Youth PhotoExpo Zambia
So you are quite confident you take nice shots and your friend and family compliment you on it. Great job! But how to turn it into a real paying job? Or better said your own BUSINESS?? Here are a few steps to help you in the process, but remember: there is not 1 right answer to this, so use as much creativity in building your business as you do in taking your pictures!
Determine your product(s). Are you a generalist or specialist? What type of pictures do you like to take and what are you exceptionally good on? These can definitely be 2 different things, but ideally they are the same. Do you have an interest in weddings, projects, portraits, food, buildings, wildlife, news, sports or something else? Try to find out why that interests you; this can make your story towards your client stronger. You do not need to specialize, but often it pays off to specialize to become an expert in what you do (therefore being able to charge more as well) thereby also making it easier for a customer to choose YOU, because he trusts you know what you are doing.
Products:
If you know what type of photography you are into, you can determine your market: who are your potential clients? Individuals, companies, ngo's etc. And what are their wishes? You can imagine that taking shots of a big CEO is something completely different than taking pictures of a building. Try to talk to as many (potential) customers as you can so you know really well how you can serve them best!
Market:
Determine your competition: who are your competitors? Why would a client go to them? And how can you make them go to YOU? A couple of key things to think about are:
Price: how much do you charge your customer?
Quality: how good are your pictures? And can anybody take them or do you need special skills for that? But also the quality of the prints or maybe frames can be important
Speed: how fast can you deliver?
Creativity: do you make a standard portrait or do you make it special?
Location: do your customers know where to find you? Can they easily reach you? Etc
Recommendation: nothing works as well as having good recommendations! A very important factor in that is trust. So always keep your promises, make sure you communicate well if anything changes and manage your customers expectations.
And last but not least: your personality: how do you treat your customers? Do they feel comfortable in front of your camera? Do you listen to their wishes?
Your competition:
How can you attract your customers?
When you know what it is you do, who you do it for and what makes you special, you can start promoting your work. Investigate what the places are where the people you would like to see your message can be found: do you target companies? Promote your work at network events or online websites much visited by business people and especially secretaries (because they often arrange these kind if things!) Try to get into the network and ask your clients to recommend you to their contacts. If you are aware that a certain event is coming up, anticipate and promote yourself beforehand. changes are they pick you!
If you plan to make any promotion materials be sure to keep your message very short and appealing. Make sure people see your main message straight away. Tip: ask a friend to give you feedback before you print anything!
Promotion:
What makes a good price? Pricing is a strange thing... who would have guessed that people are crazy enough to pay a couple of million for a piece of blue cloth? Well it happens and it’s in a museum somewhere in The Netherlands. And why do you not get more for a picture you clearly put in a lot of time and effort?
An important factor is the amount of competition you face. If there is a lot of competition you are likely to see the price drop because everybody wants to sell to the same customers, so the customer can decide on the price. A way to avoid the competition is by offering something special the others don't have, like a specialization or better quality/originality etc.
If you have not so much competition YOU can determine the price, based on the costs, the effort/hours you put in and simply your skills/quality.
Offers:
It's always nice to make nice offers for clients, for instance: they get discount if they buy more pictures (easy win for you, since the effort is in taking the picture not printing it!) or if they give you a bigger assignment for instance: why no also take a picture of the grandparents as well since you are there now;)
Pricing:
Now that you are earning money make sure to always put aside a part of the profit to invest in yourself through training, in your equipment or experimenting with new businesses. Because photography changes very quickly you need to stay on top of your game and keep developing yourself!
Financials:
Now that you are earning money, probably the government wants its share through paying taxes. Make sure to keep books properly, not only for this, but also for yourself. Boring! I hear you say. Not so much, because it can actually earn you money. How’s that, you may ask? Because if you keep track of what you sell, you will learn to understand you clients better and thereby building your business. A little trick: do not just write what you have sold but also if they asked you for something you don't sell yet. This is called business development. Because you are likely to pick up trends and wishes of your customers before your competition does, you will be more interesting for your clients!