How to Start a Photography Business

By: George Dean

My advice to one lady who wants to start a photography business.

Someone, from a town right up the road, requested that I be her friend on facebook and included a little note. I THINK this is the lady I handed a business card to yesterday.

“Hey George! I am blown away by your photos. I am just starting in the business and I have the bug BAD! I love your style and would love any pointers you can share. Why are you not shooting for fashion magazines???” (she owns a hair salon now)

I wrote her back and said….

“Wow, thanks!

Some tough love advice: Its a deceiving simple business.  I can not tell you the number photographers who have went out of business recently but for every one that went out of business, three more people “got the bug” and think they will start a “photography business” b/c it seems so simple and “heck, photographers charge too much anyway. An 5X7 at WalMart only costs $0.58 so if I could charge $10 or maybe even $20, I would make be making a TON of money!”. Heck, “Its easy right, doesn’t “P” on your camera stand for “Professional” (thats a joke and that’s advice).

#1 Mistake. Charging TOO little. People WAY underestimate & value their time when they come up with their pricing. They ALWAYS go out of business first. PLUS, NO ONE values cheap. Remember, there will be 10 more people starting their own photography business next week in Gainesville and they will all be cheaper than you. Compete on something ELSE than price! Price will put you out of business faster than roots grow after you got an expensive highlight job done. Its not fun spending all those hours in the business, creating some good pictures, but the money you are making barely covers your expenses. Being good is never cheap. And nothing cheap is ever good.

#2 Mistake. Thinking you are good just b/c someone says you are b/c you took a nice picture of their child. There are a TON of “average” photographers who say they are “professional”. Being a professional photographer no longer holds the value it once had b/c it seems there are ten new photographers every week starting the business (because it seems so simple and everyone “professional” charges too much – thats a common mistake people make too!). Your images must transcend a “picture” to “art”.

#3. The business is harder than ever. The bar has risen. People THINK its all the camera and photoshop! You can get a “god enough” camera for $2500,  a great lens for $1200, Photoshop is $900, and domain name for $10 a year. It takes WAY more than a “nice camera” although that whats a lot of people think. Its kinda like telling a painter, “wow, you must have some great brushes.” Or a chef “you must have some great pots.”. If I gave you MY camera and MY computer, could you create what I did? Most likely, the answer is no. So therefore, it must be more than the camera and photoshop! I once had a dad say “I can create those same pictures if I had that camera.” I handed him my camera and he quickly handed it back!

#4 Mistake. Copying other photographers. Stay true to you. It takes about 3 years of shooting to KNOW what you are good at. When you find it, keep doing it. You never know, you might discover you are an amazing maternity photographer and thats all you do. Maybe its BW children photography. Maybe is chronicling homeless people. YOu never know. You can NOT be an awesome wedding photographer (the lowest paid of all specialities for most people), an awesome baby photographer, an awesome maternity photographer,  blah blah blah. Specialize. (FYI, I do NOT look at ANYONE’s photography site locally. I could care less what ‘my competition’ is doing. I do what I do.)

#4. Mistake. People think this business is about “taking pictures”, its not.

#5. Invest in your education. I invest about $10K a year just in my education.

#6. I know people want a good “photography business” but TRULY they need to be good at “The Business of Photography” first!

#7. EVERY senior session I do requires about 12 hours of total work. Prepping for the shoot, shooting, editing, showing, ordering, delivering, … blah blah blah. Every family/child session is about 8 hours of total work. Think about that when you setting your prices. Your price has VERY little to do with YOUR price of an 8X10; it has more to do with your time and the talent that went into it! Heck, I’ll give you the 8X10 photography paper for free. I charge whats on it! Once you take that into account, you will understand much more clearly why your prices need to be 3x-10x more than you THOUGHT they should be.

#9. Its like anything else. You have got to have some God given talent to rise above average or a LOT of hard work and determination. Being an average photography will keep you frustrated and poor being a an average business person will also keep you frustrated and poor.

#10. Marketing. This could easily be #1. Without a solid marketing plan, you are dead in the water!

I hope that helps.

This turned out to be more of a book!

George

PS. Every weekend I see “wanna be professional photographers” out with clients and JUST by their choice of location, angle, their equipment, blah blah blah I KNOW the images are horrible. I feel bad for their clients. I truly feel bad. This is more than pictures! We are leaving foot prints in the sand. This business is dead serious to me. We are leaving legacys for families to pass done from generation to generation. There are too many “snap shot” professional photographers. Challenge yourself to be MORE than a “snap shot” photographer.