I'm an MBA student specialising in Marketing - ask me anything!

[jimmyd]

thanks guys! great advice and stuff to think about from both of you. i copied-n-pasted and sent to my daughter as well.

[gaborm]

Let's keep this tread going.
I just opened my studio in a small town. There are no other photographers in my 10 mile radius. I'm trying not spend to much money on advertising, so my main source to get others in the studio will be to at first print post cards and leave it at other businesses in exchane for some free prints of their kids.

I'm also going to give out referal cards. If a person I shot brings me 5 friends they'll receive a package for free.
People like free stuff, so with a free 8x10 you can't go wrong or broke.

I'm running a picture of the month contest. People can come in and vote on somebody's kid to be hung as an oversize print in my window for the whole month. At the end of the month they can take the picture home.
It basicaly costs me the price of the print and it brings a lot of people into the studio.

Upper middle class or rich people as I call it have the photographer come to their house to shoot the kids and the family.
I was poor growing up, but once a year we had a photographer come to our house to take pictures.
The kids feel more confortable at home with a stranger in the house than in the studio with everything strange around them. I don't charge any extras for that service.

Joining the local Chamber of Commerce will bring you business, but others will cold call on you too. Still, it's worth it for $40.00/year.

Calling your local papers business section to do a special new business write up, is the biggest exposure you can get for free.
They might forward you number to the sales office to sell advertising, but you don't have to take it.
If you do, you have to advertise regularly in every issue so people can see your presence. You'll get a better rate too this way.

I'm still learning the routes to succes, but so far this is what I learned.
I started my business without taking a business loan out, so if I go under I don't loose much more than my pride.

[Stecyk]

Originally Posted by gaborm

There are no other photographers in my 10 mile radius. I'm trying not spend to much money on advertising, so my main source to get others in the studio will be to at first print post cards and leave it at other businesses in exchane for some free prints of their kids.

Just a quick couple random thoughts that apply to both you and JimmyD...

1) You can advertise for free in Craigslist. I have not been impressed with the photographers I have seen in Craigslist. But I am impressed with JimmyD's work and I don't know if I have seen your work gaborm. Perhaps a quality photographer would do considerably better? A link in Craigslist to your online portfolio might help?

2) Take some money and spend it on advertising. Not a lot, but some. See if it gets you profitable results. Perhaps it is a worthwhile investment. If it were me, I'd try to make some attractive flyers with a url to my website where I demonstrate my photography. I would also have a few different versions of the flyer. Perhaps some work better than others? Perhaps different incentive schemes work better than others? To me, the initial advertising would an experiment where I try to find what works and what doesn't work. I'd also pay attention to the seasons, holidays, and events. I would try to tailer my advertising to capture those themes.

This is all free advice, so be careful. Often free advice is only worth the price paid.

[JimVanLuven]

JimmyD,

I have been mentoring a friend photographer that also is catering to the autistic children market. She has been focusing her marketing efforts by working with support groups and understands that they can't take their children to "Wal-Mart" or "Sears" portrait studios because of thier childrens needs during a session, and that it is much more hands-on. You could have them do 'group' sittings, etc. and then word of mouth can spread into other segments of the community. Possibly donate proceeds from offshoot business back to the autistic community for free PR.

Jim

[gaborm]

Craigslists is the last place I would want to advertise, even though it's free.
People browse Craigslists, because they're cheap and looking for a bargain.

To make a living with portrait photography you have to be a great business person, not a great photographer. I might step on a bunch of peoples toes with this statement, but I heard that at Gary Fongs seminar and if you look at what the guy achieved so far in his life, I say he's probably right and made himself a prime example. Sure, he can take a picture, but I've seen much better photographers even on this forum with 1/10th of the income.

[Stecyk]

Originally Posted by gaborm

Craigslists is the last place I would want to advertise, even though it's free.
People browse Craigslists, because they're cheap and looking for a bargain.

To make a living with portrait photography you have to be a great business person, not a great photographer.

Okay, so include your prices. You still get free advertising. A large portion of advertising is to create awareness, even if it's not a sale tomorrow. And the beauty is, they'll look at your website and they'll look at other guys's websites that are much poorer in quality and cheaper in price. You might just find that you've raised their expectations and desires.

As you said, you've got to be a great business person to succeed. Acknowledging the disadvantages and creating advantages is thinking like a smart business person.

If I were starting a new business, my first concern would be to start generating cash flow while creating my overall market impression. As the cash flow became more abundant, I might be more discerning where and how I advertise. But when starting out, I want everyone to know about the services and the quality of the services that I provide.

It's all about generating positive cash flow.

[Stecyk]

The following link is interesting in that it shows how prominent such sites as myspace and other are.

http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/20...spent_per.html

Even Craigslist makes the list.

So for those looking at free or low cost advertising, this information might be helpful.

[medic319]

When I started photographing families and children, I did not have a studio yet. It started when a woman I worked with at my real job asked if I could take photos of her son playing baseball. There were times during the "Baseball Years" that I would shoot 4 teams per week with the average order per child being roughly $125. That is not too bad for a job that I did not look for. I have not had that kind of time to do the baseball photos in the past 2 years with the arrival of my daughter, but I do more photography here at home to make up for it.

After some time of not doing baseball photos, I would get occasional calls to so portraits of kids that I took baseball photos of, and now some younger siblings. It seems that people never forgot the baseball photos that I did and they also never forgot who I was because NOBODY else in the area would dare take photos while kids were actually playing, because they may be DIRTY in the photos.

I guess what I am saying is I used my love of baseball and a very dear friend to help me get my name out. It is amazing how much business this has directed toward me.

I also have many friends that work in the local hospitals (because of the nature of work that I do) and I have been known to give a good price to some of the nurses (and a stack of business cards). Nurses talk. They talk to other nurses, they talk to doctors, they talk to social workers, all people who have money and love to have photos taken. I recently did a wedding for a nurse who is a close friend, and she has already sent a great number of clients my way.

I do not know if any of this rambling will help or not, but it has been what I have done.

P.S. Jimmy, I love your blog and your photographic ability. You should have no problems with this venture.

[jimmyd]

Originally Posted by medic319

When I started photographing families and children, I did not have a studio yet. It started when a woman I worked with at my real job asked if I could take photos of her son playing baseball. There were times during the "Baseball Years" that I would shoot 4 teams per week with the average order per child being roughly $125. That is not too bad for a job that I did not look for.

Years ago, more years than I care to mention, I made a decent amount of $$$ with a sideline business of shooting actors/actresses for their headshots and such. It started out with me shooting my (then) wife, who was an actress. Actors talk and show each other their pics. Before long, her friends and acquaintences began calling me, asking if I'd shoot their headshots. Word of mouth continued spreading and, soon, I found myself shooting quite a few Hollywood hopefuls on a regular basis. Back then it was all B&W film and I converted my garage to a small studio and I put together a darkroom to process the film myself.

The point is, word of mouth will often get you more work than anything else.

[SeaJay]

Hi Daniel,

I would be interested in your thoughts on our particular services. We are based on the south coast of Spain and are looking to market here and in the UK and perhaps further a field as we become more established.

I guess my specific questions would be does our website clearly describe what we do and do you think we should focus on a particular demographic and if so to the later what would your instinct tell you?