If you’ve been doing amateur photography for a while and you’re interested in becoming a professional, you’ll need to prepare from many aspects. You’ll need great gear, you’ll need to make sure you’re doing the business legally and you’ll need to handle your marketing and finances. It’s a business after all.
What do you do if you want to start your own photography busiess but you don’t have any business knowledge and you can’t afford to hire experts to do your marketing, finances etc. You’re lucky! We’ve highlighted some of the most important fields you need to handle in this article and we’ll show you how to do it easily.
Let’s see what you need for starting a photography business.
1. Great gear
If you want to be a professional, you’ll definitely need to use high quality gear for high quality images. Your clients hire a professional because they have high standards. Make sure to meet these standards.
It’s OK not to own all the tools at the beginning. Many photographers start their business by renting the camera, the batteries, the backup camera and the speedlight before saving enough money to buy their own. You’ll also need editing software and a powerful computer to be able to edit your photos.
2. Legal and Finances
Handling legal and finances are probably not the reason why you want to start your own business. But you’ll have to do it anyway. Depending on the country you live, you’ll have to register your business and pay taxes according to the requirements. You also want to make sure that you track your expenses and revenues for acoountability and future planning.
If you’re not sure how to do it, ask an accountant to help you with registering your business and paying taxes.
3. Marketing
It doesn’t matter if you’re the best photographer in the world if no one knows about you. You need to advertise your photography business to reach new customers and keep old ones. The easiest and most cost-effective way to do it is creating a few social media profiles on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Snapchat.
You’ll need to work on your marketing few hours a week, but it’s definitely necessary to spread the word about your business espeially when you launch it.
To summerize, three key areas to handle when you start your own photography business: Get the necessary tools for your business, find an accountant or handle your legal and finances on your own if you have experience and do yome marketing to spread the word.