How I’d Start A Portrait Photography Biz

Yes you read that right. Today we’re taking a step back from product photography, and talking about how to go about starting a portrait photography business.

This isn’t your traditional business model. I’m taking all I’ve learned in my product photography career, all the business knowledge and client acquisition systems, and applying it to a new niche.

We’re doing things a little differently. Instead of going after 1 client at a time, we’ll be trying to get 5, 10, or more, all in one go. How is this possible? Our goal isn’t to work with individuals, it’s to work with businesses.

By offering our portrait photography services to businesses, we’ll be able to photograph their whole staff. This can take a $300 headshot session, and turn it into a $3000 project.

You’re getting this newsletter because you’ve consumed my educational content already. You know the basics. We build a portfolio around the niche, create a website, get a professional email, etc. That’s the easy part.

How do we get businesses to work with us for portraits?

Just like I cold email businesses for product photos, we’re going to do the same for portraits.

Our pitch isn’t going to be “I can take great photos of your staff.” This makes it about you. You need to make the service about them.

Let’s try: “I take headshots for businesses to help get more customers in their door.”

This clearly states the value for them - more customers.

Let’s say you’re a bike shop, and now you have headshots of your staff on social media. This provides more trust and transparency so that customers know who’s working on their bike. More trust = more sales for that business.

You can apply this to any business in your neighborhood. Coffee shops, restaurants, bike shops… this list goes on and on.

Call these places up, walk in the door, or email, and tell them what you’re all about.

“I live down the street and noticed you don’t have any headshots on your website. I’ve worked with John’s Bikes to get them headshots so that they can get more customers in the door”

The whole point of this newsletter is so that you can start to think of your photography business differently. This method creates higher ticket packages for your business, generating you more dollars per client.

I just released an in-depth video on this. We go through this business model step-by-step and I even include the exact email template I’d use. The video is down below if you’re interested.