How to Start as a Pro?
There are 3 ways of becoming a pro.
- You are the lucky one. Somebody asks you to take their photos. Usually, it's a family or a friend. Or somebody asks you to sell them a photo you took for … Those photographers are the lucky one, and shouldn't be professional photographers. Photographers never become rich and since they are the lucky one, they should use their luck on winning the Lotto.
- Become the assistant to a professional photographer. As an assistant, you will learn both the photography and the business end of being a professional photographer.
- Become a professional photographer the hard way. Starting from scratch. Earning your clients by promoting and earning your clients.
I do get some referrals, but they are few and far between. If I waited for the phone to ring, my dog would be starving, the bank would have repossessed my place and ceased the cameras. For that to happen, you need to be in business for many years and have sold your photos to many customers.
The problem is how do you start? You pound the pavement. That's how.
- Create a flyer.
Since you don't have work, block by block, drop the flyer at every house, be it weddings, portraits or even commercial.
- Almost everybody goes home after work.
- Even if people are not interested in what you are advertising, they may be looking for something else or closely related.
What's the success ratio? At 1%, you are doing well. At 1 per thousand, that's ok. Less than 1 per thousand, you will need to rethink either the flyer or the neighborhood.
The cost of a flyer is minimal. A thousand colour flyers… is around $100 in my neck of the woods.
I can already hear:
- That won't work for me. I only do weddings or senior grads…
That's not how advertising works. Take the example of the deodorant for women. They advertise them. ½ of the people that see those ads are men. How many of the women already have a deodorant that they are happy with: 80%? 90%? 95%? I don't know, but they are many market studies that show that converting 1% of the people is “extremely profitable.” Colgate - Palmolive and Unilever make billions of dollars advertising and promoting female deodorants.
I don't have samples!
Hire a couple of models and make the samples. That's what almost everybody does, including photojournalists.
- Sitting at home will not bring any new client.
- Having just a website will not bring new clients unless you are already well established.
- There are 20+ billion websites. The web is mostly a lottery, you can improve your chances, but it's still a lottery.