6 Ways to Renew and Revive your Photography Business for the New Year

It’s a new month, a new year, and a chance for self-reflection, improvement, and new, exciting opportunities! It is also a great time to re-evaluate your photography business with a fresh set of eyes. Here are our top 6 favorite ways to renew and revive your business for the new year!

1. Identify Improvements through Self-Reflection. 

   Honesty is always an important priority to have with yourself and your business. While looking at your work and what you have achieved over the past year, it takes meticulous observations to notice aspects of your business that you can improve upon. For instance, do you find yourself to be talented at capturing amazing photos, but your final images are not turning out the way you’d like them to? This could mean you need to improve your post production skills. Luckily, there are lots of resources to help you grow! Summerana’s Membership is our our favorite resource to help you spruce up those production chops. You could fix blown out skies add in a new gorgeous one in seconds with the Summerana Skies Overlay and Action Collection, add bokeh and texture for more of a pop, or even use the Glamourana Hair and Makeup Essentials Collection to flawlessly fix those hair roots, add makeup, fix oily skin and more.

   However, if you find that you have your editing down to a science, but you sometimes struggle coming up with poses for your clients, there are many books and digital guides available out there that offer awesome posing techniques! We love Michelle Moore’s posing guides! Even just making small improvements a little at a time can make a huge difference in the long run for you and your business!

2. Learn a New Technique.

   Do you feel like your work may be getting stale and you’re stuck in a “photographer’s rut?” This may be a sign that it’s time for you to learn some new techniques! The most important thing about your business is YOUR WORK. If you are starting to feel bored, your work will probably start to look boring too. One of the best teachers you can ever have is experience, so get out there and explore this amazing world around you (with your camera in hand, of course!). Do you think Picasso would have been a famous artist or Mozart would have been a famous composer if they had just done the same old thing all the time? No way! Photography is the same; you have to experiment with new angles, apertures and focal lengths. Not only are there many books available, there are many online resources available for photographers to improve your skills. Besides the websites listed above, creativeLIVE.com is one of our favorite training resources; they offer many different free live and pre-recorded workshops that are taught by top-notch photography industry professionals. When it comes down to learning new techniques, practice makes perfect, so get out there and create!

3. Get Organized.

   To keep your business running smoothly and to keep the cash flowing efficiently it is important to make sure you are organized! Being organized can help you keep track of the small things but also get a grasp on the big picture. One way to organize your space is by simply mounting a bulletin board in your studio/home office. There are so many cute options available for you to choose from besides the classic cork board; you can even do a little DIY project with some fun fabric to personalize it! Just use spray adhesive to attach the fabric to your board, hot glue the edges around the back, and you’ll have a custom fabric board to organize all of your dates, business cards, phone numbers, or whatever doo-dads you may have lying around! Another way we keep things neat and tidy is to stack small tubs or transparent drawers to organize office essentials. We love these affordable and stylish fabric drawer containers from the Martha Stewart Living Collection. They are durable, come in many sizes and colors and have a cute handle to boot! Although, our favorite way of organizing is by tidying up our computers with the Summerana Desktop Organizer. This desktop organizer has a sleek modern design, is fully customizable and very user friendly!

4. Re-brand/Change your Product Offering.

   Are you happy with your products? Are you satisfied with your prints and albums? Do you think you may be offering too much or not enough to your clients? These are all important things to ask yourself, and the new year is a great time to do so. Changing up your product line is a way to show clients that you have their interests in mind while offering them something fresh, exciting, and unexpected! Also, this gives you an opportunity to reevaluate and adjust your prices and investments accordingly. If you are saving up for better camera or lighting equipment, or have new business related expenses, adjusting your prices will give you the little extra bump your business may need! Eliminating products that aren’t selling as well as you had hoped can make room for successful or different products. You could also rebrand your business by completely changing your logo, stationery design and website, or just simply switching out fonts and colors on your documents can give you a fresh new look for the brand new year. Whatever you decide on, refreshing your business is a way to keep clients on their toes and wanting more!

5. Upgrade/Create a New Website.

   With the digital photography world growing faster every day, you’ll have to keep your business and your clients up to speed by having an easy-to-navigate business website. We’re not saying that Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter aren’t all exceptional methods of promoting your business, but in order to be the professional that you know you are, you have to have your own professional website. It is also an opportunity for you to personally showcase your work in a way that can’t be presented on social media alone. All social media sites have cookie cutter layouts these days, so your personality, skills and unique styles aren’t able to shine! Take some time and search out the perfect design for your business; there are endless possibilities out there that are customizable to your taste. WordPress.org, Themeforest.net and TemplateMonster.com are 3 great places to start.

6. Take a Vacation.

   We all need a little R&R once in a while and what better way to get it than to take a vacation! I know that some of you may be thinking, “I don’t have the kind of money to go on an exotic vacation.” Well, a vacation doesn’t necessarily have to be a trip to the Bahamas, but maybe going out for a night on the town with your friends or taking an extended weekend trip somewhere local with the people you love. For those of you who are fortunate to live near the water, a stroll along the shore a couple hours a month can do wonders. The whole point of a vacation is to take a breather, break free from your daily routine and clear your mind. After all, the mind works much more efficiently when you’re working with a clean slate—so get outside, turn your phone and computers off, and smell the roses. Your business, your loved ones and your body will thank you!

A NEW YEAR, A NEW YOU, A NEW BUSINESS! What improvements are YOU going to make with YOUR photography business this year? We would LOVE to hear them!