5 Money Saving Tips for Your Photography Business

When you’re a freelance photographer or in the industry because you work for someone else, you don’t really have to worry about recurring costs because they’re usually taken care of by your employer. But when you run your own photography business, you find your costs creeping up because you need to rent office space, buy equipment, and pay the salary of staff, even though it’s skeletal at best. If you’re looking to make your business profitable, you need to cut down on your expenses, because every penny not spent is one that earns interest for you. To that end, here are five money saving tips for your photography business:

• Use your home: Rather than renting space exclusively for your studio, use a portion of your home as your office where you can set up a computer and a phone and even meet clients when necessary. Renting increases your overheads in the form of rent money, electricity expenses and phone bills. So utilize your home effectively and save more than a few dollars every month.

• Rent equipment: Instead of buying all the equipment that a photography business demands at the outset, rent what you do as and when you need it for an assignment. This way, you save on your initial capital costs and don’t have to go into debt or take out an expensive loan to fund your business. Once you establish yourself, you can go ahead and add to your equipment one by one.

• Advertise through your blog: Instead of using traditional advertising channels, start a blog where you can put up your photos and let clients know of your expertise. Take advantage of social networking sites to develop a client base and market yourself. Once you get through your first few assignments, the quality of your work should do the rest and get you work on a regular basis.

• Use free software: Instead of shelling out hundreds of dollars on proprietary photo editing software, choose one of the many free alternatives that can be downloaded from the Internet. They’re just as good as the ones that cost money and definitely more cost effective.

Manage your business efficiently: And finally, if you don’t have a head for the administration side of your photography business, you’re going to end up losing not just your money, but also your clients. Be careful with the way you manage your money, clients and schedules. Get tech savvy and use software (the free versions, of course) to manage your projects, maintain your schedules, create your budget, and help you manage your money and track your expenses. When you’re skilled at both the management and creative sides of your business, you know you’ve chosen the right career.

This article was written by Kathy Wilson, who also writes on the subject of Photography Colleges.