If you are interested in owning your own photography business then it is well advised to develop a photography business plan. This is particularly true if you need to raise funds for capital expenses such as building rent/lease or purchase. It is also a good idea to create a business plan even if you are not looking for capital because it can help solidify the vision for your business and help you to set realistic goals.

So what are the key criteria for a business plan?  There is no standard format for all business plans but I have provided a sample outline below that worked well for me.  You can adjust it to suit your own situation. The key is to provide a solid well-defined plan that addresses the key issues of profitability and risk.

1. Executive Summary- An overview of the pertinent facts found later in the document.
2. Objectives – List of your business objectives.  Market share goals, type of services offered, client list size, revenue, etc.
3. Mission – Mission statement for your business.
4. Keys to Success – Critical tasks to accomplish in order to achieve your objectives. Examples include establishing online presence, outsourcing retouching, reaching new client base, etc.
5. Company Summary – Brief overview of history and current state of business.
   1. Company Ownership – Who owns the business and under what type of ownership?  Sole proprietorship, LLC, etc.
   2. Start-Up Summary – Description of initial start-up costs and how capital was raised (if needed.)
   3. Locations – Description of studio location (if any). In the absence of a dedicated building, describe how shoots are completed on-location.
6. Products and Services – Description of products and services offered.  Include general costs such as session fees, package ranges,etc.
7. Technology – Description of technology required such as cameras, lighting, photo processing software.
8. Market Analysis Summary – Overview of market. This information can often be found at your city’s website.  Include information such as median household income, family size, age, etc.
   1. Market Segmentation – What age(s) are you targeting?   How will you reach that market?
   2. Competition – Who is your competition?  What is their size?  What do they offer?
   3. Value Proposition – How will you provide value to your customers?  What will set you apart?
   4. Marketing Strategy – How will you reach your target audience?
   5. Competitive Edge – What sets you apart from your competition? Why will you succeed?
9. Management Team – Describe the owner(s) and their management and technical experience. This is a mini-resume in a paragraph form.
10. Staff – If you have staff workers, you can insert their responsibilities here.
11. Financial Plan – Include the following financial information:
    1. Income and Expense – Provide data  for current year and past year
    2. Break Even Analysis – How many clients do you need to break even. This is critical for capital investments such as building purchase.
    3. Trends – What trends have you seen in the past and what do you predict for the future based on your marketing plan?
    4. Projections – Provide projected income, expense, and profit numbers for upcoming years. (3 years ideally).
    5. Capital Investment requirements – Outline what amount is required and for what.
12. Exit Strategy and Risk Assessment – What will you do if profitability cannot be maintained?   This is your exit strategy.  How high is the risk that this will occur?
13. Conclusion- Wrap it all up

Something that almost all small business struggle with is marketing.  The photography business owner is no exception.  It can be very difficult at times to come up with fresh marketing ideas that will deliver the proper message to your customer.  Photography Marketing Templates can be a low cost alternative to hiring a graphic designer to create marketing pieces. They can also be much better than trying to create your own.

One popular method for finding marketing pieces for your photography business is to frequent the online forums for professional photographers. I have found that in certain forums photographers are much more willing to share information than others.  One forum in particular that I have quite enjoyed is the NoBSPhotoSuccess.com forum.  Here I have found many photographers willing to share their marketing tips and designs to assist their fellow photographers. Be advised that this is a paid forum however so there is some cost to joining.  I feel that it is worth it however and would recommend it to a new photography business owner.

One other solution is to purchase marketing pieces online from design stores.  A simple google search for photography marketing templates will result in many results.  There are many popular ones for wedding and senior photographers in particular.  They can be purchased individually or in sets with consistent themes and colors.

If you are looking for branding help, then I recommend you visit Brand-ography.com.  This website provides concise branding advice to help establish the personality of your business.  This is very important to building a rapport with your clientele which increases the number of repeat visitors.  Additionally, this site offers many free marketing pieces, especially for those who specialize in baby photography.

