5 Ways to turn your Photography Business OBSTACLES into ASSETS

5 Ways to turn your Photography Business OBSTACLES into ASSETS

I think in all the English language, a business owner dreads one word… No.
Well, it could be audit, but that’s another blog post altogether☺
One word. 2 letters. So. Much. Power.
But what if we look at how NO can push us. Make us change.
Out of our comfort zones, and into something bigger.

As a business owner who started a photography business a few years ago, hearing no or something relatable became the norm. I’m not going to lie to you. It was a HUGE downer.
The words, “no, you are too expensive”, seem to be the constant melody of rejection.

Finally, in Jan. of 2015, I had enough. I loved doing photography, but something had to change.

Here are 5 things that I did:

Evaluate my Business and my Target Audience
Photography is ever changing and so are people. Was I relevant? Was I offering the product people wanted? Was my pricing right for growing a business and was I targeting the wrong type of clients?

Discover my Niche
I started to look at my sessions that I performed in the last couple of years and discovered the photos that I loved were sports oriented. I also found that, in my area, it was a lightly tapped market. So I decided to put more concentration in that area. A huge payoff for me!

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Evaluated My Skills
I played with off camera and studio lighting but I just went back to natural lighting because it was easier. A word of advice, if you are always looking for easy, then you’re not willing to grow. So with gnashing of teeth and grunting, I started incorporating OCF and lighting to my work. And guess what!? My work started looking different and standing apart from my competition.

Ask for Help
I asked for help. Gulp. Yes, I’d like a huge piece of humble pie, please. I hated asking for help and having people explain things that I KNOW that as a photographer, I should have known. But, what I found was there were people gracious enough to give you that help.

Go for No.
There is a book by the same title by Richard Fenton & Andrea Waltz and I learned, in order for me to succeed, going out and inviting rejection (no), and learning to process what no really means was a huge hurdle. It meant that I needed to approach it again. And again. And yet, again. And even if that answer is still a no… what my clientele is left with, is a person who REALLY wants their business. Maybe it happens, and maybe it doesn’t. But what I have done, is turn an obstacle into an asset. I become stronger, and more confident because I believe in my product and I want you to believe too!  I have trained myself not to take NO personally too. Does it hurt… yea, it does, because if you’re passionate about it, it will hurt…but you have a choice… face rejection, learn from it, brush the dust off and try again…. or give up.

So what change would do you good? Is it time to look No in the face and say…
“Watch me”.

Thank you to Missy Beeks-Cornell for contributing this article.