Thinking about starting a photography business but not sure what you need to do first? Then this post is going to be a goldmine of information for you!

I’m going to share with you 5 things you’ll want to have in place before you start a photography business so that you can get off on the right foot. You can always get fancier later, but these 5 areas will allow you to start to make money from your skills.

That was my goal for this post - to help you get up and running with your photography business, in the right way, ensuring that all the basics are covered.

But before we start, I wanted to quickly let you know about a product we have for you that will be incredibly helpful if you are looking to start your own photography business.

It’s our Photography Business Start Up Kit, and in it there’s a full workshop that literally walks you through a framework to help you price your products and services so that you make a profit, based on your experience, your target market and your unique area. There’s a step by step guide that walks you through a complete roadmap for starting your business, from branding to naming your business to finding clients, along with sample contracts and forms, spreadsheets and more.

Ok, let’s dive into the 5 things you’ll want to have in place when starting your photography business….

#1 - An idea of who you serve and why

The first step in any business, photography or otherwise, is first figuring out who your customer is, and why you are the best person to serve them.

Essentially you are asking yourself who is going to give you money for your services!

Although it can be tempting to think you can serve EVERYBODY, you really need to niche down, preferably to just one target market.

What you’ll find really helpful at this stage to create what is known as an Ideal Customer Avatar. An ICA is a simply a pretend person that you create in your head, who represents your IDEAL client!

So grab a sheet of paper and start thinking about your ideal customer avatar.

How old are they? Are they male or female? Do they have children? If so, how many? Do they work? If so, what as? What is their (or their family) annual income? Where do they hang out? What social media platforms are they on each day?

I know it seems like a bit of a faff to take some time out of your busy schedule to write all this down, but by doing this, you’ll have a strong basis for working out the rest of your business, because it affects everything, from the brand colours to use to how much to charge, and even to where and how to market your business!

It’s THAT important, so do take 30 minutes to figure this out.

#2 - A sound legal & financial framework

When you first start out charging for your services, you might not have everything you need (and should have!) in place to begin with, because you were working with people you know, but when you start taking on clients that you don’t know, you’ll want to have a sound legal and financial framework.

You’ll want to know the legal aspect of operating a business, and also how you are going to declare the money you earn so you can pay taxes on it.

This is boring and dull and no-one ever thinks it’s important until you get a problem customer and you don’t have a clear contract in place defining what you promised, or the tax man comes after you for tax for back dated earnings.

So although I get that you may already have done a few sessions for a spot of cash and not declared it, if you are serious about starting a business, then you absolutely need to get your legal and financial ducks in a row.

#3 - Understand how to price your products and services for profit

Ensuring that you understand how to price your services and products for PROFIT is key to actually having a business!

If you don’t actually make money then you don’t have a business, you have a hobby.

In fact, I have seen some new photographers charge the most insanely low prices, so much so, that they are actually paying their clients for allowing them to take their photos. They are literally operating at a loss, not even just breaking even!

The good news is there is a completely robust and easy way to figure out your pricing that doesn’t involve plucking figures out of thin air, asking in photography groups what other people think you should charge, or using other photographers pricing guides for “inspiration”

You want to think about how much each hour of time in your current season of photography is worth, how many hours you’ll spend on each session, and add in the other costs of doing business, such as that editing software subscription, mileage, camera depreciation and everything else that goes into running a business and providing your services.

Don’r forget it you want the full framework on how to actually price for profit, then make sure you check out that Photography Business Starter Kit I mentioned, as you’ll get our Path to Profit workshop included in that.

#4 - Processes and systems

So, if you’ve been following along with me, you know who exactly who your target market is, how much to charge them, and how you are legally going to be able to take their money and pay taxes on it.

The next step is a relatively simple one- figuring out some simple processes and systems.

These will be different depending on your photography business, but the example I’m going to give is one that everyone will need: a process on how you are going to get your beautiful photos to your clients. (I recommend SmugMug!)

Another system you will probably need is how you are going to respond to enquires - for example, will you have a website with pricing that you’ll direct people to, or will you a pricing guide, or do it all over email?

Another one would be, how are you going to get paid?

When it comes to these systems and processes, it’s worth thinking about each step of your client journey, and how you will deal with each one.

As a little side note, if you do something in your business once, have a template for it!

So if your process is to send out a pricing guide with a warm welcoming email letting them about why they should hire you, then save that email as a template so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time, just replace the hubcab :-)

When you start out you won’t have a lot of systems and processes, but just starting to get the bare bones of how you will actually move someone from enquiry to happy paying customer will be useful, so that you don’t panic the first time you do a paid shoot for someone other than your family.

#5 - A Marketing Plan

OK, so now we know who we want to serve, how much we’re going to charge them, a process we can follow from enquiry to photo delivery, and how we are going to get paid for it.

What’s missing?

Customers!

You need to have a way to bring customers into your orbit so that you can actually sell to them.

We can’t expect to decide we’re ready to start a photography business and immediately customers will start flocking to us and making enquiries - you have to go out and find them, and then bring them back to you.

And that’s all a marketing plan is - how you are going to let people know about your business and how they can connect with you.

Word of mouth advertising is the easiest way to get started, so asking family and friends to go out there and act as your “street marketing” team and referring their friends and family to you!

So a simple way to start your marketing efforts is by thinking what will happen if Auntie Ruth has a friend at work who is interested in having a family portrait taken, where can Auntie Ruth send them to find out more about you and see your work?

Ideally you’ll need a website (you can see how to create one here) or just a facebook page, or maybe some images in a portfolio in SmugMug so that you can show what you can do.

You are going to absolutely layer on more advanced marketing strategies as you grow your business, but word of mouth is a great way to get the ball rolling, and will allow you to get the basics down before you start getting more and more clients.

If you want to go deeper into talking about pricing, marketing, the legal side, contracts, websites and all of those things, then be sure to check out the Photography Business Start Up Kit I have for you!

Links & Further Reading

👉 Are you ready to start a photography business? Here’s how to know.

👉 How To Create A Photography Website

👉 4 Photography Pricing Mistakes You're Probably Making

👉 How She Did It: From Photography Beginner to Photography Business in 1 Year

👉 8 steps to creating a photography portfolio

👉 The PHotography Business Start Up Kit

So there you have it - the 5 foundational things you’ll want to have in place before you start taking on paying clients for your photography business!