Contrary to what a lot of people might tell you on the internet, there is no one quick hack to scale to “10k months in 30 days”. There is no secret trick or viral reel to build a profitable photography business that you are missing.
If you are wanting to scale and make more money, there are different knobs that you have to twist and turn for YOUR own business. Everybody has a different combination of these knobs that we’re twisting and turning to be successful for them.
Specifically, there are FIVE knobs that we want to turn to build a profitable photography business. I call them the five pillars of profit!
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The Five Pillars of a Profit
When I started looking at my business through the lens of the 5 pillars of profit, it was an absolute game changer for my photography business. It really applies to any kind of creative service business whether you’re a photographer, designer, coach or more. Let’s dive into each of these pillars to see how they can help you build a profitable business.
1. Your Craft
I see so many creatives spending all of their time here, which on one hand I love, because it means you really love what you do and you’re passionate about making your skill set better, but your craft is only one piece of the business puzzle.
A lot of people think “If I just work really hard and I’m the best at what I do, then the business will come.”
Maybe that used to be true, but unfortunately, you can’t have your work speak for itself and then just expect people to show up at your door ready to hand you money. You have to also be proficient in these other skills. However, if you know that your craft is something you still need to work on, here are three steps to support your growth.
3 steps to hone your skill:
Overtime, if you continue to do these three things, you will hone your skillset and develop your own signature style.
i. continuously learn and experiment
When I work with my photography clients, it is a goal of mine to try at least one new technique or do something differently for at least one photo. I make it very clear to the client that this is an experiment. They know they will still get the portfolio work like what is shown on my website, but I’m also going to try this new experiment. It might work. It might not. The best case scenario you get an amazing shot that you’ve never gotten before and you can add it to your portfolio. The worst case scenario is you don’t show it to them, and that’s okay. Your clients will appreciate that you are always learning and are trying something new with them.
ii. curate your portfolio
We want to take a holistic look at your portfolio to make sure you are showcasing your best work. I also like to curate the photos in my portfolio specific for the client. Let’s say I am working with a physical trainer, I will curate photos from other physical trainers that I’ve worked with, or work that is similar or relevant. Then I pull together a custom portfolio for them, so they can really get a good idea of what I can create for them.
iii. seek feedback
Let’s take an objective look at our work and take real notes on what can be improved without hurting our own feelings or bruising our egos. There is always something that can be improved. And if you have trouble doing this, then you can always attend a portfolio review or ask a trusted colleague or peer to do a portfolio review with you. Just make sure if you do this, you do it with a group of people that you trust. If you are looking for a safe place to have a portfolio review or ask for constructive criticism, you can join my free private Facebook group, Profitable Creatives.
2. Your Community
You may hear other coaches or experts refer to this as followers or audience. I personally cannot stand using the word audience because we’re all people! I’m not here trying to give a concert. An audience is a group of people that you talk to. However, a community is a group of people that you talk with.
It is hard to sell to an audience, but it is easy to sell to your community.
Your community is genuinely interested in what you do because you have a vested interest in them. You’re talking to them. You’re opening a conversation. It’s like if you were to meet people in person.
That’s exactly what it should be like! If you need more tips on this, check out this video all about how to build a thriving community.
3. Your Offer
Let’s talk about the package or service that you provide.
3 Components to a successful offer
Here are 3 components I consider when determining my offers:
i. What Your Clients Want
What I don’t want to happen is for you to crawl into your office and think about all of the things that you can do and throw it all on a website. That just isn’t helpful for the client. We need to know in their own words.
What is it that they want?
What is the problem that you’re solving?
How can we concisely communicate what you do?
ii. What You Enjoy Doing
We should always be taking into account what our clients and potential clients want, but we have to cross reference that with what we want to do, or else we’re just going to get resentful.
I’m a brand photographer. Sometimes people come to me and say, “Hey, do you design websites?”
Can I design a website? Yes.
Is it something that I want to be doing right now? No.
Just because I can do it, doesn’t mean I want to do it. Therefore I don’t offer it. You can always refer to someone else in your community that does want to offer this service!
iii. Priced for Profitability
This is the absolute backbone of your business, because if your offer or package does not make you money, you don’t have a business, you have a hobby. I dive more into pricing your offer for profitability in this video on EASY pricing & packages if you want to dive deeper!
4. Your Message
This is very closely intertwined with your offer. It’s not just about what you are saying, it’s about how you are saying it.
What value are you delivering? It’s not just a two hour photoshoot, with fifty images, two locations, three outfits. It’s a brand photoshoot where you get a full set of images you can use to fill out your website, rebrand, and social media for the next three to six months.
You are providing a transformation. Even though it’s a one on one service, it is still a product.
We also want to think about how easy it is for other people to describe what you do. Can your community communicate what it is that you do so that they can act as your referral partners?
Another huge pitfall I want you to avoid is only asking other people in your industry what your message should be. I cannot tell you how many photography Facebook groups I’m in where photographers ask other photographers, How should I say this? How should I phrase that? It can be good to get feedback from peers, but what you really need to be doing is focusing on your own clients and potential clients and listening to the words that they are saying.
Usually other peers in your industry are not your clients, so we really shouldn’t be relying on their opinion alone to decide what our message should be. I recommend putting together a document in Google Docs or in Canva that has common words and phrases that you use and that your clients use to describe the service that you offer. You can easily refer back to it and make sure that your branding, website, and social media all reflect the same message.
5. Your Systems
How do you manage everything?
How do you send invoices, contracts, messages?
Now this isn’t just software. It’s not just your CRM. It’s also, how do you allocate your time? Where and how do you get work done? Where do you get your clients? All of these are systems.
This can be a big one to tackle. The easiest way to get started with figuring out what your systems are if you aren’t sure is to set a 5 minute timer, and brain dump all of the tasks that you do in your business. Once you’ve done that, start to categorize each of these tasks into different buckets: client work, admin, marketing, and so on. You will start to see different patterns and tools that you use for each category.
You want a streamlined step by step process you do for each task. For example, when you onboard a client, what does the step by step process look like? It is probably very similar for every client. That should be written down somewhere.
Clear systems help us see where we can save time and create automations. They are also really supportive when hiring a new team member!
How to Build a Profitable Photography Business
Having a baseline understanding of these five pillars: your craft, your community, your offer, your message, and your systems, things started clicking for me in my business. I think it’s really important to have a baseline understanding of all of these five pillars so that if you decide to hire out for these roles, you know how it works and what the end result should look like. You aren’t going to be able to hire the right people if you don’t first understand what the outcome is that you want to achieve.
If you want a step by step roadmap on how to build out these five pillars, you can check out my business coaching membership, The Profitable Creatives Club. This is for photographers and creatives who are ready to build a thriving business.
If you enjoyed this blog post, you might also like:
- become a brand photographer: my story to full time in 3 years
- 4 marketing strategies for photographers in 2025
- personal brand photography: EASY pricing & packages
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