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How Much will it cost to Start a Photography Business

Now come on, I know you have seen those types of photographers before. The glorified house wife or college student with a new DSLR camera claiming to be a “professional photographer”. Fact of the matter is they are claiming to be a pro and probably don’t even know how to start a photography business at all. Yes they have a camera, a Facebook page, and tons of portfolio of images, that are more than likely friends and family if you do a little bit of research on social media, but they haven’t done the due diligence to learn “How to start a photography business.”

Not only is this a risk for you and your family, this is a substantial risk for the photographer. I mean what happens if you want to get a copy of your pictures a couple years after they were taken, if they aren’t a true photography business will you be able to get your pictures then?

We are saying all this because it takes a serious financial investment to start any business, even a photography business. Fact of the matter is, your customers and potential clients aren’t going to take you seriously, until you think long and hard about taking your business seriously.

So with that in mind, you are probably have a few questions.

How much is it going to cost to start a photography business?

What do I need to know before jumping into a Photography Business?

How much do I charge for a session?

How do I price my services?

In this post I am going to cover What it really costs to start a Photography business, the right way and get paying customers through your doors. See the links at the end of the article for the answers to the rest of the questions.

Lets start with your photography gear. You are going to need four basic elements here.

Camera Bodies

Lenses

Flashes

Tripods

Cameras

When it comes to cameras you usually fall into one of the two major brands when you start shooting seriously. We will cover both here just to be safe. Don’t worry about picking up the kit lenses as they are no where near pro quality.

For our Canon Shooters we recommend getting two Canon EOS 5D Mark II 22.3 MP DSLR Camera Bodies ($1900)

For the Nikon Shooters, we recommend the Nikon D610 Full Frame 24.3 MP DSLR Camera bodies ($1500)

Now you may ask why two camera bodies? Quite simply put, for one you never know when a camera is going to fail and you don’t want to be stuck in the middle of a shoot with no camera. That would be horrible. Two, it is always nice to have one camera with a zoom lens 70-200 for those shots from the back of the church, and one camera with a 35 f/2.0 for those wonderful close-ups handy at all times. Saves you time and help you capture those awesome impromptu shots.

Lenses

This is where it can get expensive as good glass is pricey, but well worth it when you start shooting professionally. The images are much more crisp and clearer.

Nikon Cameras

Nikon 35mm f/2.0: $350

Nikon 50mm f/1.8 Lens: $299

Nikon 85mm f/1.8 Lens: $499

Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 $2400

Canon Cameras

Canon 50mm f/1.4 $350

Canon 40mm EF f/2.8 $150

Canon 85mm EF f/1.8 $399

Canon 100mm EF f/2.0 $500

Canon 70-200 f/4L $600

Flashes

For Nikon Shooters we recommend the Nikon SB-700 at least 2 of them ($329 each) and the Canon Cameras the SPEEDLITE 600EX-RT ($499 each)

Tripods

As far as tripods go we recommend having one good sturdy studio quality tripod and a lightweight travel style tripod that you can take with you on your photo shoots. Both recommended tripods work on both Nikon and Canon.

Studio Tripod – Manfrotto MT055CXPRO3 055 Carbon Fiber 3-Section Tripod ($480) Lightweight tripod – Manfrotto BeFree Compact Travel Carbon Fiber Tripod ($350)

Other Gear

You’ll also need to pickup a camera bag, reflectors, several high speed memory cards, flash triggers, a few light stands, etc. The cost of these items depend on what you want to spend and your style. ($500-$2000) Check our our blog for several different reviews on the camera gear you need.

Basic Business Needs

This part of the post is dedicated to the business items you need to get taken care of in order to be considered a legal business entity. The prices listed are estimated as the actual cost will vary on your specific location, business type, and associated fees.

