5 Tips For Women Building Six Figure Photography Businesses

“One woman can change many things; many women together can change everything.”
Women for Women International

Today is the 101st anniversary of International Women’s Day, a day created to inspire women and celebrate achievements on a global level. The International Women’s Day tagline is Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures. So this post is dedicated to the thousands of girls and women that love their cameras, are passionate about photography, and want to use their passion to change the world.

According to the National Association for Women Business Owners, women own 40 percent of all privately held firms here in the US, imply more than 13 million people, and generate $1.9 trillion in sales. Yet most – 97 percent – have revenues below the million dollar mark. In other words, women create businesses to replace their “jobs” that aren’t flexible enough to allow them to do all they need to do, yet don’t have what it takes to grow them into serious money-generating businesses.

While the idea behind this post isn’t to help you create a seven figure business, creating a six figure business is more than doable, and is something you can strive for within a short period of time – two years or less. What should you put in place right now to help you grow to the six figure level?

Watch your numbers.

Do you know what your current profits are? Your ROI? Your net sales? Your cash flow? How about how much profit you make on each product and service you sell? The more you understand your numbers and watch how well your business is doing, the more you can change things as they happen to keep your business on a straight path. You don’t need an MBA in order to understand the financials. Use a great accounting system – I use Wave – which will make it easy for you to track and watch your reports. Or hire an accountant who can keep you up to date on what’s important, without having to learn the accounting details yourself. [Read more…]

Is There A Difference Between Women And Men Business Owners

There’s been a wide variety of information popping up online about the differences between men and women when it comes to careers and owning a business.

The White House just released its new report Women In America, and while it doesn’t release any surprises along the way, it is interesting to read some of the current facts. Women continue to be more educated, earn more college degrees, and pursue graduate and higher education at a higher rate then men. Yet they hold more part time positions, have higher unemployment rates, and typically earn less than men in the majority of fields.

The SBA continues to do research on the difference between men and women business owners, and while they still hypothesize on a lot of the facts, some things they have found over and over again.

Women were less likely than men to purchase their business.

Female owners were more likely to prefer low risk/return businesses.

Male owners were more likely to start a business to make money, had higher expectations for their business, and did more research to identify business opportunities.

Men spent slightly more time on their new ventures than women.

They also go on to state that research suggests that female entrepreneurs face more startup problems than male entrepreneurs for a variety of reasons, including

a lack of female role models,

more trouble with life balance because more family responsibilities take away from business planning,

a more difficult time for female entrepreneurs to be taken seriously as business people, and to gain support for their entrepreneurial activities from their spouses, family and friends.

And in the photography industry, I can see a lot of these characteristics come through.

For instance, many women jump into the photography profession as a way to stay home with the kids, and make a little money on the side for dinners out, extra spending money, or a yearly vacation. They love taking photographs of their own kids, so why not take a few images on the side of friends and acquaintances too?

Success comes from the approach. If you approach it to be a full time career, make a six figure income, and have it be your primary income source, your planning will showcase that desire.

If you start out in the business by looking for extra money on the side, you’ll never approach it as a true business model. You’ll never look at it as a way for generating income and clients day after day. And likewise, you’ll never be taken as a serious business owner who is building a professional career within the photography industry.

It can be a career, or a side project. Its all in how you approach it.