It is also important to remember that marketing your business doesn’t have to just mean flyers, posters and business cards.  It also includes items integrated into your website such as blog postings and email subscriptions.  Both of these are critical to building a large following of loyal fans.  My photography internet marketing manual goes into great detail on how to setup your own website with these marketing features built in.  I highly encourage you to sign up for my free marketing mini-course to test some of these techniques in your own business.

I have found that by allowing your clients to receive emails of your blog postings that this constant refresher of your great work helps them to think of you whenever the special events happen in their lives that they want to photograph.  Additionally, it enables you to provide them with information on when you will be holding special promotions that they may be interested in.

One last point to consider is that there are many opinions on marketing your business. But the one approach that is guaranteed to never work is to do no marketing at all.  Remember, that as a photography business owner, you are a business person first and a photographer second.  So budget time to your marketing efforts and always track your results to keep continually improving!

Are you a professional photographer looking for help on marketing online?  If you are, then a complete step by step photography website how to manual can be a welcome alternative to spending hundreds of hours learning how to build a website on your own.

There are many things to consider when setting up your business website.  Key factors include the choice of domain name, webhost, type of website, and design considerations.   I have been building websites for a long time and the internet has undergone some drastic changes in the past few years.  Not long ago it required thousands of dollars to hire a webmaster or hundreds of hours of dedicated study time to learn how to do a website yourself in order to get an effective website.  However, that is no longer the case.

With the advent of Content Management Systems, and in particular WordPress, it has become much easier for non-webmasters to build their own websites.  Unfortunately this ease of use can also lead to a false sense of capability.  This is because despite the apparent simplicity, there are many techniques and secrets that will greatly increase the effectiveness of your website.

After viewing many photographer websites I came to the realization that some education would be very helpful in creating more effective websites that would be ranked well in the search engines.  As a result I constructed the Photography Internet Marketing How-to manual which would provide the education I gleaned over thousands of hours online.

Some of the items that are covered include the following:

-Keywords:  What are keywords and why selecting the proper keywords is one of the most important actions you can take.

-Domain Names: What are the best domain names for your business?  How long is too long? Are extensions other than .com okay to use?  Where should you register your domains?

-Webhosting: Which webhost to use?  What features are important?  How much should you pay?

-Site construction: What type of website is best? (Flash, HTML, WordPress etc.)

-Design:  How to have a professionally designed website without hiring a professional designer.

-Traffic: What Plugins should you include to get your website ranked higher in the search engines.

These are just some of the subjects that are covered in the how-to manual.  It is not necessary to be fluent in HTML or PHP or any other programming language in order to create your own website.  In fact, it is often better to build the website yourself for a number of reasons to include the fact that no one knows your business better than you.  Not to mention the fact that you will save a lot of money.  However, this would not be possible without a complete guide that would show you exactly what you need to do in a step-by-step fashion to establish your website online.  Once established, this website will bring new clients to your business every day with no additional cost or time commitment to you.  That is the magic of the internet!s.

As photographers we tend to think that we know a lot about how to make things beautiful.  And to a large extent that is true. But sometimes that can actually hurt us with photography website design.  Too often photographers want to make a website for their business that is amazingly beautiful and captivating. Like the artwork that they produce with a camera. What they tend to forget is that the website should have one purpose and that is to get new clients. This is often at odds with what the photographer has in mind for their website.

Below are some of the problems that I often see with photographer’s websites.

-          Music.  Have you ever visited a website that immediately started playing a song that you hated and made you scrambling for the mute button on your speakers?  You may think that everyone will love that song you placed on the home page of your website as much as you do but don’t count your business on it.

-          Splash Pages.  Imagine how frustrating it is for your clients to make it to your homepage to find out that they have to click another link just to get the information they are after?  Why make it any harder than it has to be by adding just one more useless step?

