The day comes when you realize that your little photography hobby is quickly growing bigger. You end up spending a lot more money, time and effort in your hobby and find yourself faced with that serious decision: Should I commit to my hobby by starting a photography business?
When you decide to go with photography as a business, you are now opening yourself up to a lot more responsibility. Whereas before, as a hobbyist photographer, you would only focus on your craft and the technical intricacies of photography, now you are faced with running a business as well. It is a rare instance when you will strike a good balance between being a photographer and a business-man from the get-go. Being one will not necessarily make you good at being the other. You will have to consider a lot more aspects of the business as a whole in order to turn it into a successful one. Some of these aspects are legal, finance, marketing and management related. Paying attention to all of these and taking great photographs is a sure recipe for success.
‘Excuse me sir, do you have a license for that camera?’
Most people wonder whether a license is required to become a professional photographer. The simple answer is no. You do not need a license to operate a photography business. As long as there is someone willing to pay for your photographs, no-one will stop you doing what you do. One thing you do need to keep in mind is the fact that when you are running your business and start incurring expenses, you may prefer to declare such expenses as a tax deduction on your income.
It will be at this point that the IRS will want to know whether your photography endeavor is a hobby or a full fledged business which generates income. In situations like this, there is no hard and fast rule for them to ascertain if you’re running a professional service or if you’re simply engaging in a hobby. They will, however, go through your records to determine if there are any specific patterns in your finances which give an indication of your work. Consider an example where you have entered a deduction for travel to Thailand. If you have specified this as an expense incurred as part of your business, then the IRS will want to know if any money you have coming in is a result of your trip to Thailand and the photographs you sell. If it doesn’t check out, then you will have some explaining to do.
Photography Inc. - How Do I Form A Company?
These days, there are a number of different ways you can start up a company. Incorporation has evolved to a point where you will most likely find that there is a type of company for your specific business. You could even incorporate under a Sole Proprietorship and do business like that. One other, more simple, option would be to incorporate as an S Company. This sort of company greatly simplifies the work required to file your tax returns and all the paperwork that goes with it. In this type of company, you do not need to have extra or separate paperwork for filing your tax returns. All you would need to do is to include any profits or losses of your business in your individual, personal tax return. For instance: Assume that your income is about $150k and your photography business has generated you a profit of $15k. You will have to combine your income, in this case, and specify a total income of $165k. Then you will be taxed on this consolidated income. If, however, instead of making a profit, you had incurred a loss of $15k, then you would deduct the loss from your income and be only taxed on $135k. This would be one of the most ideal ways to incorporate when you are just starting out.
What if I want to start my photography business at home?
One of the primary requirements of starting your business at home would be space. You will end up saving a lot on renting another place, but at the same time, you need to ensure that you have the requisite space to conduct your business at home. If you consider photography, you will need to have space for storing equipment and chemicals. If you are working with both digital and traditional photography, then you need to have a dark room. You will need to have an office space to work in and perhaps an area where your customers can wait. One point to remember is that if you use your house to double as your work area, you may not be able to consider it as a tax deduction. This is because the law stipulates that your place of work must be used solely for business purposes.
Getting the word out - How to market your Photography Business
When you start out your business, an important aspect you will want to focus on is the marketing. You need to tell as many people about your business as possible. You need to be able to tell people what you do and what services you offer. In a photography business, one of the first things you will need to do is build up a portfolio of the type of pictures you take. As an example, if you are only in the business of wedding photography, your portfolio will need to reflect that. Then what you can do is identify the market to which you want to sell. In wedding photography, you can partner up with people offering more services for weddings: stores which have gift registries, caterers, jewelers. You can approach them and ask if you could leave your brochure and portfolio with them so that they may recommend you to couples planning their wedding. Your brochure needs to be well worded, proofread and be very presentable. It is vital that you strive to make an impact with your brochure as this will be the entire basis for which you will sell your photographs. All marketing material should be proofread and checked by someone other than you for spelling or grammar mistakes.
The preceding are just a few tips for you to consider when starting up your photography business. Obviously you should expect some initial teething problems, but these tips will generally provide you with a road map to start off with. Once you get your first few jobs, provided you do great work in a professional manner, your reputation will spread quickly and you can expect to get a regular stream of customers.
If you are keen to start a successful and profitable photography business then you need to do it right the first time. Most people don’t and most often their business collapses. That’s a shame because most people want to be successful but won’t invest in knowledge and experience. They try to ‘go it alone’ to save a few coins. The differences between success & failure are based on 3 things; knowledge, experience and action. If you are sure you’ll take action then you just require the other two elements. Learn to start a profitable photography business.
