PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS
Great Photography Doesn't Guarantee a Successful Business
There are phenomenal horse photographers out there who aren't making any money.
And there are photographers whose work isn't going to win any awards who are running very successful businesses.
Because being good at photographing horses and being good at running a photography business are two completely different things.
You can create gorgeous photographs of horses and riders and still struggle with pricing, marketing, sales, profitability, client communication, and figuring out what the heck you're supposed to be working on next.
The photography matters.
Of course it does.
But if you want this thing to pay the bills, you also have to learn how to run the business behind it.
That's what we're going to work on here.
RUNNING THE BUSINESS
What Part of the Business is Giving you Trouble?
You're photographing clients, but you're not making enough money.
Your pricing makes sense on paper, but your bank account has some questions.
You're busy shooting sessions, editing, answering inquiries, posting on social media, talking to barns, delivering orders, and doing seventeen other things that apparently came with the job.
But, you're not entirely sure which of those things are actually helping your business.
Or everything was working pretty well until your business grew, your goals changed, or the way you've always done things stopped working.
That's the frustrating part. You can be incredibly busy and still not be building a better business.
So before you change seventeen things, let's figure out which one actually needs your attention.
I Feel Like I'm Making This Up As I Go
Most photographers didn't start with a business degree and a five-year plan.
We photographed some horses. People started asking us to photograph their horses. Eventually, somebody handed us money. And somewhere along the way, we realize, "Oh, apparently I'm running running a business now."
Let's figure out how you actually want yours to work.
I'm Doing a Lot. I'm Just Not Sure It's Working
You can spend an enormous amount of time working in your business without ever stopping to look at the business itself.
Sessions. Editing. Social Media. Emails. Horse Shows. Barn Relationships. More editing.
What's actually working? What's wasting your time? And what are you doing every week simply because you've always done it?
I Don't Know What to Do Next
Raise your prices? Fix the website? Work on your marketing? Build relationships with more barns? Finally deal with that workflow you've been avoiding?
When everything feels important, it's really easy to work on whatever is yelling the loudest.
Let's figure out what actually deserves your attention
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WHEN THE NUMBERS DON'T ADD UP
Being Busy Doesn't Mean You're Making Money
You can have a full calendar and still have a business that isn't making enough money.
Because what a client pays you and what you actually make from that client are two very different numbers.
There's the session itself. Editing. Products. Software. Insurance. Equipment. Marketing. Taxes. Travel. Your time.
And all the other expenses that quietly nibble away at what looked like a pretty decent sale when the money first hit your bank account.
Equine photography can pile on a few extras, too. More travel. Longer sessions. Location scouting. Horse-show expenses. Assistants. Products. And an impressive amount of time spent driving somewhere because that's where the horse lives.
That's why pricing can't simply be based on what another photographer charges.
Or what feels reasonable.
Or what you're pretty sure horse owners will pay.
You need to understand what it actually costs to run your business, how much you need the business to make, and whether your pricing gives you a realistic way to get there.
If the numbers don't work, something has to change.
It could be your pricing. Your expenses. What you're selling. The clients you're reaching. Or the way you've structured the offer.
The point is to know instead of guess.
Do Your Prices Actually Work?
You don't need to become an accountant. But you do need to understand enough about your numbers to know whether your business has a realistic way to make money.
Because “that's what the other horse photographers around here charge” isn't a pricing strategy.
WHEN PHOTOGRAPHY BECOMES A BUSINESS
At Some Point, You Have to Treat It Like a Business
A lot of equine photography businesses don't really start as businesses.
You love photographing horses. A friend asks if you'll photograph hers. Then someone at her barn asks.
Then someone from the next barn asks. You start charging. You make a website. You come up with a business name.
And before you know it, complete strangers are sending you money and apparently you're a business owner now.
There isn't necessarily a moment when someone sits you down and explains everything that comes with that.
So you learn as you go.
Some things you figure out because you knew you needed them.
Other things you discover because something goes spectacularly wrong and you think, Well, I guess I need a policy for THAT now.
That's how a lot of us start.
But if you want photography to become more than something that occasionally makes money, eventually you have to start looking at it like a business.
What are you actually selling?
Who are you selling it to?
What does the business need to make?
What does it cost to operate?
What needs to happen from the moment a horse owner inquires until you've delivered their finished artwork?
What are you trying to build?
And does the way you're running the business actually support where you want it to go?
You don't have to figure everything out before you start.
Most of us didn't.
But at some point, you have to stop making every decision as it comes up and start building the business on purpose.
WHEN YOU NEED ANOTHER SET OF EYES
Sometimes You're Just too Close to Your Own Business
You know what you meant on your website. You know how your pricing works. You know how clients are supposed to move through your process.
Your clients don't.
