I've hit a plateau... Help me.

[DGMPhotography]

Hello everyone,

I believe I've hit a plateau with my photography and my business. I grew rapidly in my first couple of years of shooting, but now I feel like I'm getting lazy and not improving anymore.

And as for business, I am frustrated that my peers whose photography skills are no better than mine, are getting constant business and doing destination weddings and what not while I take on a part time job to help make ends meet.

I want to humble myself, and realize I have a lot I can improve, and am open to any of your thoughts and suggestions.

If you'd like to review my work for a reference point, my weddings are at www.daryllmorgan.com and my creative work is at www.daryllmorganstudios.com.

Thanks.

 

[jcdeboever]

Owning your own business takes great discipline, planning, forecasting, and drive. Knowing your competitors strengths and weaknesses is a key component in developing a strong business plan. You must have a strong plan in place to succeed BUT if you don't have the drive, the business will fail.

You realize that you're being lazy, hopefully, only as of late. It is an opportunity. Most people can't come to grips with this possible, temporary emotion. Look up the antonyms for lazy, and focus on three of them. If your a man of faith, ask God to remove this temporary device and replace it with the three antonyms.

When I managed sales people, the number one issue was focus, failing to work their business plan. The result of not working towards goals is laziness. Some of the key components to a strong business plan are knowing your market, marketing strategies, knowing your competitors, budget, sales forecast goals, and personal improvement.

Lastly, this may be a temporary bump in the road. You should view this as an opportunity. Opportunity to re-evaluate your business plan. Are there other businesses opportunities you can add to your plan? Such as Corporate, real estate, or product photography?

 

[tirediron]

More business means more marketing. How are you trying to get the word out? In this day and age, a website, while still, IMO, essential, doesn't really do a lot to get the word out about your business.

 

[Vtec44]

Hello everyone,

I believe I've hit a plateau with my photography and my business. I grew rapidly in my first couple of years of shooting, but now I feel like I'm getting lazy and not improving anymore.

And as for business, I am frustrated that my peers whose photography skills are no better than mine, are getting constant business and doing destination weddings and what not while I take on a part time job to help make ends meet.

I want to humble myself, and realize I have a lot I can improve, and am open to any of your thoughts and suggestions.

If you'd like to review my work for a reference point, my weddings are at www.daryllmorgan.com and my creative work is at www.daryllmorganstudios.com.

Thanks.

I'm no expert and this is only my personal opinion, the opinion of one photographer...

You have to remind yourself that it is a business that you're running, and photography is second to running a business.

1. If the person is not as good as you but her/his business is blooming, s/he's obviously doing something right. Look at what the person is doing and learn. It's hard to think about it that way and I struggle with this too, but it has helped me to change my approach and improve my own business.

2. You're selling intangibles and the reason for people to pay your asking price is your perceived value. Perceived value is everything from your website, your photos, you, your social network presence, etc.

3. Your referral sources are important. Identify where they're coming from and invest in those sources. Invest doesn't always mean that you're spending money on it. It could be people are finding you from Pinterest, so spend more time on sharing your work on Pinterest.

4. Show only what you want to shoot, show only the best, and show that you have a particular style. This is part of a bigger discussion between a generalist vs a specialist, and there are pros and cons for each. Pick one and go with it.

Keep at it. Running a business isn't easy and there are a lot of sacrifices that you will have to make to keep it running.

 

[DGMPhotography]

Thanks for the advice and suggestions, all.

My peers who are doing better than me don't seem to be marketing more than me, it's just that they seem to be more popular. The photographer is a woman, and she works with her husband.

I'm really feeling my disadvantage as a male wedding photographer, when I compare myself to her. People just seem to prefer female photographers for their weddings, and husband/wife photographers seem to be really popular too. In fact, now that I think about it, I don't know of any super successful wedding photographers in my area that are male.

 

[Vtec44]

Thanks for the advice and suggestions, all.

My peers who are doing better than me don't seem to be marketing more than me, it's just that they seem to be more popular. The photographer is a woman, and she works with her husband.

I'm really feeling my disadvantage as a male wedding photographer, when I compare myself to her. People just seem to prefer female photographers for their weddings, and husband/wife photographers seem to be really popular too. In fact, now that I think about it, I don't know of any super successful wedding photographers in my area that are male.

IMHO, while it's true that the wedding photography industry is dominated by females, it's also important to know that marketing your work to the right people is more important than being a certain gender.

1. Why do you think they prefer her because of her gender instead of her work? Is there a possibility, regardless of her gender, the clients can relate to her more for a variety of reasons?

2. It looks like her online presence is solid and this is why she appears to be popular. This may be part of the answers to #1.

3. There are a lot going on in the background for #2 to happen. People just don't see it.

I'm going to use myself as an example since I don't know other businesses well enough to have an opinion. I'm a male wedding photographer. I have a solid online presence. I specialize in a certain type of weddings and you can clearly see that in my portfolio (I made sure of this). Because I specialize in a certain type of weddings, I stand out a bit compare to others (this part is important). If you follow my Instagram, you will know that I'm a very busy person and I'm always sharing different shooting locations (potential clients see this as a plus). I use Intagram to share my work and use it as part of my perceived value and social proofing (part of a bigger branding strategy). My brand is embedded in various social networks, search engines, FB groups, industry mixers, different venues, etc. To an outsider, I'm not doing much at all. There is a lot going on behind the scene than most people think.

 

[dennybeall]

Raise your prices.
Seriously, raise your prices. You are the very best and the very best costs more.
Marketing is the key as mentioned before but perception is paramount.

 

[Jeff15]

The best way of making money in photography is to sell your gear.........