2020 was pretty difficult for most of us, and the creative industry has suffered a lot. Photographers struggled to find work, and it sure was stressful to shoot for a living with all the lockdowns and measures in place. But let’s hope for a better 2021 and more opportunities to earn a living by doing what we love most. Joanie Simon of The Bite Shot has three fantastic tips that will help you earn more as a photographer, not only in 2021, but in many years to come.
1.Evaluate and reduce your overall expenses
1.Evaluate and reduce your overall expenses
When running a business, you have your income and your expenses. Joanie notes that you can earn more profit by increasing your income, but we’ll get there. An”instant” way to increase profit is to evaluate and reduce the operating expenses of your business. So how can you do it? Well, there sure are many ways, it all depends what you spend your money on. But one thing to pay attention to is all kinds of subscriptions. Most of us regularly pay a bunch of subscriptions for apps, websites, and software. Without us noticing, they really start to add up and increase our expenses. You may be regularly paying for some subscriptions that you don’t really need anymore, so you can pay attention to them and cancel them if you don’t use them.
2. Add video to your offer
2. Add video to your offer
A great way to expand your offer is to include video and other kinds of motion work. Video is in high demand, and you can create all other kinds of motion work: stop motion animation, gifs, or short clips for social media. This will increase the income coming into your business, but also enable you to gain new clients and get more work. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you have to become a videographer and do it overnight. Just focus on improving your current skills and building new ones, step by step, one day at a time.
3. Pitch your services
3. Pitch your services
I know introverts will hate this tip, but it’s essential: get out there and let people hear about you. Start pitching your services and connecting to the people who can potentially hire you. It’s unpleasant, awkward, you may feel self-conscious and shy, but you absolutely have to get out of your comfort zone. The harsh truth is that you can be as good a photographer as you want, but people won’t just “discover you” if you sit and do nothing to reach them out. Even that dude who was hired by Oprah got out there and offered his services. I’m also a bit shy and pretty awkward and self-conscious. I don’t even run my business, but I was always sending emails and reaching out to people when I needed a job or a gig. And guess what – that kind of approach landed me the majority of gigs and jobs I’ve had so far. It wasn’t pleasant, but it taught me a few things. One, I can be shy all I want, but I can get out of my comfort zone. Two, nothing bad can happen if you reach out, introduce yourself, showcase your work, and ask if someone would hire you. And three, potential clients appreciate this kind of approach. What Joanie points out and I strongly agree is that many people tend to overthink their pitch. They think they have to send a “perfect” email, come up with the exactly right thing to say… But it’s much simpler than that. You just need to contact a potential client, introduce yourself and your work, and that’s all. Don’t overcomplicate it. Another thing to always ask yourself before you pitch your services is: “What’s the worst thing that could happen?” And let me answer that: the worst thing is to be ignored or to get a “no.” And is that really so bad, is it really something that you can’t get over? Let me answer that too: of course it isn’t. :) I sure hope that 2021 will be a much more successful year for all of us. There are many things we can’t control, but I wish you strength and determination to control those that you can and land many more gigs than you did last year! [3 Ways to Make More Money as a Photographer | The Bite Shot]
