Photography Money Making Cash Machine
2011-07-14 14:51:55
What would you rather do?
A. Turn over a significant portion of the monthly revenue from your fledgling portrait business to a landlord?
B. Fill your bank account with business stabilizing profit and actually earn a living from your portraiture?
Time and again I get emails from members on my website expressing their desire to "open a portrait studio" and I naturally assume their intention is to have an actual "physical" portrait studio. As my sister likes to say, "Been there, done that, got the t-shirt". I'm here to tell you ladies and gentlemen βΒ€" you just don't need one.
All the world's a stage.
Shakespeare's Jaques said it first and he was right ΓΆΒ€" although I'm taking it a bit out of context;-) Why limit your creativity to one small space when you have the world at your doorstep.
For years my wife and I looked for a home in the country on a small acreage.
Related Coverage
Make Money Online Shooting Amateur Photography
A camera + computer + Internet connection = business online today. A simple business plan to start raking in cash. Make Money From Photography
Make money from photography, How is this possible you may wonder! Did you know that a lot of photographer are making a good living just selling their digital pictures online. 4 Ways to Make Money From Home With Digital Photography
Here are 4 great ways to start a work at home business with your digital camera. You can use any of these methods to earn some extra cash with your photography and love your work as well. Making Money From Wildlife Photography
Wildlife photography is just one of those exercises that are most loved. Selling photography from pictures of wild animals in the game parks of Maasai Mara in Kenya and the parks of the United States makes for one of the classier, flashier and exquisite photos the world over.My dream was to have a separate small building for the studio, a nice home and then my own outdoor portrait park. I could build sets, plant gardens, even erect permanent gobos and reflectors to create perfect light at any time of day.
The search proved fruitless, the perfect property more elusive (read as expensive) than I imagined. But then everything happens for a reason doesn't it. (At least I think so) Over the years I came to realize how limiting working in the same area would be. Yes I could tear down and create new sets and plant different plants ΓΆΒ€" but it would still be the same five acres.
Why are fishing lures such pretty bright colors?
To catch the fisherman who come to the sporting goods store to buy them ΓΆΒ€" why else! Have you ever in your life seen an oblong shaped fish, silver on one side, red and white stripes on the other, with a little devil's head at one end? I didn't think so.
To assuage any and all fishing fans reading this article ΓΆΒ€" I too am a fisherman. And while I know full well some of the brightly colored patterns are meant to and do catch fish, it's also reasonable to assume the bright colors and fishing lure package hype are bait for the "walking-upright" human fish.
I think the same holds true for photographers and the allure of a "portrait studio". Read any professional photography magazine and you'll see interior pictures of beautiful, elegant studios; furnishings right out of Home & Garden or House Beautiful. More money spent on a glass topped contemporary coffee table than on our entire IKEA bedroom set. (Which I happen to think is pretty nice thank you very much.)
We see images of portrait studios that could be featured in Architectural Digest and wonder how we'll ever attain that. Certainly those photographers must be making a wonderful living. Or they're in debt up to their eyeballs.
Be careful what you wish for.
We've had our own studio ΓΆΒ€" a rented space ΓΆΒ€" for more than 15 years and it has been wonderful. We remodeled about four years ago and our 1100 square foot space is a model of efficiency. That model of efficiency also costs us $2,600 each month for rent, heat, light, phone, internet and parking.
Consider that number for a long, long minute. Our direct cost of goods sold runs about 25%. So even with 75% net profit able to go towards rent and utilities means we have to average $3,500 each month in sales to cover our hard costs.
And that's before we pay ourselves a single thin dime. Add in a fairly meager hourly wage for my wife and I, the employer's half of social security we're required to pay, maybe some health insurance and those monthly costs balloon to nearly $8,000. In terms of monthly revenue that's over $10,000 ΓΆΒ€" EVERY single month.
Am I forgetting anything? Oh yeah ΓΆΒ€" marketing. $10,000 a month doesn't just walk through your door via word of mouth, Facebook and Twitter. It's going to take some serious marketing effort and expense to get to that level.
Do it like Disney.
Families today are looking for "experiences". Every mall and big box store has a "portrait studio" and that's what most people are familiar with. They want something different, of which the final portraits are but a small part. They want a unique experience and the only person who thinks not having a studio is a disadvantage is you.
Concentrate instead on creating a wonderfully unique experience for your clients. Market the fact you provide personalized service, home delivery, even hanging the portraits for them. Show up at their door on Halloween with a free pumpkin ΓΆΒ€" your business card attached to the stem. Drop off a small flag around the fourth of July; send them a Thanksgiving Day card.
Marketing YOU
You are the photographer. The product you sell did not even exist before you created it. Work on developing a marketing program and a way of doing business that emphasizes you and your talents and no one will even question the fact you don't have a physical portrait studio.