Incorporating your business or LLC: $125

Annual Accounting Services: Year-end tax filing and a couple of consultations throughout the year. $300

Financal Tracker: Spread sheet system or Quick books $150

Insurance for your Business: $600 per year

Product Samples: $200-$1000 It always helps to have photos or samples up for your customers to see. Especially a variety of them, a lot of times it helps solidify you as a professional photographer and also gives them an idea of what they can purchase. Legal Fees & Photography Contracts – This is the most widely priced service based on geography. Attorney fees can range anywhere from $150 an hour to over $1000 an hour. If you are having them create contracts for you, you can expect to pay between 4-5hours per contract if they are starting with a blank slate. If you have an existing contract and would like them to edit it, time frames should drop down to around an hour.

Because of the complexity, I personally would purchase photography contracts through Rachel Brenke, a lawyer who is also a photographer. She has a lot of different contracts available here at this link on the lawtog.com. By purchasing these contracts you would just then need an attorney to review them for you.

Photography Contracts from Rachel Brenke: $60-$450

Attorney Fees: $400-$2000

Computer & Software

Now onto the Techy side of photography, I personally recommend getting a iMac or Macbook Air with an external monitor. The iMac is a great computer, but I have found time when I owned one that I wish I had the capability to take it with me. That is why I have personally switched to a Macbook Air with an external dock and monitor setup. This allows me to have the benefits of a large external monitor and a laptop at the same time. When you compare the two, the extra cost is totally worth it.

21″ iMac Computer: $1299

13” Macbook Air – $1199

27” External Monitor – $199

1TB Backup Hard Drives: $59 each. Total cost: $120

Screen Calibrator: $149

Photoshop: $120 per year

PhotographyWebsite

Having a well laid out and professional looking website is a must have for sure. You don’t want to skimp here by getting a free website or free wordpress theme to put on your site. Invest some money into getting a professional website developed for you. There are several affordable website designers out there that provide you with a high quality website for a reasonable price.

Website

Domain & Hosting: $72 per year

Website Design: $500-$2500

Photography Hacks: Saved the Best for Last

Now this next section isn’t what most of us would call needs, but it definitely will give you an advantage on getting your photography business up and running quickly.

Many people especially new photographers start a business with out a business plan or any idea of how a business actually runs. There is a lot more to it than just taking great pictures.

How are you going to get new clients?

How are you going to attract the type of clients you want to work with?

Once you have booked a shooting, how are you going to get them to buy your products? Do you have upsells and advantages for them to buy more easily?

How are you going to price your services?

How are you going to process payments? Etc

Most times potential photographer entrepreneurs or solopreneurs do one of two things. They either one, spin their wheels for weeks or months, trying everything to see what sticks or two, they give up because they never get enough steam to keep the business a float.

That is why I have put together a list of courses, ebooks, and trainings below that can help you cut through all the fluff and get down to making money today!

Photographer’s Pricing Guide Workbook: Have confidence that your pricing is actually making you the money you expect it to be making. $149 (or get it bundled with the Easy Client & Money Manager for $229).

Marketog: Looking to find a way to lure clients in with very little money at all? Then this is the course for you. Marketog covers everything you need to know about today’s style of marketing and why it works so well. Don’t waste your time with other programs or courses grab this one NOW. $799

Matt + Katie In-Person Sales Guide: Matt & Katies Gudie teaches you how to maximize your sales after you have booked a new client. They go over step-by-step how to increase your sales without feeling like a crummy used car salesman or too pushy. $249

Drum roll please! We have reached the end of this post and it is time to tally up the total costs of Starting a Photography Business. Now I know some of these components can vary from city to city but I feel like this is a good representation. Granted there probably several things on your list you may feel like you need, but I tried to keep this list as simple as possible.

Total Costs of starting a Photography Business – $14,000 – $20,0000

So for less than $15,000 you can start a photography business that will make you money everyday and get one more step closer to the flexibility entrepreneurship provides you.

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Why Every Photographer Needs a Photography Blog

You heard this before, you need a blog, but chances are you just let those words go in one ear and out the other. I know I have. Or maybe you are the type who has filled your reasoning with excuses why you don’t or why you can’t have a photography blog. Well I’m here to tell you that you need a blog for your photography business.

