Making It: The To-Do List

The internet is a world of information, and accessing the right information you seek is an overwhelming task.  There are numerous articles and blog posts that ask, “So, You Want To Become A Photographer?”  And most either frighten you away of give you very generic information, which doesn’t steer you in any particular direction except in circles.  Instead of using scare tactics, I’ve compiled a list of items aspiring photographers should be on the lookout for.

Despite claiming I don’t want to scare you away, there are some common misconceptions future photography businessmen should be conscious of.  First and foremost, many do not realize a very important point: photography is a business – it’s not simply taking pretty pictures.  You must be very business-oriented and realize the picture taking is the fun, albeit the brief, part of the job.  Also, many are not aware of the financial stability they must be in to take on the costs of starting the business, since you won’t be profitable right out of the gate and obtaining the proper equipment gets pretty expensive.  Another false impression is not having a formal business plan or not researching into the business.  They merely see what the big money makers, like wedding photography, and just go for it, not realizing the challenges they will ultimately face.  Because of all these misconceptions, the statistic that 85% of photography businesses fail within the first three years of starting, and 40% fail in the first year, holds true.  In order to make sure your dream of creating a photography business is set up for success, you need to establish a business plan, identify your brand, and make sure your business is a legal business.

The Plan

Before you do anything, you must plan.  Without a formal business plan, you won’t have anything to guide you in your endeavors.  First, you must identify your target market.  Who or what will you be shooting, and what kind of photography are they seeking?  Also, what kind of tools and equipment are necessary to provide the service to your market?  Identifying these things are essential to figuring out what type of business you’re going to run.  Next, you must identify your costs of doing business.  There are numerous things to consider: Equipment, supplies, and repair costs.  Rent and studio costs.  Business and health insurance.  Utilities.  Vehicle expenses, such as lease, insurance, maintenance.  Travel expenses.  Phone and internet fees.  Even your desired annual income to do the fun things (and be reasonable in your assessment, guys!).  All of these things need to be accounted for when deciding your costs of doing business, since you and only you are providing the income to sustain all of these things.  This can easily be done by using the CoDB Calculator. Finally, it’s time to put all of this together in generating a business plan.  After calculating your costs and figuring out your target market, you need to put it all on paper.  Writing a company description and mission statement will help visualize the goals of your business and where you want to go with it.  Also, write where you want to see your business in 3, 5, and 10 years, which will give you the foresight to see how your business should develop.  For assistance on writing a formal business plan, check out Start a Photography Business.

The Brand & The Network

After you’ve established a business plan, you must create your brand.  Your brand is the perceived corporate image your consumer has of your business – it’s more than creating a flashy logo.  Write a short description of what your business is about and how you want your clients to think of you.  Spelling it out helps visualize what you need to do to appeal to your target market.  For example, if it’s infant photography, brand yourself to appeal to parents.  Then, you can create a logo that ties in your brand, business plan, and target market.

The next step is the getting the word out.  You are your own marketing department, so make it work!  Having a website is a MUST for any photographer!  It’s the easiest way for potential clients to access your portfolio from anywhere and see what you’ve got.  You must make sure all your contact info is visible, and links to other social media accounts is helpful, too – how else will they get in touch to hire you?  Sites like Photobiz, Photo Shelter, FolioLink, and Graph Paper Press do amazing work, offering templates that make it easy to create your website quickly and for a reasonable price and make your work stand out above the rest.  If money is tight, starting out with Flickr, Tumblr, or WordPress are great alternatives.  Another major step in marketing is using all available social media networking tools that are at your disposal, especially since they’re all free, for the most part.  You must be accessible to your potential clients, so creating pages on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Buzz, RSS feeds, and blogs help get the information about your business out there and easy for all to see.  Also posting ads on free sites like craigslist will help, though they tend to get over-saturated with budding photographer and clients who don’t pay well.  Think outside of the box; if you’re trying to get into concert photography, try creating flyers and leaving them at concert venues.  Providing head shots?  Try leaving flyers at theaters or acting troupes.  There are countless possibilities!

The Entity

The last step to kick-start your business, and the most overlooked, is making your business legal.  Most don’t realize that a lot of your photos can be infringed, and though you technically own all intellectual property, it’s much more difficult to protect your work without taking the legal means necessary.  One step is to choose the correct legal entity.  Many make the mistake of choosing sole proprietorship, which isn’t completely bad because there is no legal distinction between the owner an the business.  However, it means unlimited personal liability for actions of the business, including staff & interns, many of which will be out of your control and leaves you unprotected.  A better idea is to go the LLC route.  With it, you have a distinction between actions of the business and personal actions of the employees.  Also, there are smaller legal fees and the paperwork is a lot more straight-forward, especially when dealing with the IRS, leaving you a lot less confused than you would be otherwise.  The corporation entity is OK, since it allows net losses to carry over to the following year and  has a longer track record of liability protection, but there are additional legal complexities can cause more harm than good.

One more thing to consider is purchasing liability insurance.  It’s easy to find policies with low premiums and covers you, your employees, and volunteers adequately.  The most important thing to note: DON’T TIE IN PLANS WITH HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE! It could result in multiple failures, should your business go under, and leave you in financial ruin.  You should also consider insuring your equipment, since your camera is your money maker.  Should anything happen to it, your means of making money no longer exist!  The best policy would be a commercial policy, since it covers things like theft and accidental damage.  It is slightly more expensive than personal equipment policies, but covers more in the policy leaving you adequately protected.

I understand this is a very general guide, but hopefully this shows the budding photographer all of the things one needs to consider when creating your own business.  Undoubtedly in future posts, I will get more descriptive about some of these subjects, which will provide a better scope of the steps that need to be taken.  In the meantime, additional resources to consider are Best Business Practices For Photographers by John Harrington, 2010 Photographer’s Market, and Photographer’s Market Guide to Building Your Photography Business by Vik Orenstein.