How To Start A Photography Business From Home

Hey, Marianne DeNovellis here with the Six Figure Mastermind.

20 years ago, I an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>startan>ed a photography business at home that I absolutely loved.

So, if you're looking do the same thing and you want to love it at the same time, I've got some key points for you.

So, stay tuned.

Starting a phoan style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan>graphy business from home is something I did 20 years ago.

So, you know I can give you a few tips and tricks to do it successfully, okay? The first thing you're going an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> want an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> do is please get yourself in education.

I don't care if you do it through college, university or you hire a mentor.

But you've got to know what you're doing with that camera and you've got to know what you're doing with the people on the other side of the camera.

So a top photography hack that might surprise you, take a course in psychology.

Understand how people work.

Because as a photographer your clients should not remember you at all when they look at the pictures.

When they look at their pictures, you want them to remember an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>howan> fun it was for them an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> be an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan>gether, to be with each other.

Their job is to create the memories.

Your job is to document it.

Not to be this super stressful photographer that's trying an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> get the dad or the child to smile the whole time while the mom is just fussing around trying to create clothing that's not wrinkled or keep an prints off herself, right? They want an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> have a fun experience.

So, get an education in phoan style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan>graphy and your camera, read your camera manual.

And get some kind of an education in psychology and how the human brain works.

And how to just work with people, okay? Especially if you're doing portrait phoan style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan>graphy, right? The first thing you're going to want to do is start building your portfolio, okay? This means, just going out there and shooting.

If you've just created your portfolio with, you know, no images in it.

There's no reason for anyone to hire you as a phoan style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan>grapher.

So, go shoot everything you possibly can.

And find your niche.

You might find that you like landscapes.

You might find that you would love working with babies.

You might find that you love doing families.

Maybe you love travel photography, maybe you love weddings, maybe you want engagements or maternity or couples shoots or single or high-fashion.

There are so many different kinds of photography I haven't even scratched the surface on.

So, shoot everything you possibly can and when you do that, you're going to find what you love an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> shoot most.

When I started, I literally shot everything.

I would do still lives, I would do travel, I would do macro, I would do just this grunge feel.

And I would experiment with everything.

And gradually I found which kind of phoan style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan>graphy that I love doing most.

I had to go through a lot of weddings an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> learn this, I had an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> go through a lot of family shoots to learn this and I finally figured out, as I was sitting there on the beach in Mexico and I was watching this family play that I was having the time of my life traveling and taking these epic pictures of not just families and couples but of the architecture and of things that people don't get an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> see every day.

So, travel photography and travel couples phoan style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan>graphy, that's my niche.

That's what I love to do.

Will I do the occasional wedding every now and then? Sure.

Will I do professional headshots every now and then? Absolutely, if I love it.

if I, you know, want to work with that person.

But my favorite thing an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> do is travel phoan style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan>graphy.

That's my niche, okay? So, discover your niche just by shooting everything that you possibly can and save it for your portfolio, okay? A tip from the pro, get yourself an external hard drive.

Please at least a few terabytes in size.

I bought two terabytes external hard drive off of newegg.

Com a couple years ago.

That thing's almost full and it's growing quickly.

So, get yourself an external hard drive for storage.

Also, please.

Pretty, pretty, please.

Back up your work off site using a site like Carbonite, okay? You are dealing with huge files here.

You're dealing with many huge files.

And you're dealing with priceless memories that you can't get back.

And unless you have triple backup, meaning, your hard drive, your external hard drive and something off-site, you don't have backup at all.

So, triplicate or nothing.

Okay? On-site, off-site and on your hard drive.

So, please, please, please, backup your work.

Also, just a word.

I wish.

Something that I wish I had done when I was first starting out, okay? Metadata.

If you don't know about metadata, learn about metadata.

Metadata is like this little sidecar file is what it's called.

It's all the information about your picture.

It's got the location of your picture, it's got the time your picture was taken, it's got your camera's data on there.

What f-stop, what aperture, what shutter speed.

It's got all of the information on there.

You can actually manipulate that metadata to put some extra in formation in there.

So, for example, if you went to Mexico and you shot a family on the beach there.

Then you would go into that metadata and add the word in Mexico.

Add the word family session.

Add the word Puerto Vallerta if they you happen to be there.

Add the word, you know, whatever color they are wearing or had the word beach.

Anything that describes that picture.

Because you never know, you never know when you're going an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> be you know, inspired by a contest and want an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> pull your Beach pictures.

And then you want to find that one but you've got so many files you can't find it because you didn't add beach to the metadata sidecar file.

Do you follow me? So, manipulate that metadata sidecar file as soon as you shoot the picture and get it inan style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> your Lightroom, okay? Add that metadata.

Just and promise you do yourself that favorite right now.

