1. Word of mouth is the best advertisement ever. You do a good job on a session and suddenly, 4 other people, connected to that family or wedding, would like to hire you. In the beginning, we put an add in a local newsletter and dropped off postcards to about 200 homes in our neighbourhood. We got two sessions from that which basically covered our costs. Word of mouth is best.
2. Recognize your community and let them see you in action. Fortunately, we are connected to a wonderful and huge community. Our jobs as teachers connected us so many people. If you don't have that sort of base, I know there has to be other communities that you are part of. Church? Play group? Fellow preschool moms? Neighbourhood? Gary and I volunteer our services to three places; church, school and then I also do NILMDTS. People at church and school then realize we are photographers and get to see our work.
3. Getting a website/blog up right away is so important. Facebook too. I know she mentioned it but I want to reaffirm that point. Have something that showcases your work. Show only your best work. Don't try to include as many photos as you can, make sure every single picture is good. I know I still include too many but you need to make sure that if someone saw just one of the pictures you posted, they would think it was great.
4. If you need to build your portfolio, and you are not busy, take some sessions for free of your family or close friends. I have learned my lesson on this one though...DO NOT OFFER FREE SESSIONS IF YOU ARE BUSY. Otherwise, those sessions just take away from family time or from sessions where you could make money. I was always thinking, `Well, they don't have any money so I'll give them a deal, or do it for free or...'. I have realized that if you give someone a deal, they will take that money they saved and just spend it on something else. This is not to say that I don't give gifts once in a while but they are now very, very limited and I'm a lot more particular on when they happen. Also, another exception is when you are trying something new. An example of this was my first birth session for a good friend. Very cool experience for me, so awesome to capture.
5. You can change your prices. You don't need to wait until the new year to change them. We raised our prices way too slowly. I think because I spent 5 years getting my Bachelor of Science and then my teaching degree, I felt like I was qualified. I had a hard time asking for money for something that I was self taught in. I think that where we started was appropriate four years ago. We started at $100/session with two photographers...it was a great time for us to learn together and build our portfolio and confidence. I think our first wedding was $500.00 but really, we weren't wedding photographers so I think that was fair. There are sooooo many costs involved (even just insurance, yikes!) so take that into account.
Okay, that's it for today:) Gotta get back to work here!
Louise
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