Wedding Photography Business Tips
10 Photography Business Tips
This April I celebrated 15 years of running my own business!
It’s amazing to think that over a decade has passed since I left my award-winning career as a newspaper photographer to become a full time wedding & portrait photographer. I founded Heather Hughes Photography because I wanted to focus on capturing the precious moments and memories for couples and families to have for generations. (and to be my own boss, work from home, start a family, have a flexible schedule, lots of personal reasons too 😉
And if 15 years in business has taught me anything, it’s that you really don’t know where life will take you and you will work TEN times as hard as you did for anyone else. I made my share of mistakes along the way so for all the startup photographers who are just now beginning to think about a starting their own photography business (or facing year 2, 3, or 4 in the trenches), here are some of the lessons I learned – and some of the things you can expect – in your first 10 years as a photography business.
1. You won’t find customers overnight.
When I photographed my first wedding I did it from the comfort of a full time job as a photographer for a newspaper. It was extra income with little to no commitment. A time to try things out and see if I liked it, and a time to make mistakes.
It wasn’t until 4 years later that I had consistently had 25-30 weddings on my calendar and I started to have the confidence that I would continue to have enough clients and income to support my own business. (Making this officially 19 years in business, but who’s counting 😉
Like any business, it takes time to build up your customer base. People won’t flock to you just because you’re there. And even once they do, you continually have to find ways to maintain and gather new clients year after year.
2. You must be unique.
Establishing a solid customer base is additionally complicated by the fact that your timing might be off. How many startup photography businesses exist today? How are you different?
Fifteen years ago, there was no Facebook and not every business had a website. Many professional photographers were still using film cameras and digital was new & different. If you had a great website you got lots of leads, no need for social media or blog posts (or expensive advertising budgets).
These days, EVERYONE is a photographer and trying to shoot weddings. And couples have gotten a lot smarter (and pickier) on how to chose a photographer that fits their vision, style, and even personality.
Bottom line: Find your niche. Eventually, your ideal clients will find you and pave a way for your success.
3. There will be “lows.”
When you first launch your business, there’s a natural sense of optimism and excitement. But, let’s be real, that feeling won’t last.
I remember looking over my calendar after a string of 4 bridal shows where I had booked 0 weddings. I had to take money out of my 401K just to cover my monthly bills. That was a real low point for me and I started to question whether I had made the right choice leaving my full time job 5 years before. But I didn’t give up, tried some new things, and ended up having one of my most successful years ever the very next year.
You too will need to face these “lows.” You’ll have to re-examine what you’re doing and decide what is the best path forward. These are the moments that end more than 50% of small businesses, while the rest learn to flourish. Only you will know whether your idea is worth the struggle.
Just remember: All great visions have setbacks.
4. You’ll need to pivot – more than once.
I turned things around in 2015 when I started a newsletter, fostered my vendor relationships, and got smarter about marketing. Five years later, I found out my back had been broken since at least 2006 and I was sidelined with 6 major back surgeries over the next 2 years, almost losing my entire business. Each photography business will have its own unique challenges and instead of giving up, look at them as a chance to improve and consistently revisit and redefine your strengths.
When you find yourself challenged, don’t be afraid to switch gears, and don’t be too married to a plan that you make impractical decisions. It’s ok to deviate a little from the grand scheme of things. Or even to put things on hold until you figure out what direction you want to take.
5. Don’t compete on price.
The wedding photography business can be pretty competitive and many photographers don’t want to share their secrets for fear of losing business to someone a little cheaper. But dropping prices or adding discounts is a ugly race to the bottom that will end up destroying your business, along with your sanity.
Instead, remember what made you unique in the first place and sell that to couples for the price you know you are worth. There isn’t another photographer just like you, anywhere, and your couples will want you even if it means spending a couple hundred dollars more to get you.
6. Invest in yourself as much as your gear.
I’ve yet to meet a photographer that doesn’t like to buy new equipment. Whether it’s the newest mirrorless camera, portable light box, or a new laptop, one of the best parts about our jobs is definitely all the cool toys we need. But you will go broke if you buy every new piece of gear and don’t grow your skills as a photographer.
Part of growing as a business is learning new skills, whether it’s a lighting technique or how to do Facebook ads correctly so you aren’t wasting your money. Look into national or local photographer groups such as the PPA, websites like CreativeLive where you can watch videos specifically for photographers, or joining groups like Level Up for more intense business guidance.
7. Outsourcing is critical to growth.
As you grow your business, you’ll realize that you need other people to help you. Not necessarily employees, but other services that can save you time and therefore money will help you take your business to the next level.
When I look at replacing a task, I look at how many hours I will save by outsourcing it. I only have so many hours in the day and when you are figuring out how to price a job you should be looking at the TOTAL hours it takes to complete it, not just to shoot it. And since most wedding photographers are trying to run their business mostly solo, anything that helps create more time for other jobs is well worth it.
For me, it takes about 40 hours to complete a wedding from the initial inquiry to delivering the album – so after covering my album costs, marketing, paying my assistant & 2nd shooter, etc. I make about $50/ hour. It used to take closer to 50 hours (and I charged less), but now I pay Evolve to help me with my initial edit & color correction. Their service costs about $150 per job, but it saves me at least 8 hours of work so I don’t fall behind and have more time with my family (or for a nap ;).
8. Learn from your couples.
Do you struggle to know who your ideal client is? I know I did.
Most photographers know what they like to photograph, and after a few years in business you start to get a sense of the types of couples you like to work with. The best thing to do is ask them for reviews, you can do it formally through TheKnot or Google, but you can also ask them informally when following up to complete their wedding album.
The key is to listen closely to the words they use to describe how much they liked working with you. Over time, you will start to hear the same words or a common theme and you can use that to help define yourself and what makes you different from other photographers.
My couples were using words in their testimonials like authentic, happy, joyful, real, and candid long before they were commonly used and I have been successfully using those terms to set my style apart for over a decade.
9. Your wedding photography business will evolve.
As I mentioned before, you won’t stick to the grand plan you had when you first started your business. I started out wanting to be a solo wedding photojournalist, shooting 25-30 weddings every year until I retired. But over time, I missed having weekends with my family so I raised my prices and do about 10 weddings a year now, mixing in some portraits and editorial jobs. And those other jobs have actually opened up doors for opportunities that I never would have had if I had remained strictly a wedding photographer.
So I am still running a successful photography business, but it has changed. And change is perfectly fine (and necessary) in order to help you survive as you and your business grows. In fact, a good friend of mine pivoted from his wedding photography business to writing books and teaching about how to gain Total Life Freedom and is now showing others how to make passive income with a service business like ours – talk about a huge evolution.
10. Wedding photography will change people’s lives.
My love for photography started when I was just 7, and in high school I recognized the power it had to capture moments in time so that they can’t be forgotten. That’s why I went to college for photojournalism, worked at newspapers for over 8 years, and then pivoted to weddings. Over time, I have heard countless stories from my couples and families about how treasured those photos are to them. Sometimes they are the last photos taken of loved ones, sometimes the first, and every time they bring back precious memories that allow my couples to share their stories.
It may be hard to see it now, but your business will also impact lives beyond what you can imagine. Being a wedding photographer is a big responsibility – and knowing that you contributed to a precious family heirloom in someone else’s life is the best feeling you’ll experience in the first few years of your business.
I hope these photography business tips help you have more confidence as you grow.
Contact me HERE if you would be interested in a one-on-one mentorship or joining my Photography Business community where I help photographers grow their new businesses into successful full time jobs.
Credit shared with: Entrepreneur Magazine Online
