PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS BASICS:
A Professional Photographer's Guide to Financial Success
Why do some photographers succeed when others fail?
It’s often because the successful ones know the PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS BASICS....
Are you:
• An established Photographer looking for business tips that will help you streamline your systems and optimize your business?
• A professional Photographer overwhelmed by the aspects necessary to maintain your business?
• An aspiring Photographer interested in expanding your skills and hobby to a profitable and sustainable career?
If so, we are here to help!
• Save countless hours searching for the right information
• Stop wasting money on items and tactics that bring you no value
• Avoid the costly mistakes and pitfalls many artists in the
business world fall prey to
• Benefit from the knowledge we’ve learned
“Photography Business Basics is a book that would have helped me greatly as a young photographer. I learned how to be an artist first, which was fine, but I struggled with the business end of photography. Many wasted years! As I was going through this book I thought to myself that business instruction is so lacking in our industry. Look through hundreds of photography YouTube videos, for example, and you will find that only a few even touch on the business end of things. This needs to change, which is why Natasha and Mark’s invaluable book is perfectly timed. Our industry is advancing and shifting rapidly, and my advice is to use this book as a solid foundation. Good business practices will help you get paid for doing the thing you love to do!”
Mark Hemmings
Photographer, Educator,
Author of iPhone Photography For Dummies and
Android SmartPhone Photography For Dummies
From The Authors
As two real world photography business entrepreneurs who’ve struggled and learned (sometimes the hard way :) how to go from starving artist to savvy businessperson, we hope to help the most number of Photographers have the greatest success.
Take it from Andy Warhol, one of the most famous
and successful artists in history:
“Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.”
After garnering awards and accolades throughout Mark’s photography career, we are now ready to share the knowledge we acquired over a decade spent scouring the internet and absorbing literally thousands of blog posts, webinars and courses, then distilling that information to the essential techniques necessary to succeed.
This is the book we wish we had when starting out in the
business of photography, and now we truly wish it will help our readers.
“From the very first page, Martinez and Maryanovich captivate readers with an engaging writing style and genuine enthusiasm for the craft. They take a step-by-step approach, covering everything from photography fundamentals and setting up your photography business to marketing strategies and client experience. Each chapter is filled with practical advice and real-world examples, making it easy for readers to apply the concepts to their own ventures.
Photography Business Basics is a must-read for anyone aspiring to turn their passion for photography into a successful business. Martinez and Maryanovich's expertise shines through in every page, offering invaluable advice and inspiration. Whether you're just starting out or looking to take your photography business to the next level, this book is a game-changer. Don't miss out on the opportunity to learn from one of the industry's finest teams. Grab a copy today and watch your photography dreams soar.”
You will learn how to:
• Determine goals that encompass your definition of success
• Apply bookkeeping and accounting fundamentals
• Implement the simple and most effective way to set your Pricing
• Create your Target Market Personas
• Design your Brand
• Craft your Sales Funnel
• Construct a Marketing Plan based on Marketing Math
• Use current SEO strategies to improve your search engine rankings and discover the only analytics metric that matters
• Deliver a Client experience that generates repeat business and referrals (the best and most profitable business you can have as a Photographer)
• Build a solid Business Plan that lays the groundwork for success
“Photography Business Basics is packed with helpful tips for both new photographers and seasoned photographers wanting to turn their passion into a profit. As a CPA, I especially enjoyed the pricing chapter that dives deep into the thought process of pricing photography services and products as well as setting up bookkeeping organization and how that plays a role in everything.”
Whether you’re a wedding photographer, portrait photographer, commercial photographer, this is a photography business must-have –
A current, post-Covid invaluable book for emerging, mid-career, and experienced photographers of all specialties interested in starting or making their own freelance business the best it can be..
As a photography business encompasses so many moving parts, a quick reference guide is essential to help you succeed as soon as possible.
This book provides you with the foundational knowledge you need to quickly enhance your business.
The fundamentals to run your own photography business successfully aren’t secrets. It’s just a matter of finding and learning them.
Photography Business Basics brings these strategies and tips together in one concise, informative and interesting guide.
Written with a friendly, conversational tone
Photography Business Basics offers easy to read, practical advice explained in a step-by-step direction, using an innovative work-back plan that logically deconstructs a mountain of activities into smaller manageable actions.
“Photography Business Basics is a well-written, timely, comprehensive book positively full of simple, intentional, and well-documented tips that will take you to the top of your craft fast. Natasha and Mark emphasize that your skill as a businessperson is the key, even more than your technical skills. They know what they're talking about and have chosen to generously share their passion and dedication to benefit you and your photography business.
