top of page
Search

Six Things I Wish More Photographers Would Actually Do TO BETTER THEIR BUSINESS INSTEAD OF B!TCHING ON THE INTERNET ABOUT THE ECONOMY

  • Writer: Courtney Specht
    Courtney Specht
  • 25 minutes ago
  • 8 min read

I've built and failed a business, built and sold a couple businesses, built am now scaling businesses well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales a year - and have done so in creative spaces with creative entrepreneurship for nearly 20 years.

Take my advice or leave it.


WRITTEN BY COURTNEY SPECHT | photographer, writer, speaker, mentor |  KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI


I get a lot of "can I pick your brain about marketing?" I love that, I genuinely do. But more often than not, when we actually sit down, I realize the conversation we need to have has nothing to do with marketing strategy. We need to back up. Way up.


First, pull your big kid pants on because we don't pussyfoot around over here. This is straight shootin' and we wont waste your time getting to the point.


Marketing is a deliberate system built around a specific goal, a specific person, and a specific message. Content, networking, collaborations... those are delivery methods. They only work when there's a defined system underneath them holding everything up.


So before we ever talk campaigns, content pillars, or conversion, we need to talk about the basics. The unsexy, unglamorous, absolutely necessary basics. This is where I'd want you to start.



1. You need a real business plan.


Not a vibe, not a mood board. Those are fun tools, but relying on them alone is... dumb as fck. You better have something that actually breaks down your costs, your predicted overhead, the income you need to stay afloat and the income you need to feel a safety net underneath you. Where you're going, how you're getting there, what it actually costs to get there.


Know your gawtdamn numbers. Not roughly. Not "I think I need around..." Know them. Round to the nearest thousand and be able to recite them (for businesses like mine, that means knowing within 1-2% of accuracy). I can tell you exactly how many boudoir sessions, how many elopements, and how many portrait sessions I need to book at my average sale price to hit my goals. I review those numbers nearly every week. I have a printed spreadsheet attached to my desktop so it's the first thing I see every single day. If you don't know your numbers, you don't know your business. If you're offended by that it means you probably don't know them. Stop being bothered, start being proactive IN your business.


Then...get it all in front of someone who's been doing this longer than you with more success than you. You don't know what you don't know. That's not an insult. It's just true.


Helpful starting links:



2. Your marketing needs its own plan.


A business plan and a marketing plan are not the same thing. Marketing is its own beast. Campaigns, offers, content strategy, client touchpoints, conversion goals... these deserve their own dedicated plans, their own dedicated thinking. If you're making it up month to month (or week to week or JFC day to day), you're not marketing. You're just posting and hoping. You aren't doing yourself any favors. See tip one.


Start here:



3. If you don't know who you're talking to, you're talking to no one.


"People who want picturess" is not a target demographic. Get specific. Know what your ideal client values, what keeps them up at night, what makes them stop scrolling. Your voice, your visuals, your pricing, your offers... all of it should be calibrated to one person. Not everyone. One ideal person or for weddings, a couple.


But before you can speak to the right person, you have to know who you are first. If your brand, your style, your voice, and your offers are constantly shifting, your ideal client can't find their footing with you. And they won't try for long. Consistency isn't just an aesthetic choice, it's a trust signal.


If you're a solopreneur, you are your brand. Full stop. The way you show up online, in person, in your emails, in your work, in your captions, in the fcking grocery store at 10am on a Tuesday... all of it is a direct representation of your business, your clients, and the money you want to make. You don't get to compartmentalize. Everything you say, do, and put into the world either builds the brand or erodes it. There is no neutral.


Figure out who you are. Get clear on what you stand for, what you won't compromise on, what makes your work yours and nobody else's. Then build your client targeting from that foundation. In that order.


I built a multi-page client avatar for my own wedding clients. It has archetypes, visual language, what repels them, what magnetizes them, how they dress, how they live. It sounds like a lot until you realize that every single word I put into the world runs through that filter. The result is that my people find me. They see my work and think "that's for me." That's the goal. Stop trying to be liked by everyone and start being impossible to ignore by the right ones.


If you don't know your audience, your audience does not know you. It really is that simple.


Start here:



4. Posting isn't a plan.


You don't own the algorithm. You don't own the platform. You are a passenger on a train that someone else is driving, on tracks you didn't build, headed somewhere you didn't choose. Some people have built incredible businesses on social media, sure. But what happens when the platform shifts? When the reach tanks overnight? When it folds, gets banned, or becomes the next MySpace? When the train reaches the end of the line, they make you get off.


Build things you actually own. Your website. Your SEO. Your email list. These don't disappear when an algorithm changes or a new tech-giant buys it out. Start there. Then use social media to amplify what you've already built, not as the foundation itself.


Your website and SEO. Your website is the only piece of digital real estate you actually own. When someone Googles "photographer in [your city]" at 11pm on a Tuesday, are you showing up? If you don't know the answer, that's a problem. Blogging, keyword strategy, and a well-optimized site work while you sleep. Social media does not.


