By Tata Rossi 3 days ago, Photography Tips
Are you a professional photographer that has a bundle of stunning photos? Do you want to start a photography business but don’t know where to start? As a photographer, you already know that the competitions out there are extremely tough!
Fortunately, you can stand out by creating an online store as a gallery to show off your work. Whether you are just a newbie in tech or a tech-savvy, Shopify is an ideal choice for your online business. In this article, we will guide you through how to start a photography business with Shopify.
A photography business allows photographers to sell their artwork via an agency’s website or on their own site. This business type is commonly a sole proprietorship that is owned by one or more photographers who will create and sell their own and sometimes others' photos. A photography business owner can have a real business name, a business bank account, and employ people, if you're a young adult you can also find bank accounts for teenagers that might suit your entrepreneurship goals.
As a photographer, you can generate revenue by selling your wonderful photographs. You need the balance between your passion for photography and your real business skills. If the ideas mentioned below have ever popped into your mind, it’s high time you started your photography business.
Taking a photograph is never an easy task if you don’t have any feelings for your work. If you decide to start a Shopify photography business, you will devote your time to doing the thing you love: taking photos. Just live your life with your passion and the money will follow!
Many bloggers or even companies want to find suitable images to illustrate their content on their websites. While you’re doing the market research, you see that many stock images are used on many sites. You know that your photography business has the prospect to become even more popular in the future.
As a photography business owner, you will have flexible working hours since you are able to choose when you want to work and how much you want to work. This flexible scheduling gives you time to invest in new artwork and pursue your passion.
Each photographer has their own unique specialty and you don’t even want to become unnoticeable in the fierce photography market. As a photographer, you set the ground for your distinctive artwork and deliver it to your customers. When your customers choose your service instead of others’, they have seen the uniqueness of your artwork and have found obvious satisfaction from your service. That's why, by developing your brand identity, you can make your business more successful.
Starting your own photography business is a way to generate income. However, the photography market is fiercely competitive so many photography business owners have been struggling to find their niche to build a stable career. In the section below, we will guide you through the main process to nail your photography business.
Starting an online photography business has never been an easy task especially for those who have just gone online. Photographers can be great at photography, but many of them are mediocre at business. Below, you will find 4 basic elements that will help you start your Shopify photography business.
Heading to the intense business battles, those that prepared will succeed. All photography business owners should draw up a business plan.
Creating a business plan is the process of outlining your services, understanding your target market, and setting your rates. By understanding your business operation, you take one step closer to your success. Below, we would like to show you how to make a detailed photography business plan:
Management Summary. You can start your photography business plan with a management summary that includes your general objectives as well as your key advantages.
Business Overview. You have a draft on how you operate your business in accordance with the area you are in. Will you be the sole proprietor or will you have a business partner? Sketch your ideas here to prepare the ground for your photography business.
Products Overview. It’s critical to create a detailed description of the products and prices that you’ll be offering. This will not only help you to better categorize your products but also navigate many client requests that might show up.
Customer Analysis. Put yourself in the shoes of your customers and empathize with them. By understanding your target audience, you can reach the appropriate channels and optimize revenue.
Market Research. By analyzing the strong points and what’s insufficient in your competitors’ services, you can decide in what ways you can differentiate yourself from them and find out how you can become successful in Shopify photography to take advantage of the shortage.
Financial Plan. You must be a financially savvy photography business owner. Determining a financial plan will minimize the potential risk in your business cash flow. With a thorough financial plan, you can calculate the prices of all required equipment as well as the labor cost.
After getting a meticulous plan, you are now able to find a niche to start off your photography business.
Why is choosing a distinctive niche so important? This is because the competition out there is so fierce. If you jump in the wrong one, that will totally ruin your business. You must identify your interests and passions in the first place. Of course, it’s better to do what you are genuinely interested in.
If you’re still confused about what to focus on, these following specialties are the most popular types of photography that are worth your investment and your time:
Now, you know what to focus on. It’s time to decide how to operate your photography business and learn how to use Shopify for photographers. We suggest 2 ways:
FYI: Many bloggers choose business and industry stock photos to illustrate their content. Even companies will use common, well-illustrated stocks for their documents. If you meet the right requirements, your artwork can be restorative and evergreen.
What is lacking on photography sites? What are your customer’s pain points? By collecting and analyzing this type of information, you can better understand your target audience's insight and uncover hidden opportunities. The more you sympathize with your customers, the better you produce viable product ideas and launch effective marketing campaigns.
As a vigorous photographer, you may already have much of the equipment you need. However, since you are about to start a Shopify photography business, you’ll have to consider what gear you need to use to improve the quality of your photos. Below are the must-have items you need for your photography career:
You are all set now!
