We all want more clients, but are you actually ready for them? The truth is, probably not. Here’s why you’re probably not ready for more clients…

Are you actually ready for more clients?

Do you have a solid foundation set in your business to where if you had a flood of clients come in, you would feel 100% confident that you could handle every single client without dropping a single ball?

Things you need to have in place BEFORE you get all of the clients you’re wishing, praying & hoping for:

• The niche & direction that you’re going to take your business
• A solid pricing structure + packages that actually convert
• Start to finish client experience
• Legal business

STEP 1. YOUR NICHE + DIRECTION OF BUSINESS

You cannot be the photographer that is photographing everything under the sun! I know that I have said this over & over again and I have preached this over and over again, but there are still so many of you that are doing all of the things & you’re wondering why you’re not getting booked. It’s because you don’t specialize in any one thing. No one feels like they can come to you because you are not an expert in any one area.

You have to nail your niche down. You have to have a direction for your business for the next year!

STEP 2. SOLID PRICING STRUCTURE + PACKAGES THAT CONVERT

You need to make sure you have a solid pricing structure & packages that actually convert. If you have not walked through, my newly revamped Pricing for Profit training, now is the time to grab it: FREE Pricing for Profit Masterclass. There isn’t a pitch, there are no strings attached, it is a resource for you to walk through & understand how pricing works in your business and how to start crafting packages that your clients actually want.

If you are teetering on a pricing structure or you’re still not confident enough in yourself to charge what you should, you’re going to reach burnout, you’re not going to be ready for more clients…

What happens when you don’t have confidence in yourself so you stay at these low ball prices. Then, all of sudden you start marketing yourself & getting all of these foundational pieces in place where you’re ready to take on more clients, you get all of these clients, you get booked out and then 3 months down the road you are SO burnt out & resentful because you are working for the bottom dollar price, when now you have all of this experience…

You feel like you’re in a better place to where you should be charging more, but here’s the thing…

You have to raise those prices before you’re even ready for them! So if you’re not ready for that, then you need to take a hard look and you need to go through my FREE Pricing for Profit Masterclass and get yourself ready to where you have that solid pricing structure and packages that you know are truly going to convert.

STEP 3. YOUR CLIENT EXPERIENCE

Do you have your client journey mapped out from start to finish?

If you don’t know how to serve your clients at every step of your process, then you need to make sure that you do this now! It’s CRUCIAL. If your client experience is not ready, if you’re not prepared to walk every single client through the process without dropping the ball, then you need to sit down & do this because chances are you’re not ready for the influx of clients if you don’t even know what your client experience looks like from the time they reach out to you to the time that they get their gallery and beyond…

DO YOU HAVE PROCESSES & SYSTEMS IN YOUR BUSINESS?

Are you doing the same thing & recreating the wheel over & over & over again every single client, every single time?

If you’re doing that, then you’re ready for processes & systems.

When someone reaches out to you…

• Do you have a booking process?
• Do you know exactly what to do with a lead?
• What happens next?
• Do you have a booking calendar?
• What does this process look like for you?

3 Process You Need to Have:

• Booking Process
• Editing & Culling Process
• Delivery Process (How do your clients actually receive their images & is it done in a professional way?)

STEP 4. ARE YOU RUNNING A LEGAL BUSINESS?

This really should be the first on your checklist for why you’re probably not ready for more clients…Are you a registered business? Are you actually reporting your income on your taxes? YOU SHOULD BE. If you want to make the big girl money or the professional full-time income, you have to be doing these things. If you’re not, then you need to get yourself to a place where you can.

The second piece to this, do you have a separate checking account for your photography business? If not, you better get that done as soon as possible or you’re going to run into problems later down the road.

The third & final piece to this, are you taking payment legally? Cash App, Zelle, personal PayPal, etc. are NOT legal ways of accepting payment in your business. If you’re doing this, you’re using platforms that are designed for personal sharing of money, not business. You need to PayPal Business, Stripe, Square, Venmo Business (if it’s available to you), etc. Make sure that you’re taking payments & yes, I know there are legal fees that that go with paying online & using systems that have invoices, but guys…it’s part of having a business. Those credit card processing fees are going to be used as a tax write off for you later down the road when it comes time for you to submit all of this to your CPA.

If you’re not running your business legally, don’t bother with the rest of these things because you’re cheating yourself & you’re cheating the photography industry. If that rubs you the wrong way & you need that fire lit underneath you, here it is! You have to make sure you have ALL of these things in place or you’re NOT ready for more clients.

If you’ve said, “Brooke, I have EVERYTHING you’ve laid out here in place, I’m ready to go and I’m fully ready for more clients”…then you’re ready to come into the From Broke to Blueprint Program, where we’ll make sure we have all these things in place and then go even deeper and learn the marketing strategies to take your business to that next level.

Do you want to dive deeper into why you’re probably not ready for more clients? Head on over to the Book More Clients Photography Podcast to listen now!

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