Seeing your photography business flourish seems to be the ideal job if you love taking pictures of people and events, but starting your own business is never easy. If you are gifted with a creative sense and business acumen, then starting a photographer business is an achievable endeavor. Below you will find everything you need to know to understand where to start.
Steps
Method 1 of 4: Training and Practice
Step 1. Study the basics well
To become a professional photographer, you need to know a lot more about photography than the average guy or girl who owns a camera does. Learn the technical aspects of photography, including topics such as shutter speed and lighting.
Familiarize yourself with all the basic technical terms and understand how they work. These include aperture, shutter speed, and ISO
Step 2. Find your specialty
Most photographers have their own specialization. For example, you might specialize in family photography, pet photography, or wedding photography. Each specialization has its own set points and complexities, so you should choose a specialization and learn it in detail.
If you still don't have a particular passion or specialty in mind, do a little research on the different possible options to determine which one best suits your skills and interests
Step 3. Attend courses and seminars
Technically you can also start your own business by simply starting out as a self-taught, but photography specific courses and seminars can increase the quality of your photos and give you an edge over other novice photographers.
- Before signing up for a course, find out about the teachers. Make sure the teachers are proven professionals who want to teach you something you actually need for your business. Check if anyone was successful after taking the course.
- If you already have full or part-time employment, look for courses and seminars that take place over the weekend or via the internet.
Step 4. Hire a mentor
As much as possible, find an experienced photography mentor you can talk to regularly. This mentor should be a professional whose work you admire.
- A mentor isn't necessarily someone you need to meet in person, although direct contact might help. Choose someone with whom you can communicate by any means at least once a month, even if you only communicate via computer.
- It is actually advisable to seek out an out-of-area mentor, since they wouldn't bother with the thought of training someone who could become a direct competitor in the near future.
Step 5. Practice with a professional
This is a non-mandatory step of your choice, but if you can find a professional photographer to practice with, you could have a hands-on experience that you could later use for your own business.
- A perfect internship should be related to the type of photography you intend to specialize in, but even if it wasn't directly, you could still accumulate good experience.
- Before you convince someone to take you as a long-term intern, you may need to offer your job on call or otherwise on a short-term basis, especially if you have no previous experience or formal training.
Step 6. Master the trade
It might seem like an obvious requirement, but it is nevertheless so important that it needs to be mentioned. Your camera skills must be way above that of an average person. This involves many hours of practice before starting a business.
It takes about 10,000 hours of work and practice to "master" the profession of photographer. The sooner you can dedicate enough time to it, the sooner you will be able to improve your skills
Step 7. Know your camera better than yourself
You need to choose your camera before starting your business, and you need to learn everything there is to know to make the most of it. Each make and model has its own characteristics, so the more you become familiar with the camera, the better you will be able to take advantage of its features.
- Finally, you need to know how to use the camera with manual settings, how to adjust the lighting, and how to pose people so that everyone fits comfortably into the frame.
- In addition to knowing your camera like the back of your hand, you need to know what affects the lighting, you need to know the lenses and software to edit photos.
Method 2 of 4: Prepare the Activity
Step 1. Invest in suitable tools and appliances
If you want to start a professional photographer business, you need to own a lot more than just any camera. In addition to all essential equipment you should also have a spare forklift.
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The basic equipment needed includes:
- A professional camera
- Various lenses, flashes and batteries
- A software to edit photos
- Access to a professional photographic laboratory
- Packaging equipment
- A price list
- Accounting software
- A questionnaire to collect customer details
- CDs and related cases
- External hard drives
- In the bare minimum there must also be a spare camera, lenses, flashes, batteries and memory cards. Make sure you take all these spare gear with you, you'll need them in case something breaks right in the middle of a shooting session.
Step 2. Leverage your strengths and fill in your gaps
In a small business as a photographer, you will probably take all the shots, do most of the post-production and marketing work. However for the legal and financial aspects you may need to hire professionals in these specific subjects to help you make everything go smoothly.
Estimate the fees of a lawyer, an accountant and perhaps a financial consultant. Relations with a lawyer should presumably end once the business is started and organized, with the tax advisor you should meet at least once or twice a year in order to check the taxes and fiscal aspects of the business
Step 3. Establish your income
It is quite common for novice photographers to ask for lower prices than they intend to ask once they have gained more experience. That way you stay on the market, but you also need to make sure you don't ask for prices that are so low that you no longer look like a professional.
- The precise amount of money you ask will depend on your skill level, as will the prices asked by your direct competitors.
- When calculating the costs, you have to take into account the time it took to prepare a session, to go and return, for the shooting phase, the post-production of the photos, to prepare an online gallery, to schedule the pickup or shipping, for the packaging of orders, and for the burning of spare copies on disc.
