March was supposed to be a great month. As any New York photographer will tell you, New York City is the best in the Spring. As the weather gets warmer the photography business gets going. It’s full speed ahead until Thanksgiving. Warm weather = more photography jobs. Heck, it was supposed to be the best season yet! I had projected it to be the best month yet and I had the jobs booked to prove it. I had several full day conferences to photograph, a wedding, several corporate headshot days with all new clients, and more.

All of my marketing efforts (paid advertising, Search Engine Optimization, cold emails, and networking) were finally paying off, and paying off in dividends. My photography business was finally taking off! And then, it all changed.

“Sorry, we have to cancel due to the corona virus …” said email after email.

For the foreseeable future, things are going to be slow. So, I’m going to change that. If I’m not photographing, I will be focussing on “internal hours”. The term internal hours is a pretty common term in corporate America. It just means I’m not focussing my time on client’s work (because there is none), but on my own business and my own internal practices. I want to focus on growing my photography business. When the Corona Virus passes I’m coming out strong.

Photographer Business Tips 101

I’ve always watched and measured my margins. Every expense gets tracked. I don’t spend money on my photography business unless:

• I strongly believe I will see a return on my investment (ROI).

• Someone can do it better than me.

• I don’t have the time.

How to grow my photography business during the Corona Virus

So, here are a few of the questions I will ask myself:

• What services of my photography business can I grow? Which photography services should I not offer? What is not profitable based on time, acquisition costs, and profitability?

  • Headshot Photographer

  • Architecture and Design Photographer

  • Corporate Event Photographer / Conference Photographer

  • Proposal Photography | Engagement Photography | Wedding Photography

  • Higher Education Photography - Working with universities to photograph their advertising and marketing material. During the Corona Virus this will be a tough hit part of my business. All of the my clients are closing their campuses.

• What platforms and tools can I better use to reach more people? How can I advertise my photography business to more New Yorkers in a smarter and more cost efficient way?

• Will a CRM be effective in closing the leakage in my sales funnel and sales flywheel?

• Are there any photography business class I can take? Are they worth it?

Updating my photography blog with new content

I also plan on updating my photography blog with new content. In fact, many of the photos and blog posts that I will publish are ones I did not have the time to post previously. One day a week will be dedicated to writing new blogs and fixing old blogs already on my website.

If anyone is in fact reading this … please checkout the blogs I have actually written.