Is Your Photography Business Out of Focus?

If somebody asked you to describe a perfect day in the life of your photography business, could you do it?

If somebody asked you to describe your ideal customer, could you do it?

If somebody asked you what you wanted your business to look like in 5 years, could you do it? How about 10 years? Or 20?

It's sad, really, how many photographers spend hundreds or thousands of hours trying to perfect their craft... when then don't have the first clue about how to actually make money with their craft.

Look, I understand the whole "art for art's sake," thing... but I have a hunch that more often than not, this is simply used as an excuse by photographers who aren't making any money.
But making money with your photography isn't really as hard as you might think... although it does require (excuse the pun) some intense focus.

If you're a little unclear about what your business should look like, here are the first 3 things you must do to get your photography business on the right track:

1. Figure out what your photography strengths are... then cater to them. If you have a strong eye for photographing people... consider being a fashion or portrait photographer. It you're particularly skilled at photographing buildings, consider shooting commercial real estate. And so on.

On the other hand, if you get abnormally nervous when dealing with people... you probably shouldn't be a wedding photographer. If you have trouble photographing moving objects, you might want to stay away from NASCAR photography. And so on.

2. Figure out who your ideal customer is. What are their habits? What gives them pleasure? What scares them? What are their hobbies?

The more narrowly you can define this ideal customer, the more you can gear your marketing toward them. After all, you can be the most technically skilled photographer in the world... but if you can't get people to actually buy your photographs, these skills could go to waste.

3. Figure out what you want your business to look like in 20 years. Thinking long-term will force you to make smarter decisions than if you're just trying to pay the rent next week. Create a solid vision of your business, and then make every marketing decision with this vision in mind.

Of course, marketing your business is a complete subject to itself (sadly, one that most photographers don't have a clue about), but until you know exactly what you're trying to accomplish with your photography-both today and 20 years from now-you'll be running hard on a treadmill, going nowhere