Showing posts with label photography business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photography business. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
How Do i Start A Photography Business?
When you consider photography, or any hobby, as a potential business, the first thing you need is a business plan. In this plan, you will be able to define your business, what you want to accomplish and how you will achieve your goals. The plan can help you organize your thoughts and can also act as a motivator in making your dreams a reality. There are qualified individuals who can act as mentors to you and also develop customized plans to address your specific needs. Think of the business plan as your own personal encyclopedia; one that you can use to document all your planning, strategies and financial matters down to the price which you will charge per photograph.
The fundamental aspect that you need to look at when you start your business is how much you are actually planning to charge per photograph. This should be a prominent entry in your business plan along with calculations on how you arrived at this figure. When trying to determine what price to charge per photograph, you will need to consider several factors: broadly, they can be grouped into your startup costs and the price per photograph that your competition charges. A good starting point is to evaluate the competition. What are other photographers charging per photograph? It will make sense for you to research the prices of photographers who have very similar profiles to you. They should also be fairly new to the business and offer similar services as you. As you progress and your business grows, you can continue this habit and ensure you remain competitive by either matching their price or bettering it. If you make a name for yourself and your photography becomes more sought after, you will be at an advantage to charge a premium for the services you provide. In reality, however, you will probably want to lower your rates so that you can beat the competition by offering a better service for a lower fee. If you position yourself to cater to a niche market with a higher demand and you find less photographers in your niche, you will then have an opportunity to raise your price per photo.
One other important aspect to consider when you embark on a photography business is your finances. You will need to consider all costs involved from setting up to delivering a finished product to a customer. Document all fees incurred; daily running costs, both fixed and variable, and also be on the lookout for any hidden costs that can creep up. When starting out, try to begin on a realistic budget which you feel you can manage. Bear in mind, however, that to launch and maintain a successful business you will need to have sufficient funding to ensure your business grows. This means having a marketing budget. You may want to focus more on the marketing as your sales pick up. Be vigilant that your marketing budget is utilized in a very efficient manner so as to maximize your exposure to your target markets. You will constantly need to market both yourself and the unique nature of your photography in whatever theme you choose.
Include details such as a business description, name of business, experience in the field and any qualifications you hold in your marketing strategy. Provide an insight into your technique and what you are capable of in some sample photographs. Include pricing details for your services and where or how you can be contacted. Your contact information is very important. Without this, people will not know how to reach you. Here are some things to consider:
1. Does your marketing material project your name and services in a compelling manner? Look at all your material and make sure the correct message is being delivered to your customers. Does your material answer some of your own questions if you were a customer that is considering the services of a photography business?
2. One mechanism of marketing your business and yourself is your website. How user-friendly is this website? Does it take several clicks for a user to navigate through to a particular page? One of the things you can include is a professionally presented profile of yourself. Information like this needs to be available to the customer at the click of a button. In this day and age, time is a very precious commodity and customers will rarely have time to waste navigating through a bad website. Make sure all important information is at the customers’ fingertips; otherwise they will go elsewhere.
3. Do you present all your services to the customer in a conveniently accessible manner? Are your contact details prominently displayed in your website and any advertisements that you put out? If you have outsourced your advertisement creation, then take a look at the advertisements before you publish them. Having the opinion of your friends and family is another economical way to ensure the advertisements are presentable and appealing.
4. If you are contemplating on using an agency to promote your business, then take the time to research the agency beforehand. Have a trial period during which they try to sell your photographs; evaluate them at each step they take. To ascertain if you are achieving the results that you require, go back to your business plan. See if your targets are being met. Additionally, you may get reviews of the agency you are trying out from fellow photographers.
5. Keep a watchful eye on the prices you charge for your photographs. Do not let unforeseen losses in revenue prompt you to charge very high prices. Your business plan should take into consideration potential challenges and times with lower sales. A good safety net is to have another source of income to ensure your photography business has all the support it needs during its infancy.
