How I Set Up my Photography Business for Success
This post shares the single most important step I have taken to improve my photography business. Learn what it is and the woman behind the plan!
Las Vegas Newborn and Family Lifestyle Photographer
Fellow photographers, this blog is for you! "Never stop learning; for when we stop learning, we stop growing." I first read a short essay on this quote by Loyal 'Jack' Lewman about 10 years ago when I was at a teacher inservice. Normally, I would skip over these articles and go about sipping coffee, but for some reason, this quote really stuck with me.
Fast forward almost a decade later, I had taken a leave from teaching and started up a small photography business. As any fellow photographer will know, it is an evolving and steep learning curve when it comes to photography. Those first few years were filled with hours of video instruction, lots and lots of free shoots, teaching myself Lightroom and Photoshop, and an unhealthy addiction to buying newborn wraps and tiebacks. I was improving, but I still felt that I had no real personal photography style and definitely no business plan.
Welcome to the stage, Sabrina Gebhardt. Her lovely images first filled up my Instagram when she teamed up with fellow Fort Worth photographer, Jodie Miears from Reverie Photo Co. for a newborn lifestyle workshop. During that workshop, holy moly, my eyes were opened!! Here was this woman that made me feel so comfortable, forming a group of like minded photographers, and really truly wanting to help us and our business!! The session went great, and us photographers got a great hands on practice following Sabrina's lead. The best part though, was after. Myself and the other photographers from the workshop were in a private Facebook group and formed a small sense of community. We were able to ask questions and get to know each other a little. That was the first time I felt that I had another photographer or two to talk with. That in itself is worth it!!
Fast forward a few months, and Sabrina was offering a new course, The Organized Photographer. This course would cover everything and more that I desperately needed to know. How to set up a business, how to manage social media, what exactly SEO is and how to improve it. ALL. THE THINGS!! This course was a lifesaver and I highly recommend this to every photographer that is feeling a little lost with their business. However, this was more that just modules. My favorite part was getting to know the other women in this group. We were all in it together!!
You see, Sabrina has a knack for forming a community. During our course, she hosted Q&A's, Zoom happy hours, round tables, and more. After the past year, I now have photographer friends all across the country!! I cannot tell you how much I have gained since I first started learning from Sabrina. I now have a firm ground to stand on when it comes to running my business. I am growing as an artist, I have the confidence to try new things with clients, I have FRIENDS in the business, and I am continuing to grow personally into a better business owner, and wife/mom!