5. Be Personable

This point for me personally is huge! When I first started, most people in my area did not market personably, in fact, many times you never even saw the photographers face. It is so easy as a photographer to hide behind your camera. Some people go as far as not even having a picture of themselves in their “about me” section! Haha (I laugh because this was totally me when I started!) People need to see you! They want to know who they are hiring and want to be able to feel like they can relate and connect with you. Your images may be amazing but that is not always good enough. What? Did I really just say that? Yes, your work still needs to be top notch but a whole other aspect of your business is YOU. They are hiring YOU, they have come to YOU, they want to know and work with YOU, they want the experience that only YOU can offer. Only one person can be you so don’t be afraid to show that to your clients! Give them the experience of YOU! People want to know who they are hiring. They want to feel like they can relate to you! Don’t be afraid to show who you are. People want to follow a person not just pretty pictures!

6. Outsource

This is an easy point but one that often gets pushed to the wayside. Do what are good at and outsource the rest. For everything that you hate doing there is someone out there who will both be really good and genuinely enjoy doing it! Be humble enough to know that you can’t be great at everything and hand off the stuff you don’t like to someone who will raise your standard of photography! We as photographers always get annoyed when you get turned down by a bride because they found a friend “photographer’” who could do it for free. Why? Because chances are the friend is not a professional and will not produce quality work. If we get annoyed when people don’t hire professionals for photography we need to apply the same thing to us. We are photographers. Not experts on everything under the sun that is related to having your own photography business and that’s okay!

For me personally I am terrible at finances, book keeping, and general paperwork organization and I am not ashamed to outsource and find people that are professionals at this and will allow me to enjoy and be free to do the side of my job that I love and find joy in. This will also save so much time, time you could be using to build your business up even more. What might take me 3 hours to do could take someone else 1 hour to do and they would probably do it way better! In turn, you can be using those 3 hours to meet with brides, answer emails, plan for shoots, edit, or actually photograph people! Or even better yet you can use that extra time to spend with your family or friends.

Having your own business doesn’t mean you can’t have a full and wonderful outside life! With balance, humility, and outsourcing you will learn the value in being okay with getting help and sticking to what you are good at! It’s different for everyone. You may hate editing or blogging and keeping up with social media, so find an editing company to go through and hire an assistant to do your blogging and social media. My rule is if I can’t do it and say that I’m happy with it then I outsource it! So hire a professional to brand you, design your website, do your taxes, book keeping, etc. I promise this will keep you sane! Things will be done right and you can spend your time being more efficient! There is nothing that will bog you down more quickly in your business then being stuck doing the things you are terrible at and absolutely hate. It will rob your joy and you will find that it will quickly run down your business!

7. Business Matters

Too us creatives, most of the time it is very hard for us to understand and even desire to do the business side of things. It doesn’t quite come naturally to most of us. But lets break it down to some numbers. Technically you will only spend about 20% of your time actually shooting and 80% working the business portion of your business. So why not value learning that side of things just like your craft in taking photos? Now don’t get me wrong, I more then most people am obsessed with high quality creative work (see point 2) but I can not negate the whole other side of photography that is business. This will save you from making SO many mistakes early on if you take the time and dedication to learn how to be a good business person!

Early on I realized that this was not something that I could ignore so I devoted myself to learning about it. I took classes, read articles, studied what others did, etc… and I have never stopped. I am constantly aiming to learn more about business in general and how to apply it to photography. The truth is it never stops, I am still learning new stuff everyday so stick with it! Some things you will find you don’t have the skill to do. That is when I fully encourage outsourcing ( see point 6). Many people think that as long as your photography is there your business will succeed but that is not always true. I have seen many amazing photographers fail after year 1 because the business side just wasn’t there. If you want to build a successful business, start to actually focus on the business side of things! Don’t get discouraged but instead just spend a little more time each day devoted to learning a little more about the business side to your photography!

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