6. Your business plan should never be just a static document. It should be a dynamic, living document which you review and update throughout the milestones of your business. It can be a great way of documenting your experiences so that any errors you have made will not be repeated in the future. It is ideal to keep your focus on your goal.You can gain more knowledge at Profitable Photography Business. It’s dedicated to coaching you in starting your own photography business but places a strong emphasis on profitability issues & guidelines. You can also gain many photography resources(some free) from Photography Equipment & Resources
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The fundamental aspect that you need to look at when you start your business is how much you are actually planning to charge per photograph. This should be a prominent entry in your business plan along with calculations on how you arrived at this figure. When trying to determine what price to charge per photograph, you will need to consider several factors: broadly, they can be grouped into your startup costs and the price per photograph that your competition charges. A good starting point is to evaluate the competition. What are other photographers charging per photograph? It will make sense for you to research the prices of photographers who have very similar profiles to you. They should also be fairly new to the business and offer similar services as you. As you progress and your business grows, you can continue this habit and ensure you remain competitive by either matching their price or bettering it. If you make a name for yourself and your photography becomes more sought after, you will be at an advantage to charge a premium for the services you provide. In reality, however, you will probably want to lower your rates so that you can beat the competition by offering a better service for a lower fee. If you position yourself to cater to a niche market with a higher demand and you find less photographers in your niche, you will then have an opportunity to raise your price per photo.
One other important aspect to consider when you embark on a photography business is your finances. You will need to consider all costs involved from setting up to delivering a finished product to a customer. Document all fees incurred; daily running costs, both fixed and variable, and also be on the lookout for any hidden costs that can creep up. When starting out, try to begin on a realistic budget which you feel you can manage. Bear in mind, however, that to launch and maintain a successful business you will need to have sufficient funding to ensure your business grows. This means having a marketing budget. You may want to focus more on the marketing as your sales pick up. Be vigilant that your marketing budget is utilized in a very efficient manner so as to maximize your exposure to your target markets. You will constantly need to market both yourself and the unique nature of your photography in whatever theme you choose.
Include details such as a business description, name of business, experience in the field and any qualifications you hold in your marketing strategy. Provide an insight into your technique and what you are capable of in some sample photographs. Include pricing details for your services and where or how you can be contacted. Your contact information is very important. Without this, people will not know how to reach you. Here are some things to consider:
1. Does your marketing material project your name and services in a compelling manner? Look at all your material and make sure the correct message is being delivered to your customers. Does your material answer some of your own questions if you were a customer that is considering the services of a photography business?
2. One mechanism of marketing your business and yourself is your website. How user-friendly is this website? Does it take several clicks for a user to navigate through to a particular page? One of the things you can include is a professionally presented profile of yourself. Information like this needs to be available to the customer at the click of a button. In this day and age, time is a very precious commodity and customers will rarely have time to waste navigating through a bad website. Make sure all important information is at the customers’ fingertips; otherwise they will go elsewhere.
3. Do you present all your services to the customer in a conveniently accessible manner? Are your contact details prominently displayed in your website and any advertisements that you put out? If you have outsourced your advertisement creation, then take a look at the advertisements before you publish them. Having the opinion of your friends and family is another economical way to ensure the advertisements are presentable and appealing.
4. If you are contemplating on using an agency to promote your business, then take the time to research the agency beforehand. Have a trial period during which they try to sell your photographs; evaluate them at each step they take. To ascertain if you are achieving the results that you require, go back to your business plan. See if your targets are being met. Additionally, you may get reviews of the agency you are trying out from fellow photographers.
5. Keep a watchful eye on the prices you charge for your photographs. Do not let unforeseen losses in revenue prompt you to charge very high prices. Your business plan should take into consideration potential challenges and times with lower sales. A good safety net is to have another source of income to ensure your photography business has all the support it needs during its infancy.
6. Your business plan should never be just a static document. It should be a dynamic, living document which you review and update throughout the milestones of your business. It can be a great way of documenting your experiences so that any errors you have made will not be repeated in the future. It is ideal to keep your focus on your goal.You can gain more knowledge at Profitable Photography Business. It’s dedicated to coaching you in starting your own photography business but places a strong emphasis on profitability issues & guidelines. You can also gain many photography resources(some free) from Photography Equipment & Resources
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Monday, April 7, 2008
Friday, April 4, 2008
Start a Photography Business if You're keen on Photography
Staring your own photography can be an exciting adventure. Before you set up shop, browse the current, local competition to compare and contrast your business field or capabilities to theirs. Photographers truly shine in skill when they embark on a business journey related to a field of particular interest. Hone in on your desires for business purposes and to become a great photographer.
Photographers have a hard time standing apart people in the same field. Unless, they push to put together a portfolio containing photographs with regards to a particular area of the photographer’s interest. Dedicate your business to creating a niche in the market and stand out over the less original artists.