If you need to professionally enhance your photos, make sure to contact our color correction service. Our team of experts will quickly edit your images and send you high-quality photos within the shortest time possible. They will adjust shadows, fix WB, tweak tones and change other settings to make your photos more eye-catching. The professionals who work for FixThePhoto will masterfully edit your images using the latest photo retouching techniques.
Now, it’s time for you to create a photo gallery website. On the one hand, it allows you to show off your artwork. On the other hand, it will enable you to sell your artwork to make a living.
Along with some noticeable marketplace like Shutterstock or iStock, Shopify has the privilege to be on your priority list. There are countless lovely free and paid themes that will satisfy your needs and at the same time will help you attract your customers. In the next section, we will give you a complete guide that will help you create a Shopify store.
Firstly, go to Shopify and start your free 14-day trial.
Once you click, Shopify will ask you to fill in some personal information.
On this screen, fill in your store information and click Enter my store.
On the Admin page, click on Products → All Products. In this section, you will fill in all of the information about the products that you want customers to see. You can upload product photos and descriptions to further describe your items.
Like any other website, your Shopify photography store needs the domain name that allows visitors to search on the engine and access the store correctly. Here, Shopify offers a direct solution for you. Click Add domain and fill in your desired one.
Your storefront is crucial as this is the first thing your customers notice about your site. For that reason, you should carefully pick a stunning theme to attract your customers. By simply clicking Online Store → Themes, you get access to a pile of fascinating Shopify themes including both free and paid ones.
Go to the Settings → Payments.
After that, click on Complete account setup. On this page, you will need to fill in your mobile number and your banking details to finish the Shopify payment setup.
Now all you need to do is to wait for Shopify to review your application and start the approval process for applicable local payment methods and credit card methods.
Besides explaining how to start a photography business with Shopify and providing you with a step-by-step tutorial, we would also like to tell you more about the available pricing options. Read on if you want to learn about the key advantages of Shopify Plus and using multiple channels for increasing your sales.
Currently, Shopify has 3 pricing plans:
Basic Shopify Plan. You are charged $29/month to get a standalone website with an eCommerce store and a blog. You will be able to sell unlimited products and can create 2 staff accounts.
Shopify Plan. You’ll have to pay $79/month to create up to 5 staff accounts, more than 3 accounts compared to the Basic Shopify plan.
Advanced Shopify Plan. This is the most expensive package. You will be charged $299/month and be able to create up to 15 staff accounts.
Shopify Plus is perfect for enterprise-level Shopify photography businesses. With Shopify Plus, you get access to Omnichannel, which plays a vital role in providing customers with a seamless experience on your multi-selling channels.
By upgrading to Shopify Plus, you will get access to more than 100 social media channels and over 80 online marketplaces. Shopify Plus significantly increases your chance to scale up your business to get more potential customers.
If you are still being confused, make sure to learn more about Shopify and Shopify Plus.
You can manually upgrade to Shopify Plus by following Shopify guidelines. However, if you don’t have enough time for these tasks, LitExtension - The Shopping Cart Migration Expert can assist you with seamless and accurate migration.
If Shopify Plus seems to be too much for your business size and you want to expand your Shopify photography business to only one other marketplace, LitCommerce is an ideal solution for you. For example, you want to sell on Etsy. With LitCommerce service, you can integrate Shopify with Etsy, sell on Etsy easily with your Shopify store and manage everything from one place.
After learning about the importance of Shopify for photographers and discovering how you can sign up to this platform, you might need to find out how to process your product photos to make your listings more eye-catching. If you need to create listings for many products, it might be difficult to quickly edit your images.
Many eCommerce store owners need to enhance several hundred photos to post them online. To save time, you can use handy Ps actions for enhancing photos in different genres. They were created for Photoshop CS 5 and newer versions as well as for Photoshop CC.
When you start a photography business, you provide photographic services. When it comes to a business, you must have a meticulous plan to operate the business. After learning about the key advantages of Shopify for photographers, make sure to create a plan that will help you launch your business.
Yes, definitely! Starting a photography business is a great way to boost income. Though the photography market is extremely competitive, many photography business owners have been able to find their niche and build a sustainable career.
Yes, it's believed that this platform is perfect for those who need to sell their photos online. Besides selling pictures, you can sell other images as well, which makes it a great choice for digital artists. In addition, many potential clients are looking for freelance photographers on Shopify to hire them for various gigs.
Professional photographers and designers who use Shopify recommend using product photos with a resolution of 2048 x 2048 pixels. They believe that it's the best size for this platform since it allows uploading high-quality photos that will load quickly.
Most people are looking for portrait and family photography images. If you specialize in this area, it will be easier for you to build a profitable business since such pictures are in high demand.
Starting a photography business is not like a piece of cake, it requires a lot of effort and perseverance. Finding a place to kick off your business is a hard task, also. Luckily, Shopify with primary but crucial functions will act as an ideal place for your business. Overall, photography isn’t just a hobby but can be a legitimate business that you can live on.
