Understanding your market and attracting clients seems like an obvious thing to do for any business. Most businesses have a general idea of their market but really becoming familiar with the details of a region and its demand for your products or services can take some effort. Photography is no different but unfortunately for many aspiring photographers this in depth understanding of how to attract business, and then knowing how to put that knowledge to good use, is often lacking.
Why is this? There could be a variety of reasons depending on the individual, but the biggest reason probably has to do with the kinds of individuals who are attracted to this craft. Taking great photos is an artform and artists aren’t always in love with the business side of sharing their talent. However, you can’t earn a living, no matter how skilled or passionate you are if you don’t have someone to pay you for what you do.
How to improve? Before you go jumping into a marketing course or start buying up every book you can find about how to run get clients, there are some things you should consider first. This is important because the last thing you want to do is spend a bunch of energy on something that you may not be excited about, get bored, and then give up. This is a pitfall many creative people fall into when they start to try to use their passion to earn a living. It can be a miserable pitfall to find yourself in.
If the business side of photography isn’t exciting to you there are basically three options you have. The first is to fail, struggle financially, and finally give up. The second is to pay someone else to bring clients to you. The third is to figure out how to change the way you look at the business side of things.
The third option is the focus here. To do this you need to try to look at running your business from a different point of view. You didn’t get into photography so you could run a business. But this is no different from almost all businesses. Successful businesses like family photographers Utah County all started with some kind of passion. That passion was strong enough to get the entrepreneur to link the business side of things to the passion.
You need to start looking at everything on the business side of your business as part of the process of sharing your passion and talents with others. If you’re like many photographers, sharing your work with people and seeing them light up is probably the most rewarding part of the whole process. Well, if you want more of that, you need to get more people to contract you. You’ll need a smooth process for a building your audience, getting hired, and keeping your clients happy so they’ll be excited about the finished product. Try not to think of the “business side” as something separate from your craft. Instead, think of it as an expanded part of the process.
Keep these things in mind as you dive into your marketing research, or creating your website, or setting up a checklist for managing your client’s experience. It’s all part of what you do as a photographer.
