As you’re taking some time over the next month to think big and set your photography business goals, I want propose a temporary pause to think past your gut reactions for what you “need” to do and how you’re going to “get back on the horse.”
Whether you’re feeling burnt out on social media or wanting to utilize it more, start an email newsletter or change your pricing, or redesign your website, or insert any lofty goals for your potential photography business growth – it’s imperative to get clear on a few things first.
In this episode of the Photo Fuel Podcast, I’m sharing 3 overarching questions to guide your goal-setting as a family photographer in the new year. You may have noticed I’m big on questions when it comes to teaching style because rather than just telling you more information, questions help guide you internally to explore what you already know deep down first.
Not every question is going to pull a thread for you, but the right questions just might lead you down a path of discovery that you’ve been waiting for. These 3 questions come straight from my Big Picture Workbook – they’re 3 of the 10 questions that I use in that resource to help instigate discovery for your photography business. But even if you’ve already downloaded and worked through that, I think these three questions in particular are worth revisiting regularly.
3 big questions to guide your photography business goals
1. Why do I want a photography business? (vs a hobby)
Running a business requires different skills, commitment, and passion than being a photographer. Even if you love photography, that is not enough of a reason to start a business.
This is the place where you get to really consider – why am I doing this?
If you’re choosing to dedicate your time and effort into making this the thing that brings in money for your family and helps you impact people in a positive way, then it is going to take more than “I like pictures” to get you to that point. Dig deeper.
There’s a process called ‘the 5 why’s’ where you challenge yourself like a 4 year old asking ‘why’ – with every answer you give, ask why? And then answer again.
For example, if your first answer to the question “why do I want to be a photographer” is “i like making photos,” follow up with another question – why?
You may respond with something like – “I love family connection,” to which you can continue to push with why?
Maybe the next piece is something like “i feel like the relationship between parents and kids can be so beautiful but so tenuous, too, and I want to make pictures that help parents feel understood in that and less alone.”
And now you’re getting somewhere. There’s more purpose behind what you’re actually trying to communicate – not just here are these people look at their faces.”
With that detail in mind, you can begin to formulate the way you shoot to accomplish that goal, along with things like your communication style, your culling, and so much more, It can all support the underlying desire of not just making a beautiful gallery of photos, but making a gallery (or even just one photo every session) that really says something different about that relationship between parents and kids.
If you don’t want to dig into that and you truly just want to make nice, basic family photos at a cheap price with clean smiling families, that is FINE! There’s a market for that.
But knowing that truth about your motives is going to help you align your expectations and help you adjust both the time you put into it and what you get out of it.
Of course there’s a ton of grey area in between those two extremes, but if you’re going to go down this road of building a photography business, you should at least make sure that you really do want have a photography business.
If you find that you do, that there’s depth to wanting to make this particular medium part of your work and your time and energy, then the next question is even more important.
2. What do I bring to the table for families as a whole and/or individuals within a family that makes me uniquely gifted for this work?
It is really really easy to give yourself all the reasons why you’re not cut out for this. I’m introverted, I’m awkward, I’m not edgy, I’m too old, I’m too young, I don’t have kids of my own or my kids are grown and I”m unrelateable to young families – blah.
Really consider why you are perfectly cut out for this. Because if your heart is pulling for it , there’s a reason.
If you need help, ask your friends and family. Send a group email if you want. Just ask – what are 3 qualities you like best about me? What do you think I’m good at? When you think about me, what are the things that come to mind?
I have done this, and it was really enlightening because I was not seeing myself the way other people were seeing me.
I needed that confirmation that I had it in me.
Think about the art, the behind the scenes business stuff, the people stuff, the coordination, the styling – think about your life experiences, your demeanor, the way you see the world.
What do you bring to the table that makes you uniquely gifted or uniquely positioned for this work?
Read more: The Key Ingredient to your Success
3. What do I value outside of photography? What inspires me, angers me, makes me feel alive or excited? What do I wish people talked more about?
Again, this is for the purpose of thinking big picture and it’s really easy to set ourselves in a vacuum when we’re thinking about the goals for our photography business. But so much of how you do business should be influenced by the way you want to live your life and the kind of person you are or want to be. It’s really common to go the other way around and then wonder why it feels hard or off.
It’s because you created someone else’ s business, not the one or the way that feels really exciting to you.
What do you like to talk to your friends about, or where do you like to shop. What causes are important to you? What experiences from your childhood impact the way or they why behind your shooting.
The bonus here is this is great fodder for captions, newsletters, copy of any kind that can be story-based. It’s the umbrella for connections you can make with people that go beyond the photos and reach to a different part.
It builds a bridge of communication or relevance before any kind of ask is on the table.
I’m willing to bet if you start to connect the dots you’ll realize it’s kindof all related and that can be the true core of your messaging.
As you’re setting goals for your photography business in the next year, think about these big picture questions first and I hope they help guide your work to new levels!
If you’d like to dig into your answers together and make a plan for putting them into action, reach out about 1:1 mentoring. I’d love to support your growth towards this aligned big picture for your family photography business.
Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Podcasts
Links mentioned in this episode:
Episode 33: EOY meeting
