Let’s take a look at these 5 ideas about how to protect your photography business and thrive during a recession.

Running a successful photography business can be challenging enough during good economic times. But when the inflation rate is the highest it’s been in 40 years, how do you cope with that? In some ways, it’s as simple as applying “Business 101″ principles, but it gets a bit trickier if you’re selling something that can be considered nonessential by some consumers. Let’s take a look at some proven steps for keeping your creative business afloat, and turning a profit.

You may have heard the statistic that 60% of photographers give up their business in the first year; so what are the other 40% doing right? What are the 6-figure photographers doing that you can be doing?

Just like every other service business, photography isn’t immune to these common challenges:

• Finding new clients – continuously.
• Retaining current clients.
• Running an efficient workflow.
• Scaling your business while remaining competitive.
• Managing expenses, such as labor, fuel, and gear rental or replacements.
• Diversifying the services you offer.
• Staying creatively fresh and relevant.
• Learning how to avoid burnout, and staying positive and motivated.

So…what is a recession anyway?

Given the challenges of running a successful photography business in “good times”, how can you adjust your business to survive and even thrive during economic trials? Let’s start with the current financial climate. The news is full of experts debating about whether, or when, and how deep a recession might be, and that speaks to the inexact nature of a definition or even an official declaration. A recent Forbes article titled, “What is a Recession?” delivers a broad explanation:

A recession is a significant decline in economic activity that lasts for months or even years.

The Forbes article goes on to more specifically define a recession as a period of two or more quarters when a nation’s economy experiences negative gross domestic product (GDP), rising levels of unemployment, falling retail sales, and contracting measures of income and manufacturing that are expected to last for an extended period of time. During a recession, the economy struggles, people lose work, companies make fewer sales, and the country’s overall economic output declines. The point where the economy officially falls into a recession depends on a variety of factors.

The causes of a recession can range from excessive debt, to sudden economic shock, to asset bubbles, and too much inflation or deflation. But the bottom line is it’s a documented period of economic decline that is felt by almost everybody on some level – some more than others.

What happens to photography businesses in a recession?

It’s easy to imagine that some businesses survive while others fail based on the type of clients they serve and whether the value or demand for the photography services they provide outweighs their client’s need to cut back on spending. If your client is having a wedding, they’ll likely still have a wedding photographer, although they might purchase a less expensive package or cut back on other services like a second shooter or videographer.

For a commercial photographer specializing in product photography, as long as a client still produces new products to sell, they’ll still need photographs. Or in a scenario where photographs are required to fulfill a legal obligation (for example, in the insurance or construction industry) photographic documentation is a necessity.

Factor in the slowdown in the photography business during the COVID pandemic and the subsequent resurgence from pent-up demand, and it’s easy to feel like we’re riding the peaks and valleys of a giant economic rollercoaster. Just as you feel hopeful and are capitalizing on the biggest wedding season boom in 40 years, the highest inflation in 40 years is poised to pull the rug out from under you.

Let’s look at some steps you can take to carry your business through difficult times, from a slow season to a full-blown recession.