Some early business is starting to trickle in, I've made a few sales to the parents from the dance school, and there's a possibility of some further business from them as well. The head of the school saw the gallery and is isntereted in having me do the school's photography next season. I'm going to be in touch with her soon, and I'm planning to be contacting many of the local childrens' sports leauges regarding photos.
I had kind of made the assumption that these positions would be filled, but my experience with the dance academy is teaching me otherwise....
Right now I'm looking at youth sports & activities, family pictures/portraits, weddings, and I'd like to find an inroad to some commercial and architectural photography as well.
That's not too much to shoot for, is it? :-)
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3 comments:
Congratulations on taking the "leap". You have a hard, yet rewarding road ahead of you. I've been in your position before, so if you ever, and I mean ever need any help, have questions, want to run an idea past me, anything at all, just hit me up.
The hardest thing for most photographers to grasp, is that running a succesful photography studio is about advertising and marketing much more than photography itself.
Damien Franco
He is completely right. Advertising is costly and needed. Some free stuff can be done on Craiglist. Not a great yeild from this but it is free. I use photobucket and upload larger photos on there and link them to my website. If you get two job a year it worth the ten mins of work every two weeks or so
I am excited for you! I actually launched a digital photography business several years ago, on the side that grew so large I had to choose whether to continue it, or give it up because it wasn't as secure as my cushy gov't job of 15 years. I gave it up. I still did the occaisional stuff for fun money, but I didn't really persue it because I couldn't give it my all. I'll admit it, I was afraid.
You will find if you are going for the sports and childrens activity crowd, there is such opportunity. If you keep your overhead low, you can really do well. The way to get in is to ask some of the mom's if they are happy. If they aren't, it's your in. Word of mouth travels fast, and I have seen your stuff and you should do incredibly well! My big secret was I priced myself a little lower than the high end competition (who weren't any better than I at the time) and I gave organizations (girls softball teams, cheerleaders, swim teams) a 25% check off the top of my overall sale as a small fundraiser. They ate it up, and I still made a lot of money. You could give back any amount and they really appreciate it and talk to other organizations on your behalf. Just an idea. I look forward to hearing more as you start your venture. Good Luck!
Marc M
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