Welcome to my new series of posts on the photography business. It’s a somewhat open-ended series of articles (currently it contains seven parts) that will look at photography as a business.
Let’s get it out up front: Photography is a problem as a business.
Yup, I said it. Why is it a problem? Because of you, the people drawn to photography. Yup, I said that too. What I am getting at is this: Most of us come to photography first as something else—a passion, a hobby, a creative outlet, something that keeps us sane, an activity that’s fun, etc.
People do not generally come to photography first with the attitude: “I love this because I can make bags of money at it if I work hard.”
Being in business is not a fact; it is a frame of mind. Successful business people are focused on their business, they know it is a business and they are focused on making it successful. Successful may mean different things to different business people and the definition of success may include satisfying and rewarding. But a successful business is usually also defined as financially viable and profitable. Often, starting a business is also about creating a tangible legacy for your spouse and/or children.
Photography makes it too easy to come into the business with a motivation that is less than ideal from a business-success perspective. Most areas of photography allow you to dip your toe into the business waters without being fully committed. The idea of a semi-professional is not something you get in brain surgery, nuclear physics or even accountancy. In most professions you have to commit. It is all or nothing.
In photography, you can test the waters, earn a bit of money, and see how it goes. You can do a bit of portraiture on the weekend, the odd wedding even now and then, and even an occasional bit of product or fashion photography.
Don’t get me wrong. Many photographers have made the leap from amateur to semi-pro and then to professional, picking up successful business thinking along the way (or it may have always been in them).
Likewise there are people who basically go straight from being a student of photography to a full-time professional. But there are very many others who do not. Some limp along as unsuccessful businesspeople (full or part time) and never quite get it right.
This series is aimed at offering some suggestions, strategies and ways of thinking that may help you make a go at photography as a successful business, using whatever definition of success is most important to you and making whatever time commitment you are able and willing to make.
Having a successful photography business is not about having a lot invested and spending every waking moment in it. Rather it is about having a business-oriented focus for whatever time you choose to spend on it.
It is tough to talk in generalities about the photography business, because the field is so diverse and no two businesses are alike. Some of the areas that might form a photography business are:
· Studio portrait photography
· Environmental portrait photography
· Wedding photography
· Industrial or commercial photography
· Specialist commercial photography, like food, fashion, jewellery, etc
· Real estate photography
· Event photography, from kids sport to restaurant photography
· Forensic photography
· Photojournalism
· Editorial photography
· Travel photography
· Catalogue photography
· Fine art photography
· Decorative art photography
· Pornographer
· Stock photography
· Journalism about photography
· Teaching photography
· Selling products that use photography integrally
· Medical or scientific photography
· Photographic research
· Developing photographic products
The above list isn’t complete but it gives you an idea of how diverse photography as a business can be. Many of these fields commonly overlap, whilst some rarely do.
Any one or all of these fields can be either a full or part-time activity, which is why many small-town photographers will do many of them over the course of a year.
Even if you have a nicely defined niche for yourself in the photography world it is worth keeping the above list in mind. If you are looking to diversify or add some additional lines of cash flow, then the above list might contain the trigger that points you in the right direction.
You can also keep this list in mind if you want to move your business from a mainly direct-income model (you get paid for the time you work on it) to a more passive-income model (income comes in even when you are on holiday). Note that passive income is one of the topics we’ll revisit in a future post in this series.
Building a diverse photography business can also be the key to avoiding burnout. I’ve come across many photographers over the years who were losing interest, getting jaded and stale, and contemplating leaving the industry completely because they felt stuck.
If this is happening to you, go explore one of the other areas of photography. Not only might you learn or re-learn some skills that can fire up your normal area of activity, but the creative push might just open up new avenues for you.
In Part 2 of this series, we’ll talk about why Time Management is Critical.
