From Passion to Profit – Part 1
From Passion to Profit
by Brett Florens
So, you find yourself with a camera in hand during most of your spare time and you’re the one that your mates rely on to capture all their special moments. You’ve fallen in love with this hobby and hey, you know you’ve got a bit of a knack for it! You’ve been unhappy with your job for a while and started thinking about throwing caution to the wind and follow your passion more seriously.
Does this sound like you? Then I’d say follow your dream, as that is exactly what I did. Just remember though, taking pictures for friends and family for fun is very different to a full-time career in photography. The transition period between hobby and career is crucial to the longevity of your career, as this is where you will position yourself in the marketplace.
I want to help you avoid certain pitfalls, like setting certain precedents that may be difficult to reverse as your career develops. Let me share with you some implementable techniques that will take you from being the friend with the camera that’s too afraid to charge, to being a respected photographer who targets a specific market and earns the income you are worth.
Running a photography business requires a good business acumen. You will not only need photographic skills, but marketing and strategic thinking as well. The transition process can be a difficult one, because when you start asking to be paid for the time you take to shoot the images, as well as the time taken for post-production, you may find that you don’t have as many ‘friends’ as you previously thought you had. You may not get invited to as many parties as you used to, because the familiar ‘Come to my party, oh, and bring your camera’-thing will be a thing of the past.
In simple business terms – you probably will have alienated your existing target market. This brings me to the topic of finding out who your target market really is, and your style of work may influence this. If you shoot imagery that is governed by contemporary trends and fads, then you might find that you appeal to a middle-market type of client, and if you find that you are doing enough work to earn a good living from the middle market sector, then that may work for you.
However, if that business model doesn’t generate enough income, you may have to target a market that is more affluent and has the disposable income to spend on good photography and prints, or canvas prints. This is where internal conflict potentially arises, as you may feel that your prices can deter potential clients.
This will happen when you are trying to attract clients that have a better lifestyle measure, or Living Standards Measure (LSM), than yourself. Your thoughts may go along the lines of: ‘I wouldn’t pay that amount of money for family portraits’. However, just because you don’t have that sort of disposable income, it doesn’t mean that your clients don’t.
I can honestly say that I couldn’t afford to pay a photographer what I charge for a wedding. That doesn’t mean that I don’t think there is value in what I produce for my clients, because I make sure there is. It just means that I can’t afford that amount of money. That is because I personally don’t fall into my own target market.
