Photography is the king of modern business. You’ll struggle to find a company who doesn’t use photography in one way or another, whether advertising, marketing, campaigning, or just capturing the joy of a moment.

In today’s lucrative market, launching a start-up can be a one-way ticket to success. If you’ve ever dreamed of your own photography business, we’ve got you covered – here are six steps to starting up.

1. Find Your Niche

First things first – what’s your niche? What area of photography are you passionate about?

If you’re reading this, it’s likely you’ve already given your niche some thought, but it’s important to consider it carefully as this will ultimately carve out your business’ unique selling points. Whether it’s weddings, portraits, photojournalism, or advertising, your niche will act as a framework to build your brand around, and will also enhance the aesthetic value and professionalism of your portfolio, which is great for attracting clients.

2. Form a Plan

Once you’ve got your niche locked down, you can start building your business plan. This will include:

Costs Involved

Everything from kitting yourself out, to building your website, to digital marketing. Getting started might be the biggest financial hurdle, but once you’ve got a few clients rolling in, you can build up a sweet safety blanket to fall back on if you ever need to replace a lens or splash out on a new tripod.

Pricing Your Services

Going off the costs, you can then map out your going rate. Consider your investments, the time taken up with prep, shooting, and post-production, and what you’d like to be earning to make a decent profit (which you can then use to fund back into the business).

One point to note is that when starting out, your first clients will likely be your nearest and dearest, who you’ll be tempted to offer discounts to. That’s absolutely fine – a good chance to bulk up your portfolio and gain some valuable experience – but it’s smart to set yourself a family and friends rate and stick to it, religiously. That way you can avoid any difficult conversations with your third cousin twice-removed about throwing in a free frame or two.

Legal Matters

There are two key things to make sure you tick off here – photography insurance, and registering your business. The latter will go one of two ways:

• Setting up as a sole trader. Photographers are often freelance, sole trader businesses, as they usually work alone. As the ‘sole’ owner, they get to keep the profits made after tax, and are responsible for any losses. Sole traders don’t actually need to ‘register’ their business – they just need a National Insurance number, financial records, and an annual submission of a Self Assessment Tax Return.
• Setting up as a limited company. Limited companies are required to register with Companies House, ensuring their name and logo isn’t infringing on any existing trademarks. A quick search on Companies House can help you find this out.

3. Invest in Equipment

There are endless bits and bobs you can pick up, but these are a few essentials:

Camera

Without a decent camera, your business will likely not make it very far. Don’t be afraid to dedicate a good portion of your funds to this – it will definitely pay off.

Lenses

Again, essential, but which you go for will largely depend on your chosen niche. There are thousands to choose from, but they’ll mostly come under two main categories:

• A prime lens. These use one fixed focal length, producing lighter, clear, high-quality images.
• A zoom lens. These allow you to adjust the focal length, so you can more easily reframe the scene.

Device

Asides from being an essential ingredient for building a business (to launch your website, email clients, do digital marketing), whatever device you go for will be a key component in the post-production stage of your craft. Consider the editing software you might need – another box to tick on the ‘investment’ list – and hunt down the right piece of kit for the job.

4. Find Your Base

When it comes to start-ups, being in the right environment to encourage creativity, optimise productivity, and drive networking is crucial for business growth. Ensuring you have an office space to thrive in will optimise your output, and give you a chance to try out ideas in a supportive environment.

At Meanwhile Creative, we have a selection of affordable office, desk, and studio spaces around the UK, with our most recent being a selection of creative spaces in the thriving city of Newport. With a rewarding workplace culture, collaborative network, and a perfect environment to work, our offices are the perfect place to watch your start-up reach success.

5. Form a Portfolio

You’ve got the gear, you’ve hatched your plan, you’ve arranged cute plants on your desk. It’s time to form a portfolio of work to showcase your talents and attract paying customers.

This is where the familial discount comes in handy – ask around for opportunities to bulk out your body of work. It could be a cousin’s wedding, a friend’s headshots, or even a personal project like taking a walk in nature and capturing the sunset (free, and good for the soul).

6. Build an Online Presence

Now you’ve got an impressive backlog of beautiful snapshots, you can find a website platform, like WordPress or Squarespace, and get to work on capturing the essence of your brand online. Once you’ve nailed your website, you can tackle your marketing strategy and start to attract a wider scope of clients.

You can also use this as an opportunity to pinpoint what type of client you’d like to work with. Who is your dream customer? What exactly do they want? Once you’ve identified the needs of your target demographic and the ways you can meet those needs, you can engineer your marketing to echo that sentiment and connect with clients.

With these six steps, your photography start-up will be well on its way to seeing success.

If you’re looking to kickstart your career and need an affordable and collaborative base to grow your business in, feel free to get in touch today to hear about our creative studio, desk and office spaces.