The Basics of Building a Photography Business

1. Introduction: Hi. My name is killed. Alison. I'm a 21 year old photographer slash author slash content creator and welcome to my course . Now, this course is about the basics of starting a photography business. So I'm guessing the rising question that you already have is what makes you so qualified, Mr Allison. And I'm gonna tell you, but I gotta get back, get really into the camera. Not gonna make it this dramatic. It's possible that lighting anyways, when I was 18 years old, I saved up a lot of money to go skydiving with my friends on graduation day graduation from high school. Long story, short drip didn't happen. I instead took all that money and irresponsibly bought a very fancy camera. After I started using that camera to take different pictures, people started to request that I take pictures of them for a little small feet. I obliged those creating my business, not even out of does creating my business simply out of demand. The only issue is is that I was 18 years old and I was stupid. So every issue I had to face I had to face alone. Every issue that involves that is involved in starting a business came to me everything that you think I faced. And that is why I am here to do this course. This course is for people who are looking to start a photography business Basics just what you'll need to get started. If you have these things in your mental bank, I guess you could call it you'll be much more efficient in the business world in the photography business world. Specifically, these are all the things I wish someone had taught me when I first started, for example, niches where you specifically belong in the photography world types of photography. We're gonna get into a couple of those, see if you get final place that you might like to be equipment. Just the basics. What? You might need it once you will definitely need to simply start off branding. What's your face? What do you stand for? Marketing. How are you gonna spread yourself out? Their social media presence and content creation Just a small introduction of those two because they're the most powerful marketing tools that you can use without spending a lot of money on advertising. Those are the basics of starting a photography business. And in learning these things that will make you much, much more of a presence in the photography world. It's a big world. There's a lot of us out there. It is not easy to get in there. And if I teach you these things now and you learn these things now, you'll be a force to be reckoned with before you even know it. I'm just trying to be for you what I needed when I first started. That's it. Before we get into it, I'd like to thank you for watching. I'd like to thank you for taking this course, and if there's anything you need, you know where to find me. I'll be there 24 7 360 million days a year. I think. How many days are you? That was done? That was stupid. 2. Niches & Types of Photography: you know, actually record this course once before and I had a friend of mine watch it with me, and she's Caleb, don't you think you should probably teach them how to do this stuff? She was right. So this is my second attempt, which is a point that we're gonna get into a little bit. The first thing you need to know about starting a photography businesses, you need to find a niche. A niche is a very specific skill set. Simply put. So a nation photography is like right here. This is a picture that I took. As you can see, I have a very specific style of photography, and I like to call it light painting. I like to focus very heavily on the background and how it go inside with subject. So that's a little bit in with Tirso photography, real estate, portraiture, lifestyle, landscape, business, like corporate. There's a lot of them out there that's just the name of few. But those are some of the biggest ones. So those are the broad subjects. You gotta figure out where you want to be. Do you want to be a portrait photographer? You wanna be a landscape photographer and self prints of your landscapes. You want to go into the corporate world and work for businesses and do work for them. That's the first thing you need to figure out. And that's kind of what the class project is about. So once you find where you want to be in the broad world, then you get down and you get more specific. For example, I chose portrait photography, and then I went even more specific. And the Onley way you can find a niche, which is what the more specific thing is. You going to find your broad subject and then you find your niece your very specific in that broad. That sounds weird, but you know what I mean. How I found my niche, which is light like painting I like to call is by shooting simply shooting all the time whenever I could, and eventually I picked up on a pattern and I thought, OK, this is how I like to show These are these. This is my specific skill. This is what I'm specifically good at. People like it. People are willing to pay for it. That's my niche. The class project is kind of surrounded itself around that concept. I want you to get out for one hour, just one hour. That's all it's gonna take. I want you to take many pictures as you can in an hour, whether it's with your phone or your camera or your Fisher Price toy camera. Whatever it is, get out for an hour. Come back, settle yourself down, take a look at those pictures and find one common denominator. One that kind of just You can really see your style in that and all of those pictures, and then tell me how you could turn that into a business. So if I were to the class project, I would go out and take a bunch of pictures, and I would find that most of them look like these ones may have that same stomach, similar style, and I would take one of them, and then I would type of a little document. It says, This is my style. This is my niche. Like painting and portraiture. I could turn this into a photography business by scheduling shoots revolving around this specific skill set. So if you were a real estate photographer or a landscape photographer. Go out for an hour, take a take an hour's worth of landscape shots, find the similar pictures, find your specific style in those and then say OK, well, you know I can. I could sell these prints because it's a very specific thing. Like it sounds difficult. I'm not