How to Start Survive and Make Money

How to Start, Survive & Make Money as a Photographer

ONLINE COURSE

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About the Course

Most photographers lack the business foundations needed to stay alive for 3 years, let alone a decade and prosper.

This course is for you:

Have you been questioning how to start, or move your commercial photography business forwards but aren’t sure how to handle the business world?
Do you have trouble handling estimates and clients properly?
Perhaps you don’t have enough clients, or perhaps too many bad ones?
Are you established and are curious to know how to take it to the next level?

Well, if you like to learn by example – Vadim Chiline, photographer and creative director at EpicMind Studio will share his day-to-day methods that he uses to not only survive, but increase his brand and business each year for over a decade with several anecdotes of the ups and downs of his studio.

Most of us are not born with business minds or personalities – having started out as a web developer he has transitioned careers to not only be “another photographer”, but to be regarded as one of the top luxury product photographers today.

Learn to avoid the many mistakes photographers make when running their business – stay busy doing things right.

DURATION

3 hours, 36 minutes

LEVEL

Beginner - Professional

TYPE

Online Video Course

This course is for you, if you are:

Looking to start a commercial photography business.
Want to avoid making common mistakes in business.
Have a photography business, but are wondering what you can do to get to the next level.

COURSE CURRICULUM

Course includes 3.5+ hours of instruction in 12 video lessons

01

Your first Steps to Success in Commercial Photography, Part 1

Your first steps to success in commercial photography
You’re not only a photographer.
When should you quit your day job?

02

Your first Steps to Success in Commercial Photography, Part 2

Finding yourself and defining your portfolio
Is doing free work bad?
Getting clients — The state of marketing today
How to source products to garnish your portfolio?

03

What are you worth?

Conditions that affect your photography fees
What are you worth? Determining your base rate
Factors affecting your creative fee

04

Copyright and Licensing - What is it?

Owning the rights vs work for hire
How to protect your images from theft and illegal usage?
The usage fee

05

How to Create Estimate Like a Pro

Handling inquiries professionally: Human psychology 101
Negotiating: The art of saying “No”
What should a quote look like and contain?
Terms and conditions

06

Invoices & Collecting Money

In this lesson, we will show you how to create invoices and ways on collecting money.

07

Dealing with Slow or Non-Paying Clients and False Promises

Dealing with slow paying clients; Making first contact
Ways to recover your money
Handling clients promising you big volumes of work

08

Bookkeeping and Accounting: Knowing What's Going On

Keeping paperwork in order
Business expenses
Working with a professional accountant
Accounting software

09

Growing your Business

In this lesson, Vadim introduces the plan on how to grow your business in photography.

10

Home Studio vs External Studio?

Home studio vs external studio
Things to consider for your studio space
The hidden costs of renting a studio space

11

Insurance for your Business

In this lesson, we talked about protecting yourself and your business with insurance.

12

Clients: How to Deal with the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Types Out There

In this lesson, we will talk about what you need to do in dealing with clients: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

13

Downloads: Sample Invoices, Quotes and Estimates

Real documents from real business, for you as an example

ABOUT THE COURSE’S

Instructor

Vadim Chiline

I’ve mixed it up over the years – having studied various fields from Cell Biology, to Computer Science; I’ve always been involved with art and photography but had a technical side which helps me today manage my studio. Having rarely taken the easy path in life, I believe obstacles present challenges to build on and promote quick learning. If I had to compare myself to a composer, I would choose Beethoven; things might not always come easily, and I believe my emotional nature comes through my photography with its dramatic counterpoint of light and dark images.

See Vadim’s portfolio