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Case Study Starting a Photography Business

Lesson 5 from: Launch a Successful Photography Business

Philip Ebiner, Will Carnahan

Case Study Starting a Photography Business

Lesson 5 from: Launch a Successful Photography Business

Philip Ebiner, Will Carnahan

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Lesson Info

5. Case Study Starting a Photography Business

Next Lesson: Quiz - Chapter 1

Lessons

Class Trailer

Chapter 1: Introduction to Starting a Photography Business

1

Welcome

02:26
2

Why Do You Want to Start a Photography Business

04:40
3

What Kind of Photography Business Do You Want to Start

05:38
4

Important Personal Note from Instructor Will

02:25
5

Case Study Starting a Photography Business

07:43
6

Quiz - Chapter 1

Chapter 2: Basics of Starting a Photography Business

7

Introduction to Basics of Starting a Photography Business

00:52
8

Choose Your Business Name

05:29
9

Choose Your Business Structure

06:12
10

Register Your Business Name

01:47
11

Get Your Federal Tax ID

01:39
12

Get Your Business License

01:16
13

Get Your Business Bank Account

02:16
14

Register Your Online Accounts

02:17
15

Branding Your Business

02:18
16

Set Your Prices

12:56
17

The Photography Gear You Need to Start a Business

03:42
18

Case Study - Business Basics

24:42
19

Case Study - Equipment

10:05
20

Quiz - Chapter 2

Chapter 3: Get Your First Paying Clients

21

Intro to Getting Your First Paying Clients

00:44
22

You Need to Prove Yourself

01:30
23

The Best Place to Find Your First Clients

02:36
24

What to Charge for Your First Clients

02:44
25

On Set - Partnering with Other Creatives

01:57
26

On Set - Getting Work in a Competitive Environment

02:38
27

Use Your First Shoot Wisely

01:20
28

Case Study - Getting Your First Clients

07:55
29

Quiz - Chapter 3

Chapter 4: Create Your Photography Business Website

30

Introduction to Create Your Photography Business Website

01:05
31

Why You Need a Website and Platform Options

04:30
32

What Needs to Be On Your Website

07:32
33

Design the Perfect Portfolio

03:17
34

Case Study - Looking at Photography Websites

12:56
35

Quiz - Chapter 4

Chapter 5: Expanding Your Online Presence

36

Introduction to Expanding Your Online Presence

00:55
37

Use Instagram to Grow Your Business

02:29
38

Use Facebook to Grow Your Business

01:21
39

Get Listed on Google

03:53
40

Get Listed on Yelp

03:20
41

Get Listed on Review Sites

04:06
42

Using Craigslist to Get Work

03:01
43

Case Study - Expanding Your Online Presence

13:16
44

Quiz - Chapter 5

Chapter 6: The Photography Business Workflow

45

Introduction to the Photography Business Workflow

00:54
46

Step 1 - Meeting Your Client

03:32
47

Step 2 - Booking Your Client

05:53
48

Step 3 - The Shoot

02:28
49

Step 4 - Editing Your Photos

06:34
50

Step 5 - Delivering Your Photos

01:05
51

Case Study - Business Workflow

15:54
52

On Set - the Shoot

02:50
53

On Set - Backdrop Placement

01:13
54

On Set - Paper Backdrop Rolls

02:01
55

On Set - The Back Light

00:46
56

On Set - Interacting with Clients

04:58
57

Quiz - Chapter 6

Chapter 7:Scaling Your Business with Better Infrastructure

58

Intro to Business Infrastructure and Continued Growth

00:46
59

Productivity Tools to Make Your More Efficient

06:21
60

Get Business Insurance

03:55
61

Accounting Tools & Tips

04:20
62

Business Tax Tips

03:38
63

Scaling Your Prices Up

02:56
64

Use Conventions and Meet Ups to Grow Your Business

04:01
65

Case Study - Business Growth

11:04
66

Quiz - Chapter 7

Chapter 8: Selling Your Prints

67

Intro to the Selling Prints Section

00:56
68

Why Should You Sell Your Prints

02:18
69

Choose a Printer

02:59
70

How to Price Your Prints

05:33
71

Selling Your Prints Online

08:06
72

Selling Your Prints in Person

02:38
73

Wrapping up This Section

01:26
74

Quiz - Chapter 8

Chapter 9: Conclusion

75

Tips for Personal and Creative Well Being

04:38
76

Conclusion

01:45

Final Quiz

77

Final Quiz

Lesson Info

Case Study Starting a Photography Business

Hey, welcome to the first. We'll call them case studies of this course. These are lessons videos, where will and I are just going to have a more casual conversation basically going over everything that we covered in this section of the course and in these case studies, it's really about giving more details, more examples using specifically will see photography as the example in this course. But we're also going to talk about our past projects, businesses we've run and I know we'll see where it goes. But these are going to be a little bit more casual longer and this might not be your style of lessons. So to be completely honest, feel free to skip these because the main bulk of the steps to starting a business are going to be in the other lessons. But I think these will add a lot of color and help kind of expand your knowledge a little bit more. Yeah, basically, I just want to take what we said and show you how I've applied it to my own business or past businesses. Yeah, sounds good. So ...

