business?

[MRCPix]

well I have been around here for a while and now I am wondering what is necessary to start making money in photography? do I have to have business cards and a web site before I start trying to find work? Oh I want to get into portrait photography both in a studio and outdoors or on location, but until I get the money I will probably have to rent a studio when necessary.

So please let me know what I need to get started. I already have profiles at model mayham and one talent source, but that doesn't seem to be working. I guess I am looking for some guidlines.

thanks
Mike

[hhscr]

I would think that a business card is a must. You need to have a professional looking card to give to prospective clients.

As far as website goes this could possibly wait a little until you get some paying clients. A website can make it much easier to provide the proofs and get some instant feedback from the client, but this business has been around alot longer than the internet.

Good Luck

[MRCPix]

that is what I was thinking thanks

[CaptainTom]

Mike
You'll need a portfolio. It doens't have to be portraits, products, weddings, etc.
It does need to be impressive. Something to show that you are indeed a qualified photographer.
Business cards lend credibility and give the potential client some way to contact you.

How to find clients ? The six million dollar question. If I had the answers, I wouldn't be working 8am-7pm and driving over an hour to get to a job that has nothing to do with photography.

I think BRAD would have better answers. He jumped off the cliff, and as far as I can tell, he's still alive and well.

[MRCPix]

Tom I have been working on getting enough shooting together to build a portfolio from it. I just need to go thru and choose what I want printed. I am thinking an 8 X 10 portfolio would be fine. I am trying to figure out ways of getting my name out so I can get clients which I know is the hard part.

thanks for your input

[Aric C. Hoek]

Making money and saving money. Two different things.

So… you want to do portraits. If I were to start all over again, but this time starting as a portrait photographer. If I knew then what I know now kind of thing.

You first need to ask yourself… what kind of money do you want to make and how many images do you want to shoot. Do you want to do high end portraiture or high volume? Why not both?

Here is how you can be making good money relatively fast in portrait photography (in theory) You know what. Let me interject something here before I start running my mouth… again. A very quick story. I was sitting next to Carol Andrews one day while watching Doug Box speak at a PPGH meeting. Doug was starting his second section of an all day meeting and he had something to the effect of “this will make you more money if you do xyz.” Carol turned to me and said, “That’s real dangerous. Don’t stand in front of a group of professionals and claim that if they do what you say they will make more money.”

I never forgot that. Carol and I will be going to the Police concert tomorrow night. Really looking forward to it. Toni my wife will be going as well as Nikky Lawell.

So, that being said, after working for many many different photography studios and now running a studio of my own, here is how I would start a portrait studio. No promises though.

I think that if I were to start again and I want to do portraits, I would do a high volume kind of thing first and then convert into a high end portrait studio.

Step One. Learn how to do school photography. Yes schools. Learn how to build a cute background for little kids in day cares and backgrounds for kids in kindergarten. You build the background, show up with your digital camera, and photograph a school. My guess is that you can purchase pre-made background. But the background is one of the main things that is going to separate you from your competition.

Take four shots of each child. You can decide if you want to do groups of each class or even groups of two or more children. I would just do one child at a time to start. No groups, unless the school requests it. As an added bonus to the school, give one photo of the child, no bigger than a wallet for the child file at no charge.

You take the four images, attach it to an order form and give the form to the schools. The school is then responsible for getting the order for into the hands of the parents. Or, if you want, send the order form home with the children a week before the shoot with a sample of what the background is going to look like, and then have the kids come in with their money the day of the shot, essentially pre-paying for their packages and you select the best image out of four to be printed! I like the sound of that.

You will need to have rock solid policies in effect. One of the most important is No Reshoots. No refunds. No exchanges. A monetary penalty for bounced checks. No one is putting a gun to their head here. If they don’t want to have pictures they don’t have to order any. It’s your business. You set the policies.

2. After two years of shooting schools, you are going to have a killer mailing list! Do a bluebonnet special. I have worked with a school photographer that does a bluebonnet special and they exceed 30k a weekend. They do two bluebonnet weekend specials every year. Why not do a holiday scene special in your rented studio? Why not have a “fishing Scene Special” for Fathers Day or Mothers Day? Why not offer a summer beach scene special? Run special events with session fees only 99.95. Book them every 30 minutes all day long, all weekend long. $$$ Make them come into the studio to order. Don't let them order online. Have a line of frames ready to sell as well. If they order within 10 days of their session they get 10% off.

3. All of these kids are going to be high school seniors some day. Al of these kids are going to get married some day. They will some day be having kids of their own, which means maternity sessions and more.

4. So you are threee measly years into doing schools now. You are running 4 different specials throughout the year. There is a danger. You have been charging so little for school photography that when people come into your studio they are expecting the same low prices. Which means, your studio work is going to have to be out of this world! The waiting room for the studio has just got to be dripping with money. People are going to have to know the second that they walk in that they are about to part with some serious cash. The finished prints are going to have to look spectacular and with a distinctive style. Classical is a great starting style that commands a good price when done correctly.

There will be a few small obstacles when starting to shoot schools. One of which is acquiring a contract with a school. You will need to find some contract examples that other photographers have with school. You will also need to be prepared for kick backs being required by the school in order to have them sign a contract with you. Whether or not you hold out to find a school that do not require a kick back is up to you.