Word of mouth advertising is great, but lets face it even if I here about you via word of mouth, I’m still going to go check out your website before I reach out to you. You know you would do the same thing too. So lets dive into why you need blog and how to get one.

Why every photographer needs a photography website / blog

Do I really need a blog? It doesn’t really help that much does it? Not another shiny object I have to add to my ever-growing to-do lists. Will a blog really bring me more clients? I’m sure there are just a few questions that you are asking yourself as you are reading this. I was before I got into the whole online thing years ago. But lets face it, if you are going to thrive as a photographer or business in todays’ world you have to have a presence online. No questions about it.

Blogging is by far the easiest way to do this. Even better it is worth its weight in gold if you do it right. Big G, Google, uses and algorithm to rank websites in their search engine and if you can get your website or blog to the front page or the top of the listings more and more potential clients are going to see you.

But how do you do that? Simple, Search Engine Optimization, SEO. Don’t’ worry stay calm I will show you in other articles exactly how to SEO your blog for specific keywords you want to rank for. Today we are just going to touch the surface on the main reasons to start your blog.

Photography Blog vs. Social Media

The only company that changes their algorithm every day, week, and month is Facebook. So if you are relying on social media only or particularly Facebook to grow your clientele I have bad news for you, it is way tougher than trying to get your blog ranked in Google. Not saying it isn’t important to stay active on Social Media, just stating with the same effort on a blog the results are way better.

What your blog is not

Here is what your photography blog is not used for, displaying pictures of your clients so they can see them online. Your photography website is not intended for your current clients, it is intended for your potential and future clients.

What your blog is

A photography blog is the easiest way to find and communicate with new clients and others. The sole purpose is to bring you more business. How does it do this? We could go on and on for days on this subject but I’ll keep it short.

Increase foot traffic to your business

Increase web traffic to your business

Show Professionalism

Develop Trust

Build your Brand

Provide Examples of your work

Etc.

Every post, Every article you put on your blog is sent to Google and its million of Google bots. The more your write on your photography blog the more notes Google gets. The more notes Google gets the more opportunities you have to reach more customers. There is a specific science on how to cultivate the perfect blog post and what is needed to wreak all the benefits from Google, but more on that later. Now lets just focus on getting a writing schedule together to quickly cover the major aspects of your business.

Ranking your photo blog in Google

How hard is it to rank in Google? Put lightly, not that hard when you know what you want to rank for. For example, if you try to rank for “wedding photographer” chances are going to be slim to nil that you will get on page one, because that is such a broad term to go after with a lot of competition However if you go after a long tail keyword like “your city wedding photographer” or “your city suburb wedding photography” it will be much easier to rank. The idea is to write content around these keywords on your blog to help you rank for that specific term.

To make this process simpler we have included links to articles on how to find high search volume, low competition keywords for your blog.

Case Study

Here is a short story on the power of SEO Optimizing your blog. Recently we connected with a fellow local photographer over coffee one morning. That conversation quickly turned into a 2hour long discussion over her website and some actionable items she could take to help her get more clients. She went home that day and made some of the changes we recommended and guess what happened? The very next day her photography blog showed up on page one for that specific keyword. She was so happy that she bought us a cup of coffee the next time we ran into her.

Simply put if you can follow some quick actionable tips and navigate around your blog we can optimize site to get you fast results. All you have to do is follow our instructions.

How to get started

Sometimes it can be stressful thinking how to start a blog or website. There are a ton of free companies out there offering you a free website. Don’t sign up for one of those. It is like renting an apartment instead of purchasing your own home. If you already have a domain name, great we can build a blog on that domain or enhance your current website. If not then the first step is to secure your domain name. “Your business photography.com”

Next, most businesses and photographers choose to build their blogs with WordPress. Not wordpress.com, that is a free website apartment, a self-hosted wordpress.org website. You can get hosting cheap at Bluehost for around $6.00 a month or if you catch one of their sales you can get hosting as low as $3.00 month. After you get your hosting, you install the wordpress framework on your domain, its simply and usually takes less than five minutes. Lastly it is time to start building your website and blog.

