15 Tips for How to Go Full Time as A Wedding Photographer FAST
15 Tips for How to Go Full Time as A Wedding Photographer FAST
Advice for how to go Full Time as A Wedding Photographer
So you’re a wedding photographer and you want to learn the best way to go full time. Great! You’ve got a niche and you have some clients. That’s a great start.
In this video, Taylor Jackson goes through some of the advice from himself and others posted online as a response to the question “how do I go full time as a wedding photographer fast?”
The tips you will read about below are advice from wedding photographers who have been there. It’s all about taking care of your health, paying taxes, investing money, good time and financial management, pricing well, using social media ads, booking good clients, and more.
Tips for how to go full time as a wedding photographer
Tip 1 – Take care of yourself physically during wedding shoots
Weddings can be grueling, non-stop long days in the weather conditions so avoiding the feeling crappy the next day/week is important.
You will be able to take on more photoshoots around the year if you are taking care of your health!
Tip 2 – You need discipline in your time and financial management
Make sure you have set time to work on your finances and a good scheduling system. These will be more important the more busy you get for making your business efficient. Also within time management, set boundaries for your work/life balance.
Get into investing for your future incrementally over time, and save money where you can. See a trusted financial adviser or use online trusted sources.
Tip 3 – Protect your hearing with earplugs
It could be the DJ going too hard or the crowd cheering loudly. Whenever the decibels get too loud, make sure you put in some earplugs!
You’ll be able to do more weddings for longer if you protect yourself and don’t neglect your hearing!
Tip 4 – Utilize social media ads
Instagram and Facebook. If reels aren’t working for you on Instagram, figure out what does work and do that instead.
You don’t always have to dance for reels – just make sure you are creating helpful and valuable content to upload. Try using Tiktoc, as the content algorithm goes for local audiences first!
Tip 5 – Don’t shoot cheap weddings!
If you book too many cheap or discounted weddings, you could get stuck in the cheap wedding lane.
You might think about doing a few for free or inexpensively to get your portfolio up and going, but don’t continue to book cheap weddings.
Tip 6 – Don’t be afraid to raise your prices
People looking for a legitimate wedding photographer will actually take you more seriously at a higher price point. It makes you look more professional, especially if you have a great looking portfolio and great reviews.
You can raise your wedding prices if you are not getting the clients you want, or at least make sure they are comparable to other photographers.
Tip 7 – To go full time as a wedding photographer, be selective and only the clients you want
There is a limited amount of space in your year for full time weddings.
To support yourself with full time work, you might consider choosing clients with full day weddings with larger budgets over clients just wanting 2 hour coverage and a super low budget.
Tip 8 – Don’t add stress to the wedding day
Wedding’s can be crazy enough with all the people and emotions involved. To make sure you keep a good reputation, which will help you book more clients and go full time faster, don’t add to the stress.
Get the shots you and they need, but be an awesome and calm person!
Tip 9 – Pay your sales tax, don’t wait!
Just pay your business tax. Otherwise you’ll have a massive bill to pay later on and that won’t be fun. Enough said.
Tip 10 – Think about making your business incorporated
There are tax incentives for incorporating, so do some research and consider your full time business needs. Here’s a helpful tutorial that covers this topic: Should I make my photography business an LLC? S-corp? Here’s what you need to know…
Tip 11 – Figure out what marketing works for you to help you go full time as a wedding photographer
Some marketing tips: Try other avenues if Instagram isn’t working. Spend more time focusing on SEO. Tag the location in your posts which will in turn help you market on social media. Create value as much as you can through your content. Set a time limit on deals you’re offering.
Tip 12 – A Wedding Photography business isn’t mostly photography
Wedding photographers say that full time it’s 40% business, 50% customer service, and 10% actual photography. Once you know this, it is helpful to set your expectations when getting into the business.
It’s important to understand that it will be hard work doing this as a business, dealing with customers, clients, and families.
Tip 13 – You will need to know how to run a business in order to go full time as a wedding photographer
As mentioned in tip 12, wedding photography as a full time business is more than just taking photos. You will need to understand basic business, marketing, customer service, and administrative skills.
It’s easy enough to take a short business course, listen to audiobooks, and do research.
(& sign up to Signature Edits marketing courses!)
Tip 14 – Outsourcing is key to your full time work/life balance
Hiring out your business activities to help with marketing, editing, business admin, etc
Imagen AII and Aftershoot are both great editing tools that can save you time.
Tip 15 – Always be in control of the direction of your portfolio, making sure it’s going where you want
Your portfolio is the collection of professional photos you have taken which you use to showcase your work.
Choosing clients, locations and shoots based on what is going to be building towards your dream portfolio.
Apply these tips to be able to go full time as a wedding photographer FAST!
That’s 15 helpful ideas to use in your wedding photography business if you’re trying to get a full time booking of clients this year.
