Photography Business Plan Template
Written by Dave Lavinsky
Photography Business Plan
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Sample Photography Business Plan
The following photographer business plan example includes the key components of a solid business plan, and can be used to create a wedding photography business plan, a commercial photography business plan, a portrait photography studio business plan or any other type of photography business plan.
Executive Summary
Business overview.
Pristine Portraits Photography is a professional photography studio located in The Woodlands, Texas that will provide photography services for students, graduates, families, and weddings. Owned by professional photographer Jay Jameson, his unique skill set and years of experience have allowed him to be a highly-recommended freelance photographer in the area. Jay has decided to open a retail location in order to expand his list of services and provide school portrait photos, senior graduation portraits, and business headshots. Pristine Portraits will be located in a retail strip center in The Woodlands that has high traffic exposure and is visible to families, students, and other small businesses.
Product Offering
The following are the list of services that Pristine Portraits Photography will offer:
- School portraits
- Senior graduation portraits
- Family portraits
- Wedding photography services
- Business headshots
Customer Focus
Pristine Portrait Photography will focus on families, small businesses, and newly engaged couples residing in The Woodlands and the surrounding suburbs. They will also focus on elementary, middle, and high schools in the area to be able to provide school portraits for the students.
Management Team
Jay Jameson has been a freelance photographer for over ten years. A native of Houston, Jay found his passion for photography when he was a student at Rice University. After receiving his Bachelor’s degree, Jay began his photography career as a side job working as a wedding photographer and family portrait photographer. Jay is very skilled at creating a nice outdoor portrait using natural lighting and timing the session to be at a time of the day when the sun setting is perfect. Over the years, Jay has earned countless referrals and has expanded his services to providing business headshots and graduate senior portraits. Jay’s clients describe him as having a unique ability to capture the personality and sentiment of the individual.
Success Factors
Pristine Portraits Photography is primed for success by offering the following competitive advantages:
- Professional and friendly photography services at affordable prices.
- Experienced and professional owner who understands the needs for every type of client
- Quick delivery and turnaround of all portraits
- Digital editing software to enhance the look and style of each portrait
Financial Highlights
Pristine Portraits Photography is seeking $68,500 in debt financing to open its retail location in The Woodlands, Texas. The funding will be dedicated for leasehold improvements, working capital, marketing costs, and startup overhead expenses. The breakout of the funding is below:
- Retail location design/build: $20,000
- Professional photography equipment: $15,000
- Working capital: $10,000
- Marketing: $10,000
- 3-months worth of salaries and wages: $13,500
The following graph below outlines the pro forma financial projections for Pristine Portraits Photography:
Company Overview
Who is pristine portraits photography.
Pristine Portraits Photography is owned by skilled photographer Jay Jameson and wll be located in a retail complex in The Woodlands, Texas. Pristine Portraits provides photography services for graduates, weddings, family portraits, business headshots, and neighborhood school photos. Jay Jameson is very flexible when booking clients; he is able to travel to any destination for an outdoor portrait, schools, and weekend wedding photography sessions. Pristine Portraits will be the premier destination for any photography service in The Woodlands.
Pristine Portraits History
Jay Jameson has been a freelance photographer for over ten years. He has been very successful as a wedding photographer and family portrait photographer. Jay is very skilled at creating a nice outdoor portrait using natural lighting and timing the session to be at a time of the day when the sun setting is perfect. Over the years, Jay has earned countless referrals and has expanded his services to providing business headshots and graduate senior portraits.
Since incorporation, Pristine Portraits has achieved the following milestones:
- Registered Pristine Portraits, LP as an entity qualified to do business in the state of Texas.
- Signed a retail space lease for 1,200 square feet.
- Registered the domain www.PristinePortraits.com and began the development of the website.
- Recruited two employees to be the support staff with operating the photography business.
Pristine Portraits Photography Services
Pristine Portraits will offer the following services to its clients:
Industry Analysis
The photography industry is expected to experience steady growth over the next five years, bringing revenues to $10 billion. Demand for commercial and portraiture photography services is expected to closely follow trends in employment, disposable income and corporate profit.
Per capita disposable income is anticipated to be the primary driver of demand moving forward. As disposable income increases, more individuals and households are expected to demand industry services for portrait and special event photography.
An increase in the level of corporate profit is also anticipated to lead to greater demand from private businesses and organizations. Growth in corporate profit will be driven by continued increases in demand for goods and services. As businesses make more money, they are able to increase spending on photography services for commercial use.
Customer Analysis
Demographic profile of target market.
Pristine Portraits will target a variety of individuals in the greater suburban city of The Woodlands, Texas. They will target all elementary, middle, and high schools to offer the school portrait services. They will also offer senior graduation portraits to high school seniors. The Woodlands is a suburban area of Houston that is home to thousands of families. Pristine Portraits will target all families living in the area for family portraits, pregnancy portraits, etc. Pristine Portraits will target newly engaged couples that are needing a photographer for their wedding day. They will also target small businesses as well to advertise their business headshot services.
The precise demographics for The Woodlands are:
Customer Segmentation
Pristine Portraits will primarily target the following customer and client profiles:
- Schools requiring school portrait services
- High school seniors needing senior graduation portraits
- Small businesses
- Newly engaged couples who require wedding photography services
Competitive Analysis
Pristine Portraits will face competition from other photography businesses with similar business profiles. A description of each competitor is below.
Direct Competitors
Lifetouch is a national photography business that focuses on providing school portraits for elementary, middle, and high school students. The focus of Lifetouch is to provide photography services for all family events and milestones. Lifetouch has been in business for more than 80 years and is headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. They are built on the tradition of “Picture Day” and are mostly known for providing school portraits from preschool through high school graduation.
Lifetouch is also able to provide additional photography services through their partnership with JCPenney Portraits. They have also become a part of the Shutterfly family of brands. With the Shutterfly partnership, Lifetouch is able to increase their photography delivery through digital products.
Olan Mills Portrait Studios is mostly known for providing family portrait services throughout the United States. Currently, all Olan Mills portrait studios can be found in JCPenney stores across the country. Their list of photography services include high-quality portrait products for the following occasions – newborn, birthday, first communion, holiday, graduation, engagement, adult and family portraits and portrait greeting cards. Olan Mills is able to provide photography through traditional print-outs or by digital albums.
Olan Mills is also a part of the Shutterfly family of brands. The partnership with Shutterfly allows customers to preserve their images with their unlimited free storage and be able to share your photos digitally.
Mindy Harmon Photography
Mindy Harmon Photography is based in The Woodlands, Texas and provides photography services for customers from the surrounding communities of Houston, Conroe, Montgomery, Spring, Tomball, Cypress, Katy, Humble, and Clear Lake. Mindy Harmon provides creative studio and on-location portrait work for children, families, high school seniors, maternity, models and commercial clients. Mindy Harmon was awarded Best of The Woodlands for her photography in 2013.
Competitive Advantage
Pristine Portraits will be able to offer the following advantages over their competition:
- Experienced and professional business owner who understands the needs for every type of client
- Digital software to enhance the look and style of each portrait
Marketing Plan
Brand & value proposition.
Pristine Portraits Photography will offer the unique value proposition to its clientele:
- High-quality portraits at unbeatable prices
- Experienced and professional owner/photographer who understands the needs for every type of client
Promotions Strategy
Pristine Portraits will utilize traditional marketing concepts with modern promotions in order to reach a greater target audience.
Cold Calling and Door-to-Door Business Sales Calls
Jay Jameson will be visiting schools and small businesses to explain his new company and describe the photography services he will offer. He already knows the pricing model that Olan Mills and Lifetouch offer to the schools and small businesses and he will offer his school portrait services and business headshot services at a lower price.
