Express Action Sports

I have a passion for photography. I’m in my early 20’s I really want to own a photography business. Do any of you own a photography business? Did you go to school for it? Any ideas, suggestions would be a great help Thanks for your time!

You don’t need a college degree. What you do need is (a) a good portfolio of your work, (b) a rock solid business plan and (c) enough capital to get the additional goods & services you need to launch and to keep the doors open during the first few months while you’re still building a customer base.

The business plan should identify who your target customers are, e.g. going after weddings in or near your home town vs. sports action photography…you get the idea. Who are they? How many of them are there? What are their buying habits? What do they read and watch (for placing advertising)? Etc. It should also identify your competition: who are they? How many of them are there? What sources of competitive advantage do you have over them, e.g. lower prices, specialization in some type of photography, etc.

It should also explain what you’ve got, what you need and how you’ll pay for it.

It needs to include your marketing plan: How will you reach your customers and bring them back for repeat business? (Hint: personal selling)

I have a sports photography business, open since 2003. We have grown well over the past 4 years but would like ideas on building more business. We specialize in youth sports photography, not just still pics but concentrate mainly on action photos. We do local advertising via new papers, our website gets decent traffic and our repeat business is good. Any ideas to generate more would be great!

Have you considered offering your photos on t-shirts, etc? Cafepress.com is a great place for that. I do weddings and nature photography. I keep the wedding site private and set up 3-4 pictures on a product, let the family do their shopping for a week, then move on to the next wedding/family. Here’s where my nature shots are

http://www.cafepress.com/naturalphoto

Click on one of the photos for an example of the type of products.
The products are of nice quality and you don’t have to do anything but upload the shot. They do all the rest.