A. Turn over a significant portion of the monthly revenue from your fledgling portrait business to a landlord?
B. Fill your bank account with business stabilizing profit and actually earn a living from your portraiture?
Time and again I get emails from members on my website expressing their desire to "open a portrait studio" and I naturally assume their intention is to have an actual "physical" portrait studio. As my sister likes to say, "Been there, done that, got the t-shirt". I'm here to tell you ladies and gentlemen βΒ€" you just don't need one.
All the world's a stage.
Shakespeare's Jaques said it first and he was right ΓΆΒ€" although I'm taking it a bit out of context;-) Why limit your creativity to one small space when you have the world at your doorstep.
For years my wife and I looked for a home in the country on a small acreage.
Related Coverage
Make Money Online Shooting Amateur Photography
A camera + computer + Internet connection = business online today. A simple business plan to start raking in cash. Make Money From Photography
Make money from photography, How is this possible you may wonder! Did you know that a lot of photographer are making a good living just selling their digital pictures online. 4 Ways to Make Money From Home With Digital Photography
Here are 4 great ways to start a work at home business with your digital camera. You can use any of these methods to earn some extra cash with your photography and love your work as well. Making Money From Wildlife Photography
Wildlife photography is just one of those exercises that are most loved. Selling photography from pictures of wild animals in the game parks of Maasai Mara in Kenya and the parks of the United States makes for one of the classier, flashier and exquisite photos the world over.My dream was to have a separate small building for the studio, a nice home and then my own outdoor portrait park. I could build sets, plant gardens, even erect permanent gobos and reflectors to create perfect light at any time of day.
The search proved fruitless, the perfect property more elusive (read as expensive) than I imagined. But then everything happens for a reason doesn't it. (At least I think so) Over the years I came to realize how limiting working in the same area would be. Yes I could tear down and create new sets and plant different plants ΓΆΒ€" but it would still be the same five acres.
Why are fishing lures such pretty bright colors?
To catch the fisherman who come to the sporting goods store to buy them ΓΆΒ€" why else! Have you ever in your life seen an oblong shaped fish, silver on one side, red and white stripes on the other, with a little devil's head at one end? I didn't think so.
To assuage any and all fishing fans reading this article ΓΆΒ€" I too am a fisherman. And while I know full well some of the brightly colored patterns are meant to and do catch fish, it's also reasonable to assume the bright colors and fishing lure package hype are bait for the "walking-upright" human fish.
I think the same holds true for photographers and the allure of a "portrait studio". Read any professional photography magazine and you'll see interior pictures of beautiful, elegant studios; furnishings right out of Home & Garden or House Beautiful. More money spent on a glass topped contemporary coffee table than on our entire IKEA bedroom set. (Which I happen to think is pretty nice thank you very much.)
We see images of portrait studios that could be featured in Architectural Digest and wonder how we'll ever attain that. Certainly those photographers must be making a wonderful living. Or they're in debt up to their eyeballs.
Be careful what you wish for.
We've had our own studio ΓΆΒ€" a rented space ΓΆΒ€" for more than 15 years and it has been wonderful. We remodeled about four years ago and our 1100 square foot space is a model of efficiency. That model of efficiency also costs us $2,600 each month for rent, heat, light, phone, internet and parking.
Consider that number for a long, long minute. Our direct cost of goods sold runs about 25%. So even with 75% net profit able to go towards rent and utilities means we have to average $3,500 each month in sales to cover our hard costs.
And that's before we pay ourselves a single thin dime. Add in a fairly meager hourly wage for my wife and I, the employer's half of social security we're required to pay, maybe some health insurance and those monthly costs balloon to nearly $8,000. In terms of monthly revenue that's over $10,000 ΓΆΒ€" EVERY single month.
Am I forgetting anything? Oh yeah ΓΆΒ€" marketing. $10,000 a month doesn't just walk through your door via word of mouth, Facebook and Twitter. It's going to take some serious marketing effort and expense to get to that level.
Do it like Disney.
Families today are looking for "experiences". Every mall and big box store has a "portrait studio" and that's what most people are familiar with. They want something different, of which the final portraits are but a small part. They want a unique experience and the only person who thinks not having a studio is a disadvantage is you.
Concentrate instead on creating a wonderfully unique experience for your clients. Market the fact you provide personalized service, home delivery, even hanging the portraits for them. Show up at their door on Halloween with a free pumpkin ΓΆΒ€" your business card attached to the stem. Drop off a small flag around the fourth of July; send them a Thanksgiving Day card.
Marketing YOU
You are the photographer. The product you sell did not even exist before you created it. Work on developing a marketing program and a way of doing business that emphasizes you and your talents and no one will even question the fact you don't have a physical portrait studio.
