Trying To Get More Business

[danicali]

Hello!

I started my photography business 2 years ago on Facebook. In the beginning, I only used Facebook as a way to share my work and if I got business I would be extremely happy but I was not expecting it. Two years later, I'm itching for business. Most of my "portfolio" is from shooting my friends as models. The page has about 90 likes and everyone I shoot thank me up and down and constantly say how good they think I am. Am I missing something? How did you grow your business?


Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

 

[JoeW27 1]

Hello!

I started my photography business 2 years ago on Facebook. In the beginning, I only used Facebook as a way to share my work and if I got business I would be extremely happy but I was not expecting it. Two years later, I'm itching for business. Most of my "portfolio" is from shooting my friends as models. The page has about 90 likes and everyone I shoot thank me up and down and constantly say how good they think I am. Am I missing something? How did you grow your business?


Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Actually, I"m not sure you have business. I don't mean to insult, but it sounds like you shoot with friends a lot. Maybe that brings in some money, maybe it doesn't. But any business that serves only friends and family is not likely to be very sustaining.

1. Find a niche. Show me a photography who shoots everything and I'll show you a photographer who probably struggles for business. I believe that the vast majority of successful photographers (and I mean "successful" in this context as a profitable sustaining business that makes enough money to support a family well) are ones that have a specific, focused, and narrow niche. For instance, not just a wedding photographer but a wedding photographer noted for telling a story (and thus avoids a lot of the traditional wedding shots). Or a photographer who doesn't just shoot pets but specializes in dog agility.. Or a photographer who doesn't just shoot architecture but one who specializes in commercial interiors. When you focus and have a niche, then you can target that niche. For instance, a wedding photographer would have contacted and met with every wedding planner in a 25 mile radius....contacted every primary wedding location in that same area, done trade work for wedding gown and tux shops, has an associate membership with the local chapter of professional wedding planners where they've done workshops on how to pick the right photographer for a wedding.

2. Have a business plan.

3. If you intend to get most of your business via word-of-mouth and referrals then the people you need to be working with are those with influence and visibility. If I shoot with my in-laws, the only people they're going to talk to are other family members and that's not going to generate me any business. Instead, if I want a referral to have legs, I shoot with the head of the local chamber of commerce (if I do corporate head shots) and use that to get other business doing corporate head shots for other businesses.

4. Recognize that being a good photographer has very little to do with having a successful photography business. Your photography will be one of the least important elements of business success.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Have you thought of advertising locally, outside Facebook?
What does your competition do?

 

[danicali]

I don't think I want to become "big" enough as to live off of it per say. My goal in all of this is to have enough clientele that I may have 2-3 paid shoots a month. I have done many different things so I do see your point of finding a niche. Thanks!

 

[danicali]

Have you thought of advertising locally, outside Facebook?
What does your competition do?

I have tried advertising outside of Facebook (on Craigslist, to be exact) but I didn't really know what I was doing. I'm no marketing guru so I'm not sure of where to begin advertising for photography services. Also, because I am such a small business.

My main competition is also a friend. Her business has become fairly big with only word of mouth and a few paid advertisements through Facebook.

 

[TheNevadanStig]

Start by getting an actual website, and listing yourself with places like yellow pages and yelp. And as others have stated, find your specialty. When you do, make contacts with everyone possible that has any relation with that niche.

 

[AmberAtLoveAndInk]

Have you thought of advertising locally, outside Facebook?
What does your competition do?

I have tried advertising outside of Facebook (on Craigslist, to be exact) but I didn't really know what I was doing. I'm no marketing guru so I'm not sure of where to begin advertising for photography services. Also, because I am such a small business.

My main competition is also a friend. Her business has become fairly big with only word of mouth and a few paid advertisements through Facebook.

Though I'm the kind of person who would rather struggle alone, have you thought about second shooting for your friend? Not sure what her skill level is compared to yours but if she has a solid business lead and is indeed a "friend" I'm sure she would be happy to help you grow technologically and business wise. Or if you think that's stepping too far on someone's toes, you need to get a website like mentioned above, register it to every search engine, come up with some ways to market, maybe pick up a few charity jobs (I have done 2 charity beauty pageants and have gotten many portrait sessions booked from families attending the event and viewing my work) also talk to other local businesses, I'm in that process right now since I've been "switched" over to wedding photography, I want to get back to portraits and lower pressure event work. So I'm working with a few boutiques, ill take product shots for them every so often and in return they'll keep my advertisement poster in the shop and let customers know about me.

