High school senior photography is big business. In some areas it is not uncommon for parents to spend hundreds – sometimes thousands – of dollars on portraits of their seniors. If you have an existing photography business, or even some experience with photography in general, starting a high school senior photography business can be a very profitable undertaking.
Determine pricing.
Most photographers offer a sitting or location fee that may or may not be applied to portrait purchases later. Portrait purchases can be offered a la carte, in packages, or a combination of both. Finally, this is the digital era and many high school seniors and (more importantly) their parents want to have digital images or DVD slideshows to share with their friends and family.
To determine your pricing, find out what other photographers in the area are charging and decide how you want to position yourself. Remember, charging the least is not always the best way to go.
Scout out locations.
Whether you choose to offer studio sessions or location sessions, you will need to scout out locations ahead of time. Knowing what places will work well ahead of time will simplify your business and give you suggestions to offer the seniors and their parents.
Recruit models.
You're going to want to have senior portraits to show prospective clients. In order to do this, recruit current high school seniors and offer them reduced (or free) portraits in exchange for their modeling services.
Decide how you would like to work.
This includes deciding if you will take studio portraits, location portraits, or some combination of both. Location photography is very popular with high school seniors so you will want to strongly consider offering that as at least one of your options.
Market offline.
Other ways of getting the word out are postcards and mailings that showcase your work and ads in traditional places like high school newspapers and yearbooks.
Market online.
High schools seniors are online at places like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. Make these social media outlets part of your marketing strategy. Give clients digital images that are Facebook ready and ask them to share them. Having your own website is also a necessity for a photography business.
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