in this first section of the course, well, of course we welcomed everyone. But you talked about why why why even have a photography business? We talked about what kind of business um, there are and also you just talked about like personally like how hard it can be to start a business and you can't have to consider that. So, with your company will see photo I guess talk about First, why why even did you decide to start another photography company because you've had photography companies in the past, you still do photography on the side and why start a new one, I guess. Well to be honest, Phil I did have a wedding photography business that I started about 10, 11 years ago when I was About 20. And I learned a lot from that and this probably all of everything that I'm talking to you about now. I learned from that. Um it actually we were shooting for like 56 years, but my business partner at the time decided to move away and chase another career. So I was kind of lost without that in the meantime, You know, I'm a freelance video cinematographer and I teach. So these are my two things that I do and I was doing photography on the side, but I hadn't I haven't really like pushed it. It's always been sort of like, sure, just pay me like there's no like business structure to it. And recently I've taken sort of, if you talk about the section that we just did, I took sort of a pulse of like what I want to do what I'm capable of doing. I wanted to take my photography and turn it into a business and basically make it a side money maker. Now being in L. A. I could do that with weddings, I could do that with modeling and portraits or I could do that with head shots. And to me my network was a lot of actors that I know actors always need headshots, the wedding game I've been in before, but it's so sporadic and although you get paid more, you don't have as much control over it. So based on market based on what I think I can afford. Based on my network, headshot photography seemed like perfect for me to make some side money. And it also, as far as running it goes would be easy, right? Because I just need to take photos of my friends to start off with. I have some old headshots I've taken um it's easy to start an instagram that way. Hashtags are super easy. Again, I have studios that I can rent from around the sort of L. A. Area. So it just made sense for me to go in that direction and the equipment. That's the other thing is I already had everything. And so the startup cost was low for me, Startup costs as low and, and because I have other jobs, like I don't have to dedicate a ton of time. I feel like if I got back into wedding photography, like really full force full time, it would be a lot more like taking meetings, like setting up more websites. Maybe getting on some like, you know, just doing a lot more that I just don't have time for. Yeah, I mean, I know you talked about with your other companies, you had well so far, like a much bigger presence online with like, yelp and all those other accounts which we'll cover later in the course on setting all that stuff up, which is important as you grow your business. But just to get started, it seems like the headshot idea is like really simple. So, you know, one thing you talked about in this section was how it's better to pick and choose kind of one style of photography to get started. And I completely agree with that. And I think that's great advice. But I also think some some of the students probably are just like feeling it out, trying to figure out how they can make money from the skill and they might not know what they're going, what direction they want to go in. And I think that's something that you should understand that. Like, I think for most photographers, the first way that they actually make money is just the fact that they have the skills of photographer and then like friends of theirs or family will ask them to do X, Y, Z. Kind of photography. Like, hey, can you take photos at my party at graduation, Can you take photos of me for, you know, family photos, I'm having a kid or whatever. So I feel like if you're just starting out, you don't really know what you want to do, it's okay to kinda feel it out. But maybe as you more solidify your business, that's when you kind of pick and choose a specific style of photography and I think as you go on, you start to see a trend and what people are asking you to do. Like you'll start to gravitate something naturally and we talk about this more in the class, but like, you know, if you're at a certain age, a lot of your friends are graduating from high school, graduating from college, having babies getting married, you know, starting business profiles. So you know, you'll fall into it as you go on. The important thing is to start shooting and sort of see where that's going to take you and yeah, you never know what it's going to be. This class is really dedicated to starting your own business. But as we mentioned earlier too, there's lots of ways to make money as a photographer and even the first time that I made money as a photographer because my background is mostly video production. Um, but when I was working at a college in their media department, it was kind of a pseudo video and ended up being a photography. I was at the school photographer because I knew how to use a camera. Um, and that was kind of cool because it helped me learn more skills, get more comfortable shooting shooting events, working with people and in turn later on, even though I don't have my own photography business, I have my video production business online business and a lot of it's very similar in terms of the structure marketing and things like that. I still have friends, family asking to take photos. This is a cool skill to have. Yeah. Anyway, it's cool. Well, great little chat. Anything else you wanted to add to this case study about will see, no, this is just the beginning of the class. There's lots that we're going to go in just like, you know, there's a lot that I, once I committed to it. I like, you know, fully committed and we're going to get more into this about instagram my portfolio, what I use, like my equipment, my structure, my contracts, my deals, like all this stuff we're going to get into, but just having the idea to start a business, get excited about it. Make the commitment to do it is such a huge step. So if you're already at that point and you probably are, if you've made it this far, you know, you're, you're going in the right direction. Yeah. Cool, awesome. Well, we'll see you in the next lesson

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

15 Tips: How Your Photography Business can be Adapted to Online Services
Start a Photography Business
Workbook
Worksheet

Ratings and Reviews

Andrew Pilecki
 

Student Work

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