Building a Faith Based Business as a Photographer

Are you wanting to become more bold and build a faith based business as a photographer? I’ve been asked this question a lot and wanted to have this conversation with another photographer and educator who is also unashamedly sharing her faith too. Rachel Traxler is a Wisconsin Wedding Photographer and Educator. Keep reading or listening to hear our tips on how to have a faith based business.

Are you feeling called to share your faith in your business?

Maybe you’ve been running your business for a few months or a few years and you’re feeling the pull to start sharing more about your relationship with Jesus through your business. That is amazing! Sharing more openly about your faith is a great way to reach potential clients who you can connect with on this value.

I also want to point out that you can be a Christian that doesn’t see a need to talk about your beliefs in your business. And that’s ok! Sharing your faith or not is no indication of your relationship with God. And it’s not always necessary for every business to incorporate their story regarding their beliefs into their brand.

But if you are someone who does want to have a faith based business then figuring out how to do so can be the hardest part.

Five Ways You Can Have a Faith Based Business

The best and easiest approach to start incorporating your values and beliefs into your faith based business is to start with baby steps. Here are five ideas to help you start doing just that.

1. Start to drop bits of your faith into your website copy. It doesn’t have to be all over your website to start. But sprinkle some info about your relationship with God into your about section or fun facts about you to help potential clients relate and get to know you a little better.
   
2. Share things that tie into your faith in your Instagram stories. These can be Bible verses that speak to you, a clip of you at church on Sunday, or let people know what you’re praying about.
   
3. Continue to sprinkle little pieces into your social media and blog posts. Just keep infusing it and talking about it a little more and your clients are going to start recognizing that and using it as connection points.
   
4. Mention your faith to potential clients over the phone or in email. Even when you’re talking with potential clients over the phone you can let them know that you feel as if God led them to you and that is something you value. Then during their session you’ll have that connection point. And you can talk about it in person because you’ve already discussed it.
   
5. Continue consistently adding your faith to your business. As you continue to drop pieces of your faith into your brand you’ll start to feel more and more comfortable with it. And you’ll begin to feel more bold in sharing. It’s these baby steps that can help get you there.

But what if I offend someone when sharing my faith?

The hard part to come to terms with is that eventually you will offend someone. With the business we are in as photographers we are always attracting and repelling people. You are not for everyone and you shouldn’t be! Being yourself and sharing your beliefs are things that will naturally connect you with certain people over others.

So as you start sharing your faith more and more you may start to lose people, you may get unfollowed, you may even get a message or two from someone. But on the other hand you may reach people who are inspired by your message and your story. Maybe you’ll be a stepping stone in their testimony.

Rachel and I both agreed that as we continue to build our faith based businesses, we haven’t had people not wanting to work with us once they find out about our faith. So with both of us being in the photography as well as education fields for as long as we have, that has to be encouraging knowing that yes there are people out there who aren’t going to align with your values. But it isn’t often that they’ll let you know about it.

In today’s culture it’s getting harder and harder to share our faith. But if you have a client or a follower that doesn’t share your values, it’s comforting to know that maybe by sharing your faith you could be the beginning of their journey to God.

Sharing your faith isn’t going to make everyone run for the hills. It may even help lead someone to God.

Don’t Let Fear Hold You Back From Having a Faith Based Business

If you’re feeling led to share your faith in your business the biggest thing stopping you is fear. Fear of what other people think, fear of what they might say, fear that you may never get another client again. So remind yourself that that’s just fear talking. Remember that you want to show up because you are truly aligned in your beliefs and values.

Your faith and your business both make up who you are so it’s important to want to share what makes you you so potential clients who connect with that will definitely find you and want to work with you.

Start incorporating your faith with these 5 ideas

If leading your faith based business is something that you strive for then it’s definitely possible to be bold and share it. The five easy ways for you to start to put your beliefs in front of your followers are:

1. Start to drop bits of your faith into your website copy.
2. Share things that tie into your faith on your Instagram stories.
3. Continue to sprinkle little pieces into your social media and blog posts.
4. Mention your faith to potential clients over the phone or in email.
5. Continue to consistently add your faith to your business.

I know that it’s definitely in God’s plan for me to lead my business with faith. It’s who I am and I just can’t not talk about it when I have this platform. If you do hear the fear talking remember that it’s not something that’s going to make or break your business. You can always try it out and see how you feel. If it’s something that you want to incorporate into your brand and business then keep going!

Was that encouraging? Let us know in the comments and if you have other ideas on how to incorporate your faith into your business then let us know that too!

Rachel Traxler can be found on her podcast called The Gold Biz Podcast. As well as on Instagram at Rachel Traxler.

Want to connect? Discover all the ways you can work with me and let’s grow!