Tips to Manage Photography Business Finances!

How to budget and save money effectively for your business

Need to know how to manage photography business finances better?

Follow these tips by Joy Michelle in this tutorial to get your business finances in order!

Manage Photography Business Finances Better with These Tips!

Why Should You Budget Your Business Finances?

1. Pricing: knowing how to price your photography services is connected to your costs and your financial goals.

If you don’t know your expenses, your business costs and your financial goals its going to be super hard to know how to price yourself when giving quotes or booking shoots.

You need to be able to actually make a profit when taking on work, in order to do this you need to know what your expenses are so you know how much to charge to cover expenses with extra for profit

2. Saving!: You need to be taking home enough after booking your serves to be able to save. To save for your retirement, new gear, other ways to reinvest into your business like education.

When your money is all in one big pile it can be a little confusing to really understand how effective you are at saving. 

Manage Photography Business Finances Tip #1 Seperate your personal and business finances 

This will really help you with a clear understanding of your overall finances.

This will make your book keeping easier, and help you understand what you actually have to work with for your business.

You dont want your personal money for food and rent and retirement to be sitting with your business money, because you don’t want to spend that money on your business. 

Manage Photography Business Finances Tip #2 Think about your money in buckets (percentages)

Creating sub categories for you money and beng able to allocate your funds to different categories will help you to manage your money easier, and help you better understand where your money needs to go.

Here are some suggested percentages to start with as to where to focus your money 

• Buisness expenses: 30 %
• Taxes: 15-30%
• Salary: 40%
• Profit: 10%

Manage Photography Business Finances Tip # 3 Client album & second shooter expense account 

It’s also smart to set aside a seperate expense account under your business expenses category for work that you charge upfront for, but will have secondary expenses for you later.

Like a wedding gig that will ask for a photo album later, or something that will have a second shooter helping you as apart of your package who you will need to pay.

These things will have a secondary cost to you later and if you book a few of these and then forget and spend the money you might be in a pickle down the road.

Printing that wedding shot album for example will cost you and if you have already spent the money you charged up front you won’t have the intended money for this available and it will need to come from somewhere else you dont want it to. 

Manage Photography Business Finances Tip #4 Talk to a CPA

Firstly, what is a CPA? A CPA, or Certified Public Accountant, is a trusted financial advisor who consults on issues around taxes and financial planning. 

Talking to a CPA is a really good idea! Taxes vary significantly for a number of factors and speaking with someone who understands this professionally will set you up for a win. 

How your business is formed will also have a big impact here. Being an LLC, a S Corp or a sole proprietor.

Talking to a CPA will help you understand how you want to form your business and also what the tax and other financial implications will be.  Get some advice from a fincanial professional!

Managing your money is a vital part of success as a photographer running a business.

If you are not intentional and have plan this area will be easily overlooked and you will run into financial trouble fast! Have a plan, make a budget, and be diligent to stick to it!

Ready to improve your photography? Read this guide to up your photography skills!

Which is these tips to manage finances will you use for your photography business?

Comment below!