HOW TO START A PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS amy fraughton kristen duke by and How to Start A Photography Business Copyright © 2014 Amy Fraughton and Kristen Duke All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Welcome to How to Start a Photography Business We are so excited to bring this book to you! Through our many years of experience as photographers and now as a business advisor (Amy) and photography blogger (Kristen), we’ve run into hundreds of people just like you who are just where we both were a few years ago... loving photography but a little frustrated with the business side of things. For this reason, we’ve come together to share our knowledge, and the experiences of many of our photographer friends to help you have a well paved road to your own photography business journey. We hope you enjoy all the ideas and stories that we’ve accumulated for you and we wish you all the success in your own business! FROm AmY FRAUGHTON OF PHOTO BUSINESS TOOlS When I started my photography business a few years back, I was lucky to have had a lot of business experience behind me. And I love the business side of things. However, I found that there were many of my photographer friends that didn’t love the business side, but wanted to just take pictures. Their businesses became a strain and a challenge for them. For this reason, I started the Photo Business Tools site. my desire is for all photographers to learn the business side of things so that they can continue to do what they love with success. FROm KRISTEN DUKE OF CAPTURING JOY I had no clue what I was doing when I started my photography business. All I knew is that I liked to take pictures for people, and that seemed like enough. Boy was I wrong! I learned many things along the way, made some mistakes, and still wonder how I’ve been able to do it all these years! I’m not so business minded, but I have a lot of experience that I’ve learned from. Amy has great business tool ideas, and I’m happy to co-author this book with her, as I think our combined expertise makes for the perfect business model! HOW TO START A PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS • WElCOmE • 1 Let’s start by introducing the Business Triangle This triangle is a visual guide for your business. It will help you self evaluate where you need to spend more time in order for your business to be strong and successful. let’s take a look. the business triangle products confidence customer service marketing There are four components to the business triangle. When your business is strong in all of these areas, you will have a solid business. However, if there is any area that is noticeably weaker, you could be in danger of a business fail. If you really want a business that will survive and thrive, figure out what part of the triangle you struggle with, and work on ways to make it stronger. THE FIRST AREA IS THE CENTER OF THE TRIANGlE: CONFIDENCE When you have a strong confidence in yourself, the other areas are easy to conquer. This can take quite a while to develop, and as you practice your craft, and see improvement, this will strengthen. Self-belief breeds a confidence that even if you have no idea what you’re doing, you will figure it out and win. low confidence smothers any hope. With low confidence, no matter how good your customer service, marketing and products are, you are bound to fail. In Chapter 1, you’ll find tips on how to gain more confidence, and our personal experiences as well as the experiences of many of our amazing photographer friends. PRODUCTS ARE A mAJOR PART OF YOUR BUSINESS This category includes the quality of your images, the price, packages you offer, and the types of products you sell. The better these items are, the more successful your business will be. HOW TO START A PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS • WElCOmE • 2 CUSTOmER SERVICE INClUDES “THE EXPERIENCE” YOU PROVIDE YOUR ClIENTS. This is inclusive of your packaging, communication, how your products are delivered and personal organization. Building excellent customer service will win you lots of new clients through word of mouth. AND lAST BUT NOT lEAST IS YOUR mARKETING. This is the way the world hears about your business. Good solid marketing is key to your business growth over the years. In this book, we will walk through each of the areas of the Business Triangle. We will also share with you the basic “to do” list to help you set up your business right. Here’s a look at the chapter breakdown. 1. CONFIDENCE APPENDIX A: COUPONS build your self-esteem one step at a time build your skill with savings 2. lEGAl ITEmS APPENDIX B: PRINTABlES “setting up your photography business” so you never miss a mometn of motivation checklist 3. PRODUCTS build your skills // pricing // products to offer 4. mARKETING online // word of mouth // local 5. CUSTOmER SERVICE the total experience HOW TO START A PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS • WElCOmE • 3 chapter 1 CONFIDENCE build your self-esteem one step at a time HOW TO START A PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS • CONFIDENCE • 4 As you have now learned from the Business Triangle, confidence is the core principle to building a strong business. Without it, your structure is weak and everything will tumble. We’ve had many times where this has happened to us in our own businesses at some degree, and have also seen others experience highs and lows with their business as a result of their own confidence system. The more you believe in yourself, the easier your photography business or (any business) will be. Confidence cultivates a strong will power. It is the reason why so many people are the “find a way, make a way” type of people. Because they believe they can, so they do. On the other hand, having a lack (at any degree) of belief can hinder us. But this should never stop us. learning tools that can help build your own self-belief can be something that will benefit you in all areas of your life. Photography is an art form, and as such is susceptible to scrutiny that will vary from person to person. Decide what your style is, and don’t try to chase what other photographers are doing just because they seem to have success with it. FROM AMY: A few years ago, I was doing some one on one mentoring with Sara of Sara Garcia Photo Art. When I asked Sara to rate herself on a scale of 1 to 10 for her belief in herself, she immediately answered with a very high number. The rest of the mentoring session was