Create Your Own Opportunities

Episode 192 - Kickstart your business with this easy method.

The Transcript page - https://photographysidehustle.com/192

The Photoshop for Photographers course

ConvertKit - Set up a free account with a list of up to 1,000 emails.

Please leave a voice message for Andy at SpeakPipe.com   Ask a question and get on the podcast, you know it makes sense.

Join the Facebook Group and ask as many questions as you like.

Visit PhotographySideHustle.com, and you get access to all the downloads, including the Pricing Calculator, mini-courses, and videos of how I process my RAW images

Transcript

 Hey, how's it going? I'm Andy Jones, and this is episode 192 of the Photography Side Hustle Podcast.  

So this episode is called Create Your Own Opportunities. And I came up with the idea because I was given the opportunity to shoot at a local sportsman show. First off, we do like a portrait with each vendor in front of their stall before the show opens, then I'll take general pictures.

During the day, well, it's a whole weekend of people working with customers and the company is going to use them for their advertising. And they'll also give them to the vendors themselves so they can use them in their advertising. So this show has minimum 180. Vendors, and I think it's going to be more like 200 vendors and it's got everything from boat sales, RV and trailers, fishing, hunting, crafts, specialty foods, cottage builders, barbecues and smokers, jewelry, candles, wineries, breweries, camping equipment, motorbike sales, motorbike clubs, realtors, kids toys, Sports clubs and clothing.

Plus, there's so many more that I didn't cover. It's crazy how many different businesses are going to be there. Now, this dawned on me that any one of you that's just starting out, if they could get the opportunity that I've got with this one show, you're putting yourself in front of minimum 180 vendors, people with businesses.

And if you shoot commercially, So let's say you shoot head shots, so you do product photography, social media photos for businesses, uh, business and branding photos, like lifestyle, that kind of thing, the opportunity here is absolutely massive. You don't have to send an email out. All you've got to do is walk to the next table, give them a card, explain what you're doing.

And if you need help with anything in the future, there's my card. You're going to love the photos that I take. You'll like them even more when I'm working for you. The opportunity is absolutely crazy. Now you might be thinking, yeah, but this is commercial. I don't do that. I do family portraits. I do weddings.

I shoot real estate. In fact, any type of photography, anything that is non commercial, You might be thinking, there's no use, there's no point in doing it. Well, there is because all these business people, they all have families too. They've all got kids that are getting married. They need family portraits.

They need anything doing.  So don't just look at it as a commercial opportunity. You can get people for anything.  Now you can offer to shoot the event for free and get access to all these businesses, or maybe try and get a booth as payment for your work. Just say, give me a table over in the corner where I can put some information out.

I'll do all your images for free. You're offering thousands of dollars worth of work for maybe a 500, 600 table.  So it's really something to look at. As soon as you have a booth or a table. Now, one thing you will need though, is someone to run your booth or table while you're out shooting on the floor. 

Think about it. You've got a table now at this event. You can now market to the vendors and everyone that comes into the show. Every visitor that comes through the door is going to at some point walk past your table, which can put your business in front of thousands upon thousands of potential customers.

So, it's a double, well it's more than a double whammy, it's a ten times whammy. All you got to do is remember, have some business cards or brochures ready to hand out. Now, this one I'm doing is a, it's a sports center. It's a two story sports center with ice rinks, a swimming pool. The only part of the building they're not using is where the swimming pool is.

If you were in a big city, now the biggest one to me is we've got Ottawa one way and Toronto the other. When you get shows in Toronto, they have shows with excess of a thousand vendors. It's just. Some over 2000 vendors, the massive, these are huge, huge events. So just think about how something like this can kickstart your business.

Like I say, even if you do weddings, you do whatever, try and get in, offer to do it at no cost to the company running it. And all you want is a table or a booth where you can just try and sell your stuff. Now there is another option. When I was shooting weddings, there was a local bridal show and it was really small.

