Do you want to start a photography business? Are you starting to get comfortable using your camera? Want to know how to grow it into a profitable career? Not sure how to book photography clients when you’re starting out? 

I’m going to share with you three things I did my first year of business that propelled me forward! Within 6 months of starting, I booked 17 weddings and many couples session for myself by doing some key things. I’m excited to share them with you all today!

Get out and shoot often, and SHARE it everywhere.

Whether it’s model calls or styled shoots, get out and shoot as often as you can! Get some second shooting gigs and real clients on the books, too!

Even if you just have your dog to practice with, get familiar with your camera! In turn, you’ll have work that you can share online.

Shooting and SHARING your work as much as possible is key to gaining traction in your business and using your existing friends and family to jumpstart your photography business! 

You’d be surprised how much sharing your work online often and working on your photography business leads to a perception that you’re super busy and growing quickly. 

BONUS TIP: Blog your work!

This was HUGE for me in booking wedding clients. It helped me establish credibility in my work. But, it helped me to rank in Google search for certain venues and locations I wanted to work at! 

I blogged shoots that I was doing, AND giving tips and tricks for my ideal client that led to them trusting me and hiring me. I can’t tell you HOW many clients my first year of business told me they hired me and trusted me after reading my blog!

Start building a strong personal brand.

This means having a website, showing off your personality online, uncovering your ideal client, and showcasing how you solve problems for your potential clients. 

Doing this won’t book you clients overnight. But, it WILL lay the foundation for building a brand that will grow far beyond you’d ever imagine! Doing the work now will save you a lot of headaches later. You won’t be wondering why you aren’t booking past a certain (cheap) price point when you want to keep growing. 

Connect with other photographers!

This was a HUGE way that I booked half my weddings my first year of business.

I booked weddings from referrals from local photography Facebook groups, photographers I connected with over coffee, or photographers I second shot weddings with! They all would send weddings my way if they were booked or out of budget for an inquiry. 

Another thing you can do is build a referral group with a couple other photographers in your area to send referrals back and forth!

Do you want to learn more about what it takes to ACTUALLY stand out as a photographer in a saturated market? Come join me and hundreds of other photographers at my free online class on November 12th at 12pm and 6pm EST. Register for free here: http://www.stephaniekase.com/freeclass