Home Photography Business Ideas for Women Hard-Hit by the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has been hard for everyone, in different ways, and for different reasons. And it’s been an especially difficult time for women, who are dealing with the negative fallouts to a disproportionate degree. Many women who have had to stay home due to health concerns or family obligations, or who have lost work, may be scrambling to find different ways to earn money from home, through different online ventures. One option, if you have a knack for photography, might be to monetize your hobby.

Here are a few guidelines from EntrepreneuHerway for turning your interest in photography into a business venture.

Different ways to make money with photography.

Even if you aren’t in a position to start offering traditional photographer services, due to the limitations imposed by the pandemic, there are many other ways you can turn a photographic interest into a financial opportunity. One of the best and most popular ways is to sell your photos online, either as custom prints or as stock photos. You can sell photos on your own website, or via a platform such as Shutterstock. Selling stock photos can be a great passive income source since you’ll get a commission every time someone pays for and downloads an image.

But there are other possibilities for photographers, as well, If you want to branch out: you could create and monetize a photography blog, offer some remote photography classes, or write and pitch articles for photographic arts journals.

Consider creating your own photography-related business.

If your photographic business venture seems to be going well, you might want to take this freelance project up a notch and form your own legal business. There are several benefits of doing so. For one thing, it adds an extra level of professional credibility to your work profile. Plus, when you form your business as an LLC, you get access to extra liability protection and more tax deductions. This means you could potentially write off your photography expenses, the costs related to your studio, and some of your equipment.

Some tips for keeping a home business running smoothly.

Running a home business comes with the advantages of flexibility, low overhead, and the freedom to care for your family. But it can also come with a lot of extra stress, especially since you never really get the sense of going home and leaving work at work. Be sure to set clear boundaries between work life and home life, and stay organized, so running your home business doesn’t burn you out. One way to do this is to have a clearly demarcated area for work only. Try not to take your work out of the work area if you can help it. And try to give yourself some quiet time when you can focus, uninterrupted, on business-related tasks. Also, consider hiring a virtual assistant so you can delegate some of your work, even from home. Good virtual assistant services will tend to a lot of the administrative tasks that might otherwise eat up your time, including data entry, scheduling, and customer service.

The importance of great marketing.

Another way to be sure you aren’t overwhelmed with your business responsibilities is to be sure you have a top-notch marketing strategy. Because you certainly do not want to be exhausting your energies to no avail – and that, unfortunately, is what happens to business owners when they don’t have the right marketing campaign that attracts their target demographic. Be sure to do a market analysis so you know who to reach, and how to reach them. Make sure your branding and messaging are on-point, as well.

Even though this has been an unusually difficult time, having opportunities for you to explore can be encouraging – especially if it means the chance to expand on and develop your art. And once the pandemic is over and you’re able to get out and travel more, you may even decide to grow your freelance venture or business in new and exciting directions.

EntrepreneuHerway is all about women's entrepreneurship and will be hosting classes regularly to help women advance in their career and excel on their entrepreneurship journey! Questions? Feel free to contact us!