Running a photography business isn’t the same as just being a photographer. Once you start your own business, you may notice that you’re struggling even though you’re seemingly doing everything right. But there’s a small, yet important change you should make to turn the things around, and Ryan of Signature Edits tells you more about it in the video below.

The “trick” is in your way of thinking: are you thinking long-term or short-term with your business? If you just decided to become a pro photographer and jumped right in, you may not have the appropriate business and marketing structure. You think short term, try to do things as quickly as possible, always hustling to find the next client. Essentially, this kind of running a business most often doesn’t result in success.

Ryan suggests that you should start thinking long-term. Think about your business and marketing strategy and invest in developing and implementing them. Invest your time into building a website, don’t just whip it up for a day or two. You should have a clear long-term goal and a vision, and invest in reaching them.

The way I’d put it is that every business needs an initial investment, and in case of photography, it’s not just gear, a studio, and/or a website. You also need to invest your time: time to learn, to grow, to build a website, to blog for SEO, and to build a portfolio.

What’s more, I think that this kind of approach is helpful in other areas of life. Long-term goals give us focus and something to strive for, be it a business goal or something else. I personally am not very good at setting up long-term goals, but if you run a photography business – this is definitely something you need to work on. Would you agree?

[WATCH THIS if your photo business is STRUGGLING. | Signature Edits]