For Equine Photographers : Keeping your mindset and bank account positive
I know I am not the only photographer out there who struggles to get through the slow season. Right now it looks like a blizzard outside my window and I haven’t seen green grass in way too many months. I long for the sun on my face, long drawn out days and t-shirts. But I also look forward to the months when I know I will have a consistent income coming into my bank account. Talking about money is not something I have ever felt very comfortable with but it makes the world go round, and let’s face it, we all have to make it somehow. And winter is just hard. It is in these months that I look back at my last 4 years of consistent hard work and have nothing to show for it. Where I worry that despite the upwards trajectory of the past four years, I will somehow stagnant this year or loose all my progress and see my revenue at the end of the year sitting at a big fat ZERO (even though it’s above that right now but my mind is a pretty illogical place sometimes 😅). And I would be shocked if I was the only person out there having these worries. So let’s talk about it!
First things first, I want to talk about a couple mindset points that I think are very important. While we can spend all day and night figuring out how to make more money, stressing about money and counting the dollars in our bank accounts, we shouldn’t. Make sure that you work on your mindset about money and business before you throw yourself all into the next steps.
Put the things you HAVE accomplished front and center in your mind set, not the things you haven’t or have yet to accomplish! Think about your tangibles. When I look back and feel like I haven’t accomplished anything in the last 4 years, I am ignoring the nearly $100,000 that this business has brought in, nearly half of which was in the last year. That is CRAZY!
Make your goals, and try to stick to them. I set tangible goals for each year and month, including income, revenue, expense and number of sessions booked. But also, be comfortable when you maybe don’t make a goal. I didn’t make a goal for the first time in 13 months, and while I’m not happy about it, I am not going to waste time worrying about it when I could spend that energy making sure it doesn’t happen again!
Set boundaries with yourself. As small business owners it can be hard to build hard and fast boundaries between our lives and our work, as often times they feel like one and the same, and you probably really love what you do, so you want to think about it all the time and do everything in your power to keep doing it. But that is not healthy. Your work should support your life, not the other way around.
Now, let’s chat about some ways that you can maximize your income and revenue during the slow season as a photographer, because if you are anything like me, sitting around and twidiling your thumbs for 4 months just isn’t going to cut it.
Start a passive income stream. For me it is selling presets and other photography resources on Etsy. While I am by no means getting rich off of this, it also requires next to no effort on my part and brings in some extra income every month. What you offer may look different depending on your skill set, maybe you can make overlays, or photoshop brushes, or desktop backgrounds. Do some brainstorming and think about what you can offer that can passively help you pay your bills.
Monetize your knowledge. If you are a skilled photographer, I guarantee that there is something you do exceptionally well and could teach others about. Obviously don’t adventure into this until you feel established enough that you can teach other people, as mentoring and offering education is no joke and should be taken very seriously. But if you are at that stage, something as simple as a pdf guide or a video editing walkthrough can be a great way to start!
Write a blog post encouraging clients to book during the slow season and show off some reasons why it can be a great time to get photos! Make sure you are sharing photos on your social media from the slower months to show that you can still get beautiful photos and try to incentivize clients.
Offer a slow season discounts to clients. This is personal preference as to whether you feel comfortable discounting your services, but if there is ever a time to do it, the months when you have an empty calendar is certainly best!
Focus on your business and everything that needs to happen behind the scenes! I remember I heard once (I can’t remember who from) that the work you do today won’t pay off tomorrow, but it will pay off 6 months, a year, even 5 years from now. So take the extra time as an opportunity to put in the work! Write blog posts, post often on social media, re-do your website, invest in your marketing, plan a years worth of social media content. Just do the work. I promise you future you will thank you for it.