- Time-consuming considerations aside, you have to take into account the money you had to spend to get to the shooting location, to burn the discs, and to bag the photos.
Step 4. Consider the legal aspects
As with any type of business, there are some legal issues to be aware of. At a minimum, you need to have a VAT number and a company name issued. You have to take out insurance, get a license, and register with the Chamber of Commerce.
- After obtaining your VAT number, you can expect to have to pay taxes on self-employment, income, fees, etc.
- Luckily, there are no particular controls or specific licenses like professional registers to start a photographer business, but as a trader you should still need at least a simple business license.
- You must have professional liability insurance, for errors and negligence, and for the equipment.
- As a freelancer or self-employed person, you will also need to pay for social security and welfare contributions.
- Also choose the legal form. When you prepare for a photographer activity, you have to decide if you want to register with the Chamber of Commerce as a sole proprietorship, or as a partnership or capital company. Usually for a small photographer business it is preferable to register as a sole proprietorship (which means you are the only responsible person), or as a partnership (which means there are only one or two responsible persons).
Step 5. Open a separate checking account
It's not mandatory, but if you're planning on expanding your photography business as much as possible, setting up a bank account can help you keep track of your income and costs more easily than your personal account.
Method 3 of 4: Find Customers
Step 1. Use social networks and online advertising
Our society is in the digital age, so if you want to attract attention, you need to play an active role in the digital world. You should have a website or a blog, and at least at least a few accounts in the most popular social media.
- Subscribe to every social network you can think of, but focus on the main ones, including Facebook and Twitter. Linkedin is fine for professional purposes, and Instagram can be a great way to share example photos.
- Update your blog and other social media accounts regularly.
- Don't forget to support and interact with other artists whose work you appreciate.
Step 2. Have business and professional relationships with other photographers
Building good relationships with other photographers is more beneficial than harmful. They might be your competitors, but they can inspire you, they can give you advice, and they can send you clients if they don't have the time or don't have the right specialization.
Instead of trying to track down the few subjects within the industry, look for groups of photographers online. If you only have a couple of contacts in the industry, you risk your relationships with them may end as soon as they have too many busy schedules to keep in touch
Step 3. Make a portfolio
Before someone hires you to photograph an event or subject, they may ask to see proof of your talent as a photographer. A portfolio would give your potential clients proof of your skills.
A portfolio should mostly contain photos that represent the job you want to specialize in. For example, if you want to specialize in family and personal portraits, your portfolio should not contain pages and pages of food photos
Step 4. Also use printed advertisements
Aside from online advertising, you should also consider using various forms of traditional print advertising. At a minimum, you should design and print your own business cards to deliver to your prospects as soon as you meet them.
Aside from business cards, you could also advertise in newspapers and flyers
Step 5. Rely on word of mouth
As with many small businesses, one of the best ways to make yourself known is to simply ask people you know to help you spread the word.
Also be prepared to take some free sessions, even if just to get some experience and to start building a good reputation. Word of mouth works much better if a person who has nothing to do with you praises your work in front of other potential clients
Method 4 of 4: Taking Photographs
Step 1. Try to find constructive criticism
There is always room for improvement. Trust other professionals who can make useful criticisms of your work, in order to identify the aspects on which you need to focus your attention in order to practice.
Don't rely on family and friends to get accurate reviews on your work. A person who has a family relationship or friendship with you might rather be inclined to praise your skills, but a person who has only professional interests with you will surely have a more objective view
Step 2. Dress appropriately
When you show up to take a photo of a person, you need to look neat and professional. This is especially true if you are attending an important event, such as a wedding.
Step 3. Carry out personal projects
Don't think that after starting your business the only photos you need to take are related to this one. Taking photos even beyond the business can help you refresh your skills and keep your passion for photography alive.
- Your personal projects are the best way to experiment with new lighting styles, different types of lenses, different settings and new techniques.
- Personal projects are also a great way to continue building your portfolio.
Step 4. Make a backup copy of all the photos you take
In addition to your main archive, you should make a backup copy of all the photos you take for work on one or two different archives.
Possible backup photo rescue devices you can rely on are external hard drives and blank DVDs. You can also use an online storage "cloud" service to save your photos
Step 5. Trust your artistic sense
When all is said and done, to stand out you need to take pictures following your aesthetic sense. If you just try to "stencil" a professional photographer, there will be hardly anything alive in your work.
Advice
When you start starting your own business, you also do another full-time or part-time job. By doing another job, you can support yourself and your business financially, and you can eliminate some of the major anxieties that for many photographers involve leaving the business early
Warnings
- Photography is an extremely saturated market. There are a lot of photographers available, so expect to have a lot of competition.
- The world of photography is a luxury. People in difficult economic times are not inclined to indulge in this kind of luxury. When the whole global economy suffers, you have to expect your photography business to have the same difficulties as well.
