Assume that....

[Jon, The Elder]

1) You have adequate camera and related hardware/software.

2) You are competent in its use.

Question: What is the next SINGLE most important factor that affects your success in continuing your photographic business?

[takeyourpic]

Marketing yourself to the public and word of mouth are very powerful starts...

An artist with a brush can't sell his paintings if they all sit in the basement...

[ssim]

Being able to build one of those twirly things into your hat like in your avatar.;);)

Marketing is a huge aspect of business and sometimes is used in such a generic way. I would hazard to say that the next thing is the business side of your operation which would include marketing.

Sort of like being pregnant, either you are or you aren't. Either you are going to run a business or you are not. If you want to do it haphazardly then your results will reflect that same approach.

When I decided to go full time I sat down with a couple of other people and worked out a plan. Don't be afraid to bring others into the loop. I'd like to think that I can think of everything but sometimes even the smallest of details can be very important.

One of my first things to try and accomplish was the marketing of myself. By my own admission, I am not a great door knocker in self promotion. So this is where I brought someone else in. I hired a very small marketing firm (about a dozen employees) who helped me in this aspect. This has paid for itself several times over in the first year alone. They managed to get me hooked up with one of the more prominent advertising agencies which I do just about all of their shooting requirements. This has kept me busy enough that I haven't had to chase alot of other work. I work in a small market city of approx 120k with a service area of around 250k population. The problems that the agency had up to now was that alot of the established photo studios were predominantly wedding and portrait photographers. They had been using some weekend warrior type of shooters but always had the issue that if they wanted someone on Wednesday morning it was an issue with the photographers full time employment. I have made myself available to them anytime. We sat down and negotiated rates for all aspects, preplanning, shooting, post processing and expenses such as meals, mileage, etc. I really love this work. They send along a creative director on all shoots so that I can really concentrate on the technical side of the photography. We always have a script or work plan to work off of so that if we miss anything as far as a shot, I am not on the hook.

The other thing was a website which has been my biggest downfall. I am now on my 3rd set of web developers. The first two were people that did it on the side and just couldn't deliver what they promised. I signed on with a larger company to do this a month ago and hopefully that will be up in running in the next few weeks. I haven't needed the site up to now based on the continuing work from the agency.

Then came the nitty gritty stuff for the business side. I took my plan to my lawyer and hired an accountant. They went over everything and made suggestions as to provide the best way to handle things for taxation purposes and to make sure that I was covered legally. Things such as liability insurance in case I caused injury or damage to anyone or anything.

With all of those things set in motion I could then concentrate on getting my name out and shoot. The marketing firm did approach me on doing some free work in exchange for some publicity. I did some shooting for a local non-profit organization. They were putting together a resource guide for the local handicap association. It was basically telling the families and friends of these people where they could get what and how to do it. In this they profiled a number of families and how they cope. I shot about a dozen different families. This has returned dividends as well. They returned documentation to confirm the work that I performed and I am able to use this for taxation purposes. Sort of a double win in effect even though no money ever changed hands. The resource guide had an initial print run of 20,000 so I was quite happy with that. I have done some other things like donating prints to local charity auctions all of which gets your name out there.

The last thing that I would like to raise is the value that you put on your work. If you are a new entrant to a marketplace there is no need to be the lowest price provider. If I had gone in to the ad agency and done this I would be stuck providing services at this lower cost. If your work is good then there is no reason why you shouldn't charge the median rates for your service area. Once you set yourself up as a low cost provider it takes some time to dig yourself out. Imagine talking to a new client about a wedding, "You did Sally Jones's wedding for $xxx.xx and now you want this much. Why the change?". Word of mouth is a powerful advertising medium but you have to watch how you set yourself up. I'm not saying that you shouldn't come in lower when the circumstances dictate it but you just have to be careful. Your pricing has to reflect the cost of doing business. The person charging 400.00 for a full day wedding is not doing this. I took into account things such as depreciation on my gear and vehicles. I needed to be able to set aside funding for rainy days. My fixed costs were added to the variable costs to come up with a price formula that we think has all things covered. Oh yes, I wanted to pay myself a salary. That is always nice to have.

If you are going to go out and advertise like a business, treat it like one. There are those that go alot further than I have in setting themselves up and conversely there are those that have not done much beyond hanging up a sign in the internet and hoping that business will come their way. Being a good photographer is vitally important but being a good business manager might be even more important.

This is entirely my personal experience and what has worked for me may not fit with your approach. I am not saying that this is the end all, be all. There are certainly initial startup costs that I incurred that some might not want to. I did a fair amount of "CYA" things with respect to the legal and financial advice but I feel it was money well spent. I can say that I am now my own boss in life and it is a great feeling.

[superdiver]

Marketing...

[Vegas Poboy]

legal paperwork & marketing: website business cards, flyers, phone number etc.

[strmrdr]

getting the right strait jacket and a shrink :}

[Jon, The Elder]

...starting to sense a trend here.

[Turbowolf]

Actually getting started as a business. I've made a few sales of my images to publications that found my work through a websearch or word of mouth, but I have done zero marketing.

Since I'm still getting financial aid for college that amounts to a free ride, due to minimal income, I'm not going to do a darn thing to screw up my dual degrees (BA/BS) that have 1 1/2 years to complete. My bills get paid on time and I have enough to afford food and the occasional pizza. Besides, the college funding covers my research trips to Yellowstone...

The time to make money will come soon enough, for now I can focus on building up my portfolio and image database.

[Croasdail]

Portfolio....

[karensimmons]

Question: What is the next SINGLE most important factor that affects your success in continuing your photographic business?
Knowing the business end and being able to accurately know your costs and requirements to run a business. There are a lot of great photographers out there who know how to market themselves and still fail becuase they play word games with themselves about how much it costs them to stay in business. How many times has someone on a message board somewhere said some variation of "I don't have any overhead because ... I work out of my home, I'm just getting started, I'm not delivering a lot of product"?

Take a business accounting class at your local junior college or adult continuing education area.

Going into business w/out knowing how to run a business will bite you every time.

K.

[barryburgard]

Sheldon (SSIM)

Although I am not interested in starting a business in photography - I just had to say that your reply was very thoughful and complete. Thanks for the time and thought you put into it.

Barry

[superdiver]

What is the next SINGLE most important factor that affects your success in continuing your photographic business?




Single...pick only one guys....LOL

[sugarzebra]

Regardless of what the business is, systematic marketing over the long term is the key (assuming infrastructure & competency are in place :D)

[Longwatcher]

Given you have the equipment and the talent,

The next step is do up a business model to see how much competition, what niche's are available in your area, how best to advertise in your area, how much can you reasonable expect. Also look at any other similar examples to see if your business model is in line with reality.

Then after making a determination that what you want to do can make you what you want to make, do up a business plan.

This includes a marketing strategy, budget, and goals. location of any studio and any employees must also figure into the plan.

Finally impliment your business plan and then be prepared for unexpected things to completely mess it up.

[PhotosGuy]

Great answers above! I'd say marketing... so you can get enough work to pay all your support people. ;)

[Jon, The Elder]

I started this intentionally, with the hopes of getting these kind of comments. Wish there was a way to herd all of the current Wannabies on the forum, over to here.

[Mike R]

Not a pro ..yet, but glad I checked this out.