Reset Featured Speaker | Meredith Gradle

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Have you ever been stuck in a rut with growing your business?  Your inquiries have slowed.  You need to keep income rolling in.  Maybe you’ve tried some different marketing techniques, but nothing seems to be helping.  Meredith Gradle from Iris Works is sharing with us today 3 ways to grow your photography business.  These are 3 solid steps you can take to get the emails and phone calls rolling in steadily.
Meredith Gradle photographer3 Ways to Grow Your Photography Business

If you’ve ever met me, or heard me speak before, you know that I am passionate about helping photographers succeed.  As the founder of Iris Works – a studio management system for photographers, I know how a HUGE piece of a photographer’s success is based how they run their business.

Many times photographers are creatives who love the artistic side of being a photographer, so they focus on growing their skills and producing better images. But the business side of photography? Not a lot of love happening there. What many photographers don’t realize is that no matter how great your images, if you aren’t running your business well you are going to really struggle to  be successful  and continue to grow.

Did you know that in the 1st year, 60% of photographers give up their business. Sixty percent! Of those who make it past year one, another 25% will fail within the 2nd year.  And this is not due to anything other than bad business practices. Setting a solid foundation for your business is crucial to its success and growth.  

So where should you place your focus in order to grow and sustain your business? Here are three areas that you should always focus on: 

Growing your business with Iris Works1. Educating your clients – The number one reason clients report being unhappy with a service provider is lack of education and communication. Take time to create info packets and PDFs that you can send to your clients to help prepare, educate, and set expectations for the process. Whether that’s a pricing sheet, welcome packet with tips, what to wear guide, etc. These things are going to help your client have a more enjoyable experience with you. 

2. Streamline and organize – Create a workflow by writing down the steps each client goes through with you from start to finish.  Set specific due dates for tasks and emails – based around the date of the session – to keep you organized and prevent you from running behind schedule . Then use a system like Iris Works to help you manage those  steps and even automate many of them,  so you never miss a step with a client. This will position you to provide your clients with the best overall  client experience. AND you’ll be running your business efficiently as well  – meaning you’ll have more time to focus on other aspects of your business – or even more time for you and/or your family!

3. Have a referral program and ask for them – Happy clients are the best way to grow your business. Having a referral program in place that  provides your clients an incentive to pass along your name is the best way to organically grow your client base.  This can be a simple statement at the end of a session, “It was so much fun working with your family, and I would love to photograph your  family and friends.” Or when they get their gallery and they tell you they love them, “I’m so pleased you’re happy with my work. Do you know anyone else who needs (family/newborn/senior/etc) photos?” You’ll never get them unless you ask, so why not give them an opportunity to talk about how great their experience was with you? 

These are just three areas of focus that can help set you up for success! And in a few weeks, I’ll be presenting at Reset to share how you can increase your bookings, and your revenue, with less effort! Hope to see you there!

Meredith Gradle is the founder and CEO of Iris Works – a photography studio management program. As a photographer of nearly 6 years, Meredith used her knowledge of the industry to create a simple and intuitive studio management system. 

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