Category: Business

The business of photography…

Posts in this category on theLightMatters Blog look at the business side of being a photographer. Topics will cover such areas as…

  • Business – specifically starting and running a photography business
  • Strategy – your goals, dreams and ambitions plus how you can realise them and
  • Sales for photographers
  • Marketing for photographers
  • Social Media for photographers

…and that’s just to start.

How to earn money from your photos

 Gavin   Business
Money does grow on trees

How to earn money from your photos

STOP PRESS — Owing to the popularity of this article we’re planning to publish our first book on how you too can earn a bit of extra cash from your photos without starting a business. Interested? Join our VIP members list today (there’s no charge) and we’ll send you the first two chapters as soon as they’re written.

I’m a firm believer that anyone can earn money from selling their photos. In fact, that’s exactly how I first started — just the odd random photo here and there. One thing led to another and now I run my own photography business.

That’s not perhaps everyone’s cup-of-tea but the ability to take something you’ve created and use it to earn a bit of extra cash is always good.

Don’t worry if you think they’re not good enough — pursuing a more commercial approach to your photography is a great way to improve. It moves you to a different mindset: you start to see things you’ve never noticed before, you start to ‘feel’ the image before it’s made and you push yourself to do better and better with every frame. Continue reading How to earn money from your photos »

The Passing of theLightMatters…

 Gavin   Marketing
Bournemouth Beach - 15mm Fisheye Lens

theLightMatters is now 6 years old. It’s been a friendly companion over the years; a fellow journeyman constantly by my side accompanying me on my quest, as hair brained as it seemed all those years ago. It’s been with me through good times and bad, the laughter and the tears.

As I look back it’s incredible how much I’ve learned in 6 short years. I’ve changed too, transitioning from a stressed out software engineer to running an award winning photography business. I’ve discovered a new passion too: marketing.

One of the biggest lessons I learned as a new business owner was “it doesn’t matter how good you are at what you do, its how you are at marketing that matters.”

I was really skeptical at first. Didn’t believe it for one minute. My pictures would speak for themselves. All I needed was a website with a gallery and tweet a few images from time to time.

HUGE MISTAKE Continue reading The Passing of theLightMatters… »

Is it worth joining the FSB?

 Gavin   Business

FSB: Is it worth joining if you run a small business?

Two years ago I joined the Federation of Small Businesses, or FSB. It’s an organisation in the UK that helps and supports small businesses. They provide lots of benefits too. Things like legal advice, assistance in case of tax investigation amongst others. (It’s worth looking at their website, http://fsb.org.uk, to discover more about what they offer).

One of their benefits is financial support for business owners who get summoned for jury service. If you read their literature, they claim to pay up to £100 per day up to a maximum of £1,000 for every day their members serve as a juror.

As I was summoned in January 2011, prior to starting Gavin Thorn Photography, I hadn’t expected to use this benefit at all. Nevertheless, when I joined the organisation in 2013, it gave me a warm feeling: if I was called again, at least I’d have something to tide me over. Or so I thought. Continue reading Is it worth joining the FSB? »

Perfect Workflow for Photographers…

 Gavin   Business

The photography business is really very simple: you take a booking, you make the photos, you process the photos, you collect the client’s payment and then deliver their images.

In the start-up phase when you’re less likely to have a lot of work going through at once it’s very easy to know where everything is. I used to keep it all in my head it was that simple.

But what happens when your business grows? Between year 1 and year 2 my business doubled, then tripled between year 2 and year 3. I had a lot more work going through and my ‘system’ of keeping it all in my head started to develop cracks… Continue reading Perfect Workflow for Photographers… »