For those that missed it, on Wednesday, September 24th we had a Corner Community Chat. The topic? Photography Business Basics. We had 40+ people show up throughout the 2-hour-long chat which featured a lot of random chat and banter, but we also worked through some great questions and answers about the business of photography. There were well over 1,500 messages over the course of the chat (that's about a new post every 5 seconds!), and a fair portion of the chat was not necessarily on topic (though I must say, it's a lot of fun just chating with a bunch of other people who love photography about photography), so I'm not going to post the entire chat. Instead, I've printed out the transcript (29 pages, 12pt font, single-spaced), and gone through and created a summary for you. Now you won't feel so left out if you missed the chat. Oh, and don't forget to continue the discussion in the comments - especially if you have further "questions" or "answers" you'd like to add.

We started by discussing who already had a "photography business" and who would like to move in that direction. We had a decent mix of beginners, part-timers, and pros in the chat. I've broken down the discussion into a question/answer format:

QUESTION: When you decide you want to start up a photography business, how do you know how much to charge?

• Survey other photographers in your area, and price somewhere in the middle
• Develop a website and research the community to find out what the upper limits are, and make sure all your prices fall below that

QUESTION: Once you've decided you want to start a photography business, where do you start?

• It somewhat depends on your focus (wedding, portrait, prints, etc), but generally a good starting point would be to put together a "business" (business cards, website, etc)
• Having a website is a good start, but you really have to promote it (online and/or offline) with additional advertising for it to pay off and produce clients for you

QUESTION: Once you've got your business put together (website, business cards, etc), how do you start getting some business?

• Give out a bunch of business cards to each client and ask them to spread the word for you (word of mouth advertising goes a long way and is always the cheapest - FREE!)
• Try to partner with related businesses (like if you do wedding photography, hit up florists, wedding planners, bakers, etc.) and offer them a referral fee for each customer they send your way... or even offer to send customers their way in exchange
• Advertise locally in wedding shows, bridal forums, yellowpages, local business directories, local papers, etc
• Check in your community to see if a network of wedding vendors already exists and join that group
• Once you've found your niche, that's when you can start pursuing that as your specialty, and you'll find you can get a lot more business that way once you're known as the "_____" photography guy or girl
• Post up business cards and flyers where ever you can (community bulletin boards, etc.)
• Have postcards or flyers made up and deliver or mail them to prospective clients or households - check out www.psprint.com/print_services/services/mailinglist/index.asp for an online example of this
• Make your jobs advertise you: have your contact info on the back of preview or complimentary prints / throw in freebies to current clients with your contact info on it (like guestbooks, small prints, etc.)
• Contact other photographers with different specialties and arrange to send clients back and forth (like if they do portrait work, but not weddings, they can send you people that inquire about weddings, and you can send them people the inquire about portraits)
• Contact local shops and offer to decorate their walls with your photographs - add business cards with pricing on it, and offer the shop keepers a percentage of each sale done through their shop (make sure to have samples/portfolio available if they are interested)
• Have your work displayed in an art show - it can get pretty expensive, but if you have good work, you can usually sell a lot more than the cost to participate

QUESTION: How do you overcome the feeling that there are already so many great photographers/photographers with more training/photographers who travel more/photographers who have more exotic photographs and you're just the "new kid" on the photographic block?

• It's mostly an issue of confidence - most people can tell by the way you act if you're new or lacking in confidence, so put on a face of confidence when contacting potential clients and showing your portfolio. Let you work speak for itself.

QUESTION: Do you advise incorporating?

• If you're doing it any more than a hobby (like if you make a couple hundred+ bucks per month), I would recommend making everything legit (business laws do vary from state to state and from country to country, though, so make sure to research business and tax laws in your area when starting out)

QUESTION: How does one find an photographers' assistant job if you're just starting out (to get your feet wet)?

• Try calling or visiting a bunch of local photographers - tell them your situation (that you're looking to learn from a pro to improve your photography) and hope they'll be willing to hire you as an assistant or mentor you - MAKE SURE YOU HAVE SAMPLES TO SHOW!

QUESTION: Is it even possible to really make much money selling prints online?

• Some people can and do make a decent living selling stock photography, but for most, it's just a little side money
• The stock photography market has mainly moved to a micro-payment structure, so it's hard to make much, as the cost to buy stock has plummeted over the past decade, and the number of stock photographers has sky-rocketed

So there you have it - that's a basic recap of what we chatted about during the September 24th Corner Community Chat. Our next chat is scheduled for Monday, October 6th. Feel free to ask more questions, or post further answers/ideas in the comments.