I have learned a lot over the 10 years of being a business owner. Now that I’ve been in the industry for quite some time, I’d like to share with you a few of my best tips for running a successful photography business.

1. Make your clients happy

Good business is about making the clients happy. Recently, my husband and I had a bad customer service experience. We ran into so many problems that made me so upset. 🤦‍♀️

When we tried to address it reasonably, we felt ignored and like we were just another number to the company. It really made me think about how we run our business.

When I think of good customer service, I think of Chick-fil-a. (I think we can all agree that they have amazing customer service.) The customer is taken care of fast and with care.

When running my business, my desire is for my clients to leave happy.

In business, word of mouth is your super tool!

Make sure you are cultivating that. I know this is on my mind as we finish off the year and head into 2022.

2. Set Clear Expectations

When booking a shoot, you have to ask yourself these questions:

• Is this shoot a client shoot, or a creative shoot?

• Are you photographing and editing for your clients needs within your style or just to be creative?

Knowing the intent of a shoot is huge for the final delivery and is key to making your client happy.

3. Order of Production

I was recently asked this question and I thought it would be helpful to go over how to prioritize client processing.

Maintaining an organized order of production is crucial to ensure that your clients are catered to fairly.

Here’s the simple answer:

Whoever’s shoot was first, gets edited first.

This is the simple and fair way to do it. I keep the photoshoots in order so everyone gets their shots on time. I keep a list and I cross them off as I go.

Clients are given a 2-3 week turnaround rate. This way, I can make sure I have enough time to edit everyone’s shots.

**Exception: Don’t forget that there is always an exception to the rules. I do have a rush fee where I expedite my clients edits if they pay a premium rate for it.

Because of the quoted turnaround time, I still have to get the other shoots. This has me putting in more work in the front of my business so that I can make sure I have a timeline turnaround for everyone.

I hope these business tips help you with your business. Leave a comment below and let me know if any of these tips helped you!

For more business advice read, “One Thing I Wish I Knew When I Started My Photography Business.”

xoxo, Christine