Episode 128: How Hard Is It to Reach 6-Figures In Your Photography Business?

How Hard Is It to Reach 6-Figures In Your Photography Business

AS SEEN IN

Photography Business Institute
Photography Business Institute

There’s a HUGE misconception among portrait photographers that you have to photograph a ton of sessions to make a living at this…

It’s expected that you have to constantly be hustling, and in my experience, that couldn’t be further from the truth!!! 

So today, I’m sharing the REAL “money math” behind a six-figure portrait photography business.

Because I don’t think most photographers realize what is really possible! 

Making Money As a Boutique Portrait Photographer 

Now, for some of you, your businesses are actually (accidentally) charities.

I know mine was! 

I was working to pay the government, all of my vendors, and basically everybody else but myself. 

So, I want you to get comfortable with money talk… 

This is a safe place where we talk about money.

We have to talk about it because we can’t make it if we don’t. 

I also want to normalize success.

Why is success embarrassing or shameful?

Sure, there are jerk wealthy people, but there are also really nice wealthy people. 

Money is an amplifier.

Money does not make you good or bad, it just allows you to do more and be more of yourself. 

Let’s stop apologizing for who we are and make some money!

There are two main ways to make money.

One is having more clients and the other is having higher average sales.

You can also “make” more money in your business by lowering your costs or raising your prices, but the reality is, that’s not how you make good, predictable money. 

Raising our prices is not the best way to keep making money because you can’t just keep raising prices forever. 

My philosophy is to learn how to be profitably priced, and as you get better, you can go from there.

I like demand-based pricing where I can charge whatever I want, and people will pay it.

You can be profitably priced, so you don’t have to have that fear of feeling like you have to keep charging more. 

Just price for profit, and then create a plan that creates amazing products your clients will love. 

The Money Math 

So here’s the money math.

The first thing we start with is a “Julie” (a $1k or more client order).

Because everything else is based around that. 

When our students follow every step of the boutique system we teach them, they get their first “Julie” pretty quickly – which is why we celebrate “Julie”! 

I know that if you convert to Boutique, follow our system, and get that Julie, you’ll be feeling amazing about yourself! 

Because if you can do it once, you can do it again. 

You start fine-tuning your system and learning how to talk to clients.

You start overcoming advanced objections and becoming consistent with repetition.

Could you do one session a week?

That’s a six-figure business. 

Now, what if you could get more than one “Julie” at a time?

I want to introduce you to somebody else… “Bobby”.

“Julie” was my first right-fit client.

I knew after her that my whole life was changing.

And the same thing happened when I met “Bobby”. 

“Bobby” is a partner who owns another business and can send you “Julies”!!  

Instead of having to go out and get all of your own “Julies”, you work with one person who sends you multiple “Julies”.

Awesome, right? 

When I was in my second studio, a couple of doors down was a children’s clothing store called Sproutfitters.

The owner was a young lady named “Bobby”. 

I would go down there, and I would see these moms walk in and purchase hundreds of dollars worth of clothing from Bobby’s store. 

I’d think, if they have money to spend on expensive clothing, then they need photos in the clothing!

So I told Bobby I would love to photograph some of your client’s clothes and I’ll give them to you so you can use them on your website. 

Bobby was thrilled!!

She sent me one of her clients, and I went through my system, and the mom invested $4,200 with me…

So if a “Julie” is worth $2,000, and a “Bobby” is worth $10,000… let’s do the Money Math! 

Five “Bobbys” at $20,000 gets you $100,000. 

Can’t you work with five people?! 

You can work with five people and make six figures by doing a couple of sessions a month part-time. 

It’s possible, and that’s what I want you to see!

 

Download the Episode Transcript Here

How Hard Is It to Reach 6-Figures In Your Photography Business?
Episode 203 – GBL Takeaways

You might be wondering what our annual event Go Boutique Live is about. Today, I want to share with you why I created this event and some of the really juicy highlights from our 2024 event. The first time photographers hear about Go Boutique Live they assume it's like...

Episode 202 – Secrets from $100K Yay Award Winners 2023

2003 was an absolute game-changer for boutique photographers. We saw over 200 amazing students get recognized at the fifth Go Boutique Live with the community of award winners pulling in a whopping $8 million in sales. How incredible is that? So in today's episode,...