It was in a, it was in a local legion, which is like a veteran's hall. And there was probably  40, 40 businesses in there. There was a couple of other photographers. There was, but it was, it was run by a bridal store, like a wedding dress company. And it was awful. All they were bothered about was them. And it lasted two years.

I think after I stopped going, it was awful. It was a waste of time. I know for a fact the hall that they were in  might have cost, I don't know, 800  for the day, maybe 1, 000 now. If, say, you're a wedding photographer and there isn't one in your area, like there isn't here, start one. If the cost of rent in the hall is really high, maybe it's out of, it's too much for you.

Team up with another wedding related business. Just not another photographer though. You want to be the only photographer at the show.  Now, the cost of renting booths at big trade shows can be expensive. Like the small ones, probably you're looking at,  looking about six, seven hundred dollars for a small table around here.

Don't know what it is. Down in the States might be less, might be, well, it's definitely going to be a different amount of money because of the exchange rate.  Find out how much these tables cost. The one thing that all these businesses know, that even though it might cost them 2, 000 to put their booth in there, or more, some of the bigger ones like RV dealers, they need a lot of space and it costs them a lot of money.

But they know that it's well worth them spending multiple thousands to get in front of customers. When people are going to these shows, they're going there for information and possibly buying stuff. So, think about it. If there's nothing in your area, think about renting out a hall. Because the money you get from the vendors paying for booths and tables could pay for renting the hall.

Like, it doesn't matter if it breaks even. Even if you're 500 bucks out of pocket, you're the only photographer there. And you're in front of all these people coming through. Now, the same applies to pet and baby photography. In fact, it really doesn't matter what your genre is. You could start the show under any banner.

It could be a spring show. It could be a winter show.  Get all the companies in to buy booths or a table. And again, you're the only photographer that's going to be there. You've got to remember that.  So there's lots of ways to go about this.  I think these trade shows and spring shows, winter shows, Christmas shows, whatever they are, are a great opportunity.

Not just renting a booth or a table, but actually getting out there and covering, covering it as an event that puts you in front of all those vendors. It's always better to be the official photographer. If you just walk in, take pictures and say, Oh, by the way, I'm, they just don't have time for you.

They're looking at selling to other people. But if you're the official person, you're giving them something back. So starting your own show is something that is probably out of the reach of a lot of people, but if in your town, there's a, there's an opening, consider it, you can make an awful lot of money, not only as the photographer shooting the event, but having a table there and getting lots of people coming in, all the visitors, walking past your table and selling yourself to them as well.

Plus you can make money off. The show, if you do it properly, but that's getting away from photography a little bit, but  this one really did just fall in my lap a little bit. I didn't go out of my way to get it, but just think about it. If you could be the official photographer and most of these shows don't have an official photographer,  put a package together and get in touch with these people that run the shows and try and get a table in there if you can and get maybe your wife or your girlfriend, boyfriend, family member.

Even pay someone to do it if you have to get someone on a booth or table in there and you are multiplying your chances of getting work by thousands, it'd be ridiculous putting yourself out in front of all these businesses in one day, you could hit all these businesses, 180. Forget about sending emails out that no one opens or walking door to door down the street and giving them your brochure.

This will absolutely blow everything else away because they're getting to see your work as well. That's the beauty of it. You're not just handing a brochure in over a counter to someone. They're going to get photos that you've taken of them that obviously are going to be amazing because you're a great photographer. 

You can't lose it. There's so many pluses to this. So think about covering an event like this, a show of some kind, especially with spring coming, especially around here because everyone's so sick of being cold and wet and snowy. Spring shows are massive. They really are big. Okay, that's all I've got for this week.

The basic editing course will be up mid week. I thought I'd try and get it done for this weekend. Didn't happen. So, middle of the week, hopefully we'll have that one up. If you need help with anything, you can get in touch with me through the Facebook group,  Instagram, Blue Sky on Facebook Messenger, and I'll be back next week with a lot more waffle.

So I'll see you then. Bye.