One thing to note real quickly, the learning curve for wordpress web design is really steep. It looks simple in the beginning but can quickly become overwhelming. We recommend you don’t try to build your site yourself but hire a professional to help you with your wordpress website design.

There are web designers out there who specialize in photography blogs and websites and can get you a really professional looking site in no time. We do recommend going with the Genesis framework and themes or ProPhoto themes. They are super easy to work with and produce great looking blogs and websites. Most designers can also offer you a social media package too when building your site to help keep your brand congruent across all platforms.

Follow your passion

Congrats you have made it almost all the way through this post. After you get your website up and rocking do me a favor don’t just post to post. Don’t be one of those photographers who put up photos and a couple of paragraphs and call it a day. Readers can quickly see though posts that are not genuine and sincere. Write with the same passion that caused you to pursue a photography business in the first place. Do that with a little of SEO help from us and you will have a full schedule in no time. Thanks for reading this article and feel free to leave us a comment below!

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Starting your own Photography Business, Might want to read this

The minute I bought my first DSLR camera I recognized that photography was my true passion. I really did not consider myself a specialist at that time, but I made certain I intended to become one. Well, the roadway ended up a lot longer compared to I expected. I have learned there’s a lot even more compared to meets the eye when it comes to the photographer occupation.

So let me direct you with the 5 things you need to know before starting your own Photography Business

1. Have a site from the beginning.

Keeping my images stuck on my difficult drive after journeys was probably my largest error at the very start. Think it or not– there was no Facebook back then. The only thing I might do with my pictures was to reveal them to my family members as well as buddies, or … develop an internet site. Which obviously I didn’t do. Wrong.

Currently I know that having a web site is the most effective means to present your job. It’s most definitely not nearly enough to post them to your social networks accounts, as their top quality is terrible there. As well as just what’s the factor of shooting loads of premium photos and after that harming their quality on Facebook or Instagram? Undoubtedly, a presence on social networks is truly crucial, however as a promo tool. And likes are not clients. The only expert way of offering your photos is an excellent internet site.

So, a couple of years ago I developed my own website.  I wished to show my works as well as how I see the globe and also the locations I have visited. Every month I publish there a brand-new gallery from a various place. And my collection currently is rather big having taken a trip to almost 100 nations. Yet most notably, I wished to show the journey I have experienced. That’s how the idea of producing a world map with pins was born. Soon after, my website gathered rather a large acknowledgment from other digital photographers, vacationers as well as web professionals. They praised both the style and also the photos.

No matter what kind of digital photography you do, a specialist website is a need to from the actual beginning of your adventure. It’s your chance to have larger recognition as well as a marketplace. The web site is likewise a place to call clients, to develop your very own brand name, to collect visitors from all platforms in one area as well as most notably to present your images in high resolution

2. Do not stop your long-term work. It readies to have something different.

You ought to constantly have an extra resource of income besides your pictures. It’s not that you should not think in yourself and in your customers, but it’s best to have protection. Specifically when you reside in an area where capturing is period dependent– you’ll have your hands complete in the summer season, some setups in the spring as well as autumn, yet absolutely nothing in the wintertime. I aimed to make my living from photography, but I promptly found out that it’s actually challenging. Having a year-round income matters, but it doesn’t have to be a massive cash-flow. Depending on your abilities, choose just what you like, even a different kind of photography.

Even currently that I have actually obtained some recognition and also there are people who wish to buy my photos and cooperate with me as a photographer, I still have my 2nd service. As well as prior to you even consider asking– indeed, it’s entirely feasible to run a digital agency and also travel the globe. Of program, it’s a matter of great participation with your workers and an outstanding capability to organize your tasks and also conferences, to handle everything. But it’s absolutely practical. In fact, it’s also fairly useful for me as a traveling digital photographer, because it’s easier to readjust the country I plan to go to with the very best period to go– I don’t have to adhere to the summertime time in my area.

