Risky business
Imagine you only have one precious client, and suddenly they disappear. Maybe they get eaten by a crocodile, or maybe Annie Leibovitz starts charging peanuts for her work and corners the market. Whatever happens, you’ve lost your one client, risked everything by putting all your eggs in one basket, and now you have no clients and no revenue.
In business people talk a lot about the idea of risk and diversification. Having one client is risky. Operating in only one industry is risky. Doing only one-off assignments is risky. If you can mix things up a bit and find ways to make your money come from a range of different places, you’ll have diversified your business and will be a lot better off for it.
There are risks that are more relevant to certain types of photography than others, but generally speaking, here are some things to think about when trying to lower risk in your business:
- Diversify your assignments: If your business model is to photograph one type of event, for example weddings, look into covering other types of events. The peak season for wedding photography is during summer. What do you do in the wintertime or during those periods where not many people are getting married? You could consider covering sports events, corporate parties, conferences and conventions.
- Diversify your product offering: As a photographer, your product is the service of taking photos. Think about what other products you can sell. The sale of prints is a good high margin revenue stream because once the photo is taken, there are low to no costs associated with selling the photo. Can your shots be sold as artwork? What about a niche in stock photography that suits your style of photos? Think about ways to make your photos keep working and generating money long after they’ve been taken.
- Diversify your revenue streams: There are two types of revenue streams: recurring revenue, where the business has a regular contract with regular money coming in, and one-off revenue, where money comes from a standalone contract with an end date. Recurring revenue is much more attractive because it’s a sure thing, but with photography, one-off assignments are more common. Think about ways to get a steady stream of cash coming in to complement your assignment-based work. Recurring revenue could come from an exclusive gig with an events management company or a magazine or even from advertising revenue on your blog.
If you can diversify your business model, you’ll do less work chasing new contracts and things will run more smoothly with more money coming in the door.
Pilar Mitchell
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When she’s not writing her blog, Cult of Clothes, Pili is a corporate advisor working with businesses of all sizes, from start-ups to stock-exchange-listed companies. She is fascinated by the evolution of small businesses and loves to combine her passion for writing with the opportunity to help entrepreneurs grow and learn. |
