Heather Wanninger’s Ideas for Rising Your Portrait Enterprise 

On this episode of The Portrait System Podcast, host Nikki Closser speaks with Central Illinois photographer Heather Wanninger about her portrait enterprise that focuses on seniors, company shoppers, and training. Wanninger shares suggestions for rising your portrait enterprise that, in only one yr, grew her enterprise from $20k to $100k.  

Earlier than pursuing pictures as a profession, Wanninger was a stay-at-home mother with three boys and by no means imagined returning to the workforce. With the breakdown of her marriage and the start of divorce proceedings, she knew she was going to want to make a distinct plan. Wanninger had all the time cherished pictures and some years prior, she had created a harvest album for a neighborhood farmer. When a buddy of a buddy noticed the album and requested household pictures from her, Wanninger’s enterprise was born with a $50 all-inclusive shoot. 

[Read: How Kara Marie Built Two Thriving Boudoir Portrait Businesses]

Like many photographers, Wanninger started capturing all the pieces she may however quickly found her true ardour in creating empowering pictures for highschool seniors, who’re on the pivotal second in lifetime of transitioning out of childhood into maturity. Since then, she’s been in enterprise for 11 years, with the important second for her coming when she reached the $20k mark. At the moment, she realized she was successful and had the braveness to take a more in-depth look to see how she may do even higher. 

Wanninger says that elevating consciousness was key. She says, “I turned extra conscious of my environment. I turned extra conscious of the alternatives that truthfully had been all the time there.” 

For Wanninger, this began with determining her value of doing enterprise in order that she was conscious of how a lot she was truly taking house from every shoot. From there, she set a objective for a way a lot she wished to make in a yr and broke that down into an attainable quantity for every month. Switching to in-person gross sales gave her clients the chance to spend extra money together with her, and maintaining her lowest package deal priced at her earlier package deal quantity of $500 eased the transition of getting her highest package deal priced at $2,000. Moreover, she turned proactive about reaching out to individuals who expressed curiosity in reserving together with her as an alternative of ready for them to get in touch together with her. Alongside together with her rising confidence in her means to achieve success in enterprise, Wanninger’s bravery prolonged into wanting intently at what had introduced her thus far and the way she may go even additional.

To be taught extra about Wanninger’s work and how one can go about rising your portrait enterprise, go to Sweet Lemonade Photography. 

The Portrait System Podcast helps portrait photographers navigate the world of pictures, enterprise, cash, and way more. Hosted by Nikki Closser, the podcast is powered by The Portrait System, a complete, on-line academic platform that teaches all features of working a profitable portrait pictures studio.