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How School Photography Can Change Your Business
37 Plays6 days ago
In this episode, Elena shares how school photography—done differently—can create consistent income, boost visibility, and fuel growth in your family photography business. She breaks down the difference between outdated, stiff school portraits and the fine art, boutique model that has helped her scale to a multiple six-figure business. If you love working with children and want to eliminate the slow season, this episode opens the door to a strategy that can radically transform your business.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- Why school photography is more than just a side hustle
- How boutique school portraits attract your ideal family clients
- Systems that make high-volume photo days smooth and profitable
- How school photography boosts SEO and fills your calendar year-round
- Real income potential (from $5k to $300k+) with real examples
Links & Resources:
School Photography Quick Start Guide – Free Download
School Photography Course – Full System & Templates
www.elenasblair.com
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Visit my Website for More!
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Transcript
Expanding a Family Photography Business
00:00:02
Elena Blair
What's up, empowered photographer. I am coming at you to talk to you about something you've probably heard me talk about if you've been in my world for a while, and that is how school photography can grow, excuse me, your family photography business.
00:00:19
Elena Blair
Now, a lot of photographers, they hear school photography and what they're thinking about is all of the work that it's gonna take, large volume, lots of orders, lots of kids, lots of parents, and they're also maybe thinking about that stiff and boring school portrait that we have all come to think of as like a terrible rite of passage.
Turning Passion into Profit
00:00:38
Elena Blair
So I'm gonna ask you, do you love photographing children? Because if you do, This is a way to turn that passion into something so much bigger and for it to turn that passion into a way to consistently book business, to create income all year that support your photography business.
00:00:57
Elena Blair
So what if I told you that if you implemented school photography, you could earn an additional, and I mean additional on top of your family photography business, 20, 50, a hundred, or even $200,000 a year.
00:01:11
Elena Blair
That is exactly what school photography can do for you. And I'm not making this up. I've been teaching about school photography since 2017. I have a very big online community, like 2000 photographers in there. from all over the world. And I asked at the and end of, or middle of this year, I asked, what did you make in school photography last year?
00:01:28
Elena Blair
And the numbers were staggering. Some made 5,000 additional, which is great. And some made 50, 20, hundred, even 300,000 additional dollars last year. Yes. I am not making that number up school photography. When done well, Prince money.
Boutique School Photography Strategy
00:01:46
Elena Blair
So when you're thinking about school photography, like I said, you might be picturing that outdated version of school photography, a bad backdrop, four smiles, really weird poses. It's awkward to the max, right?
00:01:59
Elena Blair
But boutique school school photography is different. It's not just about taking that school portrait. It's a smart business strategy that puts you front and center with your target market, families with kids.
00:02:13
Elena Blair
Even one small preschool daycare center per year could vastly increase your visibility in the community and book you more clients. So when you are photographing kids in the school setting in this more fine art boutique way, the families see a portrait of their child that they have to buy.
00:02:32
Elena Blair
And so it makes a lot of money. Our average is $75 per kid. We have people in our group that it's like 150 kid.
Driving Traffic and SEO with School Photography
00:02:39
Elena Blair
And the best part though, is that we teach you how to filter every single family through your website.
00:02:45
Elena Blair
So now they see that you are a photographer and now you are able to market to them directly that way. We also teach you how to get their emails so you can directly market to them. But the other thing that happens is that when you bring all of this traffic to your website, website, you're increasing your search engine optimization. And if you've never heard of search engine optimization,
00:03:05
Elena Blair
What that means is that when somebody Googles whatever you want to be found for, you come up. And one of the best ways to increase search engine optimization is with traffic. And when you bring this intentional traffic to your website, it helps, but we won't get super into that piece right now.
Ensuring Year-Round Income
00:03:20
Elena Blair
So one of the most valuable parts about being a school photographer is that you have consistent income all year. you eliminate that dreaded slow season. So if you're going to do photography full time, or you just don't want to have one big burst of money in the fall and not money all year,
00:03:35
Elena Blair
This eliminates that pressure. It has the potential to have income coming in all year. So we do do some of our schools in the fall, but we do a majority of our preschools in the months of February through April, which are normally very slow. We don't have a slow season anymore.
00:03:50
Elena Blair
So it's built in revenue year round.
Creating Smooth Systems for School Photography
00:03:53
Elena Blair
This does not have to be overcomplicated. So the logistics of running a school business might sound intimidating. Lots of photos, lots of kids, photo, you know, how do you order all of that?
00:04:03
Elena Blair
But the truth is, with the right systems in place, school photography runs very smooth. It's very repeatable and it's surprisingly simple. So once you learn how to set up efficient workflows, you'll be able to run profitable school photo days that are effortless.
00:04:16
Elena Blair
And we will give you in the class templates, email systems, all of that. This is real results from a proven system. I've been photographing schools basically the same since 2012. And I'll tell you, we do natural light and artificial light. so you don't have to use artificial light.
00:04:32
Elena Blair
And I've used pretty much the exact system to make school photography really the foundation of my multiple six-figure family photography business. It has allowed me to earn consistent income throughout the year, get front and center with hundreds if not thousands of families every year. In fact, this year, our school photography division will have photographed just under a thousand kids. So that is a thousand families that are now familiar with my business.
00:04:55
Elena Blair
We're able to create sustainable businesses with school photography that will support your goals, support your family, allow you to really get this thing off the ground. And I know that it will work for you because it's worked for thousands of photographers all over the world who've taken my class.
Exploring School Photography Opportunities
00:05:10
Elena Blair
So if this is piquing your interest, I have a full class on this that is everything you need. And I will link the, um, course page here. But if you're not ready to invest in a class, totally fine.
00:05:22
Elena Blair
I'll link the quick get started guide as well. So you can just start exploring this opportunity. That's what it is. It's an opportunity. School photography will change your business. It changed mine and it has changed thousands all over the country, all over the world.
00:05:36
Elena Blair
All right, empowered photographers. See you in the next episode.