Photographer's MBA, The: Everything You Need to Know for Your Photography Business

by Sal Cincotta

If you have finally taken the leap with your photography and gone into business–or if you are considering it– The Photographer’s MBA will prove a helpful guide in navigating the often confusing and occasionally frustrating territories of business, marketing, pricing, and contracts. Photographer Sal Cincotta, who runs a highly successful portrait, senior, and wedding photography business, deftly leads you through “the other 90%” of the job of a photographer. In this book, you Consider what kind of business entity is best suited for you, such as a sole proprietorship, S-Corp, or LLC Learn about the critical importance of both business plans and marketing plans, and how they will help you reach your short-term and long-term goals Understand branding’s elements and how to define your own brand so that you stand out from the crowd Assess your social media strategy to optimize your presence online, and learn about search engine optimization (SEO) to increase your findability Tackle costs, pricing, and contracts (including copyright and model releases) At the end of each chapter, Sal offers a Next Steps section, containing exercises that challenge you to actively implement the overall lessons in the book. By helping you create a solid plan, a strategy you can implement, and a vision for your business, The Photographer’s MBA gets you well on your way to creating and sustaining a photography business that will grow and succeed for years to come.

Genres: Photography, Business, Nonfiction

194 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 20, 2012

Reviews

[Martin Iotchev · Rating 4 out of 5]

First thing: the MBA part of the title is a bit of a marketing stretch. Don't expect a full course on how all the intricacies of business work.

That aside, this book is good to show you what goes into the business aspect of running a studio. While it doesn't go into a ton of depth the author does a good job to explain why certain things are important (eg, copyright clauses, model releases, making sure you choose the correct business organization, etc). You can think of this book as a roadmap and a behind-the-scenes peek at what you need to be aware of before creating a business and making a bunch of mistakes.

One thing to also keep in mind is that this book does show its age when it talks about things like social media, DVDs as deliverables, etc. Do your best to extrapolate to the modern age and maybe pair it with some other resources to help fill those gaps.

[Nicole Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent information on getting started in the photography business.

I recommend this book for anyone who wants the nitty gritty on the photo business. Sal provides straightforward details about how to get started creating your own photography business and gives you lots of information to think about. The book doesn’t give you all the answers you will need like pricing because that information is some you have to figure out for yourself. Sal does give you plenty information that he gives the reader to think about such as legal information and necessary elements to take into consideration when you get a lawyer to go over your legal contracts. I am highly recommend reading it and taking notes as you read.

[Abbie Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

I requested this book from the library and when I went to pick it up, I was surprised at how light and thin it was. It was a decent book with some honest - and possibly eye-opening - advice for people starting a photography business. However, it was VERY general. I hardly feel like I got an MBA. On the flip side, there were some concepts in business and law that were explained pretty simply and clearly. And the photos were beautiful. But this book's pretty pictures won't help me figure out how to get my next client or increase my SEO.

[Batr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good tips. It was not worth writing the whole book.