How to Build Your Photography Business During Covid-19
I think every photographer and small business owner started feeling the anxiety set in when all of the government mandates started being announced, and the number of people who are allowed to be in a room together started decreasing very quickly from 250 to 50 to 10 in a matter of hours.
As a wedding photographer, my heart BREAKS for my brides and grooms who have had to cancel and postpone weddings. My first thoughts, of course, were for my couples. I spent those first few days helping all of my couples who are getting married in the next 8 weeks reschedule their weddings. Luckily all of my couples were absolutely amazing, their vendor teams were flexible, and they were all able to reschedule easily and handled the situation as gracefully as can be expected. My heart goes out to my sweet couples who have been looking forward to getting married for so long and have had to push back marrying the love of their life (or at least the celebration part).
After the craziness of helping my couples reschedule their weddings passed, the reality set in that I now won’t be able to shoot weddings or engagement sessions for the next 8 weeks. I will admit, I had a moment of panic and considered applying for jobs stocking shelves at a grocery story, but after I calmed down, I realized that the best thing I can do during this time is focus on my business. How many times during the last year have I wanted to do things for my business but I kept saying to myself “I don’t have time for that” or “I’ll work on that when I have more time.” Well, now, all we have is time, right? And the photographers who work on their businesses during this down time are the ones who will thrive when the economy bounces back after all of this.
I’ve put together a list below of a few things you can do for your photography business during these months of quarantine to help you get through this down time.
Practice New Skills
Do you have any new skills that you just haven’t had time to practice? Now is the perfect time to practice any skills that don’t involve other people. It might not be the best time to work on large group posing skills, but it IS the perfect time to work on using your camera in manual mode if that is something that you struggle with. Take a daily walk outside and take photos of all the flowers that are starting to pop up now that spring is starting to arrive. Take photos of your kids, significant other, or roommate in different lighting scenarios inside your home.
Maybe you are already super comfortable shooting in manual, but you need to work on your low light skills. Now is a great time to work on using your off-camera flash! Off-camera flash can be super intimidating when you first decide that you want to step up your flash game. I promise it’s not as hard as it seems, and you CAN master it during this down time. Early in the morning before the sun rises or later in the evening after the sun sets, set up some light stands and take some photos of your pets. When we finally get to start shooting weddings again, your couples will be so impressed at how much your reception photos have improved once you master your flash skills!
Build Your Online Presence
Are you someone who totally forgets to post on Instagram when your busy season hits? Or maybe you haven’t updated your blog in months? Now is the perfect time for all of those social media and online tasks that you’ve been putting off. Here’s a few ways to build your online presence while we can’t shoot weddings and sessions:
Post on Instagram at least once a day.
Update your portfolio on your website with your favorite recent photos.
Post all of your recent weddings and sessions on your blog.
Take some new headshots in your home, and introduce yourself to your audience.
Work on growing your Pinterest audience.
Submit your work for publications in blogs and magazines.
Support other small businesses by commenting on their photos and sharing their work.
Work On the Back End of Your Business
If you’re like most photographers, you probably view yourself as an artist more so than you view yourself as an entrepreneur or business owner. I’m in the minority where I actually feel the opposite. That’s because I majored in finance and economics, and I have a background in financial analysis as well as auditing insurance companies. I do love creativity too, but I’m someone who loves BOTH aspects of owning a photography business. I realize that that’s not the case for most photographers though. Most photographers hate figuring out the financial side of the business, the legal side, and the back end technical side. I totally understand that it’s easy to procrastinate the tasks in our business that we won’t enjoy as much. But while we’re not shooting, we don’t have an excuse to procrastinate these tasks. Here’s a few ways you can improve the back end of your business.
Set up your business legally if you haven’t already! Each state is different, so look up the steps you need to take to legally set up your business in your state (or country).
Get professional contracts that better protect both you and your clients. If you can’t afford to hire a lawyer to personally write your contracts for you, my favorite legal resources for photographers are the LawTog and the Legal Paige.
Get a CRM to improve your client experience. I personally use and love Dubsado. You can use this link for 20 percent off. Dubsado allows your clients to sign contracts online, pay invoices online, and fill out questionnaires for you. It keeps track of your bookkeeping, your calendar, sets up workflows to send things out automatically for you and SO much more!
Set up a business bank account and separate your business finances from your personal finances.
Figure out your Cost of Doing Business, so you can make sure your business is profitable.
Learn With Online Education
No matter what stage you are in in your business, we all still need to be constantly growing and improving through continuing education. No matter what career you have, continuing education along with real world experience is so important if you want to grow, improve, and get better at what you do. What better time is there than now to learn and grow in our photography careers through online education? My favorite educators are Katelyn James and Amy and Jordan. However, I realize that this is a difficult time economically for a lot of people, including photographers, if you are looking for free education, SkillShare is giving away two months of membership for free here. They have tons of photography and editing classes. I’m also working on developing free educational content for you here on my blog as well as over on my YouTube channel. If you have any specific questions or content that you would like to see from me, DM me over on Instagram and let me know!
I know this is a difficult time for all of us, and it can be so easy to give into fear and anxiety. Instead of focusing on the fact that we can’t go out and shoot right now, let’s focus on what we CAN do! I hope this list helps you! Let me know, what will YOU be doing to grow your business during Covid-19!
