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How to Make Your Photography Hobby into a Business You Love

Photo by Deb Mitzel Photography

If you’ve been practicing photography as a hobby for a while, learning and improving as you go, chances are you’ve already had a few paid gigs, or have at least been asked to take photos for someone in your life.  If so, you may be starting to think about how you can turn your photography hobby into a real business.  Photography has been a hobby of mine for my entire life. I am beginning my fifth year in business as a portrait photographer.  If you’ve been following my articles, you know that I also work full time outside of photography, so juggling both can sometimes be a challenge. In this article, I’m going to provide some insight on how you can make your photography hobby into a thriving business that you love. Trust me, work does not feel like work when you are doing something that you love.

The first thing I want you to really think about is WHY you want to pursue photography as a business. Is it to help people? Spend more time with your family? Pursue your creative passion?   If you are clear with why you want to turn your photography into a business, it will help you make decisions down the line.  For example, if you want to pursue photography as a business to make extra money to take an annual vacation with your family, then that is your WHY.  When faced with a decision on whether to take a photography job or spend an evening with your friends, knowing your WHY may make the decision easier.  If your WHY is to spend more time with your family on the weekends and you’re thinking about being a wedding photographer, you may have a conflict.  I hope you can see how getting clear on WHY you’re in business will help you prioritize and make decisions in your business.  This is crucial to keep photography as a passion once you start monetizing it.

Starting a business can be stressful, and the last thing you want to do is turn something you love as a hobby into something you hate when you make it a business.  It is definitely possible to keep the love once you make photography your business, but you do have to be very intentional about it.

HOW TO KEEP THE LOVE

SPEND SOME OF YOUR PROFITS

What? Yes, you’re going to be working more, so having a plan to spend some of the profits will keep you motivated. You have to enjoy at least some of the fruits of your labor.   Whether it’s for a family vacation or some new gear you want to try, spending some of the money you earn will make you feel good and keep you motivated. Even better, set a predetermined percentage of your income that you will designate as extra spending money.

KEEP YOUR DAY JOB

When your hobby becomes the thing you need to do to put food on the table, things can get a little stressful.  Be realistic about going full time as a photographer.  You might just want to keep your business as a fun, part time gig, and not put the pressure on yourself to go full time.

CHALLENGE YOURSELF WITH PERSONAL PROJECTS

Set aside time to learn new things and challenge yourself with personal passion projects.  You might be doing family sessions on the weekends for a little extra cash, but if you have a passion for shooting hockey, for example, contact your local team and see if you could shoot their games.  You might get the opportunity to become the “team photographer” if they don’t already someone established.  Whatever your photography passion, make sure you take time to incorporate it into your life.   Find the thing that fills you up and gives you energy, and do more of that! Here's 101 Photography Project Ideas.

COLLABORATE WITH OTHER CREATIVES

Spend time with other creative professionals.  Collaborating on creative projects with others can breathe energy and life into your own business.  If you’re a wedding photographer, this might mean collaborating with a group of wedding vendors on a styled shoot, or if you’re into theatre, you might consider working with a local theater group to recreate scenes from Grease or some other production for a themed shoot.  

One of the best places to meet others is the Improve Your Photography Facebook Group. There's always someone willing to collaborate!

LEARN TO SAY NO

Running a business can suck the life out of you if you let it, so don’t be afraid to say NO. This is where being clear with your WHY will come into play.  Don’t be tempted to take a job just because of the paycheck.  9 times out of 10 it will bite you in the butt, and you’ll end up regretting it.  Be intentional about your growth, and the work you say yes to.  If you learn to say no, you’ll still have a business you love many years down the road.

GET ORGANIZED

Set up systems and workflows within your business that will allow you to spend time on the things you love the most, which is most likely time behind the camera.  Things like marketing, editing, and bookkeeping can consume your days, so make sure you are using a client management system to be as efficient as possible, or outsourcing some of those tasks, if possible.  My article comparing five photography client management systems can provide some guidance in this area.

If you love taking the photos, but hate editing them. Consider outsourcing your post processing using a freelancer marketplace like Fiverr. There are thousands of freelancers to choose from at very affordable rates!

SET GOALS AND STICK TO THEM

Set realistic goals for your business, and stick to the them.  If you are working a full time job and you have a family, it isn’t feasible to think that you can take on 3 portrait clients a week, especially if you do your own retouching, bookkeeping, and social media marketing.  Give considerable thought to how you are going to run your business before you just put yourself out there.  If you don’t, you may find yourself curled up in a ball of stress because you can’t possibly get everything done that you’ve committed to.

You must create a work schedule for your business that is realistic with regards to the amount of non-shooting time your business will take.  This is an extremely important factor in whether or not you continue to love photography after you’ve turned it into a business.  Make sure you factor in family time, vacations, training, and other commitments when you develop your schedule.  Your sanity will thank you!

KNOW YOUR COST OF DOING BUSINESS

One of the quickest ways to burn out in any small business venture is to work your tail off for little to no financial reward.  Even though money may not be your motivator, you do need to be paid for the service and work you are providing.  It will be much easier to continue to love photography once you’ve turned it into a thriving business. If you are seeing the results of your efforts in your bank account, your quality of life and your ability to do things with and for your family increase.  In my article on Photography Pricing, I walk you through an exercise to calculating your cost of doing business.  If you haven’t done it yet, now is the time.  Your continued love for photography depends on it.

SUMMARY

I hope these tips on how to make your photography hobby into a business you love have given you some food for thought, and will help you keep perspective in your business.  I want photography to be something you love for years to come, even when it becomes your business.  If you’ve found yourself going down the rabbit hole of frustration and resentment with your business, step back and revisit your WHY – have you gone off course and need to find your way again?  Did you fail to plan properly, and now it’s time to do the work?  It’s ok to pivot in your business, but just make sure you’re doing it intentionally, and that the changes are in line with your why.

You know that saying, “If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life”?  That’s what I want for you in your business.  Let me know how you’re doing with this, and I would love to hear any other advice you have found to help you keep the love of photography in your business.

BONUS:  In case you missed them, here are links to a few more articles you may find helpful as you turn your photography hobby into a business.

Photography Pricing: Calculating Your Cost of Doing Business

How to Run a Photography Business and Balance a Day Job

13 Tools to Improve Productivity in your Photo Business

If you want to learn more about how photographers are turning their passion into a business, just ask them in the Improve Your Photography Facebook Group! We would LOVE to answer your questions 🙂

Disclaimer: Improve Photography is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program among other affiliate programs, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com and other websites.
 

6 thoughts on “How to Make Your Photography Hobby into a Business You Love”

  1. Many thanks Dev! For a one who is taking interest in photography. This is much appreciated.

    Alex

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