gonna lie it. Iss No. One Ever since starting in business was easy. But that's the the hardest thing you'll ever have to do. If you know your niche and you know your type of photography before you start, it will make you much more sought after the world. You will be a force to be reckoned with from the beginning, and you'll be making bank before you know it. That's what the class project surrounds. Getting out for an hour, taking a picture and explaining how that's gonna be. How can you build a business around that one picture Sounds difficult. Not gonna line will be easy, but I believe in you. You should believe in you. My dog over there believes in you Cat inside, leaving you. You can do it, you can do it 3. Equipment: Okay. The next big thing equipment. What do you need to start a photography business? Well, for one, you're gonna need a camera. I will say it doesn't have to be a fancy camera. People have this conception that you're going to need the best of the best to start off in this. The only way you're gonna make business as completely false. I started off with an entry level DSLR. I got on sale on Black Friday and I use that camera for about four years. The only reason I upgraded this because I felt like I need to and will explain that a little bit more in a little bit. But again, what do you need to start? You need a camera. I phone DSLR point shoot. Whatever it is you're gonna need account to, I highly recommend a tripod. To get those steady shots, you're gonna need one at one point as well. Get one to start off with. Three. Get as many SD cards and batteries as you possibly can. So you never run out. You don't understand how frustrating it is to needs something and not have, so it's better to have it and not need it. The needed that not happened. There you go. Those are the only three things that you really need to start off. Obviously, lights and stuff are nice. Um, but you just camera make it work to start off with. You just don't need all that much. But if you're looking for an upgrade, that's a bit of a complicated situation. Because, personally, I don't think people show up as much as they do. I have. I have it here in my life. I'm sorry. Um, you should upgrade when you need to know when you want to. You can be so easy to get stuck in that rabbit hole where you just want the best of the best of the best. And, yeah, good put minutes really, really nice. I had my camera for four years before I upgraded, and when I upgraded, I thought, Oh, my gosh, there's no way I can ever, ever go back to anything else. But the point about it is is that when you upgrade when you need to know when you want to, you challenge yourself is a photographer and you build up skill a lot easier. It could be easy to get good equipment and to rely on your equipment instead of your skills . So if you I want to say you could get cried the equipment. Keep what you have to use, what you have and try to build your skill around adapting to starter equipment. You're building your skill that way. I know it sounds on, but trust me. And if you have a DSLR, don't focus so much on the on the body camera body focusing more on the lenses. The only reason I got to keep my camera body for four years because every time I felt like I was stagnating instead of replacing the camera body, I would just buy a new limbs and that would completely change my work. I went from a 24 millimeter pancake toe, a 50 millimeter portrait lens, and my photography was completely different and start over and find a whole new niche because my angles were different and my style was just completely changed. That's the thing I have graded when I needed to know when it wanted you, and after a while I finally got new camera body and it was nice. It was worth it. I got to adapt to only thing. So basically, starting off a photography business, you just need a camera. Batteries SD cars Tripod. I need to start off upgrade when you need to. Not when you want to. You'll save yourself a lot of pain later. And your wallet will thank you. 4. Branding: okay. Branding can be very difficult, but also the easiest thing you'll ever do. You're gonna want a face for your business, Whether it's a logo or just literally your face. You're gonna want something that reminds people that your business exists, and they're gonna tie it right back to you whenever they're thinking about photographers. So personally, I use a logo. I developed my logo on photo shop, and I will say I've gone through about 30 million logos because I'm never satisfied with the one I make, and there's a couple times where I use my face. But then you'd only see her said You can only see your face so long before you're like, OK, I don't want that face of my business. So I highly recommend coming up with a logo, designing it yourself or getting someone else's. Design it. We're getting someone else to design it, because it will make it much easier to to have a brand. When you have a brand as a photographer, people will remember, remember, You know, if you you could go think of O Reilly's auto parts, you know that song that they sing, you know, with like for example. Coca Cola. You know that logo? You know very well the apple logo. It's just an apple. Keep it simple, Keep it memorable, and people will always manage to tie your business with that logo. So whenever they logo anywhere there, that's Caleb's photography business. I know that one. Yeah, it's pretty simple, actually. To have a brand that's the first and most important thing you're gonna want to do. And that ties in a little bit with Social Media marketing because you're definitely gonna wanna put your brand on social media separated from you and your personal pages and stuff like that. You're gonna want to have its own dedicated lying to its consumers. Because, for example, my photography. I immediately started posting it on my personal page, and I realized I wasn't getting the feedback or the reactions that I wanted, And it was because I was trying to appeal to a audience that didn't, you know, sign up for that. I signed up to hear about my personal life, and here I was posting my business work. But when I made a business, pages started dedicating photography to that page. I started getting likes that we're looking specifically for my work. You see what I mean? You see what I'm saying? Having a brand having its