Build a Photography Business in 24 Hours
By Brian Auer • March 20th, 2007Ever consider setting up shop and selling your photos? What’s holding you back? Maybe you think it will take too much time, too much effort, too much money, or maybe you just don’t know where to start. Well, I’m here to tell you, it’s not hard, or expensive — and I’ll show you how. I’m talking about establishing yourself as a real business, ready to sell photos and take money through an online storefront.
I’ve been putting it off for some time now, but I finally bit the bullet and did it. You can see my new photo gallery at Auer PhotoWorks. It took me more than one day to do it, but if you were determined it wouldn’t be impossible. Most of your time spent will be doing research on the various aspects of the business. The actual establishment of your business is pretty straight forward and a lot of things can be done in parallel.
I’ll give you the recipe for starting your own photography business, and here are your main ingredients:
Optional (suggested) items:
Over the next several days, I’ll take an in-depth look at each of these items in order to give you a better understanding of what is needed. Each post will contain the resources you’ll need to get started on that particular item in the lists above. I considered writing it all into one post, but it turned out way too big — so I’ll string it out.
If you’ve got your thoughts together on this and you’re determined to do it, you could probably pull it off in one day. I took my time and stretched it out over a week, but I like to do a lot of research before I spend money on things. I spent about $500 in total, and I’m ready to make sales. Again, you can see my gallery at AuerPhotoWorks.com or BrianAuer.com… and tell your friends.
Photo of the Day…
Photo by Brian Auer
06/28/06 New York, NY
Manhattan Panorama
8891 x 2000 pixels — 9 Images Stitched
Konica Minolta Maxxum 7D
Konica Minolta AF DT 18-200
150mm equiv * f/9 * 1/90s * ISO100
Brian Auer is a photography enthusiast from San Diego, California. He's also the guy behind the Epic Edits Weblog. As a hobbyist photographer since 2003, his passion has been to constantly improve his photography skill set, to share his own knowledge with others, and to become an integral part of the photographic community.
Visit the author's homepage | View all Epic Edits posts by Brian Auer
Holy Cats Brian!
You made it look too easy! Think of all the unnecessary competition
Just kidding, congrats! You’ve given me something to chew over.
cheers,
jules
Jules, it IS too easy! And I’ll show you in detail over the next several days. As for the competition — BRING IT ON! I’m just happy to share what I’ve learned, and I wish somebody else had given ME a kick in the butt to get started.
Auer Photoworks is nice. Thanks for this excellent post. Aren’t you afraid of competition?
Hi Brian,
Just browsing your archives and saw this. Seems that you’ve decided on a different avenue for Auer Photoworks. One thought, in any case, on your post. The trouble is that setting up a site and ecommerce functionality won’t necessarily produce the sales and / or cash flow that produce a viable business. Ultimately, it all comes down to finding client and customers and making sales, whether those be assignments or print sales. Hanging the tile is one thing. Making enough sales and profit to make a living from one’s photography is a different ballgame.
Anyways, thanks for the good post.
E