Judging by the results of a recent survey that I did with some of my readers, you’re not the only one who’s finding life as a professional photographer to be less than the glamorous job many first imagined it to be…
Photography Business Survival Is 50/50
For example, one alarming fact I discovered is that there are almost twice as many photographers in their first year as there are in their second… In other words, a deplorable number of photography businesses are failing in their first 12 months of operation.
This isn’t anything really new, of course – statistics have shown for a long time that small businesses suffer from a high failure rate. However, it’s still upsetting, given the huge number of people who are apparently entering the industry each year.
The echoes of this effect are found in some of the biggest complaints I hear from the photographers I coach. For example:
- “There are too many photographers flooding my market…“
- “All the new people are undercutting my prices…“
- “Everyone’s a photographer these days…“
- “The industry’s full of wannabes…“
- “Some folks will let you photograph their wedding with an iPhone!“
- … and so on…
It’s no wonder that I hear complaints that the photography industry is dying.
An Undesirable Truth
But the truth is that not everyone who wants to be a professional photographer is really cut out to be a successful business person – nothing wrong with that – and there is a practical limit to the number of photographers that any given community can realistically support.
So I suppose it’s no surprise that many fail to make it past their first birthday.
But I do have one BIG problem with this picture:
Too many people who should not be professional photographers are succeeding at the expense of those who are more dedicated, passionate, and talented as photographic artists…
… am I the only one annoyed by this idea?
Essentially, it’s not the best photographers who are winning the survival game, but the best marketers.
Again, this is nothing new. I’ve said as much often enough throughout this blog and in my photography coaching, and I do believe that the fundamental principle is sound. Most sensible business people would agree that marketing is absolutely essential, and photographers do operate in a commercial environment where good marketing is the lifeblood of a thriving business.
So, it’s only right that the best marketers should be the ones to survive, since they are the ones most likely to run the other aspects of their business properly too.
What About Our Clients?
Someone asked me the other day where this leaves those talented photographic artists to whom marketing strategies feel like something alien, and which they find difficult to master?
The real question ought to be where does it leave the consumer who deserves to have the best photography they can get as the proper legacy of their lives?
Watching a gifted professional photographer suffering the throes of losing their business is not only highly distressing for me and definitely unfair to them, but it’s also a terrible disservice to future potential clients who are now denied the opportunity to work with them…
The Slow Spiral Dance To The Bottom
In the beginning there was a photographer who started out in business full of optimism, determination, passion, talent, and a genuine desire to create the most amazing work they could for people who truly value what they do…
A real honest-to-goodness artist.
… but now we see someone who feels utterly frustrated, almost broken, by the fear, stress, worry, and anxiety that comes from blindly struggling with a dying business that feels like a monster that’s turned on them.
There’s no money left over for marketing, even if they knew what to do…
Any thoughts of upgrading their equipment or investing in new studio gear are reduced to little more than hopes…
Arguments over money fill the home…
The only way to attract new clients seems to be with advertising on Facebook or Google Adwords, but there’s no money in the pot for that…
Discounting, sales, and endless promotions seem like a good solution at the time, but they only work in the short term and will ultimately kill the business anyway…
Desperation starts to creep in, which clients can sniff out from a mile away, sending them running for the hills…
The website and blog suffer because there’s no new material to keep them looking fresh and busy…
Their Facebook presence echoes with the sounds of “become a fan to get a special offer“…
Throughout all this, the photographer is frantically searching for that one magic pill that can save their business… but, of course, there is no such thing.
And then, the photographer wakes up one day to find the doors closing for the last time, and they’re forced to quit the business to find another job working for someone else.
It’s nothing short of a tragedy, and if you are caught anywhere in this downward spiral of a death dance, then I urge you to continue reading…
Because, believe me, I know how dreadful the prospect of failing feels – I’ve been close to it on more than one occasion in my own career, which is one of the reasons why I’m so dedicated to making sure it doesn’t happen to you.
Now For The Good News…
Are you ready for something more uplifting after all that?
I know I am!
You see, there’s simply no reason why talented photographers have to fight and claw their way through the nightmare I just described to you.
No reason at all.
Forget the stupid notion of the “starving artist” – it’s an overused and unnecessary cliché – no one wants to be that person, nor should they be.
In fact, like many other things in life, the most elegant and useful solution to this problem happens to be one of the simplest.
Simple Does Not Mean Simple-Minded
Having talked to so many struggling photographers, I’ve identified one major common factor. That one thing, which I believe is a big contributor to their problems, is simply over-complication.
The way I see it, as thinking and reasoning human beings, we have a tendency to assume that the solution to anything we don’t fully understand must be complex in nature. After all, the problems and symptoms we experience feel very big to us, so it’s only natural to assume that the cause must also be major. By association, any extrapolated solution is then assumed to be complicated as well.
So, we look for complex solutions to the seemingly complex problems we face.
Which is not necessarily a true representation of what’s really going on.
For The Want Of A Nail…
As I write this, I’m reminded of a time when I headed up a team of support programmers in the IT department of a big bank:
One day, the computer system came to a crashing halt, causing every ATM and teller station to go offline from the database. Essentially, the bank was closed for business. During the crisis, a senior member of the department stopped by and was ranting and raving at the severity of what had happened, and how we’d better get things back online, like yesterday. He then became even more angry because we were “just sitting around talking…” However, after about 20 minutes of us “just sitting around talking“, we identified the cause, corrected the problem, and had the system back up and running… The culprit for all this mayhem and madness, you might ask? This is all it was: “.” Yes, a single period was missing from a line of code that was executed very infrequently… but when it did, all hell broke loose.
In the end, it was a simple solution for what seemed like an end-of-civilization-as-we-know-it problem.
So, for the struggling photographer, instead of searching for intricate and highly-involved fixes, or hunting down the elusive magic bullet, could the answer be as simple as implementing an easy-to-understand system that anyone can work, given some basic instruction?
I believe so.
Coming Soon…
Now, in the coming weeks, I’m going to be sharing with you the details of a very simple and workable system for generating all the business you can handle. Properly implemented, you’ll be able to attract the right prospects, connect with them in ways that mean they just “get it“, convert those people into paying clients, and then relate to them in meaningful ways that will last for years.
This is going to be the biggest and most personally involved project I’ve undertaken here on the Zenologue platform, and I’m really excited to be able to bring it to you, in the fervent hope that it makes a difference to the photographers who truly deserve to be successful…
You know who you are, and I’m here to help you reclaim what’s rightfully yours…
Stay tuned and, until next time, whatever you do, don’t give up!
In the meantime, share your thoughts on this topic – I really want to know how you feel about the state of the industry and your part in it…
About Nigel Merrick