Becoming a professional photographer and making a living from your hobby is not difficult if you have a genuine interest in this type of creativity. But don’t forget that you need business skills, too, if you want to earn your bread and butter from photography.
Photography is a passion that drives many people. But making a living from your passion is a little different. It’s not just taking pictures anymore. Making a living from photography means becoming an entrepreneur, which means spending a lot of time managing business processes (marketing, Internet and social media communications, service, financial accounting).
It’s worth considering that making a living from your passion, photography, means that you won’t have a fixed salary. Every business has its own seasonality and income varies from month to month. In professional photography, seasonality depends on the genre. For example, wedding photographers have a peak season in summer. And in advertising photography, there is a decline in activity in the summer. If you want to make money with photography, you have to learn how to manage business processes. Otherwise you will have to save money (for example, on photographic equipment) instead of earning money. Yes, a photographer is a creative profession. But to be a well-fed artist, you also have to learn how to be an entrepreneur.
Customer centricity of the photographer
Customer centricity affects not only whether they choose you for their first order, but also whether they come back to you again.
Think of your level of service as a creative challenge. Give the customer a little more than you promised, and they will come back to you. Here are some thoughts:
- Print some of your best photos, even if you didn’t promise it.
- Find a convenient service that allows you to transfer the photos beautifully.
- Choose the most comfortable location for the shoot, not the one that’s cheaper. You would be surprised, but the evaluation of the result of your work, though subconsciously, is largely influenced by how comfortable the client was during the shooting.
- After the client looks at the result – find out the impression not only of the result, but also of the process.
- Congratulate your clients on the holidays.
- Include empathy and creativity in the service.
- Don’t skimp on customers. You have a business to make money, not save money. Is a comfortable studio expensive? – Raise the price.