A Business Plan for Photographers ? The Easy Way | Lumamoto ...

Personally, I?ve written dozens of business plans and also helped many photographers hone in on their business plans. But I?ve never ran across a business plan made specifically for wedding and portrait photographers.

Everything we discuss here can be found in our free business plan workbook, right here.

Here are the basic components of a business plan and how they all fit together:

? A business overview

This is, just as it sounds, a general overview of what the business will do and who the business will cater to. Will you be high volume, low cost? Low volume, high cost? Somewhere in the middle? Will you specialize in families? Newborns? Commercial?

? A business vision

This is probably the most difficult part. This is the vision of your business ? how your business will be different from everyone else, how your business will stand apart from the competition.

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? The target market and market conditions

This is, simply, who you will serve. This will be the demographic. While these stores are all owned by the same company, they target different markets: will you be Old Navy, GAP or Banana Republic?

? A marketing plan

What is your yearly marketing plan? What is your monthly plan? What do you do week to week that makes this yearly plan work? These are the nuts and bolts of what drives clients into your door.

? Analyzing competition

This section involves analyzing your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in terms of the competition out there.

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? Creating a system

This is where most small businesses fail, especially creative businesses. The owner tends to keep all important knowledge in his or her head. They never write that knowledge down and create a system for replicating it. Or at least helping in that replication.

? Roles for owners/employees

As a small business grows, one tendency is for everyone to do everything. As one person, if I do everything, I can just clone myself and get twice as much done, right? Not necessarily. This is where we discuss roles when adding employees ? both for the employees and for the business owners.

? Fixed monthly financials

This is where we get into that money stuff that no one likes to think about. We talk about fixed monthly costs ? cool fun stuff like Rent, Utilities, Gear, etc.

? Creating a break even analysis

This is extremely important. This is where we come up with the magic number. How much money do we need to make a month to pay all the bills. And remember (this is where many small business owners fail) this includes your monthly salary.

? All Images Copyright?Marko Dusak Spinaker?

? Profit per event/product

This is where you itemize how profitable each event is ? whether it be a wedding, a portrait shoot, a headshot, etc. Now, it?s just a matter of figuring out how many events you need to book and products you need to sell a month to pay the bills (break even). Then if you go over that? Profit!

? Planning for growth

This is where many ?one-person? businesses fail. It?s almost as bad to be ?too busy? as it is to not have enough work. Here we talk about planning for growth, but still keeping that marketing engine going. Businesses need to grow, it is in their DNA. As you grow, what parts of the business will you keep control of and what parts will you had over to other people?

? Utilizing outsourcing

Outsourcing is a great way to grow your business without committing to a monthly fixed cost ? employee wages. Outsourcing may cost more per working hour, but it safeguards your company from not being able to pay the bills.

? Utilizing employees

Employees are, often times, essential to growth. Hire people that compliment you. One of the biggest mistakes small business owners make is hiring someone ?just like them.? Hire someone that has different skills than you, that can fill in the gaps and help your business grow.

If this looks like a business plan that would help you out, feel free to download our business plan workbook, that takes you step by step through this process.

Download Here

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