Fair warning: this is not going to be one of those “feel good” photography blog posts. I’m going straight for the gut with this one. Let me give you a little back story so you’ll understand where I’m coming from first.

It took me a good 6 or more years to take my photography business seriously. I thought I was running a business. I was making sales. I had clients. I was producing good work. But in all reality, it was just a very expensive hobby. Fast forward to today and through a lot of tears, heartache, mistakes and life lessons. Today I pay myself a salary. Today I save for retirement. Today I have a plan for continual growth. Today I have boundaries in place, and today I wake up with a purpose to make an impact through my business in my little corner of the world.

The girl who started this “business” is a lot different that the woman who runs it now. I still struggle. It’s not perfect, and I still make mistakes. But what I do is sustainable now. It provides for me and allows me to live the life I want to live.

So let me ask you the same question I had to honestly answer years ago: “are you a business owner or a hobbyist”?

Either answer is ok with me. I just hope you’ll be honest with yourself when answering it.

“The girl who started this “business” is a lot different that the woman who runs it now.”

If you’re ready to turn your photography hobby into a business, you need a business coach. Studio Secrets is a 3 month photography business coaching intensive where we cover all things about senior photography business - branding, websites, pricing,…

Here are 9 sure signs that you have an expensive hobbyist:

1. You don’t know how much it costs to run your business - If you’ve been around a while you’re probably tired of me repeating this one. But it’s so true and so very important to understand what it actually costs you to run your photography business. There are so many hidden costs that we don’t even think about - equipment replacement, wear & tear on our vehicles, income taxes, a retirement plan (yes, this should be part of the cost because it is a compensation package for you as the business owner). Your time also has a cost. Editing has a cost. All the software subscriptions and the pretty templates and the Black Friday sales - it adds up!!

Go through your bank and credit card statements for the year. Create a spreadsheet and figure out where you’re spending and how much it costs to keep your business alive each month. Simply put, the cost of doing business is everything it takes to keep your doors open (whether you have a physical studio or not). This includes things like your salary, retirement, health insurance, income taxes, mortgage / rent, liability insurance, utilities, mileage, vehicle maintenance, phone, internet, equipment, software and subscriptions, etc. It’s time to add it all up and divide by 12!

Then ask yourself an extremely difficult question to answer: Are you making the sales to justify that cost? Your honest answer will lead you to a few options: you’re going to cut costs, you’re going to raise prices, you’re going to accept it for what it is or you’re going to invest in some solid education to finally figure this thing out and do it the right way!

There is no wrong answer. Only you know what you want in life and what’s best for your personal situation. But I’ll tell you this - you’ll never go wrong with investing in yourself. I wish I had sooner.

“You’ll never go wrong with investing in yourself.”

2. You do not know your costs of good sold - Obviously this plays off of #1, but knowing your costs of goods sold is a big one. If you are a serious business owner and want to make a profit from your photography business you’ll do what it takes to figure this out. The cost of goods sold is the amount that it takes to produce a product - printing, shipping, editing, packaging, etc. In order to run a profitable business your cost of goods sold needs to be less than 15% of the a la carte price of your product. 10% would be even better!! If it costs $3 to edit (average industry price) and $2 for the 8x10 then your 8x10 needs to be at minimum $50.

3. You think that digitals have zero costs associated with them - Wrong!! Big fat wrong!! This is the biggest misunderstanding out there. Every single day I see photographers giving files away. It breaks my heart. First of all, these are the most highly valued thing on your product menu. Why are they being included in a small session fee?!! If you still think a digital file costs almost nothing to produce please go back to step one and do that math. How many sessions do you need to cover that cost each month? How many sessions can you take on? Should you still be including those files? (nope)

Think about it this way. Let’s say you are charging $500 a session that includes the files. You can take on 6 sessions a month. That’s $3000 in revenue. Seems nice, right? Think again. You’ve put in about 10 hours into a session = 60 hours. Don’t forget your marketing and other admin time it takes to actually run the business. That’s probably another 40 hours. We are at 100 hours a month to run your business and handle those 6 clients. $3000 divided by 100 hours = $30 / hour. Hey, not too bad. Oh, but wait. Half of that will go to income taxes and the costs associated with running your business. So now you’re at $15 / hour. And that is a very conservative and me being nice number.

Digital files have a cost. They take hours and hours out of your life and away from your family. Please stop devaluing what you do by including digitals in the session fee. You are worth so much more.

