Finding Your Niche

A niche is defined as an employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted. Finding your niche market is crucial to any business and especially for photographers! Take a step back and think about things from a consumers standpoint for a second. What if you walked into your favorite restaurant that also doubled as a mechanics garage and pet groomer. Yeah it might be convenient this is pretty far fetched. The point is that having TOO MANY options can and usually does hurt a business more than it helps. This is why niche marketing is preferred.

Speaking for myself, I would rather take my dog to a pet grooming place that specializes in pet grooming than.. I don't know, say a restaurant that also did pet grooming.

Let's put this into the realm of the photographer. Hanging a shingle out there saying that you specialize in weddings, portraits, sports, landscapes, real estate, commercial, studio and fashion photography may seem prestigious and that you are a jack of all trades but in reality, it is probably giving your clients a less than ideal view of your business. They may think; "are they hurting for money? Is that why they try to do everything and then some?"

So what should we do as photography business owners? Well, here is the cool part. WE get to pick what we want to specialize in? This is YOUR business so if you are getting business from all different areas of photography then keep it up. Otherwise, if you aren't getting the business that you want then it may be time to re-evaluate your business approach and incorporate a niche market to hone in on your specialty. All you have to do is take the stuff that you love to photograph and get rid of the rest. For me, studio photography is cool and all but I could surely do without it. I would rather do fun, candid photos outdoors... That is where my Lifestyle Portraits come into play. They are usually outdoors and are fun and allow me to capture the moments of the shoot rather than "Say Cheese" poses.

If you love baby portraits and hate weddings, then ditch the weddings and do only what you love and are passionate about. THAT will be your niche market and you will feel rejuvenated with your business because you are doing what you love and what you enjoy doing. Nothing is better than being your own boss and nothing is better than loving what you do!

Remember the saying, "Jack of all trades... Master of none." Do what you want to do, and do it well.

So what is your niche?

Thanks for stopping by,
Mike