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When it comes to business, mindset is everything.
It will help you make the right business decisions, be more organized and intentional, and so much more. It also positively affects other aspects of your life too.
If you are having trouble finding or attracting ideal clients, even after five years of being a photographer, it can help to take a look at your mindset. It could be the very thing keeping you from leading a successful business–it could even be the reason you are losing clients.
How is that possible?
Well, mindset is all about how we perceive things. If we truly believe that we can control how successful our business is, it pushes you in the right direction towards achieving that. By attaining an optimistic mindset, it can transform your business completely.
Think about it this way: if you believed that you weren’t capable of running a successful photography business, you are probably right! You will be less likely to take risks and every failure will negatively impact you. Thus, your business won’t do too great.
That is not to say that just by having a positive outlook on your business you will immediately find success, but it will set you up for long-term success. The current attitudes and beliefs you have revolving around how you do business and how you approach your business will improve. It is also likely your creativity and passion for your business will improve because you are more optimistic that it will work out!
When running a business, failure is inevitable. Even the most successful people experienced it, and most likely still experience it to this day. Think about it: no one can succeed at everything. There is always someone better at something than you, and someone better than that person. If you treat failure like it is a reflection of you and your worth or skills, it will get you nowhere. Instead, try to change your mindset and restructure how you approach and think of failure. View it as a learning opportunity and a lesson, not something that will inhibit your success.
It is common to focus on your failures and overlook your successes, but it is so important to get out of the habit of doing this. Create a folder and fill it with photos from sessions that went really well, or bookmark the testimonial page on your website and frequently visit it. Remind yourself of the times when things went really good, and remind yourself of how it felt. It will help inspire you, and even respark that love for your business if it is faltering a little bit.
It is too easy to set goals that are not achievable because they are completely unrealistic. An example is having an income goal of $100,000 when this is your first year as a full-time photographer, and you have never made anything close to that previously. This is setting yourself up for avoidable failure, which can negatively impact your mindset. Instead, take a hard and realistic look at where you are at, and set clear and achievable goals from there. It can be helpful to follow the S.M.A.R.T goal guidelines when crafting your business goals: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.
If you don’t try new things in your business, it can grow stale. Sometimes, if things aren’t working out, it is worth exploring new things like targeting a new audience, offering a new package, or registering for an online business course to improve your skills. If you want to learn how to take your business skills to the next level, Focal offers a free Business Accelerator Program for photographers that forces you to take a hard look at your business, find and reach your ideal clients, and convey your value. Click HERE to learn more!
Always have a destination in mind so the road you are walking down doesn’t lead you to a dead end. However, make sure this “vision” isn’t something you can only achieve after ten or so years of laborious work. Envision something that if you work hard enough, you can reach in six months to a year. Once you reach it, create the next vision. This ensures you aren’t getting bored of your goals, and that you don’t lose sight of them either. Creating a vision that you can’t achieve for years and years makes it hard to see the progress you’ve made in your business; once again, this can damage your mindset.
That is how your mindset is losing you photography clients, and how to shift your mindset to see the success you deserve in your business.
Check out our last blog post: How to stand out in a saturated photography industry
Are you in search of a fair platform to showcase your work? Are you tired of convincing clients to see your value? Focal aspires to build a better and fair marketplace for photographers to meet their ideal clients. Click the link below and pre-register today!
