Working for free
A GOOD IDEA? A PHOTOGRAPHER’S GUIDE TO MAKING MONEY AS A BEGINNER.
I think we’ve all done it when we started out: working for free. And I think we all thought it was a good idea back then, but looking back now, we realize we might have lost a lot of money. However negative that may sound, I’m not saying that working for free is this red line you should not cross, the big no-no that some people pretend it is. We all need to build a portfolio. We all need to jump opportunities that are presented to us to get somewhere. What I am saying is that there might also be some money lying around that we’re just not picking up from the floor.
I’ve been there. That point in your life where you have a dream. You want to quit your nine-to-five job, do something meaningful, do what you absolutely love and that isn’t answering phones for your boss all day long. You want to become an artist, you want to create. Sounds familiar? Yeah, for me it kinda does too. Ever since I was young, I wanted to tell stories. I made my first movie when I was eleven (imagine five primary school kids running around my grandma’s garden) and wrote my first book when I was thirteen (a pretty extensive one, but let’s just say that it wasn’t quite ready to be published or anything). Any way, any medium to tell stories, I’ve tried. I got into photography when I was seventeen, but it took me another seven years before I actually started working towards my dream: becoming a full-time photographer. The question is always: where to start? There are so many questions. Hurdles. Basically, all you can see is hurdles. And one of them is how to actually get clients. Your perfect clients, not just your friendly 80-year old neighbour. Well, I started to work for free.
My, what I at the time thought to be, amazing business plan was to start advertising free photoshoots where people could give some cash if they wanted to support my work (but that was, of course, fully optional). And it worked. I got loads of applications. People jumped at the opportunity to get a free photoshoot (of course, because normally they are quite extensive and for a reason). I made some money here and there and I was overjoyed when someone handed me a 20 euro note. I was able to make money. But I could have made so much more in those first months. I applied for a coaching program, which skyrocketed my entire business so high in only three months, that I instantly stopped doing anything for free. I had discovered the world of portfolio shoots. And not the TFP kind of shoots, but ones that actually could make you a lot of money.
People pay money. They just do. Don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t make money with photography. But if you are starting out, you need portfolio. You need to show people what you can do for them (yes, basically showing off). First of all, you need to think about which people you want to attract. What is your ideal client? That’s the first thing I learned in business coaching. If you want to shoot a lifetime of aunt Karens, then there you go, just ask aunt Karen to pose for you. But if you want to focus on beautiful couples, young families, mommies-to-be, well then focus on those. Get on your Instagram, Facebook, or whatever social media network which connects you to people in your area and start messaging the beautiful people you dream of having in front of your lens. Make them an offer they can’t refuse: tell them you are a photographer and you want to work on your portfolio, offer them a photoshoot where they get 5 to 10 free photos, with the option of buying more. People jump on the word “free”, but that doesn’t mean that you have to offer up all of your time and work for free. When you send people the gallery through whatever application you use (I use Pictime, very handy tool for upsell), make sure you have three packages: the basic package, with just those 10 free photos, and then two other packages with each an amount of photos (mine are 25 in the second package and all photos in the third) and a set price. And if you wonder if people would buy more photos if they get some for free: yes, absolutely. They got the shoot for free, so they haven’t spend anything yet. In 90% of the cases, people actually bought extra photos and I made over 4000 euros with just that.
You can of course, slightly up the chances people will buy. Of course, professional models or people that want to get into modelling are great subjects. But if they get asked a lot for these kind of portfolio or TFP shoots, chances are they will have a hard drive overflowing with pictures at home. They might agree to your portfolio shoot, but these people are usually not the people that buy extra photos. The same goes for influencers. They always need new content, but they don’t need a lot of the same content. Another way to get people to buy more photos is to be selective in the photos you send to your client (and I’m guilty as F in not listening to my own advice on this one). If you send them a gallery with too many photos, all slight variations of the same pose, people are less likely to buy extra. If on the other hand you select only the best ones, all different poses, have them change clothing mid-shoot, use different backdrops and angles, people find it very difficult to choose and will sooner opt to get an extra package. The third and final tip is to ease the workload for you and the client and pay for an app like Pictime that manages payments, packages, selection and downloads for you. You don’t want to have your client go through all of your watermarked photos by hand, writing down the number of each photo they want. That is just too much work and some people won’t be bothered to actually do that for 25 or more pictures. Make it easy on them and on you.
Was it a mistake to work for free in those first two months? No. I would say definitely not. Could I have handled it better with what I know now? Yes, absolutely. If I had known about paid portfolio shoots, I that would have been a better way to start out and support myself. But that doesn’t mean I regret working for free. I learned a lot in that short amount of time. I learned how to pose people, what to say to people, I learned to edit, to photoshop and I learned from a my business mistakes. But when I started to do paid portfolio shoot, I actually made a lot of money. And not only that, some people from those early day’s portfolio shoots are still some of my best clients (and friends). And sure, if a great opportunity comes along (but there is no budget), you definitely shouldn’t say no. Every chance to learn is not wasted time. But never forget: your work, no matter how small your business is, is worth it and people will gladly pay you for it!
xoxo
Erin
