What's the next step? Seeking business advice.

I hope this question isn't asked too much, but I suspect it is...

Background: hobbyist photographer, specializing mostly in travel, landscapes, and urbanscapes. My career choice (religious worker) permits devoting ~15 hours a week to photography and the business side if I choose to.

I do not enjoy, nor am I good at, business. Getty and other agencies have been good for me, generating a couple thousand dollars annually with virtually no work on my part. That's been nice, and I'm wondering if there are services that will help me increase revenue on my work, such as selling prints perhaps. I regularly email photos to friends and family and they print themselves. The point is, I don't know what to do next.

I don't even know if my work is marketable and plentiful enough to consider spending money to make money. I do a bit of urbex to achieve unique shots, but I don't even know if that is helpful. I ask that POTN be brutally honest - I can take reality!

My questions: what's the next step? If it's prints, what online services would be best? What role should social media play? Anything you can offer will be helpful, and I am grateful.

I've included some of my most popular images on Flickr, for reference of what I do:

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ken2000ac/89002​49001/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ken2000ac/74926​19464/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ken2000ac/88511​84431/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ken2000ac/83562​85423/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ken2000ac/10456​852903/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ken2000ac/79875​97727/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ken2000ac/12380​303323/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ken2000ac/10622​929465/

I'll jump in here as I've looked at doing my own business before but decided not to because I am not good at it and hate everything associated with running a business. It seems to me that you're in the same boat, how can you possibly succeed at running a business if you hate it (as I do)? I'm sure most of the successful pros on here got to where they are because besides being good photographers they're good at the business side of things.

Absolutely. I'm not looking to run a business, but I'm interested in exploring some other arenas of monetizing what I do have, whether that be through a service or otherwise.

I suppose I'm wondering how I can increase my revenue stream for the product I can offer, understanding that it cannot be a full time venture.

No words of advice here, but your work absolutely ROCKS!

Your images are beautiful!

I'm not sure what you mean by not being good at "business". There are some aspects of business, such as accounting, book-keeping and so on, that you can sub-contract to other people. However, if you want to generate income from your images, you're probably going to have to put some effort into it. There are a few things you can do, however, that don't require too much effort.

I'd suggest a Facebook page for your photography. Get as many people as you can to "like" your page (friends and family can help out here, by asking their Facebook friends to "like" your page). Update the page frequently with new images. This will get your name out there.

I don't know about the UK, but here in Canada, municipalities have a small amount of money per year to purchase art from local artists. Our village devotes $2,500 per year to this. It runs a twice-yearly contest and entries are judged by a panel. The municipality then buys the winning works (or, in some cases, all the works if there aren't many entries). All entries are exhibited in the local community centre. It might be worth inquiring to see if there's anything like that in your area.

Also contact the municipalities in which your images were taken; they may well be interested in purchasing them for their municipal publications. I'm sure the city of Edinburgh would be interested in some of your photographs; they really are beautiful.

You could also have some of your images mounted on acrylic or framed, and exhibit them in a local café. Many cafés and restaurants are delighted to exhibit the work of local artists. You could put prices on the framed works, and also offer unframed prints for sale at a lower price.

You might also consider entering photography contests - your work is certainly good enough. Winning means publicity.

Lastly, you might also take a kiosk at local art fairs, Christmas fairs, etc. The things that sell best at such events are less expensive items such as cards, small prints, unframed prints and so on. You'll meet a lot of people - it can be a lot of fun.

These are just a few suggestions. Anyway, good luck!

ceegee wrote in post #16718744
Also contact the municipalities in which your images were taken; they may well be interested in purchasing them for their municipal publications. I'm sure the city of Edinburgh would be interested in some of your photographs; they really are beautiful.

I never thought about this, so I'm very grateful for the suggestion. I suppose this would work with other local businesses as well, but I've never considered approaching them directly. Again, my salesmanship is poor...

What about prints? If I market myself on social media to sell prints, is there an online service that hosts, displays, prints, and drop-ship?

I'm looking into things now like Smugmug...

Is e-commerce a viable road for me right now? I fear plonking down the annual fees and there not being any return.