When it comes to business, making mistakes in inevitable. There is no learning without mistakes. No growth. How can you feel what it is to be successful if you’ve never experienced failure?

If you’re floundering in your photography business, you may feel alone. Know that this is something that everyone goes through, on some level.

I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my photography business. I still do. At the same time, these lessons learned have showed me a new path. Every single thing that didn’t work gave me new information, so I could find what does.

In sharing my five biggest mistakes in my photography business, I hope that you’ll be able to see this for yourself.

Mistake #1 : Not Investing Wisely In My Business

I’ve worked with thousands of students over the course of the last few years and what has stood out for me is how many food photographers are not willing to invest in their business. They spend hours patching together free info from YouTube and the Internet, won’t invest in decent gear, and try to DIY everything from their portfolios to marketing collateral.

It makes sense to invest slowly and wisely as you build your business. To get better gear and invest in training as you bring in more and more income. But what I’m talking about is fifty dollars for a monthly membership that can help one take their food photography business to the next level. Or booking a mentorship session with a professional to get feedback on a web portfolio. Or even a course on editing food photography. These expenses that are not necessarily large but can make all the difference in moving the needle in the business.

I’ll tell you straight: photography is an expensive business to run. If you don’t want to spend money on your business, don’t become a photographer. Or actually, any kind of business owner. It’s really hard to build a sustainable photography business of any kind without investing in proper gear and ongoing training.

Now, not investing in my business was not a problem for me. I knew that doing so would be crucial to my success and it was. I was able to shoot several ad campaigns, a cookbook, and work with some dream clients in my first year of business because I invested in business coaching and the proper gear.

My issue was the opposite—Shiny Object Syndrome. I was so driven and passionate about taking my career to the next level that I was willing to try anything and everything. I threw spaghetti at the wall, hoping it would stick. This led me to waste a lot of money on coaches and masterminds that were not a fit, courses that I didn’t need, and gear that ended up being the wrong choice. I made money in my business, but I spent too much, thinking it would pay off when I got a big advertising gig—which never came.

The lesson lies somewhere in between these two extremes. Be willing to you invest in yourself and your business if you want to make money as a food photographer, but be realistic about how much you can put in. Have a plan for growth, and decide where to spend the money that will best serve it.

Mistake #2 : Not Marketing Consistently

Because I invested in my photography right out of the gate, I was able to get work easily in my first year of business. I spent months working on a website and marketing collateral, learned how to price my work and appear as a professional. I made 5-figures for my first restaurant shoot and the work continued from there. No one ever guessed that I was new to the business and that deep down I was scared that I didn’t actually know what I was doing.

In fact, I was so busy that I made the cardinal mistake of professional photography—I stopped marketing.

There is a misconception that repeat clients will bring you enough business that you don’t have to market when you reach a certain level. Form what I have observed, even very established and experienced photographers in all genres constantly market their work. I know photographers who have been shooting 25 to 30 years who are always marketing their work. The ones that don’t, end up relying on their relationships with repeat clients and don’t work very much.

If you want to succeed at professional food photography, you need to constantly and consistently market your work, even if you’re really busy. Especially when you’re busy. Inevitably things will slow down and you will find that the clients are not there when you need them.

Mistake #3 : Relying on My Website to Bring Me Leads

While some of my first clients came to me via my website, this is not the case for me most of the time. I definitely do get a lot of enquiries via my website, but experience has taught me not to rely on my website to bring me work. A web portfolio is really important for showing a potential client what you can deliver, but it doesn’t filter the clients that would be the best fit for your services.

Most of the potential clients that approach me through my website are price hunting and sending the same copy-paste email to a lot of other photographers. They want a price list or an estimate without providing a shot list or any other details about the shoot, often not even knowing exactly what they want to shot.

The best clients are those that you seek out yourself and build a relationship with. They gravitate to you because of your style and they can see the fit and how you can create images for them that will resonate with their target market. Cost is not the number one consideration on the checklist of choosing a photographer.

Mistake #4: Undercharging for My Services

Undercharging for services is one of the biggest mistakes the photographers make. Pricing your work is hard. When you start out, it can seem impossible to know what to charge.

Many photographers worry about pricing too high, but in reality, most of us price way too low. In the beginning, you may charge less because you are building a client list, but you should still charge a decent amount or you won’t be able to cover your expenses and make a profit.

Make sure that you know exactly how much it costs to run your food photography business every month, and what your monthly living expenses are as well. This is the minimum you need to make every month just to scrape by. How many jobs will you need every month to cover that? Can you cover these expense charging a few hundred bucks per photo shoot?

Mistake #5: Not Having a Targeted Portfolio

Your web portfolio is your most crucial marketing tool. This is what will connect you to the clients that you want to work with. Therefore, you need to showcase work that you have done that appeals to your target market. It’s not a repository for your favorite shots.

If you want to do mostly editorial work, then you need to showcase that style of photography. If you show all dark and moody photography because that is your style and what you love, then you may miss out on a lot of clients that wonder if you can shoot anything else.

When I started out, I had anything and everything on my mosaic style web portfolio. The landing page looked like clown vomit. It looked messy and was overwhelming. I hired a photo consultant to help me rework my portfolio in a way that not only highlighted my strengths as a photographer, but spoke to my target market and showcased the kind of work that would get me hired.

I hope that this post has helped you recognize areas of your own photography business that can use some tweaking. Do you have some important lessons to share that I haven’t covered here? Be sure to let me know in the comments below.

For more of my thoughts on the business of food photography, check out these posts.