What do photographers make? Three hundred dollars or more for an hour of work seems like pretty good money, right? Whether you’ve picked up a camera, decided you’re pretty good at it and want to start a business, or if you’ve been in business for a while and you’re starting to have questions, you may be asking yourself “can you make a lot of money as a photographer?” As a full time photographer who has spent the last 6 years building a profitable business, I’m here to tell you the good news! The answer is yes, if…

That if is extremely important.

The sad hard truth is, if you jump into a photography business with no knowledge of business, thinking you’ll price yourself like the photographers you know (unless you know some very business-savvy photographers), you’re going to find out quickly that it’s really easy to earn nothing and even lose money as a photographer.

However, if you set up your business properly, treat it as a business and price yourself based on the costs of running a business rather than what other people are charging, you can make a lot of money as a photographer.

So how can you make money as a photographer?

There are some very specific things you need to do to set up your business to become profitable, and there are ways that are easier than other to reach that goal.

Start by running your Cost of Doing Business (CODB)

This is the number one place to start before you jump into business in order to set it up for success. Your CODB is essentially a list of all the costs associated with running a business, including taxes and your salary. It looks a little different for every photographer, but all of them will includes things like: your website hosting, your domain name, whatever program you use to edit, the cost of new equipment, the cost of equipment repair, education, internet, cell phone, the cost of whatever you use to deliver photographs to your clients, etc.

I offer a free CODB worksheet for IPS photography where you can plug your numbers in and see how much you need to charge per session in order to make the salary you need. It includes everything you might need to pay for in your photography business, and some things you may not. Delete the lines you won’t use to help you find the total. You can download it below.

This may be a big scary number and you may be thinking “no photographer I know charges this much!” The sad truth is most photographers don’t start here when jumping into their business and, as a result, never earn what they could and often end up getting burnt out and quitting. Really, if you want to earn money as a photographer, this is the key. If you do nothing else in this post, but you do this, you might just meet your goals.

I’ve found the easiest way to meet income goals as a photographer is to offer Virtual IPS to clients, where clients purchase artwork rather than digital images. If you want to find out more, check out this post: What is IPS photography?

Treat your business like a business

The next key to making a lot of money as a photographer is to treat your business like a business. So many people jump into a photography business and continue to treat it like a hobby. They think, I’ll just post on Instagram, collect some cash and be on my merry way. Soon they realize that they’re in over their heads, or they have no clients and wonder why.

Photography is a business. Like every business, there are many different “departments” and tasks that need to be taken care of outside the actual photography work. There’s bookkeeping, marketing, shooting, editing, as well as the physical logistics. If you decide to offer artwork, there’s also product design, ordering and delivery.

Just like Steve Jobs doesn’t do all these things for Apple, you don’t need to do all these things for your photography business. You can, but you’ll find a lot more success outsourcing them to the people who love them and are trained in them. Personally, I have a bookkeeper who runs my books and a digital marketer who plans my social media feed and engages with my audience there, an editor, as well as a blogger. On top of this, I employ softwares that take care of other day-to-day things inside my business, like a CRM (Client relationship manager) to track leads and communicate with them, as well as a calendar system.

By taking the pieces of the business that don’t light you up and aren’t your “zone of genius” off your plate, you can be cleared up to focus on the things you excel at, which is another key to making a lot of money as a photgrapher.

Offer the right thing

Yes, I know that sounds vague, and the truth is, I cant be more specific. I can tell you that there are ways it’s easier to make money as a photographer than others. Commercial photographers generally make the most money if they can get contracts with big brands.

If family, pet or newborn photography is more your thing, then figuring out what appeals to the audience you want to serve is key. Personally, my ideal client loves natural photos with a lot of emotion but values having luxury artwork in their home. As I mentioned before, it is a lot easier to make money selling artwork than it is selling digital images, however, many photographers do it successfully, offering smaller, profitably prices packages and allowing clients to upgrade to larger packages or even artwork.

Market yourself to make money as a photographer

This is another huge key. People who have never run a business think that by posting to their Facebook or Instagram that they’re taking clients, they’ve done their marketing. However, marketing is an ongoing process that needs a consistent strategy and lots of time and effort. Most of what you do in your business will be marketing. Social media, SEO, networking, email sequences, campaigns, ads. These are some of the most common types of marketing a photographer does, and most of these are done over and over and simultaneously. Now there are lot of ways you can make it easier by using the same content for all things, but know that this is going to be a lot of work.

Wanting support as you walk through the process? Join my Free Facebook Community for Photographers!