Hey all.

Just need to vent and complain for a minute here, i was hoping people could commiserate and possibly offer encouragement? Sorry, its probably going to be pretty long, cause you're getting background story, too.

 
I've been doing photography since i graduated from high school back in 2001. At first i was just working for a big company, doing school portraits, which was fun (hanging out with kids and making them smile) and boring (its not exactly the most creative job). But it did help me decide that photography was what I wanted to do. I was constantly taking my little sisters out for photo shoot around town, just playing... read every book on photography that I could get my hands on. Took a class on "Photographing People" at a community college. They covered mainly just what I'd alreay taught myself from books, I wanted more. So I took a darkroom class at the art musuem. Learned a lot, fell even more in love with playing with pictures. I decided to take this photography thing all the way, and went to a 2-year technical school. In 2005 I graduated with a professional certificate in Portraiture and Weddings, with a minor in Digital Imaging. I moved back home to my parents house, did some portraits for some of my moms friends kids, shot a first communion, a couple seniors. But then I moved to a new state for various reasons. It came time to start repaying those school loans, so futzing around trying to make money in photography had to be put on a back burner, working 2 or 3 jobs at a time to pay bills took center stage. I did a few weddings for friends, got a couple sessions for kids of friends. But nothing huge, because I just didnt have the time to devote to it.

Fastforward to today. I recently left my job as a nanny- my husband and I are expecting our first baby in October, I had decided not to go back to the nannying after the baby's born, and the family wanted their new girl in before the school year started. Which leaves me here at home for the next two months- waiting for baby and getting the photography business off the ground for real.

I've got all my paperwork in order. I've got my equipment. I've got my logo, and my business cards, and my website. I've even had a few sessions. A few weeks ago I got the idea to do some sort of session giveaway in order to get my name out there and also to get some sort of list of potential clients to work from. I made up some boxes, attached a picture to it that said "Enter here for a FREE portrait session", made up the entry cards, dropped them off at several places around town. I went back around today, two weeks later, to check and see how things were going, and to pick up any entry cards that had been dropped in. Wasn't expecting huge numbers, but I also wasn't expecting the number of cards I got.

 
It was none. Not a single one.

 
The woman who owns one of the businesses (a children's clothing boutique) said that one lady did pick up one of my business cards, and somebody HAD stolen the pens out of the display at the ice cream parlor. But other than that- nothing.

I get home, decide okay, I'm not going to be discouraged. I'm going to move on to my next idea. I recently joined a sort of online moms group for moms and expectant moms with babies born/to be born in 2008. I decided to offer some sort of portrait party for the group. But when I logged into the site, I found that some other photographer/mom had beat me to it. She had posted an ad in the classifieds section of the site, and somebody had asked her to set up a portrait party. And this woman... her whole thing is "I'm so cheap. Other photographers charge you so much, but not me. For a flat rate I'll give you a CD of images from your session. I don't even sell prints. You just pay me $100 and you get a session and CD of images that you can print wherever you like!!!" She even uses the word "CHEAP" in her business name!!!!!!

It just... makes me so angry. Why am I killing myself to be good, pushing myself to be better, when all I really need to do is drop my prices down to nothing, give away all my images, and BANG I'll be busy and taking pictures and successful.

Anyways. I'm just frustrated, and discouraged, and need to hear that it actually IS possible to find people that want more than just the cheapest thing possible. I mean, I live in Northern VA, for crying out loud! I live in the next town over from the richest county in the whole country! These people HAVE money! They buy nice things! I have to believe that they want nice portraits, and I want to believe I can deliver that to them. But today I just can't believe it.

Grimsey,

Welcome.   Sorry your first try did not work out.   what did you learn from this last interaction?    Marketing,  Branding and advertising is very hard and is not a perfect, exact science.     You will waste some money trying to find clients.  

You cannot control their mindset but you can control yours.   People are willing to pay for things that they value.     economic levels aside,   look for people who VALUE good work. 

Hang in there, tomorrow is another day.

P 

 Hey, don't get frustrated.  Just take a deep breath, step back, and regroup.  :o)

You're obviously completely, utterly, devoted to being able to produce incredible images!  Now just reroute that determination into the business side of things. You're entering one of the most oversaturated, competitive, fields around.  You can do it.  You can make a great living at this.  But, it ain't easy to get it going. 

So, keep on shooting - and dig your feet in and get ready for an uphill battle while you establish your business.  Remember, all the little things that you do know are going to make a tremendous impact on what your business looks like tomorrow. 

This is what worked for me:

When I first started I took pictures for a friend who worked in a big office with lots of moms.  I took them for free and just charged a little over my cost if she wanted to order them.  I called her and asked her if her family would pose for me.  When I gave the proofs to her - I took them to her office where of course she looked at them on her computer and had to share with others (because every mom thinks that there kids are cute in pictures).  When I took her order to her - I included business cards and again took them to her office.  Of course she shared them with others and passed out the business cards.

I have gotten TONS of references off of the group of ladies that work in the office.

 Did you have any issues raising your rates since everyone was so close to each other?

Welcome to the world of paid photography in 2008.

Imagine how much money Doctors would make if people could just walk into Costco, spend $750 on a Doctor Kit and open up shop?  That's what you are up against - people who do it for fun and give their time away.  Most of them eventually get tired of being taken advantage of and burn out, but every time someone stops, five more people start up behind them.

