The One Thing Every Newborn and Family Photographer Needs to Know in Order to Smash Their Goals in the New Year
The New Year is the perfect time to sit down, get clear on what you want and then start strategizing on how you are going to turn your dreams into reality. This is something I do for myself every year, and I really think that it is one of the big reasons that my business continues to grow, year after year—for the past 24 years.
When setting my New Year intentions, there are a series of questions that I ask myself every year. I'm going to be asking you those questions here on the podcast all month long, so be sure to subscribe so you don't miss a single episode!
Last week I asked you "what?". What do you want? What are your goals? I started with that because knowing what you want and then turning that desire into your goals is step one!
Hopefully you listened to that episode, wrote down some goals and then shared your goals either with me or with another one of your business besties!
Now that you know what you want for your business this year, it's time for the next question in Sandra Coan's List of New Year New You Business Questions.
HIGHLIGHTS
Why?
Why do you want what you want? Or more importantly, why did you become a photographer in the first place? Why were you moved to pick up your camera and start capturing the world as you see it?
My guess is, you became a photographer because there is something about this art form you just love. Maybe it's the way light falls through a window, maybe it's how you capture people, maybe it's an escape for you or a form of therapy or maybe it's just a way to slow down.
We all have a different reason and why, but knowing what your why is is really important to growing as an artist and as a business owner. That leads me to my next question.—WHY do you feel the need to turn your photography into a business? I started my photography business as a side hustle way back in 1999 because I loved photography and knew I was a good photographer. I thought I could use this skill to bring in extra income.
I think a lot of photographers start this way. We start a business because we love what we do and want to make it our lives. Where we go wrong; however, is that we go into our photography business thinking that love for photography and the skill we have in photography is enough to make money doing it. Unfortunately, it's not!
The truth is, in order to make a living as a photographer, being good at it isn’t enough. Turning your photography into a PROFITABLE photography business requires a plan. You need a roadmap to help you reach your destination. You need to know what you want—that is step one. In order to get there, you also need clarity around why you want to do this in the first place.
Knowing why you want it is just as important as knowing what you want. That's because your “why” is your passion. It's the fire. It’s the thing that is going to inspire you and keep you going when things get hard! Sometimes things get hard...that's just business in general.
Why do you want to be a photographer? Why do you love it? Why does it matter? Is it to freeze time? To capture moments? To support your family? All of the above? None.of the above?
Spend some time thinking about why you want what you want. Once you know, check out my free training called The Modern Marketing Method! In that training, I'll show you how to turn that why into content for a marketing strategy that runs on autopilot and will help you rank higher in search engines and on social media, be seen by more people, book more clients and in the end, make more money doing what you love.
If you found this episode helpful, please take a moment to leave a five star review on your platform of your choosing! Thank you for supporting the show, friend!
