Starting a photography business requires more than just a camera and creativity.

Without a sound understanding of how to manage a business, marketing and sales, it will be difficult to become a successful and profitable professional photographer.

Shooting an occasional job for family and friends only partially prepares you for what it’s like to be a professional photographer. Finding clients on you own is what you’ll need to do, because you’ll run out of shooting assignments for friends and family.

So how does one start a photography business, when competitors are everywhere?

There’s an easy way and a hard way.

Simply showing your portfolio to prospects and expecting to be hired doesn’t work in today’s competitive world. That’s the hard way.

Don’t forget your prospects and clients can choose from any number of photographers. They can do it themselves (simpler than ever with today’s digital technology) or they can hire any one from dozens of equally competent photographers.

Expecting prospects to hire without preparing yourself or knowing how to market and sell will only lead to frustration and self-doubt after multiple rejections.

The “school of hard knocks” await those who go out on their own without preparation, planning and some guidance from someone who’s on the inside.

The easy way is to understand that once you decide to become a professional photographer, you’re actually in business, and no longer just a photographer.

To survive and prosper, your new photography business requires clients, and those can only be gained by marketing and selling your photographic services. The better you are at these two skills the easier it will be to attract the type of clients who have the “juicy” assignments that pay well and are fun to shoot.

Finding a mentor who can provide you with the resources, advice and “insider secrets” you’ll need will shortcut your learning curve immensely.

Avoiding the “school of hard knocks” should be your first priority. There’s no sense in you “reinventing the start up of a photography business” when almost everything you need can be accessed quickly online.

When you decide to start a photography business, imagine where you’ll be a year from now. Will you have done it the hard way or the easy way?

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  3. Starting A Digital Photography Business

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