Let's face it. Owning and running your photography business is a long and winding journey. You have to get so much right, and often you will have missteps along the way. The good news is you will learn from them and become a better businessperson. The bad news is that you may be the one sabotaging your business.

When I am coaching photographers, one of the things I see is that they are often in their own way. This is a mindset issue and can significantly impact their ability to succeed in business. For example, you may feel scared to raise your prices because you would never spend that amount of money on photography. However, plenty of people value what you do and would gladly pay you for a portrait that fully captures the essence of their child, family, or senior. Limiting yourself to what you would spend or think your clients will pay for photography will hinder your sales.

Let me go a little deeper with this. Take a look at what your clients wear when they come for their consultation, portrait session, and sales session. Many will have expensive shoes, sweaters, and jackets that will probably be replaced or donated within a couple of years. The portraits that you create will more than likely be cherished for generations. So what has more value? An expensive pair of boots, a lavish purse, or a family portrait that will be displayed and enjoyed for years and years? 

Takeaway lesson: Price your work for the lasting value that it will have.

Another complaint I hear from photographers is that clients only purchase a few of their images even though they created many. When discussing this deeper to determine why they hadn't bought more, I quickly discovered that they hadn't made a product for the additional photographs. The sale becomes limited without a product to sell, leading to lost revenue. 

Takeaway lesson: Shoot with intention and have a product for everything you photograph.

Now let's talk about perfectionism and its ability to prevent you from scaling your business. As a business owner, you have to wear multiple hats and make many decisions. Waiting until everything is perfect (which rarely happens) will delay your ability to accomplish your tasks on time. Insisting on perfectionism will slow your momentum and hinder your growth. 

When you hire employees, you will have to release control of specific parts of your business. This can be a great thing if you have taken the time to create standard operating procedures (SOPs). Unfortunately, most photography businesses lack this type of document, and new employees flounder for a time until they learn the job. 

Takeaway lesson: Spend time writing down your steps when doing a specific task each month. Over time you will have an SOP for the critical parts of your business, and it will be easier to train a new employee and release control over to them.

As you work in your business each day, constantly evaluate and correct things to operate as efficiently as possible. Force yourself to do the things you don't like to do, and slowly your business will be providing you with the results you desire. You just have to get out of your own way!

If you would like more information, I have another article "The 5 Ways to Keep Your Business Running Smoothly" I think you would enjoy.