Starting a home photography business is steadily increasing in popularity with stay at home moms (and dads). If you own a professional digital camera, have some basic business sense and have an artistic flare, starting a home based photography business might be the answer for you.

While you may have decided to start your own photography business because you enjoy taking photographs, there are still some business issues and decisions that you must address before getting started. While this doesn’t cover every aspect of starting your business, it is a great starting point to get you going in the right direction.

1. Register your business – No matter how small you think you are you still need to ensure that your photography business is legally registered with your local and/or state. Some cities don’t require business registration at all if you use your own name, while some require DBA announcements in the paper, fees and extensive paperwork. Check with your city and state requirements before you open your doors for business.
2. Sales Tax – If you plan on taking even $.01 from a client, you are legally required to collect sales tax on that sale if you are located in a state that requires sales tax to be collected. Some people believe that they don’t need to collect sales tax when they are portfolio building, charging only their cost or don’t make enough to even claim it on their income tax. Not true! It doesn’t matter how much or how little you make. The second you take even a penny from a client, you should be collecting sales tax. Obtaining a sales tax id is an easy process and in many cases can be done online at your state department of revenue website; many times resulting in an immediate issue of a sales tax id.
3. Bank Account – It’s very important to separate out your personal finances from your business expenses for accounting purposes when you are starting your home based business. Opening a simple business account is for easy by just bringing in your DBA form or business license into the bank. Many banks also have small business bank accounts designed specifically for those just getting started. If you think you will want to accept credit cards for payment, having a business checking is required and your bank is a great place to start shopping for credit card merchant accounts.
4. Business Insurance – Insurance for your business is very important especially when you work out of your home. At a minimum you should obtain liability insurance to cover yourself when clients are in your home and you may wish to get an add-on to cover your equipment if you are shooting on location.
5. Collateral Materials – How you present yourself to your clients is very important. This includes your logo, website, business cards, letterhead, etc. You should find a company who can design some materials that will give the best impression of your photography business. Keep away from self printing jobs on your home computer and send it out to a professional printing such as Vista Print.
6. Determine Your Services – One of the most important decisions you will make will be what line (or lines) of photography you will go into. You may decide to stick to children’s photography, family photography, commercial photography, fine art landscapes, business photography or any other product line you choose. Determine these up front so that you are prepared when a customer calls you to answer questions about the services you provide.
7. Marketing Plan – A solid marketing plan most certainly cannot be explained in a short single paragraph but it is definitely necessary to stress the importance of having a good solid marketing plan.  A marketing plan will help you design your marketing strategies and monthly plans for your promotions and public relations. If you have never written one for yourself, there are dozens of examples on the internet. Just use your favorite search engine and you will find many articles, templates and guidelines to use when starting to write your own marketing plan.
8. Equipment – Obviously, if you don’t have any equipment starting out your investment is going to be quite large. However, when you are just starting out you don’t need to drop your life savings into equipment. Add things to your inventory as you grow your business. Let it pay for itself if you can. Basic needs will include cameras, various lenses, tripod, flash units and digital cards. In addition, depending on the services you offer you may also want to invest in studio lighting, backgrounds, props and other studio related items.

While there are probably about a hundred more things you will do in the startup stages of your business, addressing these issues will give you a great start to getting your home photography business ready to do start taking clients.

Starting a home photography business is steadily increasing in popularity with stay at home moms (and dads). If you own a professional digital camera, have some basic business sense and have an artistic flare, starting a home based photography business might be the answer for you.

HomePhotographyBusiness.net is here to help you start your very own home photography business that can be rewarding both financially and personally. Home Photography Business will guide you with information on how to price your photography products and services, how to develop creative and fun photography business marketing ideas, where to purchase your photography equipment, vendor resources for wholesale products, and will even address some of the issues that home photography business owners sometimes face. Jump right in and start building your home photography business today!