This week’s post is a guest post is written by Eli Powell.
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There, I said it.
I could have made more at McDonald’s or begging for change on the street. Needless to say, this is a problem.
This article contains 3 ways to increase your photography income. Using these steps, I’ve more than quadrupled my hourly earnings.
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Or did you hack together a contract from other photography contracts you’ve seen and just hoped that it would hold up in court?
Honestly, that’s what I did when I was first starting out, and I don’t recommend it. In fact, that’s what most photographers I know have done. I’d be willing to bet that you’ve done something similar. If not, good for you for doing things the right way and being smart about the legal side of your business. I wish I had done so earlier in our photography business.
I understand why you may not have, though. When you start your business, money is tight, lawyers are expensive, and you just don’t expect to have any problems. It’s not a valid excuse, but it’s one that many of us choose to believe because we simply don’t know where to start with getting a contract otherwise.
So I became ridiculously excited when my friend Rachel, who is both a photographer and a lawyer (WOOT!), decided to start offering her contracts to other photographers. [Click to read more]
Photography is very seasonal. There are busy seasons and slow seasons.
For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s busy season again. It’s that time of year where we work more hours than most people could believe and spend far too many hours behind the computer when everyone else is enjoying the nice weather outside.
While having lots of business is a good thing, over the past few years I’ve found a few places that have made a HUGE difference in becoming more efficient and doing things faster. This means more time for me to do the things I really love, like spend with my family, and it means way less stress overall.
So here are my top 3 time-saving tips to help you reclaim your life during busy season. [Click to read more]
Why isn’t your business where you want it to be yet?
While there may be some very good reasons, I bet there are several excuses that you tell yourself that are holding you back from reaching your true potential.
To get the business you really want, you can’t allow them to get in your way.
Sometimes we don’t even realize how many excuses we’re actually believing. So today I’m going to list them out, and over the next several months I’m going to take them down, one by one, and give you the tools you need to overcome each and every excuse in the list.
Excuses are for your competitors, not you. YOU are aiming for success!
Don’t let some lie keep you from getting there. [Click to read more]
This post is part of a video series on Photography Business Excuses That Hold Us Back. To see what other excuses I’ll be helping you overcome, head on over to the main excuses page or subscribe to my YouTube channel to get all the videos as soon as they are ready to go (even if they haven’t been posted here yet!). Enjoy!
Today I’m going to tackle the excuse “My Photography Isn’t Good Enough”.
In this video, you’re going to learn when your work is good enough to charge for it as well as several places that you can go to improve your photography. [Click to read more]
This week’s post is a guest post from Matt & Katie, Queensland, Australia wedding photographers. I asked them to share this story with you after hearing it as I thought it was an amazing post that you might enjoy and learn from!
Over the last few months Katie and I have been putting in a new kitchen and new bathroom into our house. All up it’s costing us about $50K for materials, appliances and labor.
It’s been an exciting and frustrating experience. And a huge learning experience for us, not just as first time renovators but also as owners of a customer service based business.
The whole experience reinforced some valuable business and customer service lessons.
[Click to read more]
Think back to when you first started your business. Why did you do it?
Personally, I started my photography business because I loved making people happy with photography. I loved how they got all emotional when they saw the photos I was taking of their children and thanked me profusely for capturing that time in their lives.
It feels SO GOOD when people are praising you, and when you know you did something they could not have done themselves, especially when that something is as meaningful as preserving memories of their most cherished people and moments for a lifetime.
Then to make money on top of that? Sounds like a dream business. [Click to read more]
Photography is one of the worst types of businesses start if you’re simply looking to make some extra money.
It’s based on your time, which is limited, so your potential income is limited. Even if you start a studio and hire additional photographers, you’re not truly scaling your business very far.
There’s a low barrier to entry as the cost of equipment comes down and there’s no special schools or trainings required, causing market saturation (and high competition for clients) in almost all areas.
You also build very little equity, so if you decide to retire and sell the business, you won’t make much compared to other businesses and you may not even be able to sell the business at all.
On top of all that, it’s a creative service so its value is hard to quantify.
I’m not trying to depress you with these facts, and I’m certainly not saying you can’t have a profitable business.
If you want to have a successful photography business and really make money with photography, there’s one very important thing that you need to know and live by. [Click to read more]
Are you as exhausted as I am?
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On top of that, we’ve had a lot of personal things on the calendar lately, our dryer decided to stop working correctly, and it feels like there’s just too many things to do that all need to be done now. Plus I’d like to spend more time with my family.
With everything I’m juggling right now, I’m feeling serious burn out.
It seems like every year when I get to this point, I tend to shut down or lose effectiveness for awhile. I think I just get stressed about everything I have to do, and overwhelm myself a bit trying to keep on task and really get things done.
I jump from one thing to the next, not always finishing the first one, and I stress that I’m choosing wrong and should be doing something else more important instead.
But this week I had a breakthrough.
This week has been one of the most productive weeks I’ve had in awhile, so I thought I’d share what made all the difference. [Click to read more]
It is so easy to spend every extra moment you have working on growing your business.
If you’re not careful, it will end up taking over your entire life, sucking away the moments that are truly worth living.
We’ve all been there – the late night editing session, the tax-season craziness, working over lunch breaks.
But if we’re not careful, we’ll end up making this business more important than the things that really matter in our lives. [Click to read more]
I’m going to tell you a valuable business secret.
It’s one of the best ways to get new clients and referrals from current clients, and it’s super easy.
People will love you even before they see your photos, and clients won’t be able to stop raving about you.
It’s also one of the best ways to set you apart from your competition. I promise.