It's scary to think how things will be in about ten years.

Keep your chin up. The way I look at it is you have your Wal-marts and you have your Nordstrom's. Nordstrom's doesn't worry about Wal-mart and vice versa because it's a different clientèle. If you want to be the Nordstrom's or even just the Target then don't worry about the Wal-marts. I sell templates and some people sell them cheaper but when I started out I decided I was not going to be the Wal-mart of template designers but I wasn't going to be the Nordstrom's either. So you could always advertise your portraits as high quality specialty or some niche that will make you different than the cheap person then you can get business as well and they will value your product. Hope this helps.

Grimsey - I am in very much the same boat as you.  I've only been at this less than a year and it's been slow going.  I'm not far from NoVa either and I also live in an economically rich area - so I know it's out there!  I'm also finding it hard when others are giving stuff away for much less.  Hang in there and know you are not alone!

It comes down to patience.... it WILL take a long time to build your business from the ground up.  Settle into that reality.  Most successful entrepreneurs (ok i cant spell that) that I know in other fields had some REALLY REALLY ugly years in the beginning.  Putting it all on the line, maxing out credit cards... because the work doesn't just pour in.

I'm not suggesting going into debt doing this, I'm just saying that you have to realize you may need to do something else to support yourself for a few YEARS before you have an established business.  I'm in my 5th year, and I've just been able to cut back from 5 days to 4 at my office job.  I'm preggo too and so WISH I could just do photography and quit my day job.  But I simply don't earn enough doing it yet.  Every single year my biz has grown though, and it's a big accomplishment.  My goal is by 35 to just be doing this (i'm turning 31 next month)

Keep learning and growing and marketing your biz... don't dumb it down to compete w/ the people giving it away.  That was a great piece of advice I received in the beginning too.  It's not worth it, and you don't want to run that kind of crap in-crap out biz.

 

Definitely don't give up.  I'm just starting out too (and it's taken way too long to get everything ready to officially be in business), and I expect that things will be slow.  I'm not counting on making any real money for quite a while.  If you need a steady source of income, you might want to look at having a 'regular' job on the side.  On the plus side, you live near an area where people have money.  Now you just need to find a way to reach them.  Wish I had suggestions on how to do that, but I'm sure others can give you some tips.  Stay positive.

I have 2 children and I interact with mom's all the time.  After the baby is born you will start going out for walks and going to the park and playgroups.  It can be an excellent form of networking.  You can carry baby photos and even print a photo on your baby bag.  I've seen some really nice quality bags.  I know this will take time but it's mom's that will purchase the photos. 

 

Good Luck with your business!

Erin

Another thought , Look into joining your local Chamber of Commerce if you haven't already. It's a great way to meet many of the local business owners in you community and a great help to networking and getting you name out there.  You may also want to Join the one in the neighboring community that has the higher family incomes. I work full time in real estate and belong to 2 local chambers and they have been great help in getting me clients when i was getting started. Now they have been a great asset for the limited amount of photograhy work that I do on the side to support my hoby.

Rob

make a page on myspace..... It works for me. I have a lot of clients on myspace.... free advertisement.

It is rough going at first, but keep your chin up and redirect your frustrations into your work. Another way to market yourself is through some of the local OB's offices in town (if babies, children and families are subjects you want to shoot). My OB has portraits & storyboards hanging throughout the office with business cards at the front desk. Another photographer has her images hanging throughout the maternity ward in our local hospital. I know that this isn't a cheap venture, but it could pay off. I'm sure you could apply this same idea to many other businesses. Anywho...

Before moving to our new town, I was part of the local chapter of AdFed. It was a great way to network and get your name out there. Here's a link to the national site if you're interested: http://www.aaf.org/

Facebook is another good free option.  I get a lot of referals in the same manner as someone stated above.  I do all the pictures for my sis she works at fedex kinkos office and has no money...so I do them for cost for her and she doesn't tell anyone that they are free.  I take her the proofs at the office and also deliver the prints there along with a stack of business cards and package detail printouts.  Keep with it!  It's the most amazing thing in the world to be able to be paid to do what you love!  I also started my business when I was pregnant, made the mistake of trying to be the walmart and now am trying to upgrade to target :)

Thanks everyone for your kinds words and advice.

 After a day that I designated as a "no photography business" day, I came back to this yesterday, swinging.

I'm not SO new that I think this will be easy. I've been trying to attract customers while working since I graduated from school 3 years ago. Admittedly, I didn't put in the time or effort needed to really see real results. I had hoped that once I stopped working outside of photography things would just, I dont know, take off overnight, I guess.

Luckily, I thiiiiiink we're going to be okay money-wise on just my husband's income. I certainly hope so, because my last job was as a childcare provider, and it really doesn't make sense to pay to put my kid into childcare only to go take care of other people's kids for money... so I guess now my fulltime occupation becomes the unpaid position of a stay-at-home mom, and the photography, well... if it can just pay for itself for awhile, I should be able to take my time and not be too anxious about bringing in a ton of business right away.

So I'm energized and ready to face challenges again. Just had an off day.

It didnt hurt that tonight I went to deliver a few parent albums to the last bride I had, and she was going on and on about how much she loves her album, and everyone that sees it loves it, and her friend was like "Oh man, when I get married I want her to do my wedding!!!"... so I guess after a day off, and that little ego stroke, things look brighter. I'll definitely be taking all of your suggestions into account. Thanks again.