10 Lessons that I have learned after 1 year as a full time photographer

A year ago, I decided to quit my job as an Engineer to fully focus on photography and videography. Now it has not been easy at all and I don’t pretend to know everything but I did learn some valuable lessons along the way. So today, for those of you thinking about creative work, here are 10 tips that I have for you.

1 - Marketing is key

If you want to be able to make money out of photography, you have to let people know about what you do. You have to show them your work and you have to show this work to the right people. Whatever photography genre you are in, you NEED marketing. There is pretty much no way around it. Whether you use Search Engine, Social media, your website, an agent… people must be able to find you and book your services. So if you are considering to make the jump and go full time in photography, I would suggest that you learn quite a bit about Marketing. This is going to take time, and you are going to spend a lot of your time (if not most of it) working on Marketing your services.

There are tons of resources out there to learn about Marketing but my favorite has to be 100million dollars offer and 100million dollar leads. The pieces of advise are broad enough to apply to photography but you also have actionable steps that you can take to actually move forward.

So if you are absolutely not interested in marketing, do not want to learn about it and are not comfortable marketing your work, then I hate to be the bearer of bad news… but it is better that you don’t start.

2 - Your gear does not matter to (most of) your clients

We all like talking about gear. It is a fun topic and it’s always kind of a fresh anchor to get excited about as photographer/videographer. But most of your clients do not care about it. Some companies do have requirements but most of your clients don’t. What they want is for you to take pictures the way they want you to - whether you are working for a company or a private client. Of course, what matters is whether or not you are able to do what is asked with the gear that you have. So get ready to focus less on gear and focus more on your client’s needs, proper communication, and proper delivery. Because your gear matters way less than all of those.

3 - CRM are more important than you think

Speaking of good communication, a CRM (Client Relationship Management) is a tool that helps you keeping track of the people inquiring your services, keeping track of your emails, revenues, expenses… basically keeping track of all the key points to make sure you have a viable business. If you don’t have one, you take the risk to forget to reply to people, double book some dates, spending too much time chasing people or typing emails that you could have automatized…

If I had to pick the single best investment that I have met this year, outside of my marketing, it would 100% be my CRM, over any piece of gear, lens, camera or anything else. Personally, I use Studio Ninja and while it is not perfect, it still allows me to keep track of leads, messages, revenues, integrates in my website and allows me to run my business properly. It is definitely not perfect, there are still some features that I wish they had but they are improving it and the support is always responsive if you have an issue.

If you want to give it a try, here is a 20% coupon OFF that you can use.

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4 - The importance of contracts

When I started, I first worked with a shake of hands. I did not have any contract and honestly, this worked well… until the day it did not. It works until there is either a bad client, an error of communication or any misunderstanding. And at that time, you will wish you had made a contract in advance.

A contract is just a document of common understanding of the rules, timing, deliverables… it does not have to be extremely complex but I think everybody should have one. It does not have to be perfect from day one, but having a base that you can work on based on the experiences. That way, your client is aware of the conditions of you working together, what they receive and what they don’t, the timing and more… and you are protected in cases where some clients don’t necessarily follow those conditions.

I have had some clients cancelling on me the same day and asking for refunds. I have had clients accepting the pictures only for them to come 2months later to ask me to re-edit everything as they wanted their pictures to match somebody else’s style that they saw on Instagram… without clear conditions in a contract, that’s a source of troubles. So protect yourself and your clients. Put some simple contracts in place.

5 - Be nice to work with

From most of the reviews that I get from my clients, I often hear the same thing - We loved your pictures, you were very professional and you made us feel comfortable. It is not only about the pictures - honestly, a lot of people can take good pictures - but it is also about the experience. Be nice to work with, make people want to recommend you, work with you again, be there on time, deliver the pictures before the deadline. It’s quite simple at the end - if people like you and you do a good job, they will want to work with you again. So don’t be an ass.

6 - Don’t spend your money when you get it

Photography and videography comes in season. Sometimes you get tons of work and offers, sometimes you don’t. If you spend money on new gear, cameras, lenses as soon as you receive it, you are going to have a bad time when the drier season comes. If you are trying to do this full time, you better control your GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) and make sure that you can pay your bills. You kind of have to think in terms of investment for pretty much everything. Will this purchase make me more money?

And when I say that, I am not talking “Ah if I have this maybe the client will give me more money” kind of purchase, I am really talking about the kind of purchase that WILL make you money and help you in your work - typically your marketing, CRM and essential gear. The rest is just nice to have.

It is easy to convince yourself that if you buy something, maybe you will be able to book bigger clients. But most of the time, that’s just something we tell ourselves to justify our GAS. So don’t do it if you want to be able to pay your bills in the worse seasons of the year.

7 - Don’t work for “FREE”

I don’t usually work for FREE. If I don’t get paid, I work to either learn something, network with someone or get portfolio work that could be meaningful to me. Otherwise, I don’t recommend to work for FREE. Clients who ask you to work for free rarely transform into paid clients from experience. You have to get something from the transaction - skills, materials for marketing or potential partners/clients.

Now there are some exceptions - sometimes I do shoot for free for my friends or people that I have known for a while or those who have helped me in the past. Nothing wrong with that. But those are exceptions for the people that I appreciate. Random people wanting TFP because they want images for their portfolio and promising “exposure”, I tend to stay away from…

8 - Nurture good relationships, discard the bad ones

In your journey, you are going to have some good and bad relationships - drop the bad one, nurture the good ones. At first, I was tempted to try to get everything that I could but over time, I realize that a lot of possible clients / collaborators are more of a headache - a few ones will be happy to work with you and it is better to focus on those ones than trying to keep the people who don’t value your services around. If you give your time to people trying to chase them while they are not necessarily interested, it will just be a waste of time. Better spend your time properly servicing the people that value you, your work and are willing to grow together.

And it’s kind of hard to do, more than you would think - at least for me. Saying no to a project knowing that it could be extra income, but also knowing that the person on the other end of the project will cause you problem, headache… is a tough decision. But it also frees up your time to truly dedicate your time to things that move the ball forward.

9 - Manage your time so that you don’t burn out

I started my journey working pretty much 18 hours a day with no days off. I just did not want to miss any opportunity. Every single time I would receive an email, every single time my phone would ring, every single time I would receive a DM, I would reach for my phone to reply. The problem in doing that is that you are in a constant alert mode. You don’t have a private life anymore and you only think about your work.

I have learned the hard way that scheduling blocks of work is what works best for me. Focus on a specific block of work for a few hours. Move to the next one. When your day is over, go for a walk, a workout or something to take your mind out of it. I tend to be very focused on the task at hand when I work and if I don’t schedule my time off, I tend to forget to take some. And sometimes, it is exactly what you need to be refreshed and be able to move forward and keep being creative.

10 - Keep shooting for fun

I still shoot for fun and I encourage you to do the same if you are thinking about doing it professionally. It does not have to be with the same gear, the same niche or genre of photography. But if you started photography as someone who loves it, then keep shooting for fun. Make some time for some fun projects here and there that you can do for fun for yourself or with friends or people that you value.

I still have a lot to learn on my photography journey. And who knows, maybe 1 year from now I will give you completely different pieces of advice. But at the moment, those are the lessons that I have learned from my 1st year in business. Do you shoot professionally? Any piece of advice you would have for me?

If you want to see the video, check here