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How to Make $10K/Month in Your Photography Business
85 Plays20 days ago
Episode Summary: In this episode of Empowered, I'm breaking down exactly what I would do if I needed to ensure $10K/month for the last three months of the year in my photography business. The final quarter isn't a time to slow down—it's a time to push forward and create massive changes in your income! I'll walk you through my step-by-step strategy for filling your calendar, streamlining your booking process, and leveraging past clients to hit your financial goals before the year ends.
What You'll Learn:
✔ Why crunching the numbers is the FIRST step to reaching your income goals ✔ How to streamline your booking system for effortless client scheduling
✔ The power of reconnecting with past clients to fill your calendar
✔ Why leveraging scarcity in your marketing can drive last-minute bookings
✔ How to plan a highly profitable mini session event to generate fast cash
✔ The mindset shift needed to take swift, consistent action in your business
Resources and Links:
- HoneyBook – My go-to client booking and management tool
- Get my FREE Pricing Guide
Let’s Connect!
💡 Join my photography education community
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If this episode was helpful, take a screenshot, share it on Instagram, and tag me! Let’s finish the year strong together. 💪
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Transcript
Introduction and Importance of Q4
00:00:02
Speaker
all right everybody welcome back to my little secret podcast my audio business advice i don't know what you want to call it it's just my way to get into your earbuds quickly and give you little bite-size pieces of business and art advice because i know that the more of us that are in the world the better i truly believe in abundance so if you're listening to this live like i mean you know when i first bumped it into the world which is in ah october We are in the final quarter of the year.
00:00:33
Speaker
And i think that a lot of times we think, well, the year's over. What I'm doing has got to be enough and I can't do anything different. But I actually don't believe that. I think that the final quarter of the year is a time that you can really push and really see big changes.
00:00:48
Speaker
and Even if there are only three months left, you can still see big, massive changes.
Strategy for $10,000 Monthly Income
00:00:53
Speaker
So if I wanted to insure $10,000 a month for the rest of the year, this is exactly what I would do for my photography business.
00:01:03
Speaker
And I do make about $10,000 a month all year on average on my portrait business alone. And that's not including schools necessarily. That's not including my education platform. It's just with photo shoots. And that is on average, different months vary.
00:01:20
Speaker
But um this is what I would do if I was thinking that I needed to make $10,000 a month, October, November, December, the next three months of the year. This is exactly what I would do. So first and foremost, I would crunch the numbers.
00:01:33
Speaker
Now, this is a step in this process that will probably seem obvious when I say it, but so many photographers do not do this.
00:01:44
Speaker
So all they think is, i want to make more money. I want to have more clients. I want study bookings. They're thinking about things in an arbitrary way rather than having an actual number.
00:01:56
Speaker
So, what I want you to do is I want you to decide how many photoshoots you would like to do in the next three months. and divide that up.
00:02:08
Speaker
um So you're going to say, okay, if I want to make, for example, if I'm charging about $1,000 a session and I want to make $10,000 a month, then I'm going to need to do 10 sessions a month, right?
00:02:19
Speaker
So that's, you know, do the math. That's about, that's a little bit more than two sessions a week. And now you have
Pricing Strategy Considerations
00:02:25
Speaker
it. It might be that you charge a little bit more. It might be that you charge a little bit less and that number is going to look a little different.
00:02:31
Speaker
Now, if you find that you need an excessive number of sessions in order to hit your financial goals, for me, $10,000 a month is my minimum. Yours might be different. If you're finding, oh my gosh, I have to do 30 sessions a month in order to hit my financial goals, that probably means that it's time to consider a price increase.
00:02:49
Speaker
However, i do not advise rushing into a price increase if you don't have sessions on the calendar. um This time of year is a little bit of a tricky time of year to raise your prices if you are not already booked.
00:03:03
Speaker
So if you're seeing that you have to do an excessive amount of sessions, you're going to like my um third or fourth tip here in a minute. Or let's see. Yeah, I have a few tips here. um You're going to like another tip that I'm going to give later on to get you some fast cash in your and in your business.
00:03:19
Speaker
But um I want you to just think about increasing your prices in the future. But we'll talk about that in another episode. I'm not gonna talk about that now. So anyways, I want you to crunch the numbers. I want you to know exactly how many sessions you need to make your income goals. For me, that $10,000 mark.
00:03:38
Speaker
So I'm actually going to get out my calculator here. You'd think that I would have have this in my in my um have this in my head but I don't. So i charge session.
00:03:49
Speaker
so i'm going to divide ten thousand by fourteen hundred So that means I have to do about seven sessions a month, so that is about two sessions a week on average, right? So there's four weeks in a month, so two sessions a week, which is totally doable. This time of year, I actually do more like four sessions a week.
00:04:05
Speaker
Anyway, all right, so I would do the numbers, crunch the numbers, and figure that out. Now, the next step is super important. I want you to have a booking system.
Streamlining the Booking Process
00:04:16
Speaker
You need to streamline your booking process. So now you know, okay, I need seven sessions a month. So you're gonna open up your calendar and you're gonna decide what days you want to work. For me, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays is when I've been doing photo shoots.
