Articles
Get Rid of Bad Clients
Imagine walking into every photo shoot knowing it will run smoothly, your client will be happy, and you’ll have a great time. This may seem like an unachievable dream, but it’s not.
It all falls into place when you’ve identified your ideal client. Your ideal client is a mixture of someone who spends the most money and who you enjoy photographing. To make your professional photography business successful, you must identify who your ideal client is and then ditch all the rest.
You can tell when a consumer enjoys your work, not based by their words, but by the amount they spend. Anyone who appreciates your hard work will be enthusiastic to spend the necessary amount for your art and make a habit of returning to your business for commissions.
So the first step in discovering your ideal client is identifying which group is spending the largest amount on your photography. Is it older, adult women? Married couples with children? Elderly men? Once you pinpoint that, it’s time to move on to the next step.
Not only does your ideal client spend money, but they’re also a delight to shoot with. You could be taking photos of a millionaire, but if they’re rude and snarky the whole time, they’re not a client you want to keep around. When you’re excited to take photos of a client and find the experience easy and fun for you, that’s your ideal client. Money and fun make the dream work.
Once you’ve identified exactly who your ideal client is, all you have left to do is the hardest step: replicating them. Your goal is to have a client base completely made up of your ideal client. How do you do that? Once you shoot with your ideal client, ask them out to coffee and spend some time interviewing them on their relationships, where they shop, and spend their time; basically, anything you can find out about them. The more data you collect, the better. Once you’ve interviewed enough customers, a pattern will begin to emerge.
Then it’s time to be creative. You can work with vendors frequently used by your clients to give them discounts to benefit you, the vendor, and your clients. You can also join similar clubs and organizations to network with potential clients. Alter your services to specifically cater to your ideal client and get them to flock to you.
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