photographer you might think you can simply use Instagram and: Boom! You're set for life.

The truth is that social media often fails to deliver much in the way of clients. Additionally trusting your business to the whims of Musk and Zuckerberg is risky. Many photographers have had their accounts locked or deleted without explanation. Sadly, appeal after appeal go unanswered.

Your Photography Marketing Budget

Make sure you're sitting down because this figure may be shocking. When starting your photography business you should spend at least 25% of your budget on marketing. Additionally, in the first 3 to 6 months that figure should be even higher. Spend your marketing budget wisely and you'll begin to bring in clients and money.

How To Market Your New Photography Business

When it comes to how to market your business it really depends on what you're doing. Let's say you're a new commercial photographer. Now imagine that you want to do healthcare or food photography. Then you need to target businesses in those sectors.

Ideally you won't limit yourself to the big name companies only. These firms likely have long term contracts with established photographers. You need to spend your time wisely. To do so, research clients in your area that advertise. Then find those who are not doing as much as they could. The truth is that every business has a website. Find local businesses who need new commercial work on their websites.

Social Media Marketing For Photographers

I'm asked about social media marketing a lot. Because it doesn't really work for me I don't spend a great deal of time on it. For social media to work you must get engagement. Because engagement comes from building relationships if you're not able to commit a lot of time to interacting with your followers then don't count on social to work for you.

Additionally, I've noticed that local photographers with the highest and most active followers are not the most successful. That's not to say they're businesses are failing. To be clear, I'm not saying that at all. Rather, what I am saying is that they spend a great deal of time for a very small return. In fact, some of the most popular local photographers on social are followed by a ton of other photographers. Of course there's nothing wrong with that. However, your marketing efforts should bring you clients and a return on your investment.

Do you love working with people? If not starting a photography business working with the public may not be ideal. Sadly, we can't all be mean and misunderstood mad genius art photographers.

The key to working with clients is to cultivate a clientele who you like. Ideally your clients will share your values and be people you would otherwise be friends with. That's because it's hard to work for people you don't like. This is especially true if they don't like you either.

If you don't like kids avoid becoming a family photographer. In addition, if you don't love weddings you might not enjoy spending entire weekends photographing them.

Ultimately you're not going to be happy working with each and every client. Too, especially when you're going to have to take some jobs you won't like when starting your photography business. Every photographer has had to do that. The secret to successfully working with clients is to be clear about what you do and who you want to work with.

To be absolutely clear, I'm not advocating turning down clients on the basis of race, gender, ability, or any other reason based in bias towards marginalized groups. That type of behavior is never justifiable.

What I am advocating is this. Be clear about the type of work you produce. If you're a vegan food photographer make sure that is clear. This way steakhouses are unlikely to waste their time and yours asking if you'll photograph their meats.

How To Find Your Clients

When creating your business plan you should create client personas. These personas are the ideal clients you want to work with. Once you've created them you need to address your marketing to these imaginary people. Be clear about who you are and what you do. As a result you'll begin to attract clients who come close to fitting these personas.

When starting your photography business you need to think about work-life-balance. Of course hustle cultists will tell you that you must work to exhaustion. After all, they believe this is the only way to be successful. In all honesty, they're 100% wrong.

Working to the point of exhaustion will burn you out.

Think about the types of businesses you work with. Do you want to see them burned out? Is exhaustion the look you really want to go for? Of course not. One would hope that you're not going into business for yourself so that you can work yourself to death as fast as possible.

Be sure to make work-life-balance part of your plan when starting your photography business.

The key to finding long term success is creating and sticking to a plan. Additionally, educating yourself on the things you don't already know. For example, if you're a good natural light photographer but don't know how to use flash, look for classes. Too, so much of starting a photography business is not about photography. Much of it is about business. Because of this you might want to take a business course.

You're Ready To Start Your Photography Business

Maybe you're not ready to start today but with this information you've got the information you need. Too, you now know what you need to get started. Plus you're set up for long term success.

Photography Business Consultant

If you found this article helpful but could use more hands-on help consider hiring a business coach. As a working pro with over 20 years experience I'm available to consult on your photography business. If you're interested please contact me.