00:04:30
Speaker
It's up to you. Maybe you like to do them on Saturdays. I don't care. put those sessions on the calendar Put those dates on the calendar excuse me so that you know what days you need to fill in order to make your income goals.
00:04:43
Speaker
Next, you need to streamline your booking process. It has to be super easy for clients to book sessions with you. If you're going back and forth via email, I have this day open. Oh, that doesn't work. how about this day?
00:04:55
Speaker
It's not professional. It's not streamlined and it makes it harder for your clients to book. And if your clients have a hard time booking, they'll go with someone else who's easier. There's actually research that shows that often what ends up having um somebody close the deal in a creative relationship when they're when they're booking a photographer, when they're booking a graphic designer, etc. is an easy booking process.
00:05:17
Speaker
I personally use HoneyBook to create a fast and efficient booking calendar system, but you can use anything on the market out there, Calendly. I've even used Squarespace's booking before. um So there's lots of different ways.
00:05:29
Speaker
Clients really appreciate this. If it's quick, they will more than likely book with you. So the first step was figuring out what days you want to work in order to hit your income goals. The next step is making a calendar to streamline your booking process.
00:05:44
Speaker
The next thing that I would do is I would connect, I would reconnect with my past clients.
Reconnecting with Past Clients
00:05:49
Speaker
So often as photographers, a big mistake that we make is that we spend a ton of time trying to find new clients. We're constantly worried about followers on Instagram, followers on Facebook, but how we're going to bring in more clients when actually your past clients could be some of your best and most valuable assets because if you have repeat business, you don't have to go out looking for new people. You can get Repeat business from your past clients.
00:06:14
Speaker
This time of year, i actually almost always, i only am photographing past clients. um It's a lovely business model for me. I have my calendar booked up a year in advance with past clients um every year for the past nine years.
00:06:27
Speaker
But um if you are missing out on this piece, this is going to be really important. So what I want you to do instead of spending time reaching out to a bunch of new people that don't even know about you yet on Instagram, I want you to send an email to every past client letting them know that you have limited sessions left for the rest of the year.
00:06:44
Speaker
and So you can say something like, holidays are approaching, you better get on my calendar, I'm about to be booked, whatever. Whatever you want to say. And where this is going to really be impactful is in this email you're going to include a link to that calendar that you set up.
00:06:59
Speaker
you are going to be surprised how many clients this simple email is going to bring to your calendar.
Creating Scarcity and Urgency with Social Media
00:07:05
Speaker
um Some of my mastermind students will do this and put 20 sessions on the calendar, so definitely want to do that.
00:07:11
Speaker
Now I will say that at this point is when I would ramp up my social media leverage and really start talking about the scarcity factor that you only have so many sessions left and reminding clients that the year is ending and that you need them to get on the calendar now. You don't want people reaching out around Thanksgiving for those Christmas card photos. So now's a great time to do that.
00:07:34
Speaker
Now the final thing that I would do if I have had done all of those things and I wasn't able to get my calendar completely full is I would plan profitable mini session events.
Planning Mini Sessions for Profitability
00:07:43
Speaker
I would plan one or two highly profitable mini session weekends and I would do them right before Thanksgiving. I've done this in the past. I actually don't have to do this anymore because I consistently bring in $10,000 a month in my photography business but if I needed to make fast cash I would but i would plan and push profitable mini sessions.
00:08:01
Speaker
Mini sessions can't be something that is a regular offer in your business. It has to be like a once or twice a year type of thing. So I would create an easy booking system like I already talked about.
00:08:11
Speaker
I would make sure that I was able to make at least $6,000 in one weekend. That's really been our minimum. Sometimes we make more like 10 for mini sessions when we do them. And I would plan those right before Thanksgiving. And again, I would send an email to past clients reminding them that I had that coming up and I would also promote it on social media um by talking about it on social media.
00:08:33
Speaker
Now I actually don't spend any money on ads for my photography business so all of this happens just with consistency and taking swift action.
Taking Swift Action for Financial Goals
00:08:43
Speaker
So one of the most critical takeaways that I want you to hear in this podcast in this little mini podcast episode is that I am encouraging you to take swift and consistent action.
00:08:54
Speaker
The year is winding down and it's time to hustle to meet your financial goals. I know people say, oh, I don't subscribe to hustle culture. I'm not saying burn the candle on both ends. I am saying you're going to have to go out and get the clients that you need. You're going to have to go out and make your goals happen.
00:09:12
Speaker
Being a good photographer is just one very tiny piece of this puzzle. Unfortunately, it's not enough. You must actively market yourself to make things happen. You must set goals.
00:09:23
Speaker
clear goals and create a plan to achieve them. Do not wait around just hoping that clients are going to magically come to you through word of mouth or the occasional pretty photo that you post. It doesn't work that way. It's time to roll up your sleeves and take action.
00:09:38
Speaker
So there you have it. This is exactly what I would do right now to ensure that I made $10,000 a month as a family photographer which is what I average all year long and the reason I say average is that I actually take all of December off and I take all of July off and I'm you know I'm my own boss I'm able to create my own schedule but when I average out the amount of income that I make in my photography business every year it is at least $10,000 a month so there you have it start start implementing these things right now your future self is going to thank you for it