Do you think you need the best gear and a cracking website before you start your photography business? … you don’t need that.
One of the biggest photography mistakes I see is people over thinking what they need to get started. If you want to start a photography business from home, just use what you’ve already got, the only reason you want a better website or the latest camera is because you’re too scared to get out there and give it a go.
Let me tell you some things I’ve heard many times — ‘I want to start a studio but I need half a million dollars to set it up’ — no you don’t, go to the park. ‘I want to start my photography business but I need to finish my website’ — no you don’t, get in touch with them, set an appointment for the shoot, take the photos, tell them if they don’t like them there is no obligation to buy them, maybe even give them a free one for their social media or something. ‘I need a better camera’ — no you don’t, use the one you’ve got, they’ll never know the difference.
I’m Mark Lait and I created a portrait photography business which turns over in excess of a million dollars a year from nothing, if you want to learn how I did this, check out our you tube channel and while you’re there, subscribe to the page and make sure you ring the bell to stay informed.
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photography business tips I can give you is just to start, when you give someone the result they want, and you don’t need anything.
Studios, websites, expensive cameras — they’re great to have but you don’t need them to get started or make money. If you’re saying these kinds of things then stop it because they’re just excuses and you’re only kidding yourself. There’s a video on this page called ‘Starting Simply’ which goes into this a bit more but I felt I needed to make a point of this because I’m getting a little but tired of people telling me that they’re not ready, when will they be ready? When will you be ready? Have you got a camera — yes, have you got a park nearby or a leafy backyard — yes, have you got some editing software — yes — everybody has nowdays, have you got a TV to show people their photos on — yes — then you’re ready. If you have got these things, the only thing that is stopping you is yourself.
Do you want to make money as a photographer? If you do, you can’t afford to be a scaredy cat — this is business and they are customers, if you let them walk all over you, guess what? they will! Business can be brutal but what happens to you is your choice. My choice was to move slowly and start charging the same amount of money as my peers from the start, it works, when people ask me how to start a photography business I tell them to start by finding out whether they can be profitable or not and a great way to do that is to get the document called ‘Knowing the cost of a session’ you can download it here
You don’t need state of the art equipment, you don’t need 1000 fans on your facebook page, you don’t need to wait until you’re ready because you’ll be waiting for the rest of your life.
So what do you need, you need what you already have, you need to be stubborn, you need to believe that you can do it, other people have so why can’t you?
I’d be grateful if you would share this and I look forward to hooking up again in the next lesson when I’ll be talking about why you’re never too old to start a photography business — see you then.