Photography starts out for many as a passion, something they love that draws others attention who then ask them to take photos of them or their family and helps start planting the seeds of becoming a professional photographer. Starting a photography business can be a daunting task but there are tools and methods that can help make that process easier for you.
First, tool to utilize is your network and building a network. The people you meet and build rapport with are the very ones who will come to you to book sessions or recommend you to someone in their network looking for a photographer. It is not all handing out business cards, it is casual conversations, and everyday situations that can lead to big and unexpected opportunities.
Networking, is my primary method of client acquisition. I am an introvert who learned early on that showing my passion to strangers lead to getting to do some things I never imagined. Grow your network it is very worth it.
Second, is social media. In this day and age we all know the power of social media, it is reach and ability to get your work noticed. We all strive for those likes and followers, comments, and shares because we know that we can reach people. But using it as a marketing tool to push your work out there can make it invaluable.
Lastly, email marketing. I have used email marketing on and off in the past. It is a great tool of promotion to reach clients and followers. Email marketing for me comes to pushing out information on sales and new offerings to raising awareness of things I and my business have been up too.
These are not the only things you can do but they are by far the easiest, requiring different levels of work but bringing in different kinds of clients and recognition. There is cheat code to building a business while these steps are easy to do they take time, nothing will occur overnight and it will be work.
Beyond that you will want to learn other important things to running and owning a business. From sales tax, to billing, and administrative tasks. Owning and running a photography business isn’t all taking photos, traveling, and cool photoshoots a lot of it is the boring behind the scenes admin work. So be prepared to work in your office a lot more than you want to sometimes.
Also there is a ton of articles and videos on the internet telling you how to start and run a business—just like this one— take what we say with a grain of salt. No two businesses are the same and what works for one business may not work for another.
If you love photography and want it to be a business work hard and do not get discouraged good things come with time.