One of the most difficult aspects of self-employment as a food photographer is navigating fluctuating income. Having your own business brings you the freedom to do what you want when you want, but the downsides of financial inconsistency with high overhead costs is enough to challenge even the most resilient creative.
Don’t get me wrong. You can still make a lot of money as a food photographer. Just know that it won’t happen overnight and that it will take several years to build your business and reputation to the point where you’re bringing in consistent income and repeat clients.
Even so, in my decade plus of shooting food professionally, I’ve discovered that no two years are the same, and that the work tends to be seasonal. Most clients ramp up their marketing efforts in the fall and spring, and push to spend their budgets by year end.
This can mean a feast-or-famine cycle for us as business owners.
I’ve learned a few lessons about navigating fluctuating income as a food photographer, which I’ll share in this post in hopes that it will help you in your own business.
Expect the Slower Months
If you’re fairly new to your photography business, you may think that once you’re better established that you’ll be busy all the time. This is somewhat true, depending on what your version of busy is.
Food photography shoots require so much prep and post production that more than three or four shoots a month is busier than I personally want to be. This may not be true for you, depending on the scope of the projects you work on.
Even as an established photographer, you’ll find that some months are slower than others.
As a food photographer, you may be most busy in the spring and autumn. Typically, in the spring I’m shooting fall content, and vice versa. However, as I mentioned, some months are slower than others and this can vary year to year. For example, January and February are typically slow for me, as is late summer. However, this year I was a lot busier in August than I ever have been, which was very unexpected.
Pay Attention to Your Year as a Whole
Keep track of your projects and when you shot them and review them periodically. You can do this by simply reviewing your books and when you invoiced your clients. However, I find it helpful to keep track of this on a spreadsheet. It allows me to have the big picture of the year at my fingertips.
When you review your year as a whole, it will allow you to see patterns of revenue coming into your business, which in turn will not only allow you to save for down times, but also identify key points of the year when you can ramp up your marketing efforts.
Build Recurring Revenue via Retainer Clients
Repeat clients are what you should be striving for as a photographer, as this helps you build consistent income. One way to leverage your ongoing relationships with clients that is often overlooked is building recurring revenue via a retainer business model.
In this age of social media, brands need content on an ongoing basis. You can create packages offering image sets at a discount providing they sign a contract to work with you for a set amount of time, such as three months, six months etc. The longer period of time they commit to, the better pricing you can provide.
Many freelancers use a retainer business model and it’s easy to see why. It’s a win-win for yourself and the client.
Leverage Your Skills Through Mentorship and Education
The saying that those who can’t do, teach is long outdated. Where it used to be the norm to stay in a career or even one job for decades, people now are lifelong learners and there is an increasing demand for education— especially online.
Be warned however, that if you’re going to mentor online or create digital products like courses and eBooks that the marketing around your offer will take a considerable chunk of time that could eat into the time you should spend on marketing and looking for prospective clients.
You’ll also need a lot of apps to market and sell digital products such as a hosting and email platforms, sales pages and apps to connect everything. This can results in profits being a lot lower than you might expect and potentially not worth the time you put into them, so do your research and weigh the pros and cons carefully.
If you decide to get into online education, my advice is to keep it simple by creating one key product like an online course and spend your energy on promoting that one thing on an ongoing basis.
Pay Your Savings Account
Running a photography business is expensive. No only do you have a lot of overhead in terms of equipment, insurance, and software and perhaps even studio expenses, you have to make sure that you’re putting away money for taxes.
With the skyrocketing cost of living, there may not be a lot left over for savings at the end of every month, but putting away some money for leaner times is a necessity that will see you through the inevitable slumps in your business. You can start by paying yourself first—putting 5-10% from every shoot into a separate savings account. If you put a small amount of money away immediately after getting paid, you probably won’t miss it but the money can easily add up.
Conclusion
These are some of the things that have helped me navigate fluctuating income in my business over the years. Bottom line is that you have to look for opportunities to create multiple income streams, and think outside the box to leverage your skills to meet the needs of your potential clients.
Running a food photography business can be tough, but there has also never been a time of such opportunity as there is now. It’s just a matter of tapping into it.
Want more business advice? Work with me one-to-one in one of my mentorship programs. Whether you want to develop a marketing plan, need help with your pricing, or a supporting sounding board for your photography business, I can help!
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