Recent Business Articles

Five Ways Teaching Helps Your Photography Business

Photographers can be greedy when it comes to knowledge, hoarding techniques, shoot locations, and general valuable information on our craft. While we photographers need to be competitive, we also need to share our knowledge.

13 Weeks Until the Holidays: Is Your Business Ready?

The stores are already stocking holiday decor with faux trees and the leaves have barely fallen. The holiday season sneaks up on business owners quickly with an influx of calls for sessions. Is your business ready and do you know how to weed out the fake calls or emails?

Why So Many College Graduates Fail in Photography

Getting a degree in photography can seem like a great way to get a college degree and still pursue what you love, yet many, many college graduates end up failing, despite having four years of intensive training in photography. This great video explores just why that is.

Never Shoot Without Dual Card Slots

In the past few weeks, Nikon and Canon have released their new mirrorless offerings, the Z7 and R, to much fanfare. Despite the great specs and form factor, I won't buy either for one simple reason: neither one has dual card slots. I never shoot anything without dual card slots, and neither should you.

Wedding Photographers: How Protected Is Your Business?

Providing a service to clients as a small business comes with risks. At some point during the course of photographing a wedding, every photographer will run into an unforeseen circumstance. Are you prepared to face the unexpected?

A Professional Web Designer Tells You Why Your Website Sucks

As creatives, most of us know the value of a strong internet presence and what that can do to boost brand recognition and our business bottom-line, but we don’t always know how to make the best of that presence. I spoke with a successful web builder and graphic designer to get a glimpse of the most important aspects of boosting web potential for photographers.

You Will Never Feel Ready to Take the Next Step

One of the lies we tell ourselves when presented with a challenge — an opportunity to stride forward — is that we aren't ready or aren't prepared enough. Well, you never will be.

Some Very Useful Tips for Making Money as a Photographer

A lot of photographers are quite talented when it comes to using a camera and Photoshop, but being good at making money as a photographer is an entirely different skill. This helpful video will give you some very good tips for ensuring you're making the money you deserve in photography.

An Open Letter to Thumbtack

Dear Thumbtack, you’ve been a major national player in service-sector networking, including the field I love, professional photography. I appreciate the jobs I accessed through you in the past. But the door on that past, I’m sorry to have to say, is closed.

Common Mistakes Photographers Make on Instagram

It’s no secret that Instagram has been working on its algorithm for quite some time. Gone are the days of tricking the algorithm to get more visibility. Now, more than ever, Instagram values excellent content. Here are a few practices to avoid when posting on the popular social platform.

3 Things To Look For When Updating Your Portfolio

Deciding which images to keep and which to throw away is one of the hardest lessons to learn for new photographers. One would think that it gets easier with experience, but the more you learn the harder it can get.

Quick Website Checkup and Security Bar Check: Is Your Site the Way It Should Be?

SSL has become the preferred way for all sites to be displayed as opposed to only being used for shopping carts and pages where you would enter personal data. For some time, there's been a transition from http to https, and it was a choice mostly based on the intended activities of your website viewers.

How to Spend Money Wisely as a Photographer

With 2018 being the year of mirrorless, it is tempting for many of us to fall into the trap of trying to spend our way to good photography rather than using our own talents. And while having appropriate gear is essential to the trade, it’s equally important to think twice before sacrificing your business for the latest trends.

How to Raise Your Prices Without Losing Clients

Raising your prices will not only keep your bank manager happy, but it will also help to accelerate your career. Time to add a few more zeros to your next photography invoice.

Why Professionals Should Still Assist Other Photographers

I’ve been working as a full-time professional photographer — meaning that 100 percent of my income is from photography — for over eight years. For the most part, I know what I’m doing. But I still make the time to assist other photographers when I can, and here’s why.

Raising $30,000 on Kickstarter: Building Your Audience, Part 1

There is a ton of information and so many great resources on how to raise money for a project with crowdfunding these days. So I’m going to skip the tips and show you proven strategies to fund your projects no matter what they are.

Here’s What Not to Put in Your Portfolio

If you’re just starting off with marketing yourself and your photography business, building and displaying your portfolio is probably at the top of your to-do list. Here are a few aspects to consider when putting together your initial photography portfolio.

The Peril of Lowering Your Prices to Compete

When a photographer is desperate for bookings, an inexperienced business owner will turn to the only option they know of: lowering their prices. Before doing this, you should consider all of the other options you have before deciding to compete with others on price.

Here’s What Photographers Should Be Putting on Their Blogs

For photographers, taking pictures comes naturally. Marketing, creating content, and blogging, however, may not flow as easily. Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing when creating content for your blog.

Photography: A Rich Person’s Sport 

Most of you might be saying: "you're nuts! Haven’t you been sailing? Luxury car driving? Golfing all over the place?" And luckily, I have, and let me tell you, photography is the most expensive sport I have ever practiced.

How Much Equipment Does a Professional Photographer Need?

We all get stressed about our gear at some point in our careers. Knowing how much and what quality of photography gear you need is complicated. This will help shed some light on exactly how much equipment a professional photographer needs.

The Five Pillars of Photography Business Success

Once you’ve had a measure of success in your business, the next step is to figure out how to sustain it. This video shares what areas to continue to focus on to avoid failure in our industry.

How to Climb Out of a Creative Rut

If you’ve done photography professionally for any amount of time, you’ve probably found yourself succumbing to the daily grind of the job, and in turn, it becomes an obligation. If this is you and you’ve found yourself in a creative rut, here are a few ways to climb your way out.