Having a sideline is not just a consistent source of money. It’s likewise a means to fix your head around something various. After long hrs of capturing as well as much longer hrs of processing photos, concentrating on a various subject could aid you relax, rest your eyes as well as your mind. Provide your innovative brain a break every so often and concentrate on various other jobs

3. Respond as promptly as possible.

If you desire individuals to become your customers address their messages as quickly as feasible. My time limitation is an hour.

The digital photography market is expanding actually quick these days. There are even more as well as even more people that consider themselves digital photographers, having a DSLR for a number of weeks. Certainly, every person starts somewhere. However this means you have to do your ideal to attract attention. And also as a lot of the clients remain in a big hurry, acquiring and losing customers refers hours or also mins. If you don’t react to them promptly they’ll most likely to another photographer that addresses faster. It’s crucial to be there for people or they will not transform into your customers.

Unfortunately, I had a disappointment here, which offered me this lesson. A few years ago, just when I started with my website, I missed an e-mail from a small hotel which had an interest in my photos from the city they are situated in. Addressing a day later on was far too late as they had actually currently found another photographer. Lucky me, the next time I answered quickly adequate and also offered my pictures to a bigger resort. That was a difficult lesson, but essential for me to comprehend the digital photography market as well as its policies.

Being a digital photographer you work all the time, 24/7. As well as all this time around you need to be available for your possible clients, or you’ll shed them. Having a very easy to discover call web page on your internet site is very helpful right here, but you likewise have to answer emails as quickly as you get them

4. Failure is not a failure, it’s a lesson.

This factor is plainly gotten in touch with the previous one. Also if you make a mistake by addressing an email far too late or there are no customers showing up for a month– never offer up. It’s time for you to concentrate on your second task, or procedure the pictures you always avoided for later on, or … traveling and take even more pictures. The important things is, absolutely nothing must quit you. Failure is simply the nature of doing new points in life and taking threats.

When I began off taking images I believed it would be the busiest time of my life, yet it had not been. Of program, I considered it a failing, thinking “That am I kidding that I’m a great professional photographer?” And I virtually stopped it. Fortunately I didn’t, as well as currently I recognize it would be the greatest mistake. Absolutely nothing involves you right now. It requires time to boost your photos, to promote them, to find out the best ways to arrange the whole organisation. And you should gain from everything that comes your means. Emphasis on your photos, maintain boosting them and also you’ll obtain to your desire factor. Consider me, I’m 100% self-taught.

After every error or failing, examine exactly what failed and ways to stop it in the future. Also losing some agreements or returning house without a single great photo is a great lesson. Stopping working is the very best method to enhance. Focusing on the concern of failing is holding you back, so the earlier you allow go off that worry, the more enjoyable you’ll have and also the even more you’ll attain. You first top priority need to constantly be your pictures

5. Think BIG.

Do not limit on your own. At the start of a job you enjoy with every single task. Obtaining 5 could seem a success for the first few months. However if you have the ability to obtain 5, why not obtain 10 or perhaps 20? And also suppose you finish up with 30? That’s the point of view you ought to aim at. Establish an objective which you want to accomplish in 5 and even One Decade and start working on getting there right from the very start. Be your very own ideas.

As I have actually currently claimed, I was sure I ‘d have heaps of clients today. When it didn’t happen I also did limitation myself. I assumed that possibly just a few sessions will certainly be great. Yet I took care of to obtain myself together quickly sufficient. I wouldn’t be where I am now if I quit after those number of tasks. As well as you will not remain in the place you aim to be, if you limit yourself.

Michael Port, the author of The Think Huge Policy, discusses the four most crucial ways of accomplishing your large objectives: coming to be comfortable with discomfort, establishing the right objectives, surrounding yourself by helpful people and also being a person others desire to assist. He additionally suggests to never ever stop discovering and also trying brand-new things. As his ideas are quite universal, you could quickly apply them to your digital photography service.

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