Photography Business Mentoring Case Study : Kate Ventress Photography

How do I find my first paid photography clients?

If you’re starting a photography business it can be hard to know where to focus your attention:

Improving your shooting and editing skillset?
Gaining more experience?
Building a website?
Finding your first paying clients?
Writing a contract?

To be honest, all these things require your attention but really, I think one of the biggest challenges is not letting all this overwhelm you! When Kate Ventress came through my photography business mentoring doors in 2020, she had all the enthusiasm and chutzpa to build a thriving business and over the course of three months, we laid the foundations with courage and intention.

So today I’m going to be sharing an overview of my time with Kate and include some of the pointers I gave her along the way. So let’s dive in.

Tell me about 1 to 1 Photography business mentoring

Client Profile: Kate Ventress

Mum to a toddler
Part-time swimming instructor
Dreams of making a living as a full-time photographer
Recently bought her first camera and loves taking photos of her daughter, friends and family

Biggest struggle: Finding her first paid clients

Before working with a client, I ask them to complete a Q&A so that we can figure out our main objectives.

I love doing this because :

a) it gives me time to reflect and create a bespoke plan of action and

b) it means that no time is wasted in that first session and we can really make the most of our time together.

In Kate’s Q&A there were things that came up besides wanting to find her first paid clients: she wanted to figure out her pricing, cover a few technical aspects of shooting and editing, as well as learning how to create a more cohesive, consistent body of work, with an efficient workflow.

We allocated time to chip away at all these things, but in order to tackle her biggest struggle, the one that would help her quit her part-time job as a swimming instructor, we settled on 3 main focus points for the six sessions:

Main focus

Getting to the heart of your brand
Finding your soul clients
Creating experiences for your audience

Getting to the heart of your brand

Why does your brand matter? You’re just here to take photos right?

Hmm…not exactly.

Personally, I think that as a photographer, your brand is everything. It’s what sets you apart from other photographers. It’s the human element that beats AI imagery every damn time. It’s special, it’s unique (because it’s you) and the best bit, if you spend time uncovering it, it can be your greatest asset in your business.

And it pays to dig deep. It’s my belief that in a busy and crowded industry, if we try to speak to everyone with our messaging, we end up speaking to no-one.

“I’d rather be someone’s shot of whiskey than everyone’s cup of tea”

— Carrie Bradshaw

So one of Kate’s first tasks was to complete my Getting to the Heart of your Brand mentoring toolkit which uncovers what makes you tick, in both your life and work. It asks questions like:

What matters most to you in life?
What’s your Enneagram number? What characteristics ring true for you?
Have you experienced any core-shaking moments that made you want to reassess things?

YOUR BRAND MISSION STATEMENT

One of the things I loved about working with Kate was that she was never short of ideas. But to help focus her mind in one clear direction, so she could start to find her first clients, we decided to write a brand mission statement.

A brand mission statement can be something to use in your website copy, or even just as an internal document, to help you make creative choices about content you create or services you offer. For Kate it was the spring-board for her brand.

TIP: To get an idea of what your brand mission statement might be, try thinking about why, what, who & how.

Why do you want to do this work?
What is it that you want to offer?
Who is it for?
How will you serve your clients? What can they expect from you?

It may seem strange to address your “why” before anything else but honestly, it’s something I encourage all my clients to do because people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. We humans are a deep-feeling bunch. Whether we recognise this in ourselves or not, we all make purchases as an emotional response to something. Think about the way floor cleaners are marketed. We don’t really buy them because they kill 99% of germs, we buy them to keep our children safe.

So in the same way your photos tell a powerful, emotive story, so too should your brand.

Kate’s Brand Mission: Capturing the beauty within

Kate’s brand mission is powerful because she’s speaking to the woman who may have lost a part of herself, somehow, somewhere. Kate’s role as your photographer is to bring your self-belief right back to you and make you feel amazing. She does this brilliantly.

2. Finding your soul clients

Once we uncovered Kate’s core values, it was time to think about her ideal client. My advice to Kate was to get really clear on who she wanted to work with and why. Knowing this, would help her figure out what to say and how to say it.

TIP: If you’d like some help with this too, try this: Think back to your most enjoyable photography session and write down as much as you can remember about it and why you loved it.

What was your client like? What kind of person is she?
What did you connect over?
Why did she want to work with you?
What does she hope, dream and worry about?

The point of doing this is to know who your kind of people are, so you can be more intentional in the things you say and share online. Once you’re clear on who you’re talking to, you can start to create content that shines like a beacon for your intended audience.

Even without much experience under your belt, it’s still possible to imagine your dream session and work through these questions that way.

Kate did brilliantly with this task, coming up with client characteristics like:

Second time mum
Body-conscious
Time-poor
Outdoorsy
Adventurous

Remember that these identifiers aren’t meant to be set in stone, but it’s so very helpful to have a focus as a jumping off point.

It’s also worth mentioning that this type of digging should go beyond the surface. When it comes to my soul clients, I don’t care about superficial things like their age or what kind of car they drive. That doesn’t really tell me anything worth knowing, I want to get to the heart of who they are as a human being. That’s where the good juice is.

3. Creating experiences for your audience

So why do we need to create experiences for our audience and customers? Well, it’s my experience that when people hire a photographer, they are looking for sooo much more than just the photos.

EXAMPLE:

A photographer delivers an online gallery as promised, then a few days later, the client unexpectedly receives a hand-written note, along with a complimentary print from the session. One of her favourites. How do you think that client is going to feel when she receives that beautiful photo of the people she loves most in the world, out of the blue?

Something I’ve found helpful in guiding my decisions when it comes to creating great experiences for my clients : under-promise and over-deliver. So, if you say the gallery will be ready in a month, get it to them in three weeks. If you promised 50 photos, deliver 60 (just promise me you won’t go crazy in over-delivering on the number of images, a few extra is fine!)

And creating good experiences starts from the very first interaction. How do you feel when you message a brand/business on instagram and they message you back in a timely manner? Conversely, how do you feel when they never get back to you? This stuff really matters.

Final Thoughts

Over the years I’ve come to realise that it’s not enough to simply talk about your brand, and it’s not enough to simply speak to your ideal audience. The sweet spot lies at the intersection where these two meet. Think of your brand values and your ideal client as the creative brief you work to.

So, with the knowledge of what matters to you and who you're talking to…

What stories could you share about your work or life that would resonate?
Can you think of a free download you could make that would inspire, educate or delight them?

A business that feels easeful, intuitive and sustainable can take time to build, but the good news is that you don’t have to do this work alone if you don’t want to. Reach out to peers, online support groups or consider working one to one with a mentor (like me!) if that feels like a good fit for you .

Since our time together, Kate’s now fully up and running (and boy can she run!). She’s continued learning and building her business and is even running workshops of her own for other photographers.

Here’s what she had to say about our time together: