Successful Photography Business Secrets

Running a successful photography business and being a good photographer are not one and the same thing. You see, as a good photographer, you need to create quality work and quality is an abstract and subjective norm, seeing as how photography is an art. 

In business, on other hand, success is determined by your ability to generate profit. Now, the two are definitely intertwined, seeing as how the quality of your work will determine the appeal of your product, thus directly impacting your ability to make money. Still, you also need to produce a suitable quantity, establish a reputation, and organize a business model.

With all of this in mind and without further ado, here’s how you can run a successful photography business.

Fully commit to it

For a lot of people, creating photography takes just a split second. For a professional photographer, it takes hours and days to produce even a single quality photo. First of all, you need to be incredibly stern and critical towards your own work. Accept that you’re not perfect and that it’s better to discard a whole batch than to lower the quality of your portfolio.

Second, make sure that you work every single day. It takes hours of self-improvement, editing work, and active photography to go someplace. The problem with creatives is that, by their very nature and personality type, they’re prone to procrastination. This is something that you’ll have to overcome rather quickly. No, this is not a 9 to 5 job. In order to make it in photography, you probably won’t have the luxury of working just 8 hours per day. 

Set up a proper pricing structure

You need to value your own work. Sure, selling images on stock sites is a way to get started and earn some quick cash but once you start running a legitimate photography business, you’ll have to take a somewhat different approach to this situation. 

Namely, you need to understand that lowering the cost of your photography doesn’t necessarily boost its appeal. Louis Vuitton, for instance, never puts their products on sale. Instead, any leftovers from a collection (if there were any) would get destroyed. The company leaders see this as a better alternative to debasing their entire brand.

Just think about it, you wouldn’t go to the cheapest dentist or dream of getting operated on by the cheapest surgeon, wouldn’t you? A similar thing goes with photography. Previously, we’ve discussed just how much work goes into creating quality. You need to put a price to match the effort.

Find Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

In order to get through a competitive market, you need to find a way to offer something new and unique to your target audience. Now, in other industries, you can promise lower prices, higher quality of services, etc. The problem lies in the fact that these are the angles that the majority of your competitors will use, as well.

So, you need to start thinking about photography as a service. For instance, instead of just offering your services as a photographer or the services of your partners/employees, you include a photo booth for hire in your offer. This is something that your competitors are not likely to have in offer, which will already make you stand out. Such an offer is great for parties, weddings, etc.

Another thing you can do is try to specialize. For instance, you can specialize and market yourself as a wedding photographer, wildlife photographer, etc. This way, you’re automatically narrowing down your field of interest, gaining more authority within the field, and increasing the quality of your work.

Invest in Your Business

In order to make it in any industry, you need to make a continuous investment. For instance, in order to get started in the photography business, you need to start by buying quality photography equipment. Sure, you can sell smartphone photos on various apps and stock photography sites but being a professional photographer is something else entirely.

Second, you need to understand just how important it is to invest in your continuous education. There’s so much that a photographer has to learn in order to improve their skills. With so many online courses and local workshops, it’s outright irresponsible not to leave some room in the budget for these courses. Even hiring a personal tutor might be a sound move.

One of the most important, and most underestimated investments is a quality editing program. Sure, some platforms offer their own tools and the majority of tools have free versions, however, you just can’t rely on this. Regardless if it’s a one-time purchase or a renewable license, it is always a top priority.

Build Your Portfolio

Hiring a photographer without a portfolio is not a risk that the majority of your potential clients will take. Therefore, make sure that you invest in building a strong portfolio, which will allow you to land some clients. This, however, means that during the initial stage of your career, you might be forced to work for free (or for next-to-nothing). 

Networking is also a great way to make a name for yourself in the industry. A friendly photographer might refer a client to you if they can’t make it. They can also vouch for you or give you a recommendation. However, you need to establish a good 

There is, fortunately, a way around this. You see, by investing in quality branding, you can boost your personal brand quite significantly, even before landing too many clients. Once again, this requires investments, something we’ve already discussed. 

In Conclusion

To sum it up, in order to run a successful photography business, you need to be both a photographer and a businessman. Regardless of what you do, it’s essential that you’re a professional, that you’re committed to the cause, and that you can balance between all aspects of the industry. There’s no such thing as a recipe for success – if there were, everyone would make it. All it takes is to be systemic and pay attention to details. Success is about doing many little things right.