just me feeding her ideas. She knew she could do it. She knew nothing would stop her and she only needed a few ideas to get rockin’ and rollin’. Sara also lives in an area where there are other photographers saturating the market. But I was impressed with her ability to work with these photographers, and not use them as an excuse to stop her. Does this mean Sara never gets discouraged or frustrated? I doubt it. But her belief helped her overcome any obstacles, and I watched her business take off rather quickly that year and do very well. That same month, I also mentored another photographer who was super talented. Her work amazed me. Oddly enough, her belief in herself was very low. She compared her work to that of other photographers and felt that she was falling short of their quality. Her work was actually just as good if not better than their work. She just didn’t see it for herself, had no confidence in her own images, and as a result, was never fully booked. It was a sad surprise to me when a year later I saw on Facebook that she was involved in another business all together. Because she never believed she could be a success in her photography business, she wasn’t. HOW TO START A PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS • CONFIDENCE • 5 FROM KRISTEN: Confidence in your craft isn’t always so easy to attain. It comes from learning from constructive criticism, recognizing your strengths, and hearing from those you admire that you have got something amazing to share. We suggest hiring a photographer you admire to give true critiques of a variety of your work. It takes thick skin, and it may be hurtful it they offer room for improvement, but it will help you in the long term. If they have minimal critiques, it will boost your confidence in your body of work, and help you to realize that you are well on your way to a successful business. Friends and family telling you, “you’re awesome” isn’t necessarily an indicator to great photography. I’ve always had great support from friends and family, but at one point, I knew that I could be better. I knew my images could improve, but it took time to figure out how to get to the place I wanted to be. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself on your own confidence? In other words, how strongly do you believe in yourself making your photography career a success? my confidence is at a level ________________ . On the following pages you will find many different tools that will help you build your personal confidence no matter where you rate yourself. Find a tool or two that will work for you and work on it continuously. HOW TO START A PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS • CONFIDENCE • 6 1. REGUlARlY RECOGNIZE YOURSElF FOR THE lITTlE SUCCESSES Belief and self-confidence are often results of many little successes. Find ways that you can remind yourself of success that you have had along the way. You might want to keep a small journal, or notes on your smart phone. Share your little successes with someone close to you that will cheer you on. You may even choose to have small celebrations with each of these successes. What we focus on expands. You will find that as you keep focusing on positive things, no matter how small, you will attract more and more positive experiences in your life. Whenever I (Kristen) get a really kind email from a client, I save part of the text into a Word Document I’ve titled, “Kind Words.” I’ll put the date and who the compliment is from next to it. That way, if I run across a low day, or a rough client email, I can remind myself that others think I’m AWESOmE, and it helps me brush off the negativity. courtney dailey says... Often, I find it help helpful to keep my goals right out in front of me. I tend to make lists that I keep on a dry erase board. As I accomplish each goal, I draw a line through it. This way I can see that despite my ups and downs, I’m headed in the right direction. The little goals and lofty goals as well. As you take more off your goal list, you’ll find you acknowledge these accomplishments less. Having it written down with a line through it helps remind you of your path. It’s great to have a ‘wait, I have done a lot!’ moment every once in a while. don’t forget to be awesome. click here for a full size printable HOW TO START A PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS • CONFIDENCE • 7 2. KEEP YOUR GOAlS IN A VISUAl PlACE IN FRONT OF YOU REGUlARl Y... SEEING AND FEElING EXCITEmENT ABOUT YOUR GOAlS INSTIllS HOPE Hope ignites belief. The key to this is regularly viewing them. Again, what we focus on expands. So keep your focus on your goals. I (Amy) have made a regular practice of this for years. I usually cut out something I would love to have when I meet my goal for the month and keep it by my bed and on my desk. Having a little reward like this helps me stay motivated. Being my own boss always has its rewards, but staying self-motivated 100% of the time is always a challenge. This type of reward system for myself keeps me doing the things that I don’t want to do so I can have the things that I want to have. spanki mills says... When I first started I was like many of you, “photography found me” so I was not prepared to “run” a business. If I could do something wrong... I am pretty sure I DID. I had no direction. No GOAlS. I was working but I didn’t know what I was working for. If you don’t know what you are working for, how do you know what to charge? How do you know how many clients to take? How do you know WHAT clients to take? As you grow and your business expands, so do your goals. Keep them written. Be specific. Adjust them regularly. my business took curves I never could have expected so being flexible is key but over all knowing what you are working towards makes your focus so much more clear. I have a notebook where I keep my business plan and I refer to it often. Each month I make a to-do list and every monday I take a few things from the list and add whatever has popped up for the week. Each morning I take from that list and make a daily to-do list. I have found that as long as my goals are small they are achievable. The bigger my goal the more overwhelmed I get and tend to pass it over, so breaking my goals down into manageable to-dos has kept me more efficient and who doesn’t like that feeling of crossing something off your list? hope ignites belief. click here for a full size printable HOW TO START A PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS • CONFIDENCE • 8