help with my small biz

tidydan24

Hi I have been trying to start my own wedding photography company for a while now. I use free advertising like gumtree and ebay but there is only so far I can go with this sort of marketing. There are a couple of courses I would like to go on such as photoshop skills, There is other equipment I need and so on. I have shot around 25 weddings since starting out 3 years ago so am very confident in my ability. I just find it so frustrating that I cant afford to advertise more and go t0o the larger wedding exhibitions.
I have written out a plan and feel that with just £5k I would be able to make my business sustainable but with a very poor credit rating, no criminal convictions or other grant obtaining attributes and living in a wealthier area, I just dont know how to get this financial push up.
Can anyone help me by pointing out a grant or loan that may help me.
Thanks
Dan

Horace

I am not aware of any grants to assist you, however, you say you cannot afford to exhibit at the larger wedding exhibitions - look at smaller local ones instead. No-one in their right mind would exhibit at the NEC or Earls Court unless they have bottomless pockets but smaller shows can cost as little as £70 plus VAT to exhibit at.

Start networking - join a networking group e.g. https://www.4networking.biz which has an online forum too. BNI is probably to be avoided as they only allow one of each type of business to join so if there is a commercial photographer there they won't accept a wedding photographer. Get yourself onto Twitter and LinkedIn.

Look at doing other work besides weddings.

Get yourself a blog on your website and blog every day.

Leave your business cards in places that brides visit e.g. florists, hairdressers, gyms.

If you have to advertise in a magazine never pay full price for an advert - I have managed to get some national magazines down in price from £250 plus VAT for a full colour quarter page ad to £87 plus VAT. Try local wedding magazines eg. countywedding.co.uk - as they will have a magazine for your area (magazines produced by kline davies).

If you have been in business for 3 years - why not approach the bank for a loan?

Are your prices too low? This is another factor if you are saying that you have been in business for 3 years but cannot afford advertising? For a decent wedding photographer you should be charging around £1400 or more. Look at what your competition is charging.

paulwf

What methods are you currently using to promote your business OP?

Pennywise

For ANY small business start up offering the personal services of the proprietor, the most effective form of marketing is word of mouth and referrals. It doesn't matter whether you're a driving instructor, plumber, accountant or wedding photographer. The first question is "how many past customers have referred their friends & family to me". If your answer is "not many" then you're doing something wrong. You then need to find out what's going wrong. It could be pricing, it could be photo quality, it could be speed of service, how easy it is to contact you - all manner of things. After 3 years of trading, you should be getting quite an amount of referrals from past customers. It's very cheap to send your customers a short questionnaire afterwards - send an SAE and make it confidential and you'll soon discover whether there are any issues that need attending to. For any small one-man firm, customer satisfaction is the number 1 priority. For example, my plumber NEVER advertises, not even in Yellow Pages and he is still busy and booked up 6 months in advance - it's all because he does a damned good job and his customers recommend him to their neighbours, friends and family. You can increase your customer base doing some very simple and cheap "marketing" - firstly make sure the existing customers are happy, leave business cards and leaflets in all "wedding" service providers in your area and also corner shops etc. When at a wedding, make sure that your car is parked in a prominent position and has posters or whatever in its back windows so the guests know who you are - mingle and small talk with the guests - they'll remember that "nice young photographer" just as much as they'll remember that "grumpy photographer who never talked and just ordered every one around". It goes without saying that your cards and leaflets must have your website address on them and your website should be professional looking with examples of your previous work. Also, don't limit yourself to weddings - there's a big market for portraits of families, children, etc., even pets. I think it would be very unlikely that you're going to get a grant because your not in manufacturing, research & design nor employing anyone.

tidydan24

thanks everyone for your comments and help. I must just say that although I have only done around 20-25 weddings I have only been doing it for myself for around a yeear and a half but have been shooting freelance for another company for another year and half. Im not to sure what business OP means but I advertise on gumtree and ebay. I have taken part in smaller wed exhibitions locally but they dont tend to pull the crowds like the larger ones and its very hard to get a stand as they are generally offered to previous exhibitors and there are not many spaces. I have also done some birthday parties, portrait shots and a christening so am trying to broaden the service I offer. I will look in to all your suggestions and keep all your help coming.
Thanks
Dan

Slinky

With regard to photoshop courses, have you looked at your local further education college? I did a short course on Photoshop last year, quite basic but got me going. I think it was about £45 for 10 weeks in the evenings.

paulwf

tidydan24 wrote: »

Im not to sure what business OP means

Sorry Dan, OP = original poster, a shorthand used on this board to refer to the person that started the thread. Didn't mean to confuse you, glad you worked out what I meant anyway

Horace

Dan - start talking to the venues that run the wedding fairs, not sure where you are in the country but if you are in the Midlands then there are the wedding fairs organised by I Will (these are a bit dear though) and Victoria Promotions where it is £70 for a stand. When you book a stand at a wedding fair ask them for a list of brides who have visited the fair.

Advertise in magazines that are handed out at the huge wedding fairs eg. County Wedding magazines, Weddings & Occasions magazine etc - these will give you a free spot on their website for 12 months and all leads from the NEC shows and Earls Court - I typically get over 1000 leads.

paulwf

Make sure you always have business cards to hand, when you get chatting to anyone they will remember your details if you have a card, and that should link to a website for more info. Your website needs to be top notch, technically it can be simple but the design needs to be spot on and of course showcase a lot of your work.

Without wishing to get too zen like I think you need to try and get inside the mind of your client and work out where they will be looking for a photographer. With respect I wouldn't go looking for a wedding photographer on gumtree or ebay. In fact I would probably rather go for personal recommendations so network closely with everyone involved in every stage of the wedding industry.

There probably won't be one magic step to winning a client, you have to make sure every stage of your marketing process is perfect. For example there is no point in charming lots of people at a wedding fair if they then check your website and it isn't up to scratch. Just doing half of the marketing right won't result in retaining 50% of the leads, it will result in none.

The absolutely best way to get a customer is for several people to be recommending you to the same client, I've chosen professionals to use in the past by picking the person most other people are talking about. So network any way you can (remember networking is a 2 way process), both in person and on twitter (great for getting to know anyone influential locally), facebook, blogging etc.

Make sure you keep a record of how much you spend and most importantly ask customers how they heard about you and log this. Every year you need to review your marketing, it is easy to get carried away with last minute advertising deals and only at the end of the year realise you've spent far too much money and you have no idea how cost effective they were!

wimwauters

Wedding photography is definitely a word-of-mouth thing. So work on your 'after-sales' service: keeps you in your customers mind for longer, ready for the next wedding. Also include discrete pointers to your business on all the stuff (print-outs, albums,...) you supply.

Another trick is to get 'residence' gigs: at racing tracks, or with racing clubs, experience venues, ski slopes, etc...

You could hire a stand in a shopping centre: have a joint-venture with make-up artists and do make-over pictures.

Savvy_Sue

Talking of your website, don't neglect your words and their legibility ...

I know it's your pictures which sell the service, but if I find I can't easily READ the links on your website and navigate simply to the different options, I WILL go elsewhere, and so will Horace ...

I know b&w photos are all the rage these days, but please, don't do small grey text on a grey background. It really doesn't look half as appealing as you think it does to those of us with middle aged myopia ... and that probably doesn't include Horace, but WILL include many of the 'Mother of the Bride' brigade. And we may be paying - well I know I won't, because mine are all boys, but you know what I mean!