3 Business Tips for Beginner Food Photographers

Launching a new career can be incredibly intimidating, and with good reason. You don’t know what to expect and only want to succeed. It might seem like a pipe dream, but you can achieve your food photography dreams! We have three food photography business tips for beginners that will change how you launch your career.

These three tips might seem basic and obvious, but they are pitfalls almost every new food photography business must realize. That’s because these don’ts sound like great ideas at first, but they can be fatal mistakes once you get into them. So take our advice and save yourself some future headaches with our three tips.

Tip 1: DON’T Say Yes to Every Client. 

Everyone who launches a new business venture falls into the trap of always saying “Yes!”

• Yes, I’ll take on the new project even though I don’t have time. That’s what weekends and nights are for!
• Yes, I’ll accept you as a client even though you don’t fit my services and pay less than I want. 
• Yes, I’ll do extra work I didn’t agree to in our contract because I don’t want to disappoint you!

Saying “yes” might seem like the best way to earn more business, develop happy clients, and make the most money, but it can be your downfall. When you say “yes” to everything and everyone, all that happens is you end up overwhelmed, tired, dissatisfied with work, and feeling like a failure. Saying “no” is one of the most essential food photography business tips you can learn.

Don’t take on projects you have no time for or pay below your worth. Don’t take on clients who will require more work than you can give. Don’t exceed your contract limits to make a client happy.

Check out our blog about a food photography mom returning to work for more insight!

DO Focus on Creating Systems and Prioritization

To decide what you should say “yes” to and what you should turn down, you need to stop and take a moment to focus on getting organized and creating a system for your business. Plan exactly what you want your food photography business to look like and go from there.

• How many hours do you want to work each week?
• Are there any days, afternoons, mornings, or evenings you cannot work?
• How much money do you want/need to earn to meet your goals?
• What minimum amount are you willing to make from a client/project to deem it worthwhile?
• How many projects/clients can you take on before feeling overwhelmed?
• How much administrative work is required weekly to stay on top of your business?
• What kind of work lights you up and brings you joy?

By answering the above questions, you can prioritize yourself and your business in a way that is most likely to achieve your goals. You’ll know when you’ve reached your limits and must start saying “no.” And best yet, when you are organized, you’ll have more time and energy than you expected because you’re wasting less time and stress running around without a game plan.

Learn some amazing food photography hacks from a project manager to be even more organized!

Tip 2: DON’T Let Your New Food Photography Business Take Over Your Life. 

There’s a common joke in the self-employed industry that work never ends. You clock in and out at a typical office job, leaving work at the office. But when you are the CEO, the idea that you cannot and should not do it all can be your absolute least favorite photography business tip. It might feel like giving up.

You’ll be incredibly tempted to make food photography your entire life when you launch your business. It will be the first thing you think about when you wake up and the last thing you think about before you go to bed. You’ll interrupt dinner to write down an idea or send a quick email. And you’ll want to take every client call immediately, even if you are in the middle of something else that’s as important (or even more important).

There will be a pervasive feeling that if you don’t do it all, you’ll miss your chance at success, but that is not true. If you let your food photography business take over your life, you’ll forget why you wanted to launch this business in the first place. And you’ll end up more miserable in your new CEO role than in your previous job.

Read our blog about a lifelong entrepreneur embracing blog food photography to learn more.

DO Put Up Boundaries and Protect Yourself

Instead, the best food photography business tip we can give you is establishing boundaries. Yes, being a solopreneur is a lot of work and requires dedication to succeed. You cannot launch a business halfway and expect to earn what you want and get the clients you dreamed about. But that doesn’t mean you have to give up everything else.

If your goal when launching your food photography business was to have more time for your family and friends, then make sure you build that into your workload. Don’t take on so much work that you have less free time than ever. Set your goals, make your plan, and then go after the desired result. Everything else that gets in the way is just a nuisance and waste of time.

Protect your why for getting into food photography. If you lose that, it ends in misery.

Learn how to start a food photography business today!

Tip 3: DON’T Buy Every Prop and Piece of Equipment

The last of our food photography business tips is less serious but no less critical. We love new toys and treats. Who doesn’t? Going to the store or heading onto Amazon and seeing all the gorgeous, unique, and fun food photography props and equipment you can buy is a recipe for overbuying and overspending.

It might seem like you need everything AND the kitchen sink. After all, you don’t want to be in the middle of a photoshoot and not have the perfect bowl or background to make the shot. It could ruin your entire photoshoot and produce poor results. But while that can be true, all you need are the essentials to ensure that you can do your job well. You can buy all the other incidentals later.

DO Invest Carefully in What Matters

You do not need as many props and pieces of equipment as you think you do. You can take incredible photos that look highly professional with just a few essential items. By only buying what you need and not all the pretties, you’ll save money and enjoy more profit from all the work you’re putting in.

So, what do you need? There are only eight food styling props that are essential to great photos:

1. A neutral-colored low shallow bowl
2. A set of interesting salad plates
3. A set of small textured plates
4. Three sets of colorful flatware
5. Neutral little bowls to hold ingredients
6. Decorative measuring cups and spoons
7. A decorative ceramic, stone, or metal egg crate
8. Beautiful and high-quality baking pans

As for the equipment you need, it’s not as much as you think either. You do not need the best, top-of-the-line camera; a high-quality camera that you know how to use is what’s the most important. You do not need a bunch of camera lenses; just one solid camera lens can make a significant difference. Regarding backgrounds and lighting, a pop-up reflector, diffuser, and natural light can do everything you want.

Need More Food Photography Business Tips?

We hope these three simple but essential food photography business tips for beginners will significantly help you as you launch your new career. But we also know that a blog post isn’t the same as having someone who can walk you through the entire process and share their expertise. The good news is that’s what Pretty Focused is all about.

Even if you have yet to gain experience in food blog photography or running your own business, Pretty Focused can walk you through the entire process and give you the real-world training you need to create the career and life you love! Start today with our free training!