I recently received an email from a graduating college student with some questions about how we got started.
What steps did you take in order to get where you are now?
I find that there are many talented people, photographers, and artists who are excellent at their craft but fail as business people. I come from a business background so I focused early on how we were going to get the word out and make our company work.
How long did it take to build your business successfully?
Our first year goal was to build a small wedding portfolio that we could show future clients to demonstrate our work (You would be hard-pressed to find a client who will book you without seeing some of your previous work). We had a few friends that took a chance on us and we shot three weddings that first year. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but that first year’s work set the stage for us to shoot 20 weddings in our second year.
How did you build clientele?
Word of Mouth is our greatest asset. It’s not easy to build, but it surely is powerful and inexpensive when you compare it to other forms of advertising. Facebook has proven to be an excellent platform for us display our work. We think of it as a digital gallery where we have visitors coming to look and leave us feedback 24/7.
Lastly, how many weddings do you shoot per year?
We normally shoot somewhere between 10-25 weddings per year, but this is not the only job we do. You may find it difficult to live on photography alone, especially when starting out. In addition to photography I work full-time as a graphic designer.
Thanks Holly for some excellent questions!