Simple Wedding Photography Business Plan 2020 (PDF + Free Template)

Are you looking for a perfect & simple wedding photography business plan?

Congrats!

You’ve come to the right place!

In this post you will get:

• Overview of Wedding Photography Business Plan Sample
• Free Template + Checklists
• Simple & Effective Tips To Write Plan
• PDF + Doc For Free

To save your time and research, I’ve also included a Trello board for you to write plan more effectively and in a very simple way.

In fact, this is the most updated & fresh post to get a wedding photography business plan in September 2020.

Let’s Start!

Before we start, if you don’t have time to read the whole guide, I would suggest you to download the free bonus Trello board and pdf from here:

Download Free Bonus Here: https://forms.gle/VRKXqS7q68abnTGw9

Wedding Photography Business Plan Overview 2020

Many people think creating a business plan is as much fun as public speaking or having a cavity filled.

However, a good business plan is essential because it enables you to understand your potential business and decide if your plan is viable before you invest too much time and money into the venture.

A good business plan takes time and research. Don’t overcomplicate the process — this is for you unless you plan to get financial help (then your investor will want to review your business plan).

Spend the time to do your research well, because the better your business plan, the better your understanding of the reality of starting up your business. To succeed you need a plan that explicitly lays out the path to profitability.

Wedding Photography Business Overview

This section of your business plan tells all about your business. Include details about your niche, such as the wedding industry, as well as the market you plan to serve.

What’s Your Niche?

What type of photography services will you offer? Will you photograph commercial interiors or weddings? Research and learn as much as you can about the specific industry.

Where’s Your Specific Market?

Specify which group of customers within the industry you are targeting. Let’s go back to the wedding photographer example.

• Are you going to be a high-end photographer?
• How many photographers currently serve this market?

State exactly who the clients are, where are they are located, where they shop, and how you will find them.

Let’s Explore The Demographics in Wedding Photography Business Plan

Knowing who your clients help you determine where you should spend marketing money to get the best return.

Use this table and fill up all the necessary details:

Objectives & Goals in Photography Business Plan 2020

In the objectives section, list your company’s goals and what is needed to meet them. The more specific you are here, the better. Look at short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals.

Ask these questions to yourself:

• Are you planning on growing your business by hiring employees or will you stay in a one-person shop?
• What profits (or losses) do you expect over the first year, over 5 years, and over 7 years?
• How many clients do you need each year to earn a profit?
• How will you deal with start-up debt and what is your repayment schedule?

Products and Services

What are you going to sell? This might seem simple since you are a photographer — but are you selling the final images, the photography service, both, or something in between? Will you sell add-on products? Do these services and products match the needs of your target market?

Market Analysis

This is the in-depth research on the specific industry you plan to work within. Look at businesses in your area that already do what you do.

Pay attention to the competition. Ask these questions to yourself to create a sample wedding photography business plan.

• How many other people are doing what you want to do?
• Is there a place for you?
• Who is the competition and what do they charge?
• What is the size of the niche?
• How well is the niche being served in your area?
• Is there an opportunity for growth within the niche?

Audience Analysis in The Market To Bring Clarity in Your Photography Business Plan

Once you’ve covered the industry, or niche, in detail, you need to research the specific markets within that niche.

Ask these questions to yourself to build a better photography business plan.

• How are those particular markets being served by the competition?
• Is there a market that is not being served, and if so, why?
• Where they shop, how they make spending decisions, what their turn-offs are, and what they like are all things you want to learn.

Study the demographics of your target client. The more knowledge you have about your ideal client, the better

Marketing Plan

Developing a marketing plan is critical to your success. Without this roadmap, you won’t know where you are going or what you want to achieve. The marketing plan needs to detail the strategies you will implement to bring in more business.

This section details your overall marketing plan.

Ask these questions to yourself to create an effective Marketing Plan.

• What are the traditional marketing methods used within your niche?
• What specific marketing methods would be most effective for your target market?
• How will you increase your brand awareness in your target demographic?
• How much will you spend on marketing?

Operational Plan

This section deals with the day-to-day operations and management. Ask these questions to yourself to build an effective wedding photography business plan in 2020.

• Will you need software to run your business?
• Will you work from your home, or do you need a separate retail space?
• Will you hire help as you grow, or would you prefer to keep your business small, so you can manage it yourself?
• Will you want to outsource editing and postproduction once you get busy?
• Will you hire an accountant, an attorney, a bookkeeper?

