Hey, how’s it going? I’m Andy Jones and this is episode 85 of the Photography Side Hustle podcast.
So we are one week away from Christmas 2022 and I came across what I said this time last year about getting close to 300 downloads a month. I remember how happy I was getting that many downloads a month. Well, the downloads have now 10x’ed at a little under 3,000 a month.
So thank you for downloading and listening to me waffle on. I really appreciate it.
Ok, this week's episode is …
Now I’m not saying you need to stop being a photographer and start selling computers. It’s more a case of maximizing how much you can make.
There is a real estate term, “Highest and Best use”, which is used when evaluating the value of a property. If you own a house and rented it out, would you get more rental income if you split the house into 2 apartments? Whichever option makes the most money is the “Highest and Best use”.
So we’re going to find your business's “Highest and Best use”.
I want you to think about your chosen photography niche and what photography skills you need to do it. I’m going to accept that you can compose an image, and have people skills.
Ok, let’s run through some examples …
The skills required are, being able to use flash and editing.
The first thing I want you to look at is your final product. Now if you are a Headshot photographer your product is digital files, and there isn’t much you can do about that. Except don’t sell packages of say 3 images, give a price for one image and each additional image is extra.
If you shoot family portraits and you only offer digital files you are missing out on selling printed products. You can make way more money selling prints. I hear lots of photographers online complaining that customers are only buying small lower value prints. Well, the answer is don’t offer small prints, make the smallest print you offer a 16x24, or only offer smaller prints in packages of 5.
Let’s say you have a small studio and you do 5 - 8 sessions in a good week. But some weeks are quiet and the studio rent is high. Why not change what you are selling? Try using your skills to shoot corporate headshots on-site.
Large businesses need headshots done yearly. Dealing with a business is way different from a regular customer. You will be asked to shoot large amounts of staff. Using the skills you already have you can shoot at the corporate offices and make way more money without the studio costs.
Same skill, different location, more money.
So your business model is booking 2-hour sessions for $400, and $200 of that is a credit towards prints. Some customers see the $400 price tag and are turned off. Other people think spending 2 hours with the kids going crazy is torture. So it’s not always an easy sell.
Change what you sell by offering mini-sessions. A 20-minute mini-session for $99 and they get an 8x10 print. That’s 6 sessions in 2 hours for $594, plus you can sell them more prints. Mini sessions are quick and profitable.
Most wedding photographers offer packages and that is great, except it limits how much the customer can spend.
If you have a base price for the hours you shoot and they choose and purchase their prints after the wedding, you have taken the limiter off. Before the wedding, they needed a photographer, after they want the beautiful images from that great day. It’s an easier sell, and I think you can make more money.
Another way wedding photographers can save time and make more money is by using a photo editor. Now in the past, you had to hire a photo editor, but today you can use an AI (Artificial Intelligence) program like Imagine AI. I realize this isn’t changing what you sell, but it does save you hours of work. You can knock 6-8 hours of editing down to 5-10 minutes.
If you shoot a wedding for 8 hours and expect to spend 6 hours editing the images, you can cut 14 hours of work down to 8 hours. So buying AI software is a no-brainer for wedding photographers.
The first places you would expect to see this type of work for sale are in a gallery, or online through a website. But, this podcast's first follower, Paul Paldus, sells his work at a local market. Not only is it a great way to sell your work, but it’s another way to network and meet new customers.
There is a local artisans group that I’m thinking of joining. They have sales twice a year and the rest of the time you can put your best work up on the walls of the local hall. So your work is for sale whenever the hall is being used, which is pretty much every day.
I’m going to check out every town and village around here so I can do the same. This is a great example of passive income, make it, post it and wait for a sale.
Ok, let's say you are a landscape photographer with a few thousand social media followers. Have you considered self-publishing a photo book?
I did a search to see what kind of costs you can expect. The first one I looked at was printninja.com, the minimum order is 250 books at $7.93 each for an 8x10, 48-page soft cover, that’s $1981 total. You would need to sell 99 books at $19.99 each to break even.
But, if you spent an extra $135 you would get 500 books at $4.23 each. You would need to sell 106 books at $19.99 to break even.
You are probably thinking selling that many books is way out of your league, and it might be now. Think about the nearest tourist town or park to you. You put together a collection of 30 landscape images of that area. If you made a book using those images could you get the books into the local gift shops? If you are selling through these shops you will have to up the sale price, but it can be done.
There is one more way to sell your books, Amazon. You ship some of your books to Amazon, and they sell and ship them for you. Once you start selling through Amazon you are a published author.
If you have a good social media following start promoting it. Once it starts selling on Amazon all you need to do is send them more books when stocks are low.
If you shoot Real Estate then you need to offer more than stills. Without a doubt, you need to be shooting aerial stills and videos with a drone. Plus offering walk-through videos can get you more money than just stills.
Look beyond taking photos of homes for sale. Could you make more money only shooting luxury homes or commercial properties?
I’m just trying to get you thinking about the skills you have and the options that are out there for you to take advantage of. You could be shooting portraits in the mall or using the same skill set to take corporate headshots on-site for 10 times the amount of money.
You can have a very lucrative side hustle if you think about your options. If you’re just starting out the skills you need are not hard to learn.
Ok, that’s it for this episode. I hope you have a great Christmas. I’ll be back soon with more waffle, have a good one, Bye.