Launching Your Photography Business

Market. Market. Market. Network. Network. Network.

These are the main things you will hear your college professors tell you when it's time for your to take on the world. I graduated with a focus in photography, videography, and graphic design and the advice they engrained into everyone was “selling yourself is selling your brand; convince your audience to want to hire you for what you do”

You might say "I'm not good at being a business person," and what I am going to tell you is:

that is OKAY

I am not either. After a few years of being out of college I am still not at the number of clients I would like to be at, but I keep circling back around and reminding myself to keep marketing what I do. Although social media is a big contributor to marketing, there are other, more “old fashioned” ways to market your brand. There’s also forms of marketing you may not consider “marketing” persay. Keep reading to find out more.

As if you're starting from ground zero, here are a few things to help you launch and promote your photography business and use in your marketing.

Create a Logo and Color Scheme

There are many websites that allow you to create a logo for free. Some will offer free creation, then a flat fee for export sizes or to have their company watermark removed. The best websites I’ve used to get started or to play around with ideas are:

• Wix
• Weebly
• Vistaprint

Personally, since I have design background from college I prefer to create my own. As much as I love to doodle and thing my work is great, after a while it starts to grow on me. You'll have lots of trial and error, but most importantly if you decide to create your own logo remember to gather feedback. I highly recommend making three to four different logos with your color scheme ideas and start by asking your family which ones they like better? Even when you’re creating a logo through a third-party, I would still recommend finding three or four that you like and then see what your peers think. You might be surprised what they see when they look at what you’ve picked.

For example:

My initials are SA. So I created a logo with those letter to look like a camera. I thought it was so cool I was very proud of my work. When it came time to get feedback from classmates, professor, and family, they all said the same thing… it looks like the Safe Auto logo. I hadn’t thought of that. I couldn’t look at it the same way again. Back to the drawing board I went.

Figure Out Your Niche

This could take seconds or it can take years to officially determine what you like to photograph. There's a difference between what you can and what you want to photograph. Can and want are two different things. For example, can I do wedding photos? The answer is yes. Do I want to make my primary business about wedding photos? Not really. One, because that means looking into hiring a second shooter. Two, it's a big market right now and it may not bring it a steady income monthly. Now granted, all niches can be unpredictable when it comes to steady income, but wedding photography is a big niche in Cincinnati (that's where I am) so it wouldn't work well for everyone.

My niche is senior portraits, family portraits, social media content/themed portraits, and product photography. I've done one wedding and have no experience with baby photos so I wouldn't put those on my list of niche's unless I am willing to do them every time a client asked "So what kind of photos do you take?"

The main question you want to ask yourself is: "What do I enjoy photographing the most?"

For me, my answer is people. I enjoy photographing people, hence, senior portraits and families. Find what makes you passionate.

Business Cards and more!

Let's move on to more tangible items for your business. At this point, you don't need to have your niche(s) picked out just yet, and honestly, once you've picked them out you don't have to stick with them forever. It's your decision on what you want to do. You could offer senior portraits and realize that you don't like it and discontinue offering it.

Just like chivalry, the business card is NOT DEAD. There's a few ways you can create your business cards or have them created. They don't even have to be overly designed, they can be something simple, black and white, or minimalistic. I've gone through a few logo changes and reinvented what my business would look like from the business card stand point and mine are now white with black logo and text. It simple, minimalistic, and has the info your clients or potential clients are going to need to contact you. Is it exactly what I want? Not really. It takes time to find exactly what you need/want, but remember your business cards are essentially your first impressions to your clients especially if they haven't met you in person yet.

For high quality print and card stock, I highly recommend Vistaprint! They offer many layout and design options if you don’t have a logo, and if you do have a logo you can upload it directly to your choice of card. The editing tools are easy to use and you can add and remove the number of text fields they automatically add to your template. Don’t feel like you need to have EVERY kind of contact info. Trust me, website, email, and or phone number are just about the only ones you’ll need. If you don’t have a website, add your social media handle!

Aside from business cards, when you start gaining more clients and your business is taking off, there are some legal things you'll want to look into. Having an LLC, trademark, copyright are all things you'll want to look into. Taxes and an accountant, business partner or someone to help run your business and not necessarily work with you per say actually doing photography, but someone who can be there for paperwork signing and keeping your legal side, business paper, and such up to date and organized. Some things you'll want to look into getting or making yourself that will help you in legal situations or "Karen" situations when they try to sue or argue with you about your policies, but you'll have a copy of their signature of what they have agreed to.

Release Form - Stating that your client is allowing you to take their picture, or if the client is under 18 then the parent agrees to have their minor photographed. This could also include a intialing section which the client can agree or not agree to you posting those photographs on your website or social media.

Session Form/Contracts - This can vary depending on what you're offering as your niche, but essentially it's an agreement for you and the client of what kind of session you're doing. Let's say you offer senior portraits and your clients can pick from three different time lengths. 30 minutes, 60 minutes, or 90 minutes in which case you and your client would have that alloted time to shoot as many photos as you can in how ever many outfits they want. For example, one casual and with gap and gown or one casual look, one with semi formal, and your semi formal with gap and gown. This form would give you something to agree on when the day of the shoot comes you both know how long it's going to take and you and your client know how to plan.

If your niche includes weddings, have a contract is a must! Even if the client is a friend or family, no, especially if it’s a friend or family. It gives you, in writing, what you will and will not do after it is signed so your client won’t be able to ask you to do more or less than what they’re paying you for. Plans do change, so yes the contract can change, but that’s when you should sit down with your clients and draw up a new one; revisions should not be made to an existing contract in the case the client sues. Let’s not go there, I’ve read too many horror stories about this topic.

Stationary: Your business card isn’t the only thing your logo was created for! Put it on all of your contracts and release forms. It looks a lot more professional and legit. I would even invest in a notebook, legal pad, or sticky notes with your logo on it in case you’re writing down ideas with/for clients, it adds a little more to the experience. Pens, pencils, folders, stickers, etc. There is an unspoken limit to where the line should be drawn, but that depends on you. I like to give my clients a small packet of things (folder with the ideas we’ve come up with for their shoot, or packet at the end of the shoot with said ideas and their flash drive with photos) when they’re done meeting with me so they have something tangible to take home and show to others. At the end of the day you want your clients to feel happy and excited and to be able to give something more than a business card says something about your professionalism.

Thanks for reading y’all!

If you found this helpful and useful, please feel free to drop a tip. They’re not required, but are very much appreciated :D

Make sure to check out my mini series on “Mistakes Beginner Filmmakers and Photographers Make and how to fix them. (Most popular one linked)

See y’all soon.

Sara :D