Running a photography business is stressful to start with, but add the emotional connection between partners or spouses and you have the potential for greatness or tragedy. So, how do you successfully work with your spouse or life-partner? How do you decide to divide up the daily business duties and responsibilities? For those who are successful, what advice can they offer to...
The highest goal of presenting your portfolio is to move yourself from the big pool of "unknown" photographers to the pool of "known" photographers clients are likely to hire. To do this, help the clients hire you! Don't just passively show your portfolio. Find out what your prospective clients do and what they are looking for and present that...
Photography is a business of relationships, and your website is often the first contact you have with potential clients. Your website must make a prospective client feel comfortable and ease the anxiety that many clients might experience when considering a different photographer. For some thoughts on building this better website we interviewed Michael Costuros, Founder/Director of...
I first met portrait photographer Marilyn Sholin when both of us were teaching classes at the Golden Gate School. Impressed by her wonderful images, we talked about business every chance we could that week. I was quite surprised to learn that Sholin was working with a rep, usually a business relationship reserved...
Donna Poehner has a unique perspective to offer on the subject of travel photography. As an editor and writer, she has worked for F+W Publications for the past 11 years. In 1999, she became editor of the widely read sourcebook Photographer's Market (www.writersdigest.com). In that time, Poehner has learned a lot...
To answer some current technical questions on the digital aspects of the business side of stock photography, we talked to three industry veterans: Rohn Engh of PhotoSource International (www.photosource.com), Rick Rappaport, owner of Rick Rappaport Photography (http://www.rickrappaport.com"...
Whether you have been in business two years or 20, it can still be discomforting and difficult to discuss pricing if you don't know what to say and when to say it. Getting paid what you want is all about what you do and say at the beginning of a client relationship. It is very hard to try and change later. To get paid what you want you will need a clear and concrete...
The best source for new business is still the last client you worked with. It can be 5-10 times more expensive to be constantly looking for new clients as it is to keep the ones you already have. It is more expensive because you will have increased marketing costs (and spending overhead) when it takes 10 clients to bill 10 jobs and you are constantly marketing for jobs instead of...
Digital event photography is providing high-quality photos with a quick turnaround time at an event where people are highly motivated to buy photos as a momento. With the proper equipment and marketing, this profit center could be added to any type of photography business. For commercial photographers, these...
How do you make the transition from hobbyist to professional? What are some of the basic requirements for success? How can you get a competitive edge? How do you get started? These are always questions I get asked in my own seminars and workshops. For some answers, I interviewed Chuck DeLaney, professional photographer for 25 years and Dean of the New York Institute of...
From the start, everything about this photographer's success story fascinated me. First, Robin Hill was born in Nottingham, England (home of the legendary Robin Hood), and moved from England to Miami, Florida. Talk...
Networking for your photography business means connecting on three different levels: with your client network, your community network, and your peer network. To illustrate this, I selected, Women In Photography International (WIPI), to explore the business opportunities a networking organization...
I often speak on the topic of "Marketing in Today's New Economic Climate" and when looking at the topic of client diversification and expanding your photo markets, fine art photography keeps coming up as a viable addition to your...
Always looking for a competitive
edge in today's marketing, I came across an unusual program for
promoting photographers called AtEdge. What makes this promotion special
is the entire program is limited to 150phot...
I have seen a lot of web
pages from photographers in my role as photo rep, writer, and consultant,
so it was especially rewarding to spend some time with photographer
Rick Etkin and discuss his new website,