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How to Grow Your Photography Business in 2026
56 Plays10 days ago
In this energizing episode, Elena walks you through a step-by-step strategy to prepare for a thriving photography business in 2026. Whether you're just getting started or want to scale from part-time to full-time, this episode is packed with guidance on goal setting, marketing, mindset, and pricing. Elena shares what it really takes to plan for a profitable year ahead—and why now is the perfect time to begin laying the groundwork for the success you’re craving.
This is your invitation to take yourself seriously, set real goals, and make a plan to grow with intention.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- The first thing every photographer must do before 2026 begins
- Why you need an income goal (even if you're part-time)
- How to calculate your shoot volume based on your pricing
- The two marketing strategies that are more powerful than social media
- What role mindset plays in your profitability
- How to use the end of the year to build momentum for the new one
Links & Resources:
Apply for the Elena S Blair 5-Month Mastermind
Email Marketing Starter Guide
Photography Pricing Guide for Profitability
Connect With Me:
Follow me on Instagram
Join my Facebook Community
Visit my Website for More!
Subscribe & Review:
If you loved this episode, make sure to subscribe and leave a review! Your support helps the podcast reach more photographers like you. 💛
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Transcript
Planning Your Photography Business for 2026
00:00:01
Elena Blair
What's up, Empowered Photographer? If you are listening to this when it was released, we are in November of 2025, and that is the time that you should start thinking about how your photography business is going to grow or start in 2026.
00:00:14
Elena Blair
So we essentially just have a few weeks left in the year, and it's time to set yourself up for true success in 2026. So whether you're just starting your photography business or you're looking to take it to the next level,
00:00:27
Elena Blair
The groundwork that you lay today is going to make a huge difference when the new year rolls around. You don't want to start without a plan. So that's why i want to invite you to and to start my or to apply for my five-month mastermind that's going to kick off in February.
00:00:42
Elena Blair
And I will link the application in the show notes. You might think that you aren't ready, that you don't have time, but trust me, it's time to start now. And no matter where you are, I can help you.
Joining a Mastermind for Strategy Development
00:00:54
Elena Blair
All right, so chances are, if you're listening to this, let's get to the meat and potatoes here, that you're like a lot of photographers I've worked with. Maybe you are starting to take pictures of your kids and capturing moments for fun and knowing that you want to start this as a business.
00:01:06
Elena Blair
Maybe you have a full-time job and you're thinking you'd like to replace it with something that you love way more, which is photography. Maybe you've been in business for a few years and you're just stuck at a low income point, can't find clients, you don't know why it's working.
00:01:19
Elena Blair
Well, I've been there. I know how overwhelming it can feel to turn your love for photography into something bigger. And the good news is you don't have to figure it out alone. You can join my mastermind or you can apply for it. And I hopefully will be the right fit for you where you will get live calls every week, a one-on-one portfolio and brand review, profitability wrote roadmap.
00:01:42
Elena Blair
You will get everything that you need. So let's talk about what you can do though.
Setting Income Goals and Strategies
00:01:47
Elena Blair
If you're not going to apply for my mastermind, let's still talk about what you can do for next year because I want you to be really strategic about next year.
00:01:53
Elena Blair
So I want you to set an income goal. Most photographers who are in their first year or two are just sort of like, cool, I made 1,000 here. I made 200 here. I am made 100 here. And at the end of the year, they look at their books and they're like, okay, I made 5,000 bucks this year.
00:02:07
Elena Blair
No matter how small your photography business is, even if you're going to keep your full-time job, you want to be a stay-at-home parent, mostly whatever, you should have an income goal, even if it's low, even if it's 20,000. So I want you to go into next year figuring out what that income goal is.
00:02:21
Elena Blair
Then I want you to think about how How many shoots per month on average do you need to do in order to hit that goal? That's a very simple math problem that I want you to figure out. So depending on your income level, that's going to be one a week, two a week, whatever. You're going to have to figure that out.
Marketing Beyond Social Media
00:02:37
Elena Blair
the next piece I want you to to start discovering is I want you to figure out how are you going to get these clients? Now, let me tell you, posting on social media is not going to do it. You can't just post some pretty pictures on social media.
00:02:49
Elena Blair
So what I would invite you to do is learn a new marketing strategy that you have control over. So the two that I would prefer that you try are email marketing and search engine optimization, meaning getting your website to a place where people can actually find it online.
00:03:05
Elena Blair
And I'll drop a guide for um i email marketing here in the show notes. I don't have a guide for so SEO yet. I should. But those are the things that I want you to start focusing on. And the next piece I want you to think about is, are you at a skill level to attract clients regularly? And if you're not, spend these winter months practicing.
00:03:25
Elena Blair
Photograph as many families as you can. Photograph as many kids as you can. Whatever it is that you're thinking about that you want capture, weddings, I don't care, start practicing. You can't skip that piece. You have to get the practice under your belt.
00:03:39
Elena Blair
So I want you to get really clear
Mindset and Profitability in Photography
00:03:41
Elena Blair
on your numbers. so The next thing I want you to think about is what is your mindset like? Do you believe in yourself? If you constantly find yourself in a in a downward spiral of self-doubt and comparison, you got to check your mindset.
00:03:56
Elena Blair
You got to have a mindset practice where you start to really look inward and look at the reasons why you feel inadequate and try to fix that in ah at a subconscious level. Because if your nervous system doesn't believe that you are able to hit these big goals you won't hit them So i want you to start working on your mindset, which we do in the mastermind.
00:04:17
Elena Blair
And then, of course, the next piece, um you know, is that when you're looking at your pricing and you start to dissect what what or discover what you need to charge in order to hit your income level.
00:04:29
Elena Blair
Are you aware of what it takes to be profitable? So I'll leave my pricing guide here as well. What I want you to do is think about how much you want to make, how much you're charging now. And if that means you have to do a thousand shoots a month, well, you're going to have to raise your prices.
00:04:43
Elena Blair
And so thinking about pricing from a place of profitability is how I want you to start. It's not about packages. It's not about what you include. It's about that number being a number that's actually going to get you to your income goals.
00:04:54
Elena Blair
All right.
Booking and Client Management for 2026
00:04:55
Elena Blair
So the next thing I want you to do, finally, final piece. Now i'm talking about email again, is I want you to gather all of the emails of everyone that you've ever photographed. And I want you to email them and let them know that your 2026 calendar is open for booking.
00:05:08
Elena Blair
And then I want you to have an easy booking link. So if you don't have a client management software, you can use Calendly. You could create a Google document and have them fill in their names. Make it really easy for them to get on your calendar. Because if it's hard, if you create friction, they're less likely to book.
00:05:24
Elena Blair
All right. I kind of was all over the place with this episode, but it's mostly because I want you to apply for my mastermind so that I can give you all of the strategy week by week, February through June. If you're listening, I know this is for you.
00:05:36
Elena Blair
You listened to this whole episode. I'm going to link to apply. i think you should apply. i can't wait to read your application. I'll see you in the next episode.