4. You are inconsistent with marketing efforts - Do you have a solid plan for your social media marketing or do you get up each day and scroll your phone looking for inspiration to strike? I am only going to concentrate on social media right now, but there are sooooo many other ways to market your photography business. In order to grow your social media accounts which in turn increases your booking rate you have to be consistently showing up. Haphazardly posting every now and then without a plan is not going to do your business much good.

What I have found that works the best is to sit down on Sunday afternoon to look at the week ahead. Are there any special holidays or local events? Do any of my clients have birthdays coming up? Do I need to post session sneak peeks? Is it time to start thinking about pushing sessions for an upcoming season? How about a product highlight? What’s a common question I could answer? Once I jot down some notes in Trello and look over my calendar I go to my Instagram scheduler, Planoly, to start planning my Instagram posts.

Each week I try to cover a few different topics that fit my brand message & personality:

My why
Product Highlight
Behind The Scenes
Client Highlights w/ a memory from their session
Inspiration Quote
Something silly or fun
Something personal
Session tips or helpful hints

So my challenge to you would be to do the same. Set aside an hour or two each weekend (or whenever fits your life best) to plan your social media posts, stories and reels for the week. Showing up consistently will make a huge difference in the way people view your business. Being intentional and posting to social media with purpose will set you apart from the masses.

“Being intentional and posting to social media with purpose will set you apart from the masses.”

5. You only use social media to get clients - If your Facebook and Instagram are the only forms of getting business, then your business is at the mercy of the social media giants. We don’t own those platforms and we cannot control the message of our brand there. Our audiences will not see what we’re posting unless we pay for that these days. Having your own website means you get to tell your story the way you want it to be told, and you get to lead them through the experience and the process of booking a session. Do yourself and your potential clients a HUGE favor and build a website to show off your work and tell your story. I love and have used Photobiz for my senior photography business for years. You can’t go wrong with this company!

6. You do not pay yourself a salary - If you aren’t getting paid then you’re working as a volunteer. It’s as simple as that. Even if you are just starting out I think you need to get into the habit of paying yourself on a consistent basis. Write yourself a $100 or $200 check every week or whatever schedule you decide on. Just do it! I wish I had. Instead I just let the money pile up in the account & then I spent it on stupid things. Paying yourself a small amount now and being able to increase your pay over time as your business grows will feel so good!

7. You aren’t paying sales and / or income taxes - If you aren’t sure how to get set up to collect and pay sales taxes look up your Secretary of State to get set up with a sales tax ID. Some states don’t even have sales taxes so yay you if you happen to live in one of those. But income taxes is a different story. Be sure you are reporting your business income guys. Not gonna say anything else about that one :)

8. You are not covered by liability insurance - Hey guess what?! People can sue you for anything!! Having liability insurance when you run a business is absolutely vital. I won’t pretend to be an insurance expert and tell you how much coverage you need, but please call your agent to talk to them about your needs. The risk of losing everything you have to save a few bucks a month isn’t worth it. (Also, this is part of #3. See, digitals do cost something!)

9. You will shoot any type of session on any day and at any time - We all have a day one. So please hear me out when I say this. We have to figure out what we love to create and which direction we want to take our businesses. That’s a process we all have to go through. But once you know what you love and what you are good at it’s time to concentrate on it. A business has a vision, a purpose, an ideal client, a target market and consistent sales from it. A hobbyist will take any sort of session and at any time just to cover the cost of the hobby. There’s a big difference in just covering bills and making an impact while making an income.

Did I strike a nerve with any of those points? Are you tired of this thing you’re doing just being a hobby? If you’re ready to get focused I’d love to be the girl to help you figure it all out. I’ve been doing this for a long time and consistently get $3000 - $5000 senior session sales. It can be done y’all!

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The doors open November 4th for something very special for a handful of photographers who are ready to get laser focused on their businesses.

Studio Secrets is a 6 month business coaching intensive where we dive deep into your business together. It’s not a DIY course on one or two topics. This is EVERYTHING you could ever need to know (and all the tools & resources) to run a senior photography business - branding, messaging, websites, pricing, sales, marketing, social media, senior model teams, systems, workflow, automation and SO MUCH MORE! And bonus - you get me to lead you through it in our hot seat calls and a private community to bounce ideas around with.

If you’re ready to turn your expensive hobby into a thriving business be sure you are on the wait list.

Plus you save $500 on launch day - November 4th. Woohoo! I can’t wait to work with you!