I started my business in 2017 with literally barely any experience but a lot of enthusiasm and grit. My business building journey was both slow and fast at the same time. Fast, in that I booked a lot more work than I expected pretty early on… but slow in the fact that it took me much longer than I’d like to admit to figure out some of the fundamental parts of being a business owner.
Now that I’m in year 4 of this crazy ride I finally feel like I’m in a position to speak on my experience and share some of my “Do’s” and “don’ts” of the business.
Do get a portfolio
People are not going to book you unless you have photos to show them. You NEED to build a portfolio before you start asking people to pay your for your images.
Ways to build a portfolio
Ask friends and family to take their photos for free
Ask a local photographer to second shoot for them for free
Build a quality website from the beginning
A website is the best way to showcase your work and to make your business look more “legit”
Invest in a domain (don’t settle for a free one – its like a $100 and its worth waaaay more than that in the long run)
Choose a quality hosting service that will be able to accommodate sophisticated SEO implementation (when you progress enough in your business that you care about that) it is a HUGE hassle to move from one hosting platform to another, so just start with a quality platform
I recommend https://showit.co or https://www.squarespace.com
I know wix is cheaper but in the long run their SEO capabilities fall short
Post on instagram like a business person
it will undoubtably feel awkward and weird at first but just do it
If you post on instagram promoting your services or even showing people that its something you are currently doing you are going to see way more results! (my business comes 75% from instagram and I’m not even that good at it)
Business License & Insurance
The second you start charging for your work you should invest in a license and insurance
It’s so important to protect yourself and your business
It feels like a big expense at first… but imagine how much of an expense it would be to replace all of your equipment if it were to get stolen…