Starting a business

[djscottwalls]

I would like some coments on how to start a business or get clients to start rolling on i. I have taken 5 years of school for photography. I also have some good equipment to shoot pictures, but I dont not have alot of friends and my present job doesnt let me go out of the office that much to do my personal stuff. I am in the process of designing a web page and I am set up for gooogle so when people look up a photographer in my area it shows my name. I have had a one or two clients but I want more. Thanks for the information. I am not looking to get rich but I would like for my hobie to turn into a bussiness. The students that I have shared class with have told me that my images are great and I have done really good that the school has asked me to come back and help with the photography class. So I am doing that right but I have no money comeing in and I need to get some money to pay of this equipment and to be able to buy more.

[HaroldC3]

Your web site is....red! :) A little too red for my taste.

I think a lot of people would recommend creating a business plan before you go any further.

[Athoras]

I agree on the buissnes plan this will probebly be the single most important part in turning a hobby to a buissnes. And concerning the webpage i found it slightly annoying with those loading icons popping up in the middle of the picture before they changed.

Btw you hade some great looking shots there ;)

[liza]

Write a good, solid business plan, and get a small business loan. Then market like h*ll to get the money rolling in. Make sure you have good bookkeeping skills or, better yet, hire a good bookkeeper. Also make sure you have all the legal end covered in terms of income and sales taxes. There's a lot of competition out there these days and it's estimated that only about 1 in 10 actually make a go of it. Offer a unique product or style, hone your business skills, and work about 80 hour weeks until it really takes off.

[rhys]

Your website didn't load within 3 seconds so I moved on as will many people. You have 3 seconds to grab somebody's attention!

Key to business:
1. Plan
2. Gear
3. Advertising (forget the internet for advertising - it's a handy place for a portfolio, services and prices lists).
4. portfolio.
5. Do what your clients want.

[Chief44]

My biggest help in my area so far is knowing people. Friends and family can be big help to spread your name among people. Going to local sporting events and or fairs and shooting just to put your name outhere and put a face to the business. That is what has worked for me so far.

[Oneslowz28]

Your website didn't load within 3 seconds so I moved on as will many people. You have 3 seconds to grab somebody's attention!

Key to business:
1. Plan
2. Gear
3. Advertising (forget the internet for advertising - it's a handy place for a portfolio, services and prices lists).
4. portfolio.
5. Do what your clients want.



To the OP I would recomend not listening to a thing Rhys has to say. He is Deff. not the person to listen to when it comes to buisness advice. 1 week ago he was asking the same questions you are. The only difference will be if you will heed the advice given by some of us or not. No offince Rhys but you just arent qualified to help on this topic. I dont think I can help much but I can offer some advice as I have been doing this since 2005 and also run my grandfathers very large (85 employes) construction company.

Also the internet is the #1 place to advertise. 80% of people and more and more every day use the net to do everything from finding a plumber to planning a funeral. If your not advertising on the net in this day and age and dont have a name established for 30+ years you wont make it.

Here are some things I can offer to help you.

1. Buisness Plan. Also read up on http://sba.gov/
2. Get your name out. Make up some biz cards and mail out some post cards. Have shirts made, signs for your vehicle, Take out a small add in the news paper.
3. Read this section of POTN. There is alot of valuable info on here
4. Make sure your gear is up to par.
5. Get a buisness liscence
6. Go to trade shows. Like wedding shows and market your self.
7. Be willing to invest all of your time into it.
8. Dont expect a profit for atleast a year.
9. Make the site more user friendly. IE: easy on the eyes, etc
10. Learn how to sell your self. You can take the best photos in the world, but if you cant sell your self and services then you cant make any money.
11. Have fun. It wont succede if you dont love what your doing.

[tim]

Your website doesn't have a portfolio section. The home page shows some really nice photos, but I only saw three before I got bored waiting ages for them to load.

Do they not teach you any business in photography school? It's a fairly important subject for anyone who wants to be a professional photographer, perhaps more important than being taught how to take good photos.

[Banbert]

Make a business plan by all means, but dont spend an age on it, just set some goals and targets and think about what your market is and how your gonna target and sell to them .... planning is important of course but actually getting out there and "doing it" is way more important.

Decide who your typical target client is and plough your time into your website to start with with them in mind, you have a great start there but as already mentioned by tim you need a portfolio/gallery section so people can look at your work even if you have some images on your first page. In my experience the portfolio will be the first section that the majority of your visitors go to look at first ... process seems to go like this on my site.

1. Portfolio - Do we like what he does
2. Package / Albums - What are his packages/prices like
3. Contact Form / Blog / Other stuff - What else is there for me to look at or how do I contact him -

Your site loads fine for me, took about a second and half and I am on a fairly slow (1mb) broadband connect at work at the moment so I arent sure what connection Rhys has but he doesnt like websites so what he says about them is quite often a bit strange to say the least. BTW Rhys you seem to have a photography website without any actual photos on it.

When you have your site to a level that your reasonably happy with spend lots of time on SEO to get you up the search engne rankings and also maybe think about using google adwords whilst your working your way up there, we used google adwords for a few months whilst we were working on SEO and it worked very well for us.

Start a blog to give your website visitors something new to look at when they visit, network with famly and friends and make sure they all know what you can offer .... they are all potential sales people/clients for you!

Marketing is a large part of this business!

[S.Horton]

You'll get business by meeting people who see your work.

You could try this:
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/photography/15309-operation-love-reunited-something-give-you-warm-fuzzies.html

[stathunter]

All of the schooling and best equipment in the world won't make your business a success. Also even if you take better pictures than anyone else.......it will not make you a success. To simplify this a bit success in business is defined by profit.
In order to make a profit and generate consistant revenue you need to SELL. EVERYTHING you do must be selling for you. Your website, your business cards, when you are talking to people and everything else must focus on getting clients for your business.
Remember to sell, sell, sell. Take a salesmanship class in a local college. The photography part will fall into place but without sales skills you could be in for a long hard road.

[trantz]

I agree with stathunter -
I've seen mediocre photographers make a GREAT living at photography simply because they ran a really tight and professional operation. Essentially that speaks almost as loud as how good your photos are.
Although, if you really aren't great at running a business, look at finding someone who is. A salesperson or business manager can worry about selling you and keeping the books in check, whilst you concentrate on your craft.