Just the two lists of Photography niches and Conversion methods alone, complete with multiple examples, will leave you thoughtful and inspired! Photography Business Basics is the book you will wish you had when you started your photography business. So, don't delay - read it today.”
Dr. Miluna Fausch
Pitch Perfect Soul Coach to Performers & Professionals,
American Book Fest Business Books Finalist, Forbes Author
Each version also includes free templates for:
• A Flash and Sales Report spreadsheet (Excel and Google Sheets formats)
• A Personal Budget spreadsheet (Excel and Google Sheets formats)
• A Target Market Persona Questionnaire (Word and Google Docs formats)
• A Photographer’s Business Plan Outline (Word and Google Docs formats)
Most photographers are creative by nature and lack the business skills
and mindset needed to consistently earn a living as a Professional.
Don’t let this be you.
If you are overworked and under-payed and looking for a simple method to better understand and manage your business and earn more money then:
“Hello Natasha and Mark!
Thoughts: LOVED THIS BOOK.
Easy to read and a FABULOUS layout for how to get a real photo business accomplished.
Smart, smart, smart. I found things I had not paid attention to when I ran a photo business eons ago, and loved the section about marketing, especially for today’s market/younger photographers.
While many of the inspirational messages in your book are ones I use in class, I think just having the basics – “how to figure this stuff out”- is CRITICAL to success. Most of the time I hear from the student artists that I work with in my department that this is all too overwhelming, that they haven’t found a way to navigate this path –
Then there is this book! HURRAY!!
I have two or three students now who really need this. I am adding the links to the syllabus right now.
I don’t think you have to be a photographer to use this, as it could work in any creative artist’s plan to have their own business and to plan for success. I am sending this link to some of my former students as well, and am also going to share it with our entrepreneurship program chairperson.
We have many creatives and students that sit just outside of the ‘business’ department that need to know how creative people think, how we DON’T THINK but SHOULD THINK, and how we need to have a game plan to move forward. I am so thankful you all are on this and I wish you the very best with this endeavor. Benita ”
Benita VanWinkle
Associate Professor of Art |
School of Arts and Design
High Point University
North Carolina
www.highpoint.edu/faculty-staff/art-design/benita-vanwinkle/
About The Authors
Natasha Martinez has worked side-by-side with award-winning photographer Mark Maryanovich over the past decade. With a strong background in marketing within the film industry, Natasha played a key role in helping Mark build and sustain a successful photography business. Her strategic approach to branding, marketing, and business development has been essential in navigating the competitive photography world. Natasha’s expertise, combined with her passion for creative collaboration, has made her an invaluable partner in bringing Mark’s artistic vision to a wider audience while ensuring long-term growth and success.
Award-winning Photographer Mark Maryanovich has captured an impressive variety of artists including Chris Cornell, Billy F Gibbons, Bob Rock, Chad Kroeger, Elliott Smith, and Henry Rollins. His photographs appear as album covers and artwork for companies such as Sony, Universal, EMI, Warner Chappell Music, and Mark has been nominated four times and received two Canadian Country Music Awards for Recording Package of the Year.
Mark’s commercial Clients include Gibson Guitars and Peavey Electronics, and his work has been published in Rolling Stone and Billboard magazines. Mark had the honor of providing the author photo for Model Woman: Eileen Ford and the Business of Beauty by Robert Lacey (best-selling biographer and historical consultant on the award-winning Netflix series The Crown); book cover Images for the legendary Randy Bachman’s autobiography Vinyl Tap Stories; and Matt Sorum’s autobiography Double Talkin’ Jive: True Rock ‘N’ Roll Stories from the Drummer of Guns N’ Roses, The Cult and Velvet Revolver.
Mark has been recognized by the prestigious Photo Review magazine competition with his selection as a prominent entry, and by the California art community, with his placement as a finalist in the Images from a Glass Eye International Juried Photography Show, and honorable mention in the American Icon Art Competition. Because of his work in this genre, the esteemed Annenberg Space for Photography selected Mark to be part of their slideshow exhibition Country: Portraits of an American Sound, which celebrates the pioneers, poets, and icons of country music.
Currently, Mark is excited to be working on The ART of GIVING with co-creator Matt Sorum. Purely a project fueled by passion, The ART of GIVING exists to create awareness for the charitable causes championed by the world’s most iconic artists.
With every best wish for joy and success, Natasha & Mark
Start building the most successful photography business you can today!
And now, we’ll leave you with this:
“Life is like a camera. Focus on what's important. Capture the good times. Develop from the negatives. And if things don't work out, just take another shot.”
Ziad K. Abdelnour Lebanese-American investment banker
