A business plan for wedding photography describes a business model that's readily understood by any reader. Wedding photography is huge business in the US and abroad generating hundreds of millions of dollars every year in revenues. With an average event cost of $1500 in mid-sized to large cities, even solo practitioners can earn hefty profits. But it takes experience, equipment, and strong client rapport. Building a wedding photography business is not easy work, and developing a business plan to prove that you can undertake it isn't simple either. Your document needs to make a compelling case for you as a photographer and a people person while also showing that the industry's revenues and benchmarks for recent years can support the sort of growth you envision for yourself. Some critical topics to address in the plan include these:
• What is your base of experience to date with wedding photography to date?
• Who are the major wedding photographers already active in your area?
• Do you provide any photographic services for other event types?
• How do you treat the digital negatives?
• Do you shoot in raw format and retouch, and if so what are the back-end costs to clients?
• Do you work with any assistants? Does the business have or need any employees?
If you are already actively earning revenues for wedding work, you might consider treating the business as an existing entity for purposes of the plan. This includes creating a past performance table that uses the profit and loss statements and balance sheets from past years (generally 2 or 3) to create a snapshot of your performance to date. Either way, this information or the start-up summary should flow through to a series of informational tables showing your anticipated revenues and expenses over the life of the plan. Talk about your marketing techniques, too – wedding photography is a relationship-based business! MasterPlans has written plans and proposals for a wide range of photography businesses and we can help you as well. Call us today for a free quote and consultation. Toll-free: (877) 453-2011.