own separate entity allow for you to build a following that's dedicated to your work? It's pretty simple. The really complicated part comes when marketing and social media become a thing, so 5. Content Creation & Social Media Presence : Okay, So marketing and social media presence is the single biggest saying when it comes to building growing, expanding your business, remember, we're just starting out. This isn't complicated stuff. This is just starting out. And starting in the photography world could be very difficult because, like I said, there's a lot of supply and only a mediocre amount of demand. So you've got to stand out. You have got to stand out. Don't let that scare you. You are a great photographer. Obviously, you want to get into business, you have something to offer the world and the photography world in and of itself. So okay, marketing is different than advertising. Just get that out of the way. Advertising is is the traditional appealing to a very specific consumer. It's like the ad you get inside your Facebook feed or the ad you get on YouTube. They know what you want. They just, you know, kind of reminding you, Had this exists, you should click this, But marketing is much more specific. You're not appealing to anyone. You're simply telling a story or trying to convey to your consumers that you know, you're you're a big company. That's all I can really think it, for example, is Pride Month. And there's a lot of companies there reminding everyone else hates were supportive of this . That's marketing. That's a very good marketing strategy. That's what you need to be doing. You need to be marketing, not advertising. Advertising is going downhill. Marketing is the way to go. So I'm gonna give you two very specific ways to market. These are the two quickest ways you will grow your photography business. I swear you will be on the top of the ball game before anyone else can even say your name. One. You need to have a good social media presence. I know. It's very, very. It sucks. It sucks. I'm not a big fan of social media, but to have a good photography business, you really need to be on it. Need to be on the Social media game 24 7 Man, you gotta be posting at least once a day and you gotta be sharing out your work. It's gonna be really hard. First, you're not gonna have that many followers, and I'm gonna get that much reaction. But the world work you put into it every day the more, um the bigger your Ryan's will get, more interest yielded up. So what I'm thinking with the easiest way to get a lot of likes to get a lot of reactions to go check out your instagram algorithm. Find out when the people in your city are the most active post right there. For example. People in my city are most active at 5 p.m. On Monday's of in six. That's when I post twice a week. I'm telling you my interactions with through the roof, especially with Hashtags and stuff like that. A lot of photographers and my city or trying to you know, either get together or work against each other. You don't talk about Social Media Game. You'll notice a difference. So you need to have a social media presence. Instagram Facebook, even Pinterest Ventures is a weird one. Only thinks of interest. Snapchat, tic tac even know that one sounds new, but YouTube Here we go to first of social media presence, the second most difficult but most rewarding way too easily. Market your business into fine growth is too develop content content Creation is the biggest thing on the Internet right now, That's why you're watching this video right now. This is content creation. This is marketing. There is a book on business written by Gary Vaynerchuk, and he says to document, don't create it is the easiest way to make content. If you're just document your troubles and your your growth. If you literally just document you creating your business and all the troubles that go with it and the building of your business, you really don't even have to create anything. You didn't have to make any content you're just documenting was going on. You possibly You post that stuff boot. That's free content. It's free marketing. People are gonna watch that when they want to develop a photography business of their own, they're gonna watch you. They're gonna learn from your mistakes as you teach them your mistakes. You know, it's like a big loop. And technically, I guess that's kind of been doing here, telling you my mistakes, you know, from future documentation. It's the easiest way to do content creation, best sellers to a kind of creation and most social media presence on the easiest marketing techniques there is, they're the mainstream thing right now. If you do these, both you will be through the roof and no time 6. Conclusion: So that's the end of my course. I want to remind you that all of this stuff ties back to your niche ties back to your class project. Just get out there, man. I don't know what you're doing right now, but just get out there and shoot for an hour. Find that median find. Find that common denominator. What is your style? Analyze your pictures. You gotta understand why you're going into the photography business in the first place. Do you have to know before you start a business, you gotta know why. You know what you're gonna sell, And finding your knees is the easiest way to do that. To find your knees again, find your type of photography that you want to be in and find what part of that photography type you're good at again. Portraiture like painting 212 So I want you to get out there. I really do. I need you to get out. You start shooting and you find what it is you're so good at. And I want you to tell me how you can turn that into a profiting business because you are a business owner for the best of the best. You're gonna win this, you're gonna be the top of the game. Top of the food chain you're gonna dominate. But you got You got there first. Unfortunately. So sorry on Friday that you made it to them with this. I want to thank you for watching my skills. Your course. If there's anything you need for me, you know where to find me. If there's any other course you want to teach because you love my energy and you love my Vives, all that shit, all that stuff then just recommended to me. Maybe about Facebook. Instagram twitter, Um, you can use, like, a pigeon. Or, uh um you sent me a letter. I don't know. Yeah.