Referral Program and Word-of-Mouth
Jay will also implement a referral program that will reward an existing client with a discounted photography service if they recommend a fellow business or household for any photography service. Jay is very confident in his photography skills and is certain that once his portraits receive more exposure, he’ll be able to capture more business.
Bridal Shows and Festivals
Since a large portion of Jay’s business comes from wedding photography, Pristine Portraits will participate in advertising in bridal shows and festivals that are held annually and semi-annually in The Woodlands.
Website & Social Media
Pristine Portraits Photography will have a professionally designed website, where new and potential clients will be able to view a list of the services, pricing menu, and ability to schedule a photography session. The website will also include client testimonials and a gallery of photos with the clients’ permission.
Pristine Portraits will also have a business Facebook and Instagram profile. Jay will post monthly or seasonal photography specials and photos from previous photo shoots with the clients’ permission.
Pricing Strategy
The pricing of Pristine Portraits Photography will be moderate and on par with competitors so customers feel they receive value when purchasing their photography services.
Operations Plan
Pristine Portraits Photography will utilize the following operations plan.
Operation Functions:
- Jay Jameson, Owner, will oversee all photography services, scheduling, and marketing.
- Two part-time hourly employees to assist with tasks at the photography studio including but not limited to: answering customer phone calls, scheduling customer photo sessions, administrative tasks such as digital photo editing, and client communication.
- One year after opening, Jay Jameson will recruit 1 – 2 highly trained photographers to take on photography sessions as the business grows.
Milestones:
Pristine Portraits Photography will have the following milestones complete in the next six months.
3/1/202X – Finalize lease agreement for small retail space
3/15/202X – Begin build out of leased space
4/1/202X – Begin cold calling and social media campaign of acquiring potential clients
5/1/202X – Final walk through and approval of retail space
5/15/202X – Grand Opening of Pristine Portraits Photography Studio
Pristine Portraits Photography will be solely owned and operated by Jay Jameson with the help of two hourly employees.
Jay Jameson, Owner & Photographer
Financial plan, key revenue & costs.
The revenue drivers for Pristine Portraits Photography are its array of photography services. Jay will be able to provide photography services for schools , families, businesses, and weddings. Because of seasonal photography needs, Pristine Portraits will be able to maintain a busy schedule year-round.
The cost drivers for Pristine Portraits Photography will be the employee overhead to cover the salaries of the two person support staff. Other cost drivers will be the marketing expenses, rent and utility cost, and professional photography equipment.
Funding Requirements and Use of Funds
Key assumptions.
The following outlines the key assumptions required in order to achieve the revenue and cost numbers in the financials and in order to pay off the startup business loan.
- Year 1 Number of Clients: 100
- Annual Lease: $15,000
Financial Statements
Income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, free photography business plan pdf.
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Photography Studio Business Plan
Start your own photography studio business plan
Phoebe's Photo Studio
Executive summary executive summary is a brief introduction to your business plan. it describes your business, the problem that it solves, your target market, and financial highlights.">, opportunity.
Families need photographs to capture the special moments of their lives. Families of professionals are busy, and if too much time goes by between photos, these moments are lost forever. Babies, especially, grow fast and parents need photos of them several times a year.
While nearly everyone has a camera for snapshots, people need professional quality photos when they will be shown to an important audience, and when people want to be seen in the best light. The Internet has expanded the use of photos, making it possible for anyone to send them or to publish them for wide viewing.
Phoebe’s Photo Studio will meet the needs of professionals and their families to capture the special moments in their lives and present them in the best light. We will establish a relationship in which we initiate the calls to keep their photos up to date. Digital files of their photos will be available for free by e-mail, or with a nominal fee for CD. Because of our relationship with the families, when something big like a wedding comes, there’s no place else they would go.
Families with children are the biggest market for portraits. For the purpose of this analysis, these families are divided into three socio-economic categories:
- College graduates
- High school graduates
- Non-graduates
Families of college graduates are most likely to be professionals and to have the means and the taste for professional portraits. There are nearly 20,000 such families in the metropolitan area.
