The Worst Type of Advice for Your Photography Business

There’s good advice and sometimes there’s great advise but what I think is important are ideas.

For the past 21 weeks I’ve been sharing lots of different ideas for marketing campaigns. Some are inevitably better than others and some have been tested a great deal more than most. But they are still in essence ideas, not a set of rules that must be adhered to otherwise your business will fail!

I’ll be the first to put my hand up and admit that I do have a tendency to preach but at the same time it’s important to experiment. Sometimes that means you fall flat on your face and fail, while other times it can change your business completely.

So what is the worse type of advice for your business?

In my opinion it’s advise that suggests guaranteed success. Advice that is rigid and allows very little leeway or modification.

Advise like this is often churned out by certain photography trainers but certainly more so by franchises.

Here in the UK we’ve seen a rise in photography business franchises in the past few years. These businesses often enticing packages which play on the notion that you can in fact start a photography business with no training and a $500 camera.

The problem is that you can do exactly that. I worked on cruise ships which have teams of up to 20 photographers many of which have very little photography experience in the beginning. But we were trained to shoot a certain way. For every shoot we had a preset settings, equipment and even the way we printed was standardised to an extent.

But even the cruise ship photography industry recognises that it needs to change and evolve. The winning formula, so to speak, needs constant modifying and in some cases a complete overhaul. The switch from film to digital less than 10 years ago is a perfect example of this.

But why is some advice or that winning formula bad for your photography business?

Because the photography industry today (and always has been for that matter) is about trends. Some remain popular for years while others fall by the wayside very quickly.

A good friend of mine is what you might refer to as a serial entrepreneur. He’s very good at spotting gaps in the market and filling them very quickly and efficiently. What is most important is that he’s under no illusion to the shelf life of these businesses he creates. He knows he might only have two or three years to make good money before it’s time to pull out as inevitably the market becomes flooded.
He’s not creating businesses which are suitable as a career path and doesn’t sell that idea either.

The problem is that sometimes photography trainers and franchises are selling themselves as just that. The idea of quitting the day job or going pro is what many of you are striving for but that’s exactly what these business are feeding off.

Old advice based on old trends and past success can be a very dangerous advice to take. I’m not saying that all photography business training or franchise packages are bad…. far from it! But I urge you on the side of caution before you make such investment.

Look at what is on offer and assess how long you think it might last. Better still ask others for advise. Speak to past investors and if you hear the words “It used to be much better but….” then run for the hills!

This is why sites like this one should be an important part of your business. The fact that Trevor has done such a wonderful job in bringing together many different voices in the photography industry is testament to its need.

So if the worst type of advice is to listen to one voice then the best advise surely must be to listen to many and to never stop learning and discovering new ideas.

But don’t take my word for it… go speak to lots of other working photographers but if you ever want my opinion then I’m more than happy to share!

Drop me an email or use the comments.

Marketing Campaigns for Photographers will continue next week but if this is your first time here then be sure to check out this ideas….

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Michael Shilling

Michael has been working as a photographer for the last ten years. In that time he has shot over 100,000 peoples’ portraits and worked in four different continents. In 2001 Michael graduated with a degree in photography from Manchester Metropolitan University.

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