The Photography Business
by William Lulow
Note: Having owned and operated a successful studio in Manhattan for twenty years, I have an intimate knowledge of what it takes to manage a photography business. I have done this both from a separate studio and a business that I run out of my home. Both business plans can work if you treat your love of the art form as a business. That’s the key. What follows is an updated introduction to some of the elements of the “photography business.” It’s a bit longer than my normal posts, so try to read it through because it contains some very specific information.
I have written extensively about this over many years. There are a number of folks on the internet recently that claim you can make $35,000 a month shooting pictures. Ah, but what kind of pictures, how often would you work, what equipment would you need and can this kind of money be sustainable in the long run enough to fund an ongoing business? Everyone gets dazzled by the prospect of earning money with his or her camera. It is appealing because taking pictures is something that most folks do anyway and a growing number actually can do with a small investment (relatively) in equipment. And, of course, there are the ubiquitous iPhones!! Let me say at the beginning, that even though you may get some “lucky shots” with your camera phone, it’s not a reliable, professional piece of camera gear.
In the days of film, that investment was considerably larger. If you were going to shoot a fashion catalog, for instance, you would have needed a couple of view cameras to make large format photographs that could be used “to size.” You would also have needed a studio, lights, backgrounds, dressing rooms, props, stylists, assistants, film holders, darkrooms and a large number of other accessories, all to make your business functional. You would probably have needed to gross at least a million dollars a year just to keep your doors open.
(Image made in the studio with black background)
If you were going to do portraits or family portraits, you might well need a place to do this which would entail renting enough space to do your shoots. Or, you might just do this outdoors (maybe only in warmer weather). At any rate, you would need at the bare minimum a good DSLR camera, a couple of good lenses, a decent flash unit plus some accessories. So, the kinds of pictures you might want to do becomes a major factor in how you set up your business. If you are a “reportage” photographer working for a local newspaper or magazine, the salary isn’t much, but you would not need your own studio and all the things and expenses that come with it. Even if you just shoot weddings, you still need more than one camera body plus a number of flash units, and a good computer to process the thousands of images you would invariably be shooting. You would also need the services of a good lab to make your albums and you would need a way to send your clients the proofs from which they could choose. (Today, probably the best wedding lab for albums is actually in New Zealand, Queensberry).
(Image made outdoors with three portable flash units)
There is a well-known caveat about operating photography businesses: figure on your expenses costing you about half what your studio can gross in a year.
These days, people can buy a good digital camera, make some decent photographs and think of themselves as “being in business.” Take it from someone who has spent the last 40 or 50 years in the photography business. It’s a whole lot more difficult than it looks at first glance. First, you have to begin with a fair modicum of talent. (Not everyone has it). Then you have to add a whole bunch of money just to “gear up” with professional-type equipment. You can’t do this with your iPhone, as I said! Next, you have to be able to attract a number of clients who would be willing to pay your fees. You would also have to study up on some business practices so that you would know what to charge in the first place. You would need to know how to do a professional assignment from talking to the client about what he or she wants to being able to interpret those needs and how they would be represented in images. This is just for starters!
So, let’s kind of begin at the end! How much money do you think a good photography business can gross in a typical year? Do you think $1 Million is enough? What about $100,000? What do you think a good salary is for someone in the workforce these days? Keep in mind that the average household income for a family of four in the United States is around $87,000 per year now. This is the AVERAGE. Fifty percent make more and fifty make less. This translates into approximately $1,700 per week BEFORE taxes! If just your rent/mortgage costs you more than that, you are spending more than you can afford on housing at the outset. If your business is only grossing $87,000 per year, you would probably get to keep around $40,000 of that after all your expenses were paid.
