How to Start a Photography Business: A Simple, Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners
Start a Photography Business gives you the opportunity to channel your creativity for starting a successful photography business. A Simple, Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners
Step 1 Choosing a Niche
The first step to starting a photography business is picking a niche. Do you want to specialize in weddings or portraits? Or perhaps you’re interested in portraiture, family, food, or sports. There are a lot of opportunities for photographers to make a living in this competitive industry. Step 2Filing Your Taxes While it’s still possible to have a small business without doing your taxes, it’s advisable to take advantage of the federal and state income tax deductions and credits available to individuals and sole proprietors. In 2017, the top tax rate was 37.0%, meaning that small businesses that paid less than $500,000 of annual gross income (adjusted for inflation) will see their taxes slashed by over 7%.
Step 2 Buying a Camera
In theory, you could just buy a DSLR. Don’t. No one is forcing you to. However, it’s important that you take the proper steps before you actually invest in a new camera or DSLR. Start by researching what kind of camera you want, and determine which DSLR will suit your needs the best. Just like DSLRs, if you are a beginner you don’t want to rush into spending thousands on the first model you see. The same goes for buying a new lens. You want to figure out what kind of photography you are shooting, and then invest in a lens that fits your needs. Get started with this photography 101 beginners course, which explains how to find the best camera for your needs. Avoid buying a cheap DSLR from a garage sale or flea market Consider buying a used DSLR (from Craigslist or eBay).
Step 3 Marketing Your Photography
Marketing your photography involves social media marketing. Your Facebook page and Instagram account should be your marketing hub. It means that you should have regular updates on your Facebook and Instagram pages to give potential clients an insight into what your work is about. When you have a good quality product, people will contact you if they’re interested in purchasing your services. Having a website, like our list, is another good way to market your services. It allows you to display your work and offers a place to sell your photographs. Conclusion A Business is not just about making money. It’s also about getting more time to spend with your family, friends, and loved ones.
Step 4 Finding Clients
Before you start taking pictures, you need to be confident that you have a good product. The first question to ask is how many people are buying the product. In other words, what is the demand for the product? You can check your target audience online by seeing how people react to the product and then you can adjust the message accordingly. For example, do people respond better to text or a picture? Step 5Posting Photos Taking pictures of products and clients is one thing, but then they need to be posted online. This is one of the most important aspects of starting a business in the photography industry, and here is a guide on how to post photos to social media. Step 6Controlling Costs Once you have clients and products, you also need to keep track of your expenses.
Step 5 Pricing Your Services
This is your biggest expense as a photographer. You must be aware of how much your services are worth. You must also know your rates. How much to charge for a certain shoot? How much will it take to capture a particular engagement? Do you have to charge a premium for weddings? The importance of pricing cannot be overemphasized. If you can price your services at the right amount, you will make a lot of money and you will have the comfort of knowing you are doing well as a photographer. Whether you charge a base or a per-shoot price, you have to understand what the person coming to you for the services will be paying for. Don’t try to take advantage of clients who pay more. If the majority of your clients are paying around $100 for a shoot, you have to charge around $150.
Conclusion
There is a saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. This says a lot about our work and photography in general. Some will argue that a photo can be worth more than a thousand words, but I say it isn’t true. So let’s just take a look at our pictures. We create the quality of the image and not a history of an image. Most people only see a few seconds of an image and they read whatever information they can find out about it. We can help them visualize more of our work by giving them a few helpful insights. It doesn’t matter if we are working in beautiful settings or if we are on the other side of the world. We can create a story with our photographs. You can create a story with them as well. Good luck with your photography business.