The route to a successful photography business

First off I would like to say that I have already skimmed through the question related threads on this forum, which were all very helpful. Now, I am interested in starting up a photography business. I believe that a key factor that determines whether a business is successful nowadays is having the professional edge over the others, be it marketing, service and/or product.

I am looking to learn how to go about achieving this level of professionality. Besides the service, that is, photography itself, I know that I have to be good at business itself.

At the moment, I'm looking to start studying for an MBA, as I already have an unrelated first degree, but I do not know for sure whether this will help me along the way. My idea is that the business theory studied for an MBA will eventually help me gain that professional edge. Do you think it will make a difference? Of course, interpersonal skills and so on are also of importance, but I like to believe that I'm not totally lacking in that department. However, I know that other courses, such as anything related to webdesign, IT and so on would also help.

I know that this might be too broad of a question, but some of the professionals here might help me out. What do you think would be a good route to a successful and professional photography business nowadays?

When I started my business, I was surprised to learn that to make a customer happy you have to:
Do what you said you were going to do
In the time frame that you promised
For the price that you quoted

If you can do that consistently, you are well on your way to a sucessful business.

Regarding the MBA:

What do you enjoy? What do you want to do? If you really want to be the guy behind the camera, then I would re-think MBA. It is a degree for those who really enjoy RUNNING A BUSINESS . . . .in other words, doing all the business related processes. A fellow with an MBA would enjoy running a photography business in the sense of having one or more photographers working for him. Think for a second about being a pilot . . . an MBA would help someone run an airline, but not necessarily help a pilot enjoy doing the flying aspect of the business.

Don't get me wrong, an MBA is a great accomplishment and a big step and advantage in the business world, but I ask again . . . What do you enjoy? What do you want to do?

OK, my two cents . . .

I agree on the MBA direction. If you're going into corporate whatever, yes, it's a nice plus on the resume. For your own business, it's virtually pointless until you get to a scale that most studios won't reach.

You'd be better off taking some business seminars, preferably focused on the photography industry. Join PPA and check out their Studio Management Services program. Highly focused business guidance for photography studios.

http://www.ppa.com/stu​dio-management-services/

+1 to the MBA discussion ... although it never hurts to have it, I can say that you can't apply 90% of it to a small business. Disclaimer: I don't have an MBA, but my partner does. We're in agreement on the first sentence.

Secondly, I think being/producing a "professional" image is more of a deceleration and goal rather than a specific item. There is a lot of discussions on what makes a professional and what % of income is coming from photography ... all of that to me is nonesense and makes no difference to your clients. Your clients obviously like your work and results, so the question becomes how do you threat them and do you do it in a "professional" manner. Do you have a proper room to meet customers in without your kids toys around it? Do you wear clean and respectable attrire, properly printed, spell checked, grammer checked, documents that you hand to the client. Do you deliver your product in a nice clean box or a USPS envelope? Now I agree that some customers don't care about any of that stuff and just want the lowest price. But most of them do care.

I hope that helps.

Thanks all for the very good help. I have to point out one thing though. That when a thread of this sort crops up, the usual advice is to tell the OP to go study business. I find it surprising now that the consensus is rather different.

So would you suggest photography courses? I personally love photography, but would also love to make money out of it. I want to explore every facet of photography and its business, to amalgamate the art with the money, if possible.

Here is a site by a photographer who has dozens of pages on the photography business, marketing, and plenty of related info. I can't confirm any of his information, but I sure found his site very helpful, if only to open my mind to so many aspects that were not in my thought process.

http://www.danheller.c​om/

That's a very good site golfecho. Thanks a lot!

Metalstrm wrote in post #8257228
First off I would like to say that I have already skimmed through the question related threads on this forum, which were all very helpful. Now, I am interested in starting up a photography business. I believe that a key factor that determines whether a business is successful nowadays is having the professional edge over the others, be it marketing, service and/or product.

I am looking to learn how to go about achieving this level of professionality. Besides the service, that is, photography itself, I know that I have to be good at business itself.

At the moment, I'm looking to start studying for an MBA, as I already have an unrelated first degree, but I do not know for sure whether this will help me along the way. My idea is that the business theory studied for an MBA will eventually help me gain that professional edge. Do you think it will make a difference? Of course, interpersonal skills and so on are also of importance, but I like to believe that I'm not totally lacking in that department. However, I know that other courses, such as anything related to webdesign, IT and so on would also help.

I know that this might be too broad of a question, but some of the professionals here might help me out. What do you think would be a good route to a successful and professional photography business nowadays?

I say go to work for a successful photographer whose work you admire in a field you would want to wind up in. Save the money you would spend on the MBA and think of the time you spend working for this photographer as a graduate degree. An MBA is fine if you're going to work for IBM.

I have a B/A in photography and have been working full time in photogrpahy since graduation in 1986.

Metalstrm wrote in post #8259067
Thanks all for the very good help. I have to point out one thing though. That when a thread of this sort crops up, the usual advice is to tell the OP to go study business. I find it surprising now that the consensus is rather different.

I think you're missing the point. No one said "don't study business". A surprising amount of MBA material is actually less about "real" world SMALL business and more about theories and large corporate ventures. Can it be applied? Sure...but it would be more expensive and overkill in most cases.

I come from both backgrounds. There are places where I'd prefer a MBA and other places where I'd prefer an experienced but non-degreed pro.

PPA has a number of courses on how to apply creative photography skills toward developing a business. ASMP, WPPI, and others do the same. Join an organization/associati​on and use their resources.

I agre with an MBA being overkill. Great info to have but Doesent MBA ceter arround large corporate econimics. That does not allways work on the small scale.

I would definatley take some business coarses but it is not worth it to go that far. Intro to Business and micro economics will get you half way there.

90% of any small buisness is.....the buisness of being in buisness. The other 10% is why you got into buisness. That said it is not that overly complicated. Some may think other wise. But I have not found it to be overwelming at all. You just have to think twice on overything and the right decision will show it self.

golfecho wrote in post #8259113
Here is a site by a photographer who has dozens of pages on the photography business, marketing, and plenty of related info. I can't confirm any of his information, but I sure found his site very helpful, if only to open my mind to so many aspects that were not in my thought process.

http://www.danheller.c​om/

2 other pro photographers are currently blogging about what it takes to go pro as well. Im at work...Ill post links when I get home.

I learned more in just a few weeks of working for a successful photographer than I did in all of my business and marketing classes of how to run a successful photography business. The thing that really separated me from the herd was my strong technical and visual background that I got from being a photography major.

I understand what you mean Brian. I just thought that the knowledge that an MBA gives you, especially regarding marketing, could be invaluable. I am and will be working for another pro for some time. I just have to find someone who wants to take me in. Over here the business owners are very protective and will do anything to stop competition from taking a hold...

Metalstrm wrote in post #8259280
I understand what you mean Brian. I just thought that the knowledge that an MBA gives you, especially regarding marketing, could be invaluable. I am and will be working for another pro for some time. I just have to find someone who wants to take me in. Over here the business owners are very protective and will do anything to stop competition from taking a hold...

Marketing is pretty easy. It takes more effort in the "work" department than education, really. One good Marketing 101 class would be fine to get you started. "Guerrilla Marketing" is a good book as well. I did all of my computer business marketing using that one. It grew enough to sell it later.