10 Ways to Build Your Photography Empire

Building your photography empire doesn’t need to be complicated like photography jobs raleigh. If you have a goal, are willing to work hard, and are even willing to do some of the work yourself, you can turn it into a reality. We’ve gathered 10 ways that will help you build your empire.

1. Brand your work

Even if you’ve never heard the term “branding” before, you’ve probably built a brand without realizing it. You see whenever you choose to do something, that choice inherently becomes a reflection of your values and what it is that you believe in. If you’re making wedding albums for $150 per album but your competitor charges twice as much, then there must be some qualities about how you conduct business that make people willing to pay more for your work. In short, you are branding yourself by choosing the price you charge and what goes into each album.

2. Get your name out there

Making a living as a photographer is not easy, so you have to do everything you can to make sure that your name is recognizable. A great way to do this is with photography contests. There are several hundred going on every day and by entering you’ll get your work seen by thousands of potential clients who will be willing to check out your website (and buy prints) after checking out what kind of images you’re producing. The next thing is building relationships with various businesses and even people who are likely to hire photographers. The Internet makes building these relationships a lot easier than it used to be, because nobody cares where you live if they can email or call you easily.

3. Focus on quality, not quantity

More isn’t always better. If you’re focusing on putting out as many images as possible and that’s your primary goal, it’s going to be very difficult to build a photography business that will make you any money. Your images need to be of the same high quality no matter what the situation calls for. Have a primary focus for what you’re going to be good at and then just focus on being good at it. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this is very important!

4. Use the tools at your disposal

There are any number of online tools you can use to help boost your photography business. You can use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and a variety of other tools to get your name out there and get people interested in hiring you. Another tool is providing editing services for wedding clients. Most photographers have some kind of editing software in their arsenal and will be able to do simple touch ups for their clients, but if you want to be better than everyone else, learn some more sophisticated editing software so that you can do even more for clients.

5. Always be learning

You never stop learning in business, so never stop improving yourself as a photographer and never stop trying to get better. If you want to stand out from the crowd, you have to show your clients that you’re going to provide something they can’t get anywhere else. 

6. Have something unique

Having awesome photography skills is important, but if you want to make some real money, you need to set yourself apart from the rest of the pack by offering something extra that competitors won’t offer. This could mean doing things like helping clients with digital asset management or even offering editing services beyond what most photographers are willing to do. 

7. Don’t be afraid to go out of your comfort zone

This is a hard concept to explain and a lot harder to live. Most creatives have safe zones where they rarely go and never cross. What that means, in effect, is that you’re not going to get the results you want if you stay within your comfort zone too much. If you want to make money as a photographer, you need to know that anything is possible and when people are open-minded enough, they will give you their business no matter how crazy your ideas might be.

8. Don’t rely on one form of income

If you want to build a photography empire that makes you real money, you need to be ready for anything and not be too reliant on a single form of income. For example, even if your business is more about prints and albums, that doesn’t mean that digital sales are out of the question. You might find most people are just buying your albums, but some might want to invest in hard copies and digital files as well, so don’t be afraid to sell what they might want. You never know what a client is willing to buy until you ask or until they show interest in the idea.

9. Study other photographers

One of the biggest things that separates the good from the great is how much they’re willing to study. If you want to make photography a big part of your life, you need to be willing to do extensive research on your own and learn as much as possible about other photographers. There are a ton of resources out there for learning about photography, so don’t be afraid to go digging and read online articles, listen to podcasts and view video tutorials, etc. This will not only help you learn more about what other people are doing but it will also help you realize that there is always more to learn so stay hungry and ready to learn all you can. 

10. Choose the right clients for yourself

If you decide to become a full-time photographer, it means that you’re going to want to do a lot of photography and likely take on a lot of projects. Choosing the right clients for yourself is very important because these are people who can afford you as your pricing goes up. For example, if you’re just starting out and working with weddings, then it makes sense that your prices are going to be high since most brides will expect to pay more for wedding photography. But once you start getting established, you need to choose clients who will be willing to pay what it takes because they have money to spend and won’t mind spending it on a good quality photo shoot.

Summary:

There’s no question that building a successful photography business that becomes a lucrative way to make a living is possible. You just have to be willing to put in the work and do whatever it takes and sometimes that means risking failure. Remember, though, it doesn’t have to be easy and won’t always be easy. But if you do want to become a photographer, there are many different routes you can take in order to become one and most of these are really worth taking.