Now if you are running a business, one of your first expenses should be your own salary, because that’s the money out of which you will need to pay your PERSONAL expenses. They might typically be rent on your apartment (not your place of business), food, utilities, education, phones, clothing, transportation and vacations (nobody can work ALL the time. So, as I suggested, work backwards. Figure out how much money you would need for all of these things. Let’s do some sample and simple arithmetic! These days, rent on a decent apartment in a good building, NOT in a major market area might be something like $2,500 per month for decent-sized two bedroom apartment (and that may sound kind of on the low end, actually). An average phone bill runs about $200 per month (cell service). A car payment could be another $300 per month. Utilities, including cable TV (which also provides internet service, something you will need these days) is another $200 per month. You can probably budget another $200 for clothing, especially if you have young children. And, food would probably cost another $500 per month without dining in restaurants. In case you weren’t adding, you are now up to around $4,000 per month for normal living expenses and you haven’t even begun thinking about the business part of this yet. So, out of your average gross income of $87,000 you already have to account for half of it on expenses NOT INCLUDING TAXES.
So, it is beginning to look like that average salary wouldn’t be enough to sustain a family AND a business as well. You would need to gross a whole lot more! So, let’s look at business expenses and get down to the “nitty-gritty” of this thing. If you were a great portrait photographer, say, and you wanted to set up a store front studio in a shopping strip mall, for example, to get some “off-the-street” business, here’s what you might be looking at:
- Rent (maybe around $5,000 per month)
- Utilities – $800 (including heat, electric and phones)
- Labor – $600 (minimum wage for a 40 hour week for one worker)
- Advertising (blank for now)
- Equipment (initial investment plus monthly) $300
- Insurance – $45 per month
- Transportation (to do jobs on location) $200 per month (car plus gas and maintenance)
- Miscellaneous expenses (little things that crop up from time to time) monthly fund $200
- Your salary as business owner. (One parameter here is that when your business can pay you twice what you make in salary from a “regular” job, you can think about leaving your old job). NOT BEFORE!
Here you’re looking at over $7,000 per month just to open your doors! That’s $84,000 per year TO START WITH!! This means that this studio would have to gross $170,000 per year in order to BREAK EVEN. That is, not make any real profit, but just pay the expenses of running the business. Remember, business expenses account for HALF a yearly gross. This might leave you with a roughly $80,000 yearly salary. That’s about $6,000 per month before personal taxes. Will that be enough to live on for you and your family? That’s the question you will have to answer for yourself.
Now if you are a photographer and you can work out of your own home or apartment, this might work for you. If you are interested in running your business from a studio, you would also need to pay those expenses as well, as I have indicated. That would also include additional money for expenses such as electricity, employees, telephones, garbage collection and other maintenance items. If you are a sole proprietor, you may not have expenses associated with a separate studio, but you will need a place for equipment in your apartment/home. You will need a place to have your “office” even if it’s only a table somewhere. These days you need a computer and any number of peripherals.
Whatever your “setup” is, you can minimize the expenses in the beginning. Even if you are a sole proprietor with no other employees, no separate studio, no other expenses except travel and equipment, you will still have to do your homework to determine whether or not the time you invest in shooting an assignment is worth your while. Let’s say you have learned all you need to learn about the photography you do, you have enough equipment to handle the types of shots you do (this might typically include a desktop computer as well as a laptop, a digital camera with at least three lenses to give you some variety and the software packages necessary to produce your images and deliver them to your clients). Let’s also assume that you have made enough to pay your rent and your overhead.
(Today, studio in my apartment).
I am assuming you are not going to use any artificial light, so you won’t be using any flash units or other kind of lighting except outdoor, sunlight. Let’s also assume that your business is not in one of the major markets in the United States like New York, L.A., Chicago, Dallas or Atlanta for starters. If you are in a smaller town how are you going to get your name out to folks who might hire you? Then, again, what kind of photography are you most qualified to do? And, probably most important, what kind of photography do you truly LOVE to do?
As I indicated above, different genres in the field of photography require different investments in equipment, time, money and expertise. The dollar amounts indicated here are just samples. Different people run their businesses differently. But I have done some of my own research on costs of running a photography business and these items seem to be average or maybe a bit below average. Whatever kind of business model you use, it all STARTS with your creative ability and talent. Then it goes from there.
More later in subsequent articles. If you are interested in how I came to my figures or anything else about running a photography business, please email me and we can start a conversation.
