How To Become A Full Time Photographer
1. What happens if you DON’T succeed?
You have to go hard. Just like you would at your day job. But here’s the problem - the risk is higher with your day job because you use that money to pay your bills. You don’t want to get fired. You NEED to show up. How can you apply this same attitude to your photography career? Maybe it’s having an accountability partner. Or perhaps giving yourself six months to earn a certain income.
Working on your photography career has to become a non-negotiable. I was working at a part time job a little over a year ago. Usually most people would claim their job as their main hustle then tell people they do photography on the side. This way of thinking disrupts your overall perception of what’s important.
I flipped my mindset to consider my part time job as my side hustle and I saw my photography work as my full time business. This will help with your weekly and daily priorities. This will help you, prioritize YOU.
I wrote a blog outling exactly how my calendar looked when I first started my photography business. You can read it here.
2. Become the expert, or appear to be one
Self promote, and get comfortable with being “annoying” - Yes. Post, post, post. Sell, sell, sell. Talking about what you do is the LEAST you can do for your business. The minute you feel like “you’re doing too much” or people are getting tired of you, PROMOTE YOURSELF SOME MORE. If you aren’t going to do it, who will? And the one point I always make - even if people aren’t booking your services now, it may simply be because they don’t need you right now.
BUT you want to be the first person they think of when they DO need your service.
I have a 30-page guidebook out called “How To Get Clients” that will provide you with monthly and weekly action steps to build your portfolio and get your first few inquiries.
3. Give people a reason to trust you
Personal branding, we hear this a lot, I know. But creating a strong personal brand is essential to your growth. It’s literally taking your personality, your values, your beliefs, and adding some consistency (and style) to it that allows people to eventually trust you. This is why it will always be important to understand your why and WHO your target client is because it links directly to what you stand for and what matters the most to you.
Your voice is important. Showing people HOW you work and walking them through the process is just as important as showing the results and testimonials.
4. Get your systems in place
Get organized with your booking process. You should have a systemized approach to handling invoices, contracts, scheduling phone calls, etc. Clients should never be confused at any step of your booking process. Always offer to hop on a call to clear things up if need be. I use Honeybook to manage my clients and ClickUp to manage my daily tasks and business goals.
I just don’t think you’ve been working as hard on yourself as you know you could be.
Be intentional with how you are using your time.
Create deadlines for yourself and stick to them.
You got this <3.
Some links that can help:
How I got my first few clients (youtube video)
Hop on a mentorship call with me
My Amazon Storefront