How to Foolproof your Photography Business

Part Two: Make Your Photography Business Your Own

So, you’ve read ALL about the equipment you’ll need to have a solid photography business in my last blog. Let’s talk about how to make your photography business your own

We are in a three-part series on getting started in your photography business! I am breaking up this topic into 3 sections which are:

1. Part One: Equipment + Getting Started
2. Part Two: Make your photography business your own
3. Part Three: How to flourish in your photography

---

Nail Down Your Style

What sort of images do you gravitate towards? What style of editing, posing, or message do you like? Are you moody? Bright? Colorful? More posed? The list goes on.

Editing takes forever to get down, even after you find a style you like. Heck, I’m still making adjustments every few months! As practice, take a favorite image you photographed and edit it over and over again until you find your favorite. Save as a “preset” in Lightroom and use it as a base for all of your photos, and keep tweaking as you see fit!

Another way to find your style is getting on Pinterest and pinning a bunch of things you find beautiful. Really, it can be anything! Save all of these on a board and you can use it as both inspiration and a springboard to further figuring out your style.

After you’ve taken the time to get your brand a little more concentrated, you can begin building the entire rest of your business off of it!

Client Experience

This is by far my favorite topic. As someone who really values client experience above most everything else in my business, I believe if this part is well-sharpened, everything else will follow suit.

On the flip side, you could be the BEST, most beautiful and skilled photographer in your area, but if you don’t learn up on people skills, your business will not grow.

Or worse, your business won’t be trusted.

The eye-opener for me was when I truly understood that photography is a service. I am using my camera and all the fancy equipment and posing and editing to SERVE people. To make them feel happy. To make them feel loved.

Photographing wedding days especially is a HUGE service. Yes, they are booking me to photograph their day with my specific eye & creativity, but the moment I believe I’m there for what I can do for myself and not for the client, I lose.

Here are some things I do to ensure optimal client experience:

• Clear Communication. This is critical, friends. Whatever the session may be, it’s important that you have clearly explained what you expect from your client, what they should expect from you, how long a gallery delivery will take, payments, dress code, etc. That’s why I love using Honeybook because you can automate certain emails for certain sessions or timelines of wedding planning to keep everything on course, and so the client feels taken care of.

• Understand that you are impacting people. These are photographs! They are capturing moments in time, so its my job- especially with how much money they pay me- to make the moment so much fun and so joyful. No matter who the client is, or what the situation is.

• Client gifts! Send a little Etsy box, or make one yourself! Include a note, a few small gifts and make it cute. It’s an easy way to make your clients feel special after they’ve booked you.
  • You could throw in a few branded things to make it extra professional! This REALLY helps you stand out and helps make your photography business your own.

• During shoots, be talkative and getting to know them. I am a photographer and I still don’t love being in FRONT of the camera because “i don’t know what to do with my hands”. Making your people feel comfortable will inevitably make them love their images more, because they loved the experience.

• Positive redirection! Saying “don’t do that” or “no not like that” during a session completely kills a clients confidence. Always be complimenting and positively affirming what the client is doing during a session. Its MY job to make the image how it needs to be, so if they’re not how you want- fix it nicely! Example: “Great job! Let me see what it looks like with your hand around her waist instead of by your side”. People WANT to be directed! Be as tweak-y as you want, but make them feel good as you direct.

• Be the most caring, the most organized, best vendor at the wedding.

• My husband and I talk business a lot since he is a salesman and I believe he’s figured out the whole client experience thing in the corporate world. I remember him telling me “Nothing makes me more mad than walking into a competitors office, seeing their company slogan on the wall, but watching their employees be rude to me, lazy to their paying customers, or not try their hardest to give people a good experience.” It’s all about the extra mile in really any industry, but ESPECIALLY a professional photographer.

Set Yourself Apart

• Plan a Styled Shoot! This is a great way to connect with local vendors and get a ton of website and social media content. Make sure to communicate clearly what you want to the vendors that join in so that your styled shoot is exactly the type of work you want to book in the future. Because you book what you post.

• We will talk more about this in Part Three, but utilizing things like Canva.com to make graphics for social media and guides for clients is both helpful and professional. I currently have a Pinterest board for engagement session outfit inspiration that I’ll send to couples, a pricing guide, a “What to expect with MCEP” guide that walks clients through our entire wedding planning process with me, and lots more. Try to implement one thing per quarter into your business!

• Another teaser to Part Three is eventually hiring a graphic designer. They can not only make a gorgeous website, but typically you can request them to make other things that are cohesive with you brand (business cards, the guides I mentioned above, SEO help, logo design, email signatures, you name it). Getting my website designed by Alisabeth Designs 100% set me apart from the competitors in my area.

• Find your Why! Sounds dumb, but it’s helpful. Why do you want to be a photographer? What do you want to give to your clients when they work with you? What is your favorite part about this job? Write it down! Not only does this help you figure out your ideal client, but it helps you stay in your lane. Who cares if the ‘market is saturated with photographers’, or so-and-so is better at XYZ. When you are working out of your ‘Why’, you literally do not have time or care to look at what others are doing. It truly doesn’t matter if someone is doing things differently. We could all get a little better at genuinely celebrating other’s success!

• What is an ideal client and how do I utilize them? An ideal client is someone you MAKE UP in your head that is specific to the kind of market you want to get into. It really is crazy how this will change your motivation, your communication in how you write your copy, and how you move forward. For instance, my ideal wedding client (took me YEARS to figure it out) is a couple who adores their family traditions, deeply kindhearted, appreciates small details, has signature cocktails, and uses their wedding to love + serve their guests as their first event they’ve hosted together as a couple. You can go in as much detail as you’d like. Post like you’re speaking right to them, because you are!

What I wish I did & didn’t do

Short and sweet, I wish I didn’t get so worked up on getting everything perfect early on, and I wish I hadn’t compared myself to LITERALLY everyone. This made the job so much harder because creativity is stunted when we feel insecure!

I wish I wouldn’t have waited so long to invest in a nice camera after I knew I wanted to be a photographer!

I wish I had gone to a workshop in year 2 or 3. Sometimes you just need a creativity boost!

What I’m glad I did

I’m thankful I got my website professionally done early-ish on. This is a game changer and I can’t recommend this enough!

I’m glad I did a ton of 2nd shooting my first few years, and still do! I love learning from other people.

Worked hard on my Instagram and Facebook to be pretty, cohesive and engaging!!

I have a good accountant!

My at-home work schedule is mostly figured out so I work efficiently at home, which is 90% of the week 😉

I’m thankful I have supportive friends and an AMAZING husband!