-          Flash.  Many photographers love to use flash websites because they can include amazing beautiful transitions and effects.  But do your clients really want to wait 5 to 10 seconds between each photo to see that amazing transition again?  Not to mention that Flash websites are not indexed by Google well if at all. What this means is that if you are using Flash, don’t expect to compete in the search engine rankings.

-          No Call to Action.  Each page of your website should have a call to action for the visitor. Think about what action you want them to take. Do you want them to call you and schedule an appointment?  Do you want them to send you an email? This action should never be more than one click away.  Make it easy for them and you will greatly increase your new client list.

-          No Keyword Optimization.  You should have a list of keywords that you want to rank high for in the search engines. Beyond that, your WebPages should include these keywords in the proper places in order to be indexed by Google and show up in the top of the search engine rankings.

Those are just a few of the more common mistakes that I see when reviewing websites for fellow photographers.  All of these problems can be fixed relatively easily with the right knowledge and training so don’t worry if it seems overwhelming.  My Photography Internet Marketing Course is designed to help those who know nothing about the internet to get an effective website for their photography business built and working for them.  If I can be of any assistance to you in your own photography business endeavors, please let m e know and best wishes to you!

If you love photography and enjoy working with people then a home based photography business may bring you a lifetime of fulfillment and pleasure.  A photography business offers many advantages over traditional employment but can also be a very scary step for most budding photographers.   After all, no matter how good of a photographer you are, it is important to remember that a photography business is more than just taking photographs.  The key word to remember is that it is a BUSINESS.  Which means in order to be successful you have to be much more than just a great photographer. You also have to be a great business person.

One of the advantages of the photography business is the low barrier to entry. By that I mean that if you have a couple thousand dollars to spend on good equipment and have a place to start shooting you can be in business.  This however can also be a big downfall as there will be a lot of competition from others who enjoy photography as much as you do. So how do you get ahead?  Well it starts with being the better business person.  This may surprise you as you probably thought I would say to find a niche, improve your work, be the best photographer, etc.  Well those are good things as well but being a better business person is much more important than being a better photographer.

I know that last paragraph probably turned off most of the people reading this. That is because we all want to make the most stunning, amazing, creative, artistic images possible. Right?  Who want’s to worry about profit and loss, advertising, marketing, etc.  Doesn’t  that just dilute the art?  Well if you are of that mind set then I suggest you pursue a career outside photography that allows you to enjoy your hobby of creating beautiful pictures.  Because if you want a lifelong career in photography it will require much more than just an artistic eye.   It will require a lot of business sense.

So what do I mean by business sense?  Well I have spent a lot of time researching what makes a successful business.  I believe that just a few of the key traits are: Consistency, Personality, and Vision.

Consistency:  When a client comes to you they want to be 100% confident in the product that they will receive. They want to know that the pictures you take will be as wonderful and heartwarming as the ones they received last year. So how do you ensure this?  By #1 being capable with your equipment. And #2, being methodical in your processes. That means you should have a written workflow on how you setup for sessions and how you process them. Your client should know how long the session will be, how  long before they can see proofs, how long before they will get finished prints.  A steady and consistent experience breeds confidence in them of your abilities to deliver EVERY time.

Personality:  This is where you get to shine. Feel free to express yourself. If you are goofy, friendly, silly, let your clients know that. Don’t try to be someone you are not.  You won’t appeal to all people, but the ones you do appeal to will love you for live.  Photography is about personal interaction.  Let them feel connected to you.

Vision:  Have a purpose for your business.  Do you know where you want to be in five years? Do you know how many sessions you want to have this month?  If you don’t, it is time to start your plan. And that begins with a long term vision that is developed into a working plan.  This could be the form of a business plan or it could be as informal as a list of long and short term goals.  Do what works for you. But just do it.

In conclusion, I would like to encourage you in your dreams in starting a home based photography business.   I would like to help you along your way and I wish you much success!