In summary… Photograph small schools first, they move your way up the food chain to larger schools. Photograph an entire high school in one day, which is totally possible. I have done it myself.

Create a huge mailing list. Begin shooting 4 annual specials throughout the year to keep that cash flow running. Build a beautiful portrait studio and then slowly back away from the school photography.

Sounds like a business plan. A bit rough on the edges, but a plan none the less.

[CaptainTom]

Can I just copy this plan and take it to the Small Business Administration ??
The only thing missing is the capital to live on until you start making some bucks.
A business loan would be nice....

[Aric C. Hoek]

Originally Posted by CaptainTom

Can I just copy this plan and take it to the Small Business Administration ??
The only thing missing is the capital to live on until you start making some bucks.
A business loan would be nice....

You hit the nail on the head. Having some working capital is one of the hardest parts of starting a business.

[brad]

Aric said it well.. and as Tom said, I jumped off a cliff, but he left out that I have a parachute that has made that descent a little slower... getting close enough to the bottom to see a rocky river with lots of whitewater, though...

Ok.. so to answer some of your first questions...

Business Card: Absolutely. It makes you look legit. Make it striking and memorable... something they'll look at and think is cool on first glance so they'll remember it and go back and look for it when they need a photographer. Use an image or images you've done.. and be prepared to change it out in a year or so when you realize your work has improved way beyond that shot. Use a place like a vistaprint to print them and it will be inexpensive.. but do NOT take their "free cards" as they put their own logo on the back and makes you look like a cheapskate and pegs you as a wannabe.

Website: Websites are cheap.. I can't imagine a reason not to have one.

ModelMayhem, OneTalentSource, etc.: You are NOT going to make money from the people on these sites until you are well established.. if even then. The "models" that join these sites do so because they want to be models. You'll find some gems there.. this is where I met people like Erin and Carly.. but there is a very low signal to noise ratio on these sites.

Portfolios: Those sites ARE good for finding people who will model for you for free as you build your portfolio... MM for glamor and fashion type stuff.. OTS for kids and family.. depends on what you want to do. These are the kinds of topics we'll be talking about in Brownwood in August.

The biggest thing, though is that if you want to be a professional photographer, you have to think like one. You have to think of yourself as one and you have to believe it. Tell yourself "I am a photographer." Rinse. Repeat. If you are not confident in your own skills you will flounder... you will end up giving your work away constantly because you don't believe you are worth it... you will undercharge for the same reasons.

In other words, walk the walk. Talk the talk.. but be humble at the same time. Don't paint yourself as a Fran Reisner until you have the skills to back it up... but don't paint yourself as a GWC, either... and if you are undercharging or giving it all away, that's what you are.

Lastly: When you do settle on prices, set a price *you* can live with. Do not try to compete with other photographers and do not try to compete with Wal-mart or JC Penney studios.. you do not want customers who are shopping solely on price. You want the customers who are coming to you because they want what you are providing... if you attract only the ones shopping on price, you will have to constantly find new customers as they find cheaper photogs elsewhere.... if you compete on service, then as long as you treat the customer right, they'll come back again and again and again.


(Wow, didn't mean to ramble on so long.)

[HeatherLou]

I would like to add that you also have to be VERY VERY comfortable with self promotion. Talk to everyone about what you do, give cards to everyone you talk to. A lot of getting people in the door so to speak is that you have to be outgoing. Now that does not mean bouncing off the walls, but you have to be good at connecting with people.

[DeLeon]

I am by no means in the same boat as the above posters, but I will say that one of the biggest problems I have had is coming out of my shell to everyday people. Once I got over that, things changed for me. When I finished photo school, I was given a survey by one of my instructors. I told him that they REALLY need to add a public speaking/self promotion type course to the program. (BTW Amarillo College has a wonderful photography program) The conversations go a little better now....

Lady cutting my hair: "So what do you do for a living?"
Me: "I'm a photographer, do you have children? Remind me to give you a card when we are done here."

That has been my best form of advertisement so far.


Another thing that turned around and bit me in the @$$ is assuming that just because someone has gone to the Wal-Mart studio or another budget studio, that they cannot afford you...the lady that I made that assumption with was a cleaning lady at a doctors office, but her husband was the doctor She was showing me photos of her children from some budget studio and I assumed that she probably couldn't afford my prices....thank goodness that I figured out that she just didn't know any better before I made a fool of myself. It was also a good life lesson on judging people by the jobs that they have..some people just like to clean

[MRCPix]

thank all of you so much. I really appreciate all of you taking time to share with me. This is why this is the best photo forum on the web.

[barP]

all these other replies are constructive assuming one thing: that you can do the work.

are you any good?

seriously - that's a rhetorical question, not a challenge. the point is you have to really figure out where you are with the work and be objective about that. that means looking at a LOT of work and figuring out what the gap is between you and the artist that did it. then....what do you have to do the fill that gap? if you're serious, then you identify those things and get busy.

just my take. and, in the interest of fair disclosure, photography isn't my day job. i'm lucky, though, to have several good friends who make more than a comfortable living at it.....after 20-30 years experience.

wp.

[brad]

Well, also remember there are a lot of mediocre photographers out there that are making a fortune... and there are a lot of really talented photographers out there who aren't making much at all.

The difference?

Marketing.

[Michael Lyons]

#1- a business plan