Starting A Successful Home Based Photography Business

Are you interested on making money with your own business at the comfort home? Are you in need of extra money to pay your bills? Want to turn your love of photography into cash? Don't fret because you can. You can make a very good income either you choose part or full-time using your digital camera with your photography business at home. And guess what, wedding photography is considered to be an approximately $5 billion per year industry.

If taking pictures and sharing them with your friends would be an entertaining thing for you, then you might want to consider taking wedding photos on weekends. Wedding photography is a career that can be very lucrative either its part or full-time. In the United States, the size of wedding industry is approximately $5 billion per year. That is simply phenomenal! In fact, you can be a part of this industry by just learning a few photography know-how and a decent digital camera. Taking a course with business forms and using photo editing software will be helpful to get you started in making money in your own home-based business.

If you have a digital camera and enjoy taking pictures might as well turn it into a business and start earning from it. What you need is to know where to start.

First, you have to have a business card and other stationery that would give a professional appearance would be very important. It is essential that you understand what to do on the first day of your photo sessions. You must know how to pose a bride and groom, what photos that are needed to take, what are the equipment issues that may arise are and knowledge on editing using Adobe Photoshop on your personal computer. You must know how to make an album for the bride and groom.

Information from recent Bureau of Statistics shows that there are over half a million of jobless people in the month of November alone. This means that there are almost 2 million people who are jobless in 2008. Unfortunately, most of these people have no alternative way of earning money. Taking photos is just one of the many ways one can make up for the lost income. A good quality digital camera could be used in starting your own photo business - an excellent part or full-time income.

Most photographers started their careers in photography as part time. They started utilizing friends and family first. Others started their careers in doing part time of taking wedding photos. Most of the nation's great wedding photographers started their career as part time. It is not necessary taking fulltime course for 2 or more years. Though, formal courses at universities can be very beneficial but then again it can take several years before you could earn a living from it. There are other options to take though. For example, you could get photography courses online which will provide everything that you need to begin making an income with your home based photography business.

Oftentimes when doing my shooting sessions people would ask on what format should I shoot. Either it would be on tiff, high resolution, jpeg, raw, etc. The answer is just simple. It should be raw! And make sure you are using the highest resolution available in your camera. Choosing the format is an important thing to consider in taking photos. What gives you options for post image processing is the raw format. Better chances for printing perfect large prints are determined by higher resolution. Maximum resolution available is needed when you need to make a large poster size photos for the couple. What you need to use in taking photos is a kind of digital camera that have an accessory hot shoe so that you can attach an optional flash unit that is designed specifically for your system. This accessory flash is needed to have better light and an alternative flash that is more powerful than the built-in flash of the camera. Every photo you take on the day, even those which are taken from the outdoors, will be done with flash. The flash will provided a very nice even tone of light and thus allow you to sell more photos after the event.

You must not forget that the bride and groom's parents and close family members would be your prospective buyers. Grandparents would want a picture where they are with the groom and the bride. You could earn from these quick opportunities. Remember that your aim is to be able to take advantage of every opportunity to earn money through photography.

Read more »

Posted in: Business

How to Choose a Winning Name for your Small Business

Can a name make or break your chances of business success? With the success of businesses with seemingly strange names like Google, Facebook, and Yahoo! you might think that a name is not all that important. I disagree. Unfortunately I learned a lot about how to pick a good name for a business after I already chose my business name. For that reason, I want to guide all of you toward a business name that will work for you now and into the future. There are 3 keys principles to keep in mind when picking a name for your business:

1. Remember the Internet - Whether your business is an internet based retail business or you operate a chain of gravel pits around your region, you NEED to keep the internet in mind when picking your business name. In particular you want to think about Search Engine Optimization when you choose a name. If your name contains keywords related to your business, you will have an easier time ranking higher on search engines like Google. If you are a gravel pit owner, then your company name should contain gravel so that when you create your company website it will rank high for the keyword gravel. This principle would be the same if you sell books, cookies, or cell phones. Why make it harder on yourself? Just build your name for the internet age.

2. "Google It" - Have you ever used company names as verbs? For instance, Xerox is a company name, but many people will call copying a document "xeroxing a document". Similarly you may say to a friend, "just Google it". If you can create a business name that has the potential to become a verb you are will be happy you did so later.

3. Short and Sweet - Have you noticed how so many successful companies these days have one word names? I don't think it is a coincidence. I wisk I would have realized this fact before I named my business, but you may still have a chance to keep from making the same mistake. Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft. These are all one word companies. Specifically if you are creating a highly technical product or service, keep your name simple. Try to keep your small business name to one or two short words.

As a bonus tip, make sure that you check to see if a domain name is availabe before you set your name in stone. Try www.godaddy.com and check your proposed name. If someone already has a website with "yourbusinessname.com" then pick something else.

Keep these tips in mind when choosing a name for your new business and you will likely come up with a great name. If you have not already, check out my blog at www.theexecutiveplan.com for more small business resources.

Read more »

Posted in: Business

Who else can contribute to your business?

Two years ago I effectively had a network of about 50 people including my friends - I was shy, introverted and mostly preferred my own company! Not only that, I really didn't want anyone to see me - I rather liked being invisible!! Or so I told myself...

Now, my network extends to thousands of people, I've become a coach, mentor, author and speaker, and I enjoy personal connections with more phenomenal people than I thought existed!!

What changed? Firstly I became aware that I could offer so much more to the world if I would follow my bliss. This bliss is evolving into an enormous vision that will create more joy and ease with people all over the world.

The phenomenal size and intent of my vision and my commitment to living it daily has allowed me to be as generative, joyful, inspirational, expansive, captivating, and spectacular as I truly be... (and no, it wasn't a 10 second transformation - it did take a little bit of focus on getting rid of the blocks that had put me in that unblissful disconnected place originally!)

Being that energy of bliss and inspiration and expansiveness has attracted amazing connections for me - neither I nor my business would be what we are today without the contribution of so many people... When I stopped playing small and insignificant, the universe started delivering big!!

What would it take for you to start living beyond your imagination? Who could you meet that could transform your life into living and working blissfully? Who do you need to know that you aren't connected with yet?

There's only one way to find out and that's to start getting connected!

Online: LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are fabulous starting points - or particpate in a forum with topics that interest you. Offline: Local networking groups, Local MeetUp groups and being the invitation with people you already know will get you started...

Want to connect your business to the people who make a difference online? The Content Marketing Made Simple Playshop on March 22 will help you design a connection strategy based on your knowledge and expertise!

Read more »

Posted in: Business