Setting up your own photography business is easy, you don’t need office space, you can do it from your own home. However, this is not the easiest type of business to market, especially if you are new to the business. Very often, to market this type of business, you need specialized contacts, and your novelty in business prevents you from having these contacts, unless, of course, your last name is Eastman.
Don’t underestimate the power of marketing, because it is the tool that can make or break your business. Marketing is the business aspect of transferring assets from one owner to another. Without this tool, you are lost, but don’t despair, there are effective avenues you can explore to market your business successfully.
First of all, you need to decide what type of business you are going to establish, there are only two basic types: assignment photography and stock photography.
The assignment photography covers the jobs that you have been hired to photograph. In other words, you have a specific lens to shoot. An example of this type of photography is covering Mr. X’s wedding. This type of photography is the bread and butter of photographers, yet it is unlikely to win the Pulitzer Prize for photography.
Photographs will have limited appeal, in the case of Mr. X’s wedding; No matter how technically perfect those photos are, they will have limited appeal. They are simply not marketable outside of Mr. X’s family field.
Stock photography is exactly what the name suggests, you have a stock of photographs and you have to market them. He has taken the photographs without having a buyer. This type of photography is much more speculative and may waste a lot of resources. You may need to spend a large amount of time or film, depending on whether you are using an SLR camera or a digital camera. Non-professionals think that these photographs happen when you are in the right place at the right time. However, in reality, being in the right place has an element of advantage, that you can forget the child on fire from Napalm who runs out of a village in the Vietnam War; they are often a single photograph taken out of a series of hundreds. While these photos are often more exciting to take, they can also be boring and you may never get that “says it all” photo.
There are effective ways to market these stock photos, which is wonderful for the beginner because you don’t bear the cost of marketing. There are several libraries of stock images online. You submit your photos to these libraries and then they sell the rights for others to reproduce. The price structure of this type of photography depends on its content and also where it is sold. It can appear on the cover of an encyclopedia with a circulation of half a million and it can appear on someone’s private website. There will be a different rate for the type of photography and its market. When your photo is sold, the library will deduct a percentage of your commission for marketing and, of course, profit.
Most photographers, when they start out, will combine these types of businesses to varying degrees. There are several ways to improve your marketing profile without spending money. Joining a local photography society is one way, another is to go to your local town hall and see if your local chamber of commerce has a pool of professional photographers. Another more involved way to market your business and raise it to a higher profile with the local community is to offer to teach photography for free. Yes, I know you most likely work from home, but why not volunteer to do it at a local school?
The debate remains intense about SLR cameras versus digital cameras, and it looks like it will continue to be for some time to come.
It’s still fair to say that most photographers want great images, in a compact and affordable package. Improved digital camera design techniques now offer a viable alternative to 35mm film, but one of the drawbacks of marketing 35mm film was the time it took to produce digital photos at home. Home development often does not give a professional finish. Now there are online photo developing agencies that will give you great images. You upload the photos to your chosen site and they will print and forward them to you. This way, you can ensure sharp prints according to your instructions. Kodak Gallery lets you share your prints online later by allowing storage space, which means you don’t even have to scan your images. Be sure to check out our other articles for great tips and advice for every step of your business development. Make your business work for you!
While marketing is a very important aspect of the business, it doesn’t make up for a lack of quality. Sharp and clear prints sell and others do not. Make sure to invest in good quality basics, like a tripod. It is not necessary to invest in products that you will use once a year, if you need them then hire them, especially when you are starting out. Even if you use digital, it is still a fact that the lens is more important than the camera. Make sure the equipment you buy works for you. The extra time spent asking questions before you buy will pay dividends later, in terms of money saved. Everyone wastes money at one point or another, but foresight and research can reduce that substantially.
