“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”
My story of starting my photography business feels like a tale as old as time. I was a young woman who picked up a camera in college and loved so many things about it. I had started a career that I was honestly loving, but once my family began I was feeling so torn. I wanted more flexibility. I wanted socializing outside of being a stay at home mom. Most importantly for my, I wanted to create again.
So I took a leap and ran head first into many successful moments, and many challenges. It has been a truly wonderful journey, one I am still growing on every day.
In this post I hope to highlight those first important lessons I learned in hopes it will help you along your own journey into this wonderful world of moment capturing.
Building a Strong Portfolio
I made a list of 20 people I could photograph for free. Each month I tried to shoot 1-2 of those sessions and over that first year it was a LOT of free work, a lot of planning, and a lot of BAD lighting situations. ( more on this later) However, those sessions were the beginning of my first portfolio, which booked me paid work in my 2nd year. Most importantly I learned so dang much. I learned how to pose and talk to clients, what time of day is best for shooting, what I LIKED to shoot, and a million other things.
To this day I schedule a few free sessions that I now call 'styled shoots'. I love to get creative with a client and come up with a fun style and look for these sessions. These are usually my updated website photos that show the work that I'd most like to book more of.
CHANGES:
I would have used a contract, yes even for free work. I would give my clients more guidelines on what I wanted from them, like their attire, session style, etc. So that they were reflecting the work that I would like to keep getting in the future. (It is hard to book a documentary style engagement shoot when you're always capturing studio portraits!)
Most importantly, I would have asked for a review and referral in exchange for the free photos. Word of mouth and your reviews are the number one way I've booked clients each year.
Continuous Learning
Taking a college level photography class gave me a huge advantage to camera knowledge, and editing, and that is it. I still needed to learn how to work with people, cull and delivery my work, communicate with clients, and market myself. Oofta. My first workshop was from The Candid Community that covered these topics for newbies. It was 4 hours and I didn't set down my pencil once. I have always loved learned and it was so useful for me to take each lesson and failure as a chance to do better the next time. You will make a lot of mistakes, big and small. One of the most important skills to have as a small business owner is to have a growth mindset. I would have given up long ago without it.
Changes:
Something I do now that I wish I would have started from the beginning is to debrief right after my sessions. I ask myself what went well, and what I could have done differently. Each session is unique so it can be hard to track your consistency through the fog of change. But once I started to do this I saw a trend in my points of strength and weakness and could harness that.
Asking for feedback from my clients is still an area I'd like to grow in.
Most Importantly, continuing to learn from myself, and other professionals is the key to a successful business. Learning to follow the rules and then break them in your own unique way is what sets you apart from the crowd.
Pricing Strategies
Pricing was by biggest struggle in the beginning. It took my a long time to stop feeling like a novice and except that I was a talented professional photographer. This can be challenging even to this day. This caused me to undervalue myself and in turn, I only booked clients who undervalued my talent too. It's a tough cycle to break. In order to determine your value, you have two options. Hire a professional in the financial world, or take the time and energy to gather that knowledge on your own. The latter was my route and although I am happy to know the ins and outs of my business financially it was a long learning process. Another post to come on this along with a guide, but my first learning curve included researching the following.
- Learning my costs; digital services, gear, marketing supplies, MY TIME, etc.
- Researching the market where I was selling.
- Understanding what quality of work I was providing to clients.
Once I had a grip on these It was easier to feel confident in my choices to charge clients appropriately.
Finding Your Niche
Like most I wanted to shoot anything that came my way, I truly think this was fitting for my personality and joy of the work. However, in the world of marketing yourself this doesn't always come off as enticing. People want a professional for the thing they want. In my first two years I was paid to shoot a wide variety of sessions; weddings, family portraits, graduations, small business content, and newborn photos. I didn't want to niche down because I wanted to say yes to everything. The thing is, I loved weddings. I loved helping couples plan, spending their day capturing each sweet detail, and providing that gallery gives me so much fulfillment and purpose. So I started ONLY sharing on social media and my website about weddings. and I still booked almost everything else that came my way. I hated not sharing those sweet newborns and senior grads on my page. But over time I got MORE inquiries for weddings, and continue to book other sessions in between.
Sometimes the things that feel the most uncomfortable in the beginning bring us the most growth in the end.
Changes:
I wouldn't change a thing. I really believe learning what you like to shoot is the only way to stay in the business long term. It's much easier to spend two years testing the waters and then make a call, than to decide on a whim and wish you'd chosen something else later. That being said, you can ALWAYS pivot. Slowly you'll book the clients you want as long as you marked to them.
Marketing
I created a my first social media account at age 10. That means for almost 20 years I have been creating and consuming content. It is a HUGE marketing tool, and when I began I thought it was the ONLY tool I needed. I create reels and posted on my facebook page like me business depended on it. And because that is all I did, it did depend on it.
This will put you on a fast track to burn out. A few tools I learned to use that changed this path for me, and grew my business even more are
- Taking a basics course on SEO and blogging
- Planning out social media content for 2 weeks at a time and scheduling posts
- Joining a group of creative small business owners to learn from them.
These 3 small moves make a big change in my TIME commitment to my business and my bookings.
Changes:
I would have diversified my marketing from the beginning. Blogging, Instagram, pinterest, local events working together to market myself would have saved me many embarrassing instagram reels AND booked me more clients.