Competition
Competitor X is an award-winning, highly creative photographer with a style that one would expect to find in a national magazine. His prices are the highest in the area, up to $15,000 for a wedding album. His strategy appears to be to capture the high-end market, where a magazine look is a luxury that people can afford.
Competitor Y is a more typical photographer with more staged photographs and wedding packages running up to $5,000. His strategy appears to be to occupy the middle-ground of quality and price where most of the market is likely to be.
Competitor Z offers same-day photos. This is easier to accomplish with digital processing for a studio organized around speed, but the quality is necessarily sacrificed. The market for same-day photos doesn’t necessarily demand quality. Prices are average. The strategy of this studio appears to be to appeal to convenience and speed.
Our competitive edge is that we provide not only a photograph, but a program of ongoing portraits to capture the special moments in a family’s life. We then make the digital images of their photos easily and affordably available for distributing on the Internet.
Expectations
Phoebe’s will grow at a healthy annual rate by targeting families of professionals with newborn babies for baby pictures and then developing a relationship with the client over the years for ongoing photographs. The funding envisioned in this plan is projected to result in a comfortable healthy business by the third year.
Financial Highlights by Year
Financing needed.
We foresee a total of $80,000 in startup financing to get this business going and healthy. That comes $10K from owner savings, $20K as a 5-year loan (family cosigning), and $50K as an interest-free loan from family.
If the business proceeds according to plan, we will have about half of the $50K family loan paid off within three years.
Problem & Solution
Problem worth solving.
Professionals often have business needs for high-quality photos, and through this familiarity, they acquire a taste for them. When these professionals need photos to preserve memories, or to display family photos when they entertain at home, they have the budget and the desire for similarly high-quality photos. Just as they appoint their homes with fine furniture and decorations, the photos on their walls need to exhibit their standards of quality.
Most people use professional photo studios only on rare occasions, such as weddings, yearbook pictures, or baby portraits. Because the client has to initiate the call, many special moments are lost and the studio loses potential business. Photo studios generally charge a large fee for CDs of their clients’ digital images. For these reasons, most photo studios are rarely used by families as a whole.
Our Solution
Phoebe’s Photo Studio helps clients preserve memories and portray themselves in the best light. We thrive on repeat business by developing relationships with our clients and calling them with timely reminders for new photos. We make professional quality photographs easily available in a digital format. We do this by using a pricing structure that makes our digital photographs a household staple and by making it fun for them to come here or to have us in their homes.
Target Market
Market size & segments.
We will target female professionals and wives of professionals, because women make the majority of purchasing decisions in these families.
The competitive environment is divided between luxury magazine-quality photographers, moderate professional photographers who mostly pose their subjects, and same-day photo studios.
The trend among our targeted consumers is toward more digital photography and more sending of digital images on the Internet. As the world becomes more technical, people need more personal support.
Phoebe’s Photo Studio will use a "high-tech, high-touch" approach to reach and retain clients for their ongoing photo needs. We will make it affordable and easy for them to disseminate their photos electronically.
People who who pay for professional photo portraits are generally status-conscious professionals who have children, and so we’ve segmented the Eugene-Springfield metropolitan area according to the social status of families. We’ve used education as a measure of social status.
Families of College Graduates
Families of High School Graduates
People who have not completed college are assumed to be more likely to be employees or be in a trade. While many of them may have the means for professional photos, relatively few will use them. They are more likely to use home-made photographs, except for rare occasions, such as a high school photo or wedding.
Families of Non-High-School Graduates
These are families who are generally without the means to hire professional photographers on a regular basis.
Demographics
The Eugene-Springfield metropolitan area has a total population of 330,527. There are 74,836 families.
Some 25.5 percent of the adult population in the metropolitan area is composed of college graduates, which we will here define as professionals. Some 62 percent of the population is made up of high-school graduates.
The Eugene-Springfield metropolitan area closely conforms to the boundaries of Lane County, Oregon. The office will be located in Eugene, but clients are accessible throughout Lane County through physicians’ offices. Most Lane County residents are accustomed to doing occasional business in Eugene.
