On the flip side, your role as a business owner is one with many responsibilities. Along with managing the photography jobs themselves, you are client support, marketing, accounts, and business development all rolled into one.
There is also the added responsibility of growing and future proofing your business. There are few, if any, industries where this task is avoidable. Trends change and with that businesses must adapt. Professional photographers have already made the jump from analog to DSLR and with that, they have had to learn to use photoshop as standard.
Looking forward, it could be high tech smartphone cameras that create the next major change in business. Perhaps your business is already having to adapt given the restrictions and changes caused by Covid-19. Being open to change is key to bringing your business into the future. With that in mind, here are five ideas for taking your business forward into the future.
Collaborate With Your Network
Within your network, there are no doubt countless other talented people from all lines of business. A network like this is full of opportunities to collaborate. “Take a good hard look at who you know,” says Roweena Dillon a business writer at Assignment Writing Service and Boomessays. “By writing out a list of who is in your network you can start making a plan of who to approach to work together.” Collaboration opportunities could come from working with real estate agents to stage a home, editors looking for stock images, business owners looking to liven up their website with original photos and so much more.
Refresh Your Marketing
Having a logo and a website does not make your business a brand. It is all about your approach, your business voice, and your business credibility. Use marketing tools to build brand awareness around these elements of your business.
Your marketing should be targeted and the channels you use should be specific to the type of clients you want. For example, if you are a wedding photographer then Pinterest and Instagram are definitely digital platforms that you should consider. Both are used by brides to be for finding inspiration for their big day. For a photography business that works more with editors and businesses then LinkedIn is the place to be.
Lastly, not only should you have a great website but that website must be mobile-friendly. According to Statista, more than half of web traffic comes from mobiles. A trend that is consistently growing year on year. “As a business, this means that your customers want to view your site and portfolio on their phones.” Says Neil Wiseman a marketer at Paper Fellows and State Of Writing.
Showcase Your Talents
Showcasing your talents should be an element of all business marketing plans. Go beyond sharing your portfolio on your website and social media channels and look for bigger outlets to use in line with these. Enter competitions, put on exhibitions, create branded merchandise with your photographs front and center. There is no limit to how often you should showcase what you do and there is no room for modesty in business. Business is competitive and you have to be willing to compete to survive.
Be Flexible
Change is not always an easy pill to swallow. Especially when you have worked hard to set up and grow your own business. By remaining flexible, the process of change will become easier. It also gives you the freedom to remain creative and come up with new ideas for this business. A great example of how being flexible can benefit your business is the photography businesses that have expanded to include photography workshops as part of their business model. This is a great revenue generator but also a useful tool for spreading word of mouth about your core business.
Embrace New Technologies
Photography tools have come a long way since the Giroux Daguerreotype and they continue to evolve at a rapid speed. Staying up to date with technology trends does not mean that you have to invest in every gadget and software tool that comes along. Keeping yourself up to date will allow you to spot the technologies that will help you expand your business inline with your skillset and ambition. For some photography businesses, drones have become an integral part of the services that they offer to their client. For others, it is a certain style of image styling made possible by new editing software.
Being flexible and open are key requirements for any business owner. For photography business owners these skills allow you to future proof your business whilst also expanding your creative ability to enable you to do what you love best.
Katherine Rundell is a business editor at Essay Writing Services and Academic Writing Services. She is a keen photographer and contributes to numerous sites and publications. Also, she is a writer at Essay Roo.