Financial & Funding Wedding Photography Business Plan

The financial projections section is the most important, and probably the hardest to complete. This is where the idea you had for business meets the reality of actually turning a profit.

This is where your budget comes into play. By putting together a budget, you should have a realistic idea of what your expenses will be, as well as projected income.

Here are a few questions to consider:

• What are your profit goals for the year?
• How many sessions do you need to book each month in order to break even?
• How many sessions do you need to book each month in order to achieve your profit goals?
• What are your financial projections for the first, third, and fifth years?

Pricing Plan

When pricing your services and products, there are many things to consider, including your costs to produce the product or service, your living costs, and other business expenses.

Are you going to run a high volume, low-cost business model or a low-volume, high-cost boutique business model?

How do you figure out how much profit you need?

Let’s play with some maths on the pricing plan

Let’s say you need a salary of $30,000 in order to make this business work for you. This means your total sessions and product sales need to be a minimum of $105,000 in gross sales. If you shoot sessions and include image files for $300, that’s 350 sessions you’d need to do in a year. Not very realistic, is it?

Do not look at your pricing from an emotional point of view (what you think you are worth, what you think your clients can afford, or what you can afford).

You are running a forprofit business, and therefore you need to consider your pricing from a business point of view. Price for profit, otherwise your business may not make it.

Let’s Play With Some Expenses Calculations

To estimate your actual expenses, make a list of all the expenses in the following list for a yearly period. You’ll have to estimate (or guess) some of these numbers, but try to be as accurate as possible.

• Rent
• Utilities
• Web Hosting
• Insurance
• Business Bill Payables
• Professional Fees Related To Accountants, Lawyers and tax professionals.
• Equipments
• Packaging Charges
• Delivery Charges
• Shipping Costs

It All Adds Up

When calculating how many clients and sessions you need each month, besides covering your monthly overhead costs you also need to cover your marketing expenses, cost of goods sold (COGS), and pay yourself. When you look at your pricing from this perspective, it is easy to see how offering a 2-hour session and image files for a few hundred dollars can equal business suicide.

Branding Plan

Branding can be a frustrating and confusing concept. There is a lot to consider when developing a brand, and it goes far beyond the logo. It is important to brand yourself correctly and consistently.

• Business Name: Keep It Short and Simple
• Logo: Your logo is not your brand. Your brand is much more than just the logo. Use short and easy to sound logo names.
• Website
• Headline
• Brand Promise

Team or Hiring Staff Plan

Part of growing a business often involves hiring staff. You might start with outsourcing and eventually find you have enough work available that it would be more cost-beneficial to hire an employee or a dedicated independent contractor.

You need to put together a job description and recruit, interview, hire, and train your new employee. How do you know when it’s time? If you’ve been working at 100% capacity and beyond for a while, it may be time to get some help. Here are some positions you can consider hiring for:

• Office or studio manager
• Production assistant
• Studio assistant
• Photographers & Videographers
• Marketing & Sales Team

Wedding Photography Business Growth Plan

A plan to scale the business up as it grows (adding multiple locations, photographers, and product lines to serve more clients).

After a few years in business, you might feel ready to take your business to the next level. Growing your business takes thought and planning. Otherwise, the day-to-day operations can keep you stuck right where you are.

One of the best things you can do to help your photography business grow is to plan an annual strategy retreat. A strategy retreat is simply taking a day (or two) out of the office to evaluate your business goals and challenges.

Review the current year budget:

• What has been your biggest expense? How can you reduce expenses?
• What areas of after sales are dismal?
• Are you making a salary this year?
• How much did you spend on marketing and was it effective?
• Can you afford to invest in studio management software?
• Do you need to invest in any new equipment or gear?
• What kind of marketing do you need to invest in to meet your income goals for next year?
• Are you ready to outsource some work, and can you build the costs into your fee structure?
• What was your average sale per client?
• Are your prices so low you feel you are being taken advantage of by clients?
• Are marketing methods working to bring in new business?

And much more…

Final Words…

Creating a sample wedding photography business plan made simple when you follow my mentioned simple & effective plan.

As promised, here’s the Trello Board and Pdf: https://forms.gle/VRKXqS7q68abnTGw9

I hope you like this wedding photography business plan guide.

If you have any doubts, let me know in the comments.

Love & Respect

Gaurav Chatwani

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