Been reading the forum for almost 2 years but never posted, so I figured I'd share my story.
Growing up I always loved catalogs, fashion, and art in general. I took a few classes in high school and quickly learned there was alot technical skill involved in photography which kind of dampered my interest. And then you have the geographical thing, I livedin a 4th tier city with less than 100k people.
So around the late 00s I started reading alot
into the modeling industry and realized outside of the major hubs (NYC, LA, London) every city pretty much has its own local industry. For example every state has its own "Miss ____" beauty pageant, and before it even reaches that stage you have competitions in each individual county.
But what puzzled me is, I would run a search for local photographers and literally 99% specialize in either Weddings, Newborns, HS Seniors and Athletics. So out of 1000s of aspiring models they really have no where to go, except schools like John Casablancas. They have "scouts" who basically approach people in public, flatter them to death and invite their parents to an informational session where they then attempt to sell them on $2000 lessons. I decided I'd do things the other way - provide a service FIRST then ask for money (and alot less than than they ask for).
First obstacle I ran into was I didn't have a location to shoot at, I didn't want to invite people to my house either. A free option I found is the library - they have meeting rooms you can reserve for 2 hours at a time, and are quite spacious. I would run ads on Craigslist and MySpace but also had success inviting people face to face. For example, certain restaurants I go to on a regular basis I'd get to know the servers and felt comfortable enough to pitch my services. And by the way, I wasn't really selling my photography as a service, I had figured out Prints were lucrative. Models would request 8x10s to give to their family and friends. At Office Depot and Staples when you order large quantities you can get a business account and get them for a dollar a piece. Depending on if it was Gloss or Matte I'd generally sell them for 5-10 bucks.
So after a year I hadn't made enough money to pursue it full time but I was able to rent office space and set up an official "studio" of sorts. Having a "retail" like environment is partly to explain how modeling schools do so well. Over several months I slowly furnished it with accessories like lighted mirrors, stools, makeup stations to the point when people walked in it had a "Wow" factor.
The next year after that, I was able to land some small time clients - at trade shows and expos they have aspiring designers and I was able to easily pitch them on the concept of a catalog. Once again I'd do the work for free then ask for money...after having the photos shot, I'd pay a graphics designer $100 to put together a catalog and then have a rough brochure produced at Staples. Each month I was able to land a new catalog project, which I'd charge 1000 for. We'd also did promotional posters and huge vinyl 10x20 tarps.
So during the middle of this, Instagram blew up and I started brainstorming how I could incorporate that. I organized a weekly meeting where we would analyze each person's weekly posts, reactions it got and we'd go around the table with each person giving feedback on what could've been better.( To give you guys a visual We actually had a Laptop hooked up to a projector screen - this was organized similar to a corporate meeting rather than an artistic endeavor). Besides posts we also shared DMs and advised each other how to respond. What alot of people don't realize is the lions share of the business on IG is private, there's a whole other world beyond public posts and comments. After about a year or two, everyone in our meetings had at least ten thousand followers and a few people hit the 100k mark.
Up until that point I had kept a day job strictly for benefit coverage but having a combination of the prints, catalogs and social media I was making more than enough I could set up my own plan.
For the coming years I am looking to scale things up and earn substantially more.
Growing up I always loved catalogs, fashion, and art in general. I took a few classes in high school and quickly learned there was alot technical skill involved in photography which kind of dampered my interest. And then you have the geographical thing, I livedin a 4th tier city with less than 100k people.
So around the late 00s I started reading alot
into the modeling industry and realized outside of the major hubs (NYC, LA, London) every city pretty much has its own local industry. For example every state has its own "Miss ____" beauty pageant, and before it even reaches that stage you have competitions in each individual county.
But what puzzled me is, I would run a search for local photographers and literally 99% specialize in either Weddings, Newborns, HS Seniors and Athletics. So out of 1000s of aspiring models they really have no where to go, except schools like John Casablancas. They have "scouts" who basically approach people in public, flatter them to death and invite their parents to an informational session where they then attempt to sell them on $2000 lessons. I decided I'd do things the other way - provide a service FIRST then ask for money (and alot less than than they ask for).
First obstacle I ran into was I didn't have a location to shoot at, I didn't want to invite people to my house either. A free option I found is the library - they have meeting rooms you can reserve for 2 hours at a time, and are quite spacious. I would run ads on Craigslist and MySpace but also had success inviting people face to face. For example, certain restaurants I go to on a regular basis I'd get to know the servers and felt comfortable enough to pitch my services. And by the way, I wasn't really selling my photography as a service, I had figured out Prints were lucrative. Models would request 8x10s to give to their family and friends. At Office Depot and Staples when you order large quantities you can get a business account and get them for a dollar a piece. Depending on if it was Gloss or Matte I'd generally sell them for 5-10 bucks.
So after a year I hadn't made enough money to pursue it full time but I was able to rent office space and set up an official "studio" of sorts. Having a "retail" like environment is partly to explain how modeling schools do so well. Over several months I slowly furnished it with accessories like lighted mirrors, stools, makeup stations to the point when people walked in it had a "Wow" factor.
The next year after that, I was able to land some small time clients - at trade shows and expos they have aspiring designers and I was able to easily pitch them on the concept of a catalog. Once again I'd do the work for free then ask for money...after having the photos shot, I'd pay a graphics designer $100 to put together a catalog and then have a rough brochure produced at Staples. Each month I was able to land a new catalog project, which I'd charge 1000 for. We'd also did promotional posters and huge vinyl 10x20 tarps.
So during the middle of this, Instagram blew up and I started brainstorming how I could incorporate that. I organized a weekly meeting where we would analyze each person's weekly posts, reactions it got and we'd go around the table with each person giving feedback on what could've been better.( To give you guys a visual We actually had a Laptop hooked up to a projector screen - this was organized similar to a corporate meeting rather than an artistic endeavor). Besides posts we also shared DMs and advised each other how to respond. What alot of people don't realize is the lions share of the business on IG is private, there's a whole other world beyond public posts and comments. After about a year or two, everyone in our meetings had at least ten thousand followers and a few people hit the 100k mark.
Up until that point I had kept a day job strictly for benefit coverage but having a combination of the prints, catalogs and social media I was making more than enough I could set up my own plan.
For the coming years I am looking to scale things up and earn substantially more.
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