6 Steps To Carving Your Own Path To Photography Success

Someone asked me an interesting question the other day: “What do I have to do to be successful in the photography business?” While I know this is something many of us spend a lot of time thinking about, it’s actually a meaningless question, since the answer really depends on the individual providing the answer.

So, I answered the question with a question of my own: “What does success look like to you? In other words, how will you know when you’ve achieved that point in your business where you consider yourself to be a success?

What might that feel like?“

What Does Success Look Like For You?

Everyone has their own personal answer, and their own vision of what success looks like for them. Surprisingly, it doesn’t have to be about money or wealth, although that’s undoubtedly a part of it, nor does it have to be about material possessions. Success (for me at least) is more a state of being, or a mindset, where everything in your life is working together in harmony to bring you the one thing that money can never buy – true happiness and peace of mind. This is the reason why this blog is dedicated to bringing business peace to the professional photographer, because I value it so much.

In your own business, success could mean a lot of things:

• A steady flow of happy clients
• Fulfilling and meaningful work
• Peace of mind
• Smooth operation of all the interconnected parts
• Being able to give back to the community
• Showing a healthy profit and bottom line
• Recognition in your local community

How do we aim to reach this magical point? What steps can we take as a photography business owner to make the attainment of our success goals more likely?

One strategy that offers you the best chance of meeting those goals is to carve your own path. Get yourself off the beaten track and stop following what everyone else is doing. Discover new and unexplored territory, and then claim it for yourself.

At first, it might seem a little strange being out there on your own, and it will be tempting to give up and rejoin the safety of the flock. However, if you stick with it, you will naturally attract those clients who resonate with what you do, why you do it, and how you do it. It may not be too long before you discover that you’ve started a trend, and others try to “jump on the bandwagon” by trying to copy what you do. At that point, you’ll know you made the right move.

I’ve put together six simple steps that I believe will help you to get this process off to a good start:

• Examine your motives, philosophy and approach
• Don’t do what everyone else is doing!
• Develop your personal style and voice
• Identify a niche market
• Focus on quality of service and client relationships
• Encourage referrals

#1: Examine Your Motives, Philosophy And Approach

Before you even start a photography business it’s a great idea to know why you want to be a photographer. Identifying this key element of your success is not easy, and isn’t as simple as saying, “I have a passion for photography“. You have to dig much deeper than that, perhaps even going back over your life to your childhood to identify the common threads that run through your life. Every time you think you’ve come to the bottom of it, try to dig a little further. You’ll be amazed at what you’ll uncover, and you’ll have a much better understanding of yourself too.

By the way, If you haven’t already done so, I strongly urge you to read “Start With Why” by Simon Sinek, in which he explains the reasons why your “why” is so critically important.

Once you have some idea of why you do what you do, it’s time to think about your overall philosophy and approach to the business. For example, do you want to run a low or high volume studio? Do you feel better working on many projects or a select few? How much time do you want to invest in each project and with the clients you serve? Which parts of your business or workflow would be better off outsourced to a third party?

This step of the process will help you define “who” you are as a business, where you want to go, and how you might want to position yourself in the local marketplace.

#2: Don’t Do What Everyone Else Is Doing!

Differentiation is undoubtedly a major key to success. Yet, so many business owners and photographers make the mistake of looking to see what everyone else is doing, and then copying it, often without any idea of whether or not it even works! For all they know, the person they copy it from might be struggling like crazy to make it work…

This is one of the ways in which trends and fads can develop, many of which inevitably go out of favor sooner or later. Some ideas, such as “trash the dress” for weddings, have a limited appeal. In this example, the appeal is limited not just to a specific age group but also seems to have some geographical limitations. It’s a very popular concept in some areas, such as California, but not very much so in the southern states, where many people view it as somewhat distasteful.

I agree that it’s important to take note of what other photographers are doing in their photography and marketing within your own local market, but it’s not advisable to simply copy their style or ideas without injecting some unique and essential part of yourself into the process. Instead, seek opportunities to make innovations where you can improve the client experience and make your work stand out by being different in the process.

#3: Develop Your Personal Style And Voice

Okay, admit it! How many of you out there spend too much time surfing other photographers’ websites and blogs looking at images, and searching for inspiration? I’m fairly certain that we all do it at some point or another, and it’s a good thing to see what others are up to, or to let their creativity inspire us to try out new things.

