You are a Business Person and a Photographer

In case you were wondering, I am a business person and a photographer. Oh, and so are you! Whether you are a new photographer or a seasoned veteran, there will likely come a point in your career where you will want to start selling your work. While it is fun to take pictures and display them for your friends and family, it is also nice to have a little residual income coming from something that you love. Well, this year I decided that I wanted to start making money from my photography so I built an online portfolio and began marketing myself. Unfortunately, I was not as well prepared for this undertaking as I originally thought. 

When I first began marketing my services, my online portfolio was not a website that I would necessarily want to present to potential clients primarily because I created it with the intent of just sharing it with family and friends so there were all types of images on the site. I also had not thought about pricing for my services or even who my potential clients would be. Strangely, despite always considering myself to be a person with "strong business acumen," I was acting like a clueless rookie. As a result, I was not making much money from my photography and I found marketing myself to be very difficult. I realized I had to make a decision -- either my photography was a hobby, in which case I would make "hobby money" or my photography was a business, in which case I would make "business money." Well, needless to say, I decided that I wanted to make business money. So, in order to put myself in a position where I could make real money from my photography, I opted to slow down and make a few calculated business decisions.

• Who Is My Target Customer? The first thing I did was decide on my target customer. In this day and age, every person with a camera thinks he or she is a photographer. Therefore, I needed to find a way to distinguish myself from other photographers in the market. 
• What Do I Charge? After clearly defining my target customer, I set the prices for my services. I researched other area photographers to determine what they were charging for similar services. I also scoured the internet on articles about pricing for photography services. As I conducted this research, I kept my target customer in mind and tried to think from his/her perspective. Upon finishing my research, I set my prices accordingly. 
• Build A Professional Website! Next I proceeded to build a professional website with images representative of the type of photography services I planned to offer. I also included a link to my personal online portfolio so potential clients could view my "fun" projects and learn a little more about me as a human being. 
• Spend Time on the Administrative Work. My last step involved my completing the administrative/legal tasks. I purchased a domain name for my website and then set up an email account for my business (you can do this for free with Zoho). I also drafted sample emails that I could quickly send when approached by potential clients or engaged by new clients. Then I prepared a sample contract and model release.

The entire process took me approximately 4 hours and at the end of that 4 hours, I had a clear vision of my photography business. Now, I find it easier to market my services and my efforts are much more effective!

Therefore, I encourage you to think about how you approach your photography if you are trying to make money off your work. Have you been treating your photography like a business or did you just hang out a shingle and hope for the best? Try to think strategically about your photography services so you too can make "business money" instead of "hobby money."