Professional photographers need to juggle a lot of balls at the same time. Every project you do comes with its own set of requirements and circumstances, travel is often necessary, and you've got lots of paperwork and admin to keep up with. But it can be a rewarding career, despite all the administrative tasks that come with being self-employed.
Here are some of the business basics to running your own photography business.
Build a portfolio and create a website
One of the best marketing tools small business owners can use is having an online footprint for people to stumble upon your products or services. When you get into photography, your first task should be creating a professional website and building a portfolio.
Your website portfolio should highlight the area of photography you're looking to break into and showcase your skills. If you want to be a wedding photographer, you could set up a few online galleries of weddings you've taken pictures of and allow people to browse through them. You can highlight different styles like reportage or more posed shots.
Your website should also contain contact information and information about you so people can get to know you. People will hire a photographer they like, especially for events as intimate as weddings. In commercial photography, your personality matters less, but you still want to have some information about yourself up there.
Getting clients
There are a few different ways to attract clients for photography jobs. You can use freelancing websites like Upwork and Fiverr to advertise yourself; you can also use your website as a marketing tool and create social media accounts and pages for people to find you that way.
Social media
An excellent way to get clients for your photography business is to advertise yourself on social media. This could involve setting up pages on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok and creating regular content. When your content reaches people’s social media feeds, then they may subscribe and engage with your content,which could turn into clients further down the line.
Instagram is the best platform for a photographer to use. You can showcase your photography style and high-quality images. You can create sponsored content to reach more people too. Social media pages don’t just need to be for attracting clients. They’re also an effective client communication tool. People can message you to ask questions and schedule appointments and meetings via the social media platform.
Building yourself up in a community and developing an online presence is highly important to marketing yourself as a photographer and getting potential clients. When you're a self-employed photographer, anyone could be a client, and everything could be a networking opportunity.
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