Email and Phone marketing. An email list is yours. Zuckerburg can't take that from you. People who hand you their email address and phone numbers are telling you they want to hear from you. That is a warmer lead than any follower who double-tapped a reel and kept scrolling. Build the list. Use it consistently. It converts at a significantly higher rate than social media.


While we're at it: Pick up the phone and make a call. Even a text. For the love of all that is fucking holy, it's okay to use your telephone for something more than TikTok. CALL YOUR POTENTIAL CLIENTS. The very worst thing that could happen is they tell you to fuck off and hang up. Ask me how often that happens to me.


In-person networking. Get in the room. A referral from someone who has looked you in the eye and seen your work up close is worth more than a hundred followers who've never heard your name spoken out loud. Chambers of commerce, local creative meetups, industry events, community organizations... these are pipelines. We'll talk more about this in the next tip.


Plan ahead or fall behind. Marketing runs on a 30-60-90+ day calendar. What you're promoting today should have been planned and planted 60 days ago. If you're reading this in summer, your fall mini sessions and holiday specials should already be in motion. Not announced, but in motion.


Campaigns built, emails drafted, graphics ready. If you wait until the month of, you're too late. The photographers who stay booked aren't luckier than you. They're just further ahead and better organzied.


Start here:



5. Network smarter, not just harder.


You're selling a service based item that you alone can produce. So you have to show up. You have to show up an you have fucking show your face.


Not just in rooms full of other photographers and wedding vendors. If every networking event on your calendar is an industry mixer, you're pretending you're in a vacuum to see your friends. You're pitching to people who are already doing what you do. That is not a pipeline, it is an echo chamber.


Strongly consider stepping outside your industry entirely. Open chamber of commerce events, speed networking, business association meetups, community fundraisers, local galas... these are the rooms. Shake hands. Hand out business cards. Look people in the eye. Connect in person. For the sake of all that is holy, connect in person.

Yes, this is terrifying if you're an introvert or still figuring out how to talk about your work without stumbling. Start practicing in the mirror. Seriously. Practice your introduction until it stops feeling awkward. Know what you do, who you do it for, and why it matters... and be able to say it in thirty seconds without apologizing for it.


Why this works: When you walk into a chamber of commerce meeting and you're the only photographer in the room, you become the authority on photography. The CEOs, shareholders, business owners, and community leaders in that room may not be getting married. But someone in their life might be. Or they need headshots. Or their company needs branding photos. Or they have a daughter, a friend, an employee, an event. You plant the seed by simply being present, being personable, and being memorable.


I handed out roughly 30 business cards at a Qveen Herby concert recently. Three inquiries came from that one night. The concert had nothing to do with photography. That's exactly the point. Go where your people are, not just where photographers congregate.


I dare you: go to events where you know NO ONE. Cast the net where the clients are, not where it's comfortable for you because your friends are there.



6. The market is hard. Do it anyway.


The economy is rough. Clients are cautious. Bookings feel harder to land than they did two years ago. Say it, feel it, acknowledge it. Now what the hell are you gonna do about it?


A lot of photographers who are struggling right now were never really building a business. They were riding a wave. Good timing, a lucky referral streak, a season where everyone wanted photos. That wave broke. And now the beach is quiet and revealing.


For the photographers who actually did the work... the plan, the foundation, the consistency, the showing up... this is not a setback. This is a thinning of the herd. Slow markets create space for the people who built something actual. That can be you. That should be you.


For everyone else, one honest question: Over a real stretch of time, beyond the rise and fall of a trend cycle, beyond a motivated week or a good quarter... have you actually demonstrated a full commitment to your business? Not a burst of effort. Sustained, strategic, showing-up-even-when-it's-quiet commitment.
If the answer is no, the market isn't your problem.

You cannot coast on social media and occasional luck indefinitely and then act surprised when the bottom falls out. The photographers still booking in a hard market didn't stumble into it. They were intentional in the back-end. They followed the unsexy steps, they planned ahead, they showed up in the rooms.


That can be you, but it requires honesty first. And it starts now.




Let's work together.


If you've read this far and feel like you're staring down a to-do list with no idea where to start, that's exactly where I come in.


I offer 1:1 business consulting sessions for photographers and creatives who need a thinking partner, a brain-storm buddy, not someone to do the work for them. In-person in the Kansas City area or virtual. I'm not here to hand you a formula. I'm here to sit across from you, dig into what you're doing (or aren't doing), and help you find the clarity and direction that's already in there. No big commitments, just an hourly consulting fee.


Start with a free 15-minute discovery call. We'll figure out together if it's a fit and if I can be beneficial to you.


Schedule your call to get a gawt-damn grip on your business with this link today: Discovery Call for Brand Developement with Court




 
 
 

Comments

© 2025 Stag & Bird Curated Photo Experiences | DBA Stag & Bird Photography | Courtney Specht  // all rights reserved.

bottom of page