Well known artists succumb to greatness by finding a way to share what they see as beautiful, or a huge impact in their own lives, with the general public. Artists focus on bridging a mental gap between them selves and the audience. Artists relate to their viewers through different mediums of composition, and by focusing on various details not previously given attention to by the general population. Monet, Picasso and other famous painters possessed a talent for creating paintings with a unique vision of the world.
The general public holds a common interest of wanting to view life in modes outside of their immediate perception. Photographers grab a hold of their audience by capturing moments the general public often overlooks. Photographers express great talent through creating a personal experience with a single photograph of particular landscape settings, formidable architecture or other event settings. Some photographers happen upon their success by sharing a photograph originally intended for personal reference. A business filled with enjoyment of hobby innately falls into the lap of the photographer. A photographer, as an artist, presents normal and abnormal perspectives on daily subjects to create a unique statement through a photograph.
Artists are not merely born into great fame. Famous artist’s dedication, focus, passions, inspirations, and deterministic capabilities combine together to create unique and exquisite work. Photographers start their success from a feeling within. They must truly believe in their ability to create great art in order to produce it. An artist cannot be discouraged by not being very popular right off the hinge. Famous artist develop by producing work over time and their talent eventually comes to light of the public.
A variety of Internet-based sites provide tips to up and coming photographers on how to start their own business. Some websites describe methods of personal business marketing with regards to photography allowing business capabilities to expand worldwide. Amateur business photographers learn a great deal by researching other well-known artists online. Research allows the prospective business photographer to seek out answers to beginner questions and learn ways to avoid pitfalls experienced by established businessmen. The Internet allows your work to be seen by several people across the world, rather than the few who might discover you at conventional venues. Connecting with people of common interest through photography presents the most sure shot way to making it in the photography business. Present your attitude and work ethic through exercising passion in business-oriented relationships. Make sure to prepare long-term goals to help keep you within the guidelines of a good business proprietor. Seek out the assistance of business professionals in your field. Setting your goals ahead of you early allows you to focus on the artwork through passion and interest. Otherwise, you will be too busy concentrating on the challenges of having your own business and your artistic ability may decline under the stress.
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Photographers have a hard time standing apart people in the same field. Unless, they push to put together a portfolio containing photographs with regards to a particular area of the photographer’s interest. Dedicate your business to creating a niche in the market and stand out over the less original artists.
Well known artists succumb to greatness by finding a way to share what they see as beautiful, or a huge impact in their own lives, with the general public. Artists focus on bridging a mental gap between them selves and the audience. Artists relate to their viewers through different mediums of composition, and by focusing on various details not previously given attention to by the general population. Monet, Picasso and other famous painters possessed a talent for creating paintings with a unique vision of the world.
The general public holds a common interest of wanting to view life in modes outside of their immediate perception. Photographers grab a hold of their audience by capturing moments the general public often overlooks. Photographers express great talent through creating a personal experience with a single photograph of particular landscape settings, formidable architecture or other event settings. Some photographers happen upon their success by sharing a photograph originally intended for personal reference. A business filled with enjoyment of hobby innately falls into the lap of the photographer. A photographer, as an artist, presents normal and abnormal perspectives on daily subjects to create a unique statement through a photograph.
Artists are not merely born into great fame. Famous artist’s dedication, focus, passions, inspirations, and deterministic capabilities combine together to create unique and exquisite work. Photographers start their success from a feeling within. They must truly believe in their ability to create great art in order to produce it. An artist cannot be discouraged by not being very popular right off the hinge. Famous artist develop by producing work over time and their talent eventually comes to light of the public.
A variety of Internet-based sites provide tips to up and coming photographers on how to start their own business. Some websites describe methods of personal business marketing with regards to photography allowing business capabilities to expand worldwide. Amateur business photographers learn a great deal by researching other well-known artists online. Research allows the prospective business photographer to seek out answers to beginner questions and learn ways to avoid pitfalls experienced by established businessmen. The Internet allows your work to be seen by several people across the world, rather than the few who might discover you at conventional venues. Connecting with people of common interest through photography presents the most sure shot way to making it in the photography business. Present your attitude and work ethic through exercising passion in business-oriented relationships. Make sure to prepare long-term goals to help keep you within the guidelines of a good business proprietor. Seek out the assistance of business professionals in your field. Setting your goals ahead of you early allows you to focus on the artwork through passion and interest. Otherwise, you will be too busy concentrating on the challenges of having your own business and your artistic ability may decline under the stress.
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