When I made the decision to leave my day job and become a fully self-employed photographer, there were a few things I didn’t know, until I didn’t know. So I’ve put together my top 5 guide for photography business essentials. It’s not kit, though you can read about that here!)
1. IT Support
Blimey I didn’t think about this one until I needed it. For my entire corporate life I could just phone a helpdesk and be almost instantly sorted. And thankfully I found the help I needed via Info Security People. For an annual fee of £180 (worth every penny!) I do now have my own IT support, yay!
2. An Accountant
Because I don’t know much about tax or self returns, do you? I use Balance Your Books Limited who for less than what they probably save me in tax, take all the tax return stress away from me!
3. A website
Yes, you could rely on social media alone, but it’s rented space and could go away at any minute! My website was built on WordPress by Saffy Digital and Black Creative Media looks after the techy stuff for me (because I am NOT technical!).
I use my website to blog my work and am slowly getting my head around SEO. I invested in a Keyword Research Report by Zoe Hiljemark and it was so helpful in explaining this dark art.
4. Social Media
I do believe Social media is an important part of your marketing strategy though – I have a presence on both Instagram and Facebook – I just wouldn’t want to rely on these alone.
The key with social media is to just pick one or two platforms and concentrate on doing those well. You can’t be everywhere. You may get to the point where you wish you had help with your social media and want to hire a VA or a Social Media Manager.
A CRM
Gallery hosting software
Editing and culling
5. Community
Because it can be quite lonely running your own business. So it’s good to make sure you’re part of some communities.
Communities I’m part of:
The Shutterhood – an online community for photographers run by the wonderful Anna Hardy
The Wedding Business Club – an online community for all wedding business owners run by Faye Cornhill
Ninedots – A community for Wedding Photographers
All of which are monthly or annual memberships and mostly online, with the occasional in-person meet.
It’s also super important to network and make connections and friends. Don’t be afraid to approach and connect with other photographers either, community over competition always!
Not only is it good to have friends who understand what it’s like to run a photography business, you never know when you might need to send a referral or even ask a favour. I have connected with some wonderful photographer friends via social media, and those have often turned into real life frienships.
I’m part of the Yorkshire Wedding Photographers & Videographers Group on facebook and I also have a brand new event for wedding photographers called Shots and Giggles.
Was this useful?
I hope this was useful in helping you understand some of the less well known essentials of running a photography business. I offer training and mentoring for other photographers – you can find out more here.