 

[imagemaker46]

As was mentioned "I don't think you have a photo business" yet. Family and friends always love the work, it presents a false illusion. Try adding your name to local photographer sites online, the more places your name appears, the more chances you'll get a call. Unfortunately there are hundreds of local people doing the same thing as you, and a lot more established photographers. It will be frustrating.

 

[sscarmack]

Get off the internet for starters! Get out and shoot. You want people to see you shooting and start to recognize you.

Even if you aren't interested, go to sporting events, lay down some business cards. TALK to people, introduce yourself.

Get a website, post your photos from the days of shooting.

Get involved in the community and start keeping a calendar of all the events going on. Is there a 5k race? Is there a football game? Is there a track meet? Etc, etc, etc.

 

[Designer]

The page has about 90 likes and everyone I shoot thank me up and down and constantly say how good they think I am. Am I missing something?

In two year's time you should have a lot more "likes" if you're any good. Your friends are not the best judges of artistic accomplishment. Consider that at least some of them are being polite when commenting on your photography.

1. get some third-party evaluations of your photography
2. advertise - you can always turn down work it it becomes too time-consuming
3. continually upgrade your portfolio - cull the non-good ones, pare it down to manageable size with only exceptional photographs
4. study business and marketing, and get some expert help with financial planning, legal requirements, insurance, etc.

 

[KmH]

I don't think I want to become "big" enough as to live off of it per say. My goal in all of this is to have enough clientele that I may have 2-3 paid shoots a month.

If you advertise and more than 2 or 3 people want to book shoots, you'll be turning customers away and will soon get the reputation of being unavailable, which short circuits your advertising.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

In two year's time you should have a lot more "likes" if you're any good.

Yeah, and keep in mind, Facebook "Likes" do not equal business.
I have had ZERO business from my Facebook page. ZERO.
I never set up the page to get business though, so it has met my expectations.

 

[CAP]

Well i have 7k Plus likes on my page but i just use it as a business card and Facebook pages with high likes come up first search engines so its really a marketing thing it gets my name out there and lets me show off my work.

 

[Derrel]

I looked through your entire 2014 and 2013 work under Photos. There's too much of Crystal, and not enough basic bread-and-butter paid photography stuff. No family reunions, anniversary parties, graduations, christenings, maternity shoots, babies, not much family stuff. I think there's literally too much of Crystal, a single female alone in a park-like setting stuff. I honestly think that your photos need better processing. You shoot a lot in backlighting, and that needs a different processing approach. The 2013 shots versus the 2014 shots show a significant difference in photo quality, and I would get rid of most of the 2013 shots because they do not look as good as the 2014 stuff.

I wrote a longish reply to your other post, the one today about your BF Crystal, who is in many of the FB 2014 Photos section. I think that needs to be edited down. I do not want to offend...I saw the FB post that you ,"Just joined a photography forum. This could be interesting." Yes, it could be. I will tell you honestly, I think you need a whole new, more-modern, more-light, better approach to how your images are post-processed. And you need to buy yourself one or two much better lenses; those deep depth of field and somewhat distracting backgrounds could be eliminated with a fast-aperture lens. Right now, the work in the main looks very much straight out of camera, and the camera looks like a lower end Rebel or baby Nikon. The pictures are too many, and too similar. I think you need to get at the Lightroom Preset game and start reallllly working on increasing the visual impact of how you process your shots.

 

[imagemaker46]

Get off the internet for starters! Get out and shoot. You want people to see you shooting and start to recognize you.

Even if you aren't interested, go to sporting events, lay down some business cards. TALK to people, introduce yourself.

Get a website, post your photos from the days of shooting.

Get involved in the community and start keeping a calendar of all the events going on. Is there a 5k race? Is there a football game? Is there a track meet? Etc, etc, etc.

While I agree she should be out talking to people, why assume that she can shoot sports? It's one of the toughest fields to get good at, and generally requires a higher quality of lens to do the job right.