Current Alternatives
Competitor Z offers same-day photos. This is easier to accomplish with digital processing for a studio organized around speed, but quality is necessarily sacrificed. The market for same-day photos doesn’t necessarily demand quality. Prices are average. The strategy of this studio appears to be to appeal to convenience and speed.
Our Advantages
Keys to success.
Our keys for success are:
- Target marketing for the gateway products of baby pictures, high school photos and wedding albums.
- Developing relationships with our clients through personal customer service, to turn one-time customers into lifetime clients.
- Our system of tracking clients’ ongoing needs for photos and taking the initiative to call them for appointments
Marketing & Sales
Marketing plan.
We will get the word out by conventional advertising to start, and by a yellow page ad, social media and a website. We have a targeted marketing effort to:
- Families of newborn babies
- Families with children old enough to graduate college or high school
- Professionals who need a LinkedIn or Facebook shot, or a headshot for conferences.
A special for the first baby picture will be a regular feature of our pricing structure. This is offered with the intent of getting the whole family on an ongoing basis as clients, because babies need photos frequently and we want these families to be clients for life.
Locations & Facilities
We will open in an 800 square-foot studio at 100 Main Street, the heart of the commercial district with ample free parking. The space will be leased for three years beginning at $800 a month with cost-of-living adjustments made annually.
The studio will have a highly visible electric sign and a 20-foot wide display window visible to passing foot and auto traffic. Customers will enter a public area with a counter, samples of our photographs and albums, and couches for waiting. A separate playroom with props and other toys will accommodate children with sitting areas for parents, while a utility area off the back door will be set up to accommodate pets and their props. Children, pets and props can be brought into the photography studio for their photographs. An office and working area will be used for assembling the final product.
Milestones & Metrics
Milestones table, key metrics.
Key Metrics
- Measure website page views and customer inquiries
- Keep track of Facebook page views and Twitter re-tweets
- Train our staff to return calls right away
- # of customers in a month
- # of customers who book a second appointment in advance
Ownership & Structure
Phoebe Peters has worked as an industrial photographer and freelance portrait photographer in Southern California for 10 years. She has found that personal customer relationships are the key to repeat business and will open Phoebe’s Photo Studio in downtown Eugene, Oregon on that premise.
Management Team
Phoebe’s Photo Studio is a sole proprietorship owned by Phoebe Peters. It will open in a leased 800 square foot studio in downtown Eugene, Oregon.
Phoebe Peters is a graduate of Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California and is a member of the Professional Photographers of Oregon and the Professional Photographers of America. She has 10 years experience capturing the special moments of people’s lives.
Personnel Table
Financial plan investor-ready personnel plan .">, key assumptions.
We assume a stable economy with reasonable growth and a steady rise in interest rates. We also assume that our competitors won’t adopt our strategy within the first two years. After that, our approach is likely to make a change in what our competitors charge for digital files, because they’ll see it’s effective in bringing in repeat business as well as new business.
The expenses show the impact of close to $30K startup expenses, which we put into the first month. Those expenses are listed below in the Use of Funds chapter.
Revenue by Month
Expenses by month, net profit (or loss) by year, use of funds.
Start-up Expenses
- Insurance $300
- Filing Fees $50
- Utilities and Deposits $500
- Website Development $2,000
- Marketing Consultant: Ad design, etc. $20,000
- Personnel Costs for December $3,500
- Software $1,500
- Office Expense $200
TOTAL START-UP EXPENSES $28,730
Start-up Assets: $13,000 in computer and photographic equipment
Sources of Funds
We will be using the $10,000 cash from my savings, plus a $50,000 interest-free loan from family, and a $20,000 5-year loan co-signed by family. The plan calls for funds to service the bank loan and repay most of the family loan by the end of the third year.
Projected Profit & Loss
Projected balance sheet, projected cash flow statement.
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