Hey Photographer! Today, I want to walk you through how to follow a photography business plan that allows you scale your business to five figures and beyond. For weekly tips and business strategies, listen to the Book More Clients Photography Podcast.

Photography Business Plan Overview

Here is an overview of the photography business plan which includes 7 categories:

1. Mindset + Community
2. Ideal Client + Niche
3. Pricing
4. Branding + Client Experience
5. Marketing
6. Organization + Time Management
7. Continued Education

Step One: Fix Your Mindset + Find Community

Your mindset is way more important than you realize. Your mindset is the way you perceive the world and it effects EVERYTHING. It’s the people you surround yourself with, he shows you watch on tv, and the stuff you listen to. It is keeping you in an endless cycle of negativity.

If you choose to play the victim or be the Negative Nancy, you will not see success. I’ve seen it time and time again. I can lead a horse to water, but I can’t make him drink. Consequently, I can give you all of the strategy, marketing tips, and encouragement in the world, but if you don’t have a positive outlook on life, it will not do you ANY good.

One of the best ways to get your mind right is to surround yourself with a community that will encourage you. If you’re looking for a photographer community that is positive and will help you grow as a person and in your business, come join our Facebook Group.

Step Two: Ideal Client + Niche

Knowing your niche and your ideal client are critical to booking more! How can you decide your niche? Ask yourself: What is the one photography niche that if you absolutely had to choose one, this would be it hands down? Not the niche you think would make you more money. Not the niche you think there is the most popular in your area. Dig deep into your heart and choose the niche that will truly light you up!

I want you to understand, if you will commit to our niche you will be known as the go to expert. People will have more trust for you. And not only that, but you’ll give back to the industry as a whole. If everyone would commit to this strategy everybody would be seeing thriving business sooner and for longer.

Step Three: Pricing for Profit

No matter what business model you choose, your income is not limited by your business model. Your profit is determined by how you are pricing yourself. If you desire to offer those higher priced offers you will have to be able to deliver on the quality and level of experience that they demand. This takes time. We all have to start somewhere and work our way up.

Stop overwhelming your clients! If you are a photographer and I go to your website to see tons of different options, I will be clicking off. When you are the Jill of all trades you won’t be consistently booked. If you have 24 different package options you are in the same situation. Please create no more than 3 options for your clients to choose from.

Step Four: Branding & Client Experience

Your brand Identity is going to be that thing that makes you recognizable to your community. It goes beyond your logo or your colors. It’s your presence and your reputation. This is the missing piece for a lot of photographers.

Why is it important to have an exceptional client experience? People may not really rave about and okay or even a good experience but, an exceptional one is a different story. If you are not seeing reviews or referrals this might be why you are missing out.

The 3 most important things in your clients experience communication, trust and expectations. Ask yourself: How are you going to be communicating with your clients? How does your client prefer to communicate & when? And then how do you get your client to trust you? Once you have the answer to these questions you can begin to automate the steps needed so that nothing is ever left out!

Step Five: The Biggest Part of Your Photography Business Plan: Marketing

The first question that I always get is, where should I be marketing? I’m going to give you the three things I should say that you need to market with. The three things that I think every photographer needs is a website, one social media platform, and listing your business on Google My Business (Now, Google Maps).

Websites

Websites matter more than they ever have before. Social media just isn’t enough. If you build your entire client base, your entire portfolio, all of your reviews and testimonials on one platform, and it goes down one day, your whole business is gone. ( Remember MySpace? ) You need one place online with a domain that you own so that you can have your corner of the internet. I like to call it your home base. Your website’s important because people can find you. Through SEO, people can accidentally stumble upon your website. It also is very professional.

Social Media Platform

Don’t overwhelm yourself in having multiple social media platforms for your business. Choose the one that you are most comfortable and capable of truly going all in with. For the majority of us, we’re looking at choosing between Facebook, and Instagram. Then you’re going to learn that social media platform, you’re not going to give up. It’s consistency that wins every time. This just takes time. I started with one client who happened to be my friend. And then word spread and I had 10 clients, 20 clients and so forth. I’m telling you, what a lot of you are going to find is in that first year, you’re gonna see the consistency start to build up. Momentum is built step by step by step.

Google Listing

Google my Business is a game changer! This is totally free to do and allows you to be found by your ideal client’s anytime they are searching for a photographer in your area. Google My Business is where you are going to be sending your clients to leave all of their reviews. But, just be ready because it really does amazing things for your business.

Photography Business Plan Step Six: Organization & Time Management

Instead of wishing you could find more time, become the master of your time. We do all have the same 24 hours in a day. The difference is we’re all choosing to fill our time with different things based on our kids, our careers, our relationships, etc. The reason that you feel like you need more time is because you aren’t really sure what you’re supposed to be doing.

Organizing your business is something photographers wait way too long to do. You think ‘when I am booking more clients, then I will get my backend in order.’ That is not the way to do it. You want to be organized from the very beginning and use as many systems and processes as possible.

Step Seven: Continued Education

I don’t think that there is a photographer under the sun that would be excluded from benefiting from more education. This might be anything from business to editing skills to shooting skills. Here’s the good thing, you’re getting photography business education right now by reading this and completing the checklists. However, there is so much more you can learn.

I recommend always investing in your education. And I practice what I preach. I’ve never stopped investing in my education. Now, I realize some of you are in the beginning, I know that you are wanting to hold tight to every dollar because you’re still you’re unsure. And it is a horrible feeling. But, I want you guys to get past that. And I want you to understand that the more you invest, the faster you learn.

Photography Business Plan Recap

As you can see there are a lot of moving parts when it comes to creating a photography business plan. Each one of these areas requires attention to detail. Don’t let this plan overwhelm you! Instead, take it one step at a time.