However, there is a real danger here… We can find ourselves simply copying another photographer’s poses or style, or just picking up on the latest trend without putting too much thought into how we could modify it to make it our own, or add elements of our own photographic personality. If we aren’t careful, we risk creating work that simply mimics someone else’s creative expression, rather than our own.

The key point here is to exploit the one thing that really makes you unique as a photographer – your personal style. If you’re new to the photography business, you will eventually find your own style, as you gravitate towards those images and photographs that provide you with the most personal satisfaction.

In fact, I’ve known many photographers say that they photograph for themselves first and then for the client, meaning that if they can produce work that is personally satisfying and creative to them, then that will shine through and become the very thing that attracts their ideal clients.

But what if you’re having trouble identifying your own style? One solution is to keep photographing, and to work on personal projects. Keep an ever evolving “top 50″ album of your own favorite images. Eventually, you will start to see where your style is going and you can hone in on it, continually working on developing and improving upon it.

#4: Identify A Niche Market

Too many photographers try to be all things to everyone, rather than focusing their energies on a specific niche market. It’s very tempting, especially early in the life of the business, to take on just about every type of job that comes along. This can be useful to begin with in helping you to identify the types of photography you have the most passion for, and which you feel more drawn to, but you will eventually want to specialize in something more specific.

Paradoxically, if you become known in your community as an excellent wedding photographer, for example, you will still find that people will ask you if you photograph families, babies, seniors, pets etc. They assume that, since you are so good at that one thing, then you must be good at everything else too.

On the other hand, if you portray yourself as too much of a generalist, you run the risk of being known for nothing specific and you won’t have sticking power in the minds of the consumer. In a sense, your brand becomes blurred and unclear.

So, decide who your target market is, in as much detail as possible, and what it is that you would like to provide for them. Your branding and marketing should then be aimed squarely in that direction.

#5: Focus On Quality Of Service And Client Relationships

Although this one is next to last on the list, I can’t stress its importance enough. Hopefully, we all want to provide our clients with a wonderful experience when working with us, and we all want them to love the photography we create for them. Anything else just doesn’t seem right.

But, customer service and client relationship management goes much deeper than that. For example, how much further are you willing to go to deliver more than what the client expects? In other words, do you under-promise and over-deliver? Do you deliver early, on time, or later than expected?

What does your packaging look like in which your finished prints go out? Do your clients pick them up from you, and what do you do to build excitement and anticipation for them?

Do you send your clients a handwritten thank-you card in the mail after they make a purchase, irrespective of how much they’ve spent with you? The power of receiving such a note in the mail these days is quite remarkable and will leave a lasting impression.

Are you sending out a regular monthly email newsletter to your email list that is not simply a sales letter? This is a great way to keep your brand in front of your clients and make sure that they think of you when it comes time to make another photographic investment.

How many of your clients are repeat clients? For some reason, many photographers are making the mistake of thinking that, just because a family has had one portrait made, that they won’t want another one in a year or two. Keep in touch with your clients, and make the most of any repeat business!

#6: Encourage Referrals

Having gone to all the expense and trouble of acquiring your family of clients, are you making enough effort to encourage them to refer their friends and family to you?

Above all, are you making it easy for them to send referrals your way? A great method for doing that is to give your clients personalized referral cards that they can hand out, and then to reward them with a special gift when the referrals book their session with you.

It’s not a good idea to rely simply on word of mouth marketing alone to send referrals your way, as this can be a slow and drawn out process. Likewise, social media channels such as Facebook also need some help from you to really get the referrals going.

When you do find a new client through a referral, make sure you treat them like royalty and don’t forget to personally thank the referrer for their effort (in addition to any gift or reward they might receive).

The First Step Is The Most Important One!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this short article and that it’s given you some food for thought. Remember, though, that the most important step you take is the first one! Do SOMETHING! Anything at all, but do something to start you off in the right direction.

My goal is simply to help every professional photographer find peace in their business, through both this blog and my business coaching services, so I hope you have found something useful to you here.

As always, all comments are welcome, and please take a moment to pass this on to someone who you believe would benefit from it.

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Photography Business Ideas business success, photography business, photography style