Ten Things I’ve Learned In Ten Years Of Running A Photography Business

Ten Lessons In Ten Years Of Running A Photography Business

Last week my photography business turned ten years old!

Ten years since I left employment, launched my website and started working for myself full-time.

A lot has changed since then, both in my own business and in the photography industry more broadly. It got me thinking about what I wish I’d known when I started, and the lessons I’ve learned along the way.

I’ve pulled them into this article and, if you’re at the start of your business or still in the early stages, I hope it saves you from learning some of them the hard way.

1. Get clear about what kind of business you actually want to build

Everyone has their own version of what a successful life and business looks like.

The problem is that when you first start out, it’s very easy to be distracted by what other people are doing. One photographer is building a studio team. Another is launching courses. Someone else is shooting every weekend and talking about six-figure years.

And if you’re not careful, you can end up chasing someone else’s version of success without ever stopping to ask whether you actually want it.

The more you understand where you want your business to go, and why, the easier it is to stay in your own lane.

2. Don’t believe the hype

The minute social media algorithms realise you have a business, you’ll be bombarded with noise.

Business hacks. Quick fixes. Growth strategies. People telling you they’ve found “the secret” to bookings, marketing, pricing or passive income.

The reality is much less exciting.

Most business success comes down to getting good at the basics and repeating them, over and over again. It’s much less glamorous than the internet would have you believe, but it’s also usually much simpler than people make it sound.

Related Article: Is the photography market really saturated?

3. Surround yourself with people who get it

Once you start a business, everyone around you will have an opinion on it.

Some people will be encouraging. Some will be confused by what you’re doing. Some will offer advice, even if they’ve never run a business themselves.

I’ve learned that it’s really important to have people around you who understand the particular highs, lows and wobbles of self-employment.

People who understand what it feels like when bookings are slow, when you’re trying something new, when you’re doubting yourself, or when you’re carrying the emotional load of making the business work.

For me, that’s a mixture of business groups, photographer friends, coaches and mentors. Find the mix that works for you.

4. Treat everything as an experiment

Not everything you try will work.

And even when something does work, it may not work the first time you do it. Or not in the way you expected. Or not as quickly as you hoped.

If you treat every disappointment as proof that something will never work for you, it becomes very easy to give up too soon. But if you treat things as experiments, you get useful information much more quickly.

It helps you stay more open, more resilient and less dramatic about the normal ups and downs of business.

5. Lean in for longer than you think you need to

New things often take much longer than you think they should to gain traction. I’ve found this every time I launch a new service or offer.

When this happens, it’s very tempting to assume the lag means it isn’t working. But often, the issue is not that something is wrong. It is that not enough time has passed yet for it to start working.

This has been one of the hardest lessons for me. Holding on when something isn’t working yet is deeply uncomfortable! But the key word here is “yet”.

It starts to feel easier when you stop assuming the discomfort means failure, and get better at holding on for longer.

6. It’s Ok for your business to evolve

It’s very easy to lose the joy in your business if you keep forcing yourself to pursue something you’ve outgrown.

If you were employed, you probably wouldn’t expect to stay in exactly the same role, with exactly the same ambitions and interests, for ten years. You would expect to change, develop and want new challenges.

Business is no different.

It’s Ok to let things change and evolve over time, as you grow and change as a person too.

7. Don’t overcomplicate business

Most good businesses need three things. A brilliant product at the right price, a brilliant customer experience, and enough of the right people knowing what you do.

If something isn’t working, these are the first three things I would look at. Chances are, one of these things isn’t working as well as it needs to, and that is where the problem lies.

It can be tempting to overcomplicate things when business feels hard, and look for shiny new ideas and strategies. But usually, the best thing to do is to come back to the basics.

8. There’s no point where business becomes easy

There is no day when you “make it” and from then on everything is easy.

There will always be new challenges. In recent years, the pandemic and the cost of living crisis have been two huge reminders of that.

Markets change. People’s spending habits change. Technology changes. And as a business owner, you keep needing to adapt.

I think this is helpful to remember, because it stops you from assuming that challenge means you’re doing something wrong. Some challenges are just part of running a business over time.

9. Running a business will bring up a lot of your own stuff

This is something I could probably write a whole article about!

Running a business has a way of bringing you face to face with yourself. It can highlight your confidence, your relationship with risk, your ability to make decisions, your patience, and your comfort with uncertainty, to name just a few.

And this is why working on yourself supports everything else you do in business.

The more confident you become in yourself and your direction, the easier it is to make good decisions, hold boundaries, communicate clearly and stay the course when things feel uncertain.

10. Consistency beats perfection

It’s very easy not to take action because you’re waiting for perfect conditions. When your website’s ready, your branding is sorted, your portfolio is stronger.

When you feel more ready, know more, or have more confidence.

But most of the time, progress comes from consistently taking the next step and refining as you go.

This has certainly been true for me. Not everything has been perfectly timed or perfectly executed. But over time, consistency has been far more useful than waiting for perfect conditions.

It keeps you moving, and gives you the chance to learn and refine as you go.

Final thoughts

If you’re in the early stages of building a photography business, I hope this list saves you from learning quite so many of these lessons the hard way.

If you’d like some support to build your business, I’d love to help. I work with photographers to build stronger businesses and feel more confident in how they run them.

You can find out more about working with me here: Business coaching for photographers

Clare Murthy

I’m a newborn, baby and family photographer working with families from South West London and Surrey. I specialise in timeless, natural photography with no props or unnatural posing. I photograph babies at my studio, and families in beautiful outdoor locations. I'm based on the Surrey / London border, close to Hampton Court.