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.

Tips on How to Sell: Go for No

 Gavin   Business, Sales

Pro Tip – Learn How To Sell…

One skill that separates a sucessful professional photographer from a very talented amateur is her ability to sell. By that I don’t mean selling prints or canvases but rather selling the idea of a photoshoot to a potential client or prospect. When someone calls asking for a photoshoot, it’s fairly easy. They’ve seen your work, made up their mind and picked the telephone up. Everything is in your favour. Go get ’em.

What if they haven’t called? What if the phone doesn’t ring? What if all the fancy contact forms on your website never get used? What do you do then?

The answer is very simple: Continue reading Tips on How to Sell: Go for No »

Marketing Mayhem – It’s a game you need to win

 Gavin   Business, Journey, Marketing

So you want to be a professional photographer. You’ve got some great images in your portfolio. You’ve shot a few weddings. Maybe even been published once or twice or sold a few images through stock libraries. Fantastic 🙂 That’s where to start and indeed how a lot of people enter the industry.

But it isn’t enough.

It’s OK to earn a bit of pin money from time to time but that’s not enough to sustain a healthy business. For that you need clients. To get clients you need to be a marketer, not a photographer.

Continue reading Marketing Mayhem – It’s a game you need to win »

Looking Forwards – Setting the Goalposts

 Gavin   Goals, Journey, Musings

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while. A very long while in fact. I want to write down my goals for the business and where I want to take it. It’s a difficult post to write because my ideas have been constantly changing and that’s a bad thing. It’s been leading to me chasing rainbows rather than concentrating on a longer term strategy. Continue reading Looking Forwards – Setting the Goalposts »

Numpty Guide to Twitter

 Gavin   Business, Social Media

The more I use Social Media and in particular Twitter, the more I realise how valuable this platform is to my business. There is a definite correlation between the number of tweets I chirp to the amount of traffic to my main website. Not too sure why because the traffic isn’t coming from Twitter per se but on days where I tweet more, I get many more hits. Mostly from search engines too.

If there’s a tame SEO expert out there that can shed their opinions on this I’d love to hear them.

There aren’t any hard rules like “do this and you’ll be a millionaire by Christmas” but there are bear traps and pitfalls to be aware of. These are just some of my own, personal thoughts based on the way I use the platform. It’s not perfect and I know I could be using it much more effectively, but here they are nevertheless…
Continue reading Numpty Guide to Twitter »

A new landmark in Social Media

 Gavin   Business, Journey, Marketing, Social Media

Today saw a new first for me in the realms of social media, but it was one that I very nearly failed to comprehend. In fact, it wasn’t until I was actually driving home after the shoot that it hit me: the entire photo-shoot was arranged and booked using Twitter.

Now that has to be pretty cool. Continue reading A new landmark in Social Media »