And when you've been looking at your own business for years, it's really hard to see where the disconnect is.
That's where another set of eyes can help.
Sometimes the answer is a fairly big change. Sometimes it's something ridiculously simple.
I'm a big fan of ridiculously simple.
Know What You Need to Work On?
MARKETING
The right horse owners aren't finding you, inquiries are slow, or you're posting constantly and wondering whether any of it is actually doing anything.
COMMUNICATIONS
You're struggling with inquiries, emails, pricing conversations, follow-ups, or figuring out what to say without sounding like a script.
SYSTEMS & WORKFLOWS
You're rewriting the same things, forgetting steps, or keeping way too much of the business in your head.
Systems & Workflows for Photographers
AI FOR BUSINESS
You want AI to save you time without handing your business over to a robot or sounding like everyone else on the internet.
Photography Business faqs
A Few Things You Might Be Wondering...
How do I know if my photography business is actually profitable?
Start with what your clients are paying you. Then subtract what it actually costs you to make that money.
And I mean actually costs you.
Products, software, insurance, equipment, marketing, travel, taxes, payment-processing fees, assistants, and all the other expenses that come with running your business.
For equine photographers, travel can be a particularly sneaky one. Driving an hour each way to photograph a horse is still part of what it costs you to do that session, even if nobody sends you a bill for sitting in your car.
Then there's your time.
If you're bringing in plenty of money but working an absurd number of hours to do it, that's something you need to know too.
Revenue tells you how much money came in.
Profit tells you how much you actually kept.
You need to know both.
How should I set my photography pricing?
Your photography pricing needs to start with your numbers, not what another photographer charges.
Figure out what it costs to run your business, what it costs to create and deliver what you're selling, how much you need to pay yourself, and how much work you can realistically take on.
Then look at your clients, your market, your offers, and the experience you're providing.
For an equine photographer, that also means thinking about things like travel, longer session times, artwork and products, horse-show expenses, assistants, and the amount of work that happens before and after the actual session.
What the photographer down the road charges can be interesting information.
It just shouldn't be the math behind your pricing.
Your prices need to work for your business.
When should I raise my prices?
Raise your prices when your current pricing no longer works for the business you're running.
Your costs may have increased. Your offers may have changed. You may be providing more value or a different client experience. Demand may have increased. Or you may finally have run the numbers and discovered that you've been doing an impressive amount of work without leaving enough money for yourself.
What I wouldn't do is raise your prices simply because somebody in a Facebook group announced that everyone should.
And I wouldn't automatically raise them because your calendar is full, either. A full calendar can tell you something, but it doesn't tell you everything.
Look at the numbers first.
Then make the decision based on your business, not somebody else's.
Do I need a formal business plan?
You need a plan.
Whether it needs to be a 37-page document with charts, projections, and a very official-looking cover is another question.
At minimum, you should understand what you're selling, who you're trying to sell it to, how you plan to reach those people, what your business needs to make, what it costs to operate, and what you're actually trying to build.
For an equine photography business, that could also mean deciding which parts of the horse community you want to serve. Horse and rider portraits? Equestrian seniors? Commercial work? Horse shows? A combination?
You need enough of a plan to make decisions on purpose instead of reinventing the business every Tuesday.
Useful beats impressive.
What should I work on first in my photography business?
Work on the thing that's actually causing the problem.
That sounds ridiculously obvious until you realize how easy it is to spend three weeks rebuilding your website when your website wasn't the problem.
If you're not getting enough inquiries, look at your marketing.
If people inquire but don't book, look at your offer, pricing, sales process, and communication.
If clients are booking but you're not making enough money, look at the numbers.
If every client requires you to reinvent the entire process, look at your systems and workflows.
And if you have seventeen things that all seem equally urgent, don't pick one based on which Instagram Reel made you panic most recently.
Figure out where clients, money, or time are getting stuck.
Start there.
Do I need a business mentor?
Not necessarily.
There are plenty of things you can learn, test, and figure out on your own.
Mentoring becomes useful when you're having trouble seeing what's happening in your own business, you're facing a decision that doesn't have an obvious answer, or you've tried several different things and still can't figure out what's getting in the way.
A good mentor shouldn't hand you their business and tell you to copy it.
Your market, clients, goals, and equine photography business aren't identical to anybody else's.
The point is to have someone help you ask the right questions, look at what's actually happening, and figure out what makes sense for your business.
Sometimes you need a whole plan. And, sometimes you need somebody to point at one thing and say, “There's your problem.”
NOT SURE WHAT YOU NEED?
Still Don't Know Which Path Applies to you?
You don't need to figure out your entire business today. Start with the thing that's making it harder than it needs to be. I'll help you figure out where to go from there.
Rein in the Chaos. Grow Unbridled.
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