Another thing you need an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> know when considering photography is Instagram.

Instagram is where all the photographers hang out.

In fact, a lot of photographers don't even have a website anymore just because they're using Instagram exclusively.

Instagram is all about images.

So, an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>startan> a very high quality Instagram profile and in fact, you can check out some more of my videos on how to create a very stunning Instagram profile.

Which you're going to need for your photography business.

That being said, you need to master hash tagging.

Hash tagging is almost like adding data to your sidecar file in your pictures on your hard drive.

Except now, you're doing it for the public.

So, if you have a wedding that you shot, make sure you hashtag wedding.

And the location of your wedding.

If you have a family, make sure you have all of the relevant hashtags with that.

And in fact, I have another video for you but how an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> find the most popular hashtag for your images.

So, become a ninja in hash tagging.

When you starting your own photography business, it's so important an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> have contracts in place.

If you've watched any of my other videos, you know that I care a lot about managing customer expectations.

That's why I've recorded so much content on it.

Those are going to be all outlined in your contract and you need your contact to cover you in case there's some kind of a dispute.

So, I don't care if you're photographing friends and family and think, "Oh, I don't need an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> do a contract for this one.

" Wrong.

Get a contract, have everyone read it and sign it.

On top of that, make sure you have an insurance policy.

You can get a million dollar insurance policy for usually less than 500 bucks and it's industry.

You should have that in place.

You never know when someone's going to trip and fall on a shoot.

You never know if an accident is going to happen on a shoot.

I mean, heaven forbid, let's be real here.

But you want to have an insurance policy to back you up just in case.

I promise you won't be sorry.

And you can also insure your equipment on that policy.

Every time you buy a piece of new equipment, add it to the policy.

Okay? It shouldn't cost you extra, very often.

Unless it's like a giant huge piece of equipment.

But include it all in your insurance policy.

When you're starting your photography business, you want to kind of define of what your goals are.

Do you want to just build a massive portfolio? Do you want to have a certain dollar amount that you're making every year? So, really be clear, crystal clear on your goals and understand that you've got to deconstruct them and reverse-engineer them.

So, for example, if you want an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> make $10,000 a month doing photography, an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>howan> much your portrait sessions? Maybe there are $500 for a portrait session.

How many times does $500 go into $10,000? How many of those $500 sales could you do in a week? How many people do you need to gather at your specific closing ratio? Meaning an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>howan> many closes with sales can you do out of an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>howan> many people you talk to? How many of those can you close in order an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> get however many you need every week to get that dollar amount per month? So, reverse engineer your goals and then have a daily action set to do with each of those, okay? So, we've talked contracts, we've talked what to do with your images, we've talked san style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan>rage.

So, I want to actually go an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> a question that came in on Quora.

And this question is from Tibiryu Tes Leon.

I hope I pronounced your name right.

Forgive me if I didn't.

And the question is this.

"Is photography meant only for the rich?" So, I want an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> tell you about one of my favorite photographers of all time.

His name was Edward Wesan style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan>n, okay? And if you look up Edward Weston, you're probably going an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> see a black-and-white photograph of a pepper, like a bell pepper.

Now this bell pepper was phoan style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan>graphed by Edward Weston because he was so poor.

He was so poor and he wanted.

He was brilliant phoan style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan>grapher but he really didn't have anything to photograph.

So, he made this black-and-white photograph of this pepper which has turned out an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> be one of the most popular phoan style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan>graphs in the black-and-white photography industry.

So, it's photography only for the rich? Absolutely not.

It's for the creative.

And if you're creative, get behind the camera and start creating some beautiful work.

Photography is also for those that want an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> document.

Some of the most valuable photos in hisan style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan>ry are not because they're technically beautiful, not because they're photographed well but because they exist.

You know, imagine if we had a phoan style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan>graph of the man who shot Kennedy in the action of doing it, that would probably be a hugely valuable photograph.

Imagine first-edition photographs of people like Abraham Lincoln.

Or imagine if cameras are around in the time of George Washingan style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan>n.

How valuable that phoan style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan>graph would be? So, phoan style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan>graphy, it's for everybody.

It's for those that want to document and remember, it's for creative artists and it's for anyone that values looking at a piece of history, okay? So, thanks for submitting your question on Quora.

I look forward to seeing more of yours there.

I'll be checking back, back in.

But if you're interested in starting your photography business on at home.

I'm go encourage you to just get started.

Go out there and shoot something super cool an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan>day.

Thanks for watching today.

I hope you enjoyed today's video.

Go out there.

Start shooting create amazing images.

In fact, if you want to learn how an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> build a six-figure business and doing what you love and having time for your family, hit me up in the link in the description below.

Because I'm going to walk you through exactly an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>howan> an style=”text-decoration: underline;”>toan> do that.

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