How to Start Photography Business in Australia?
By Amy S. Dumas
Originally published February 26, 2021 , updated April 28, 2023
Starting any kind of business is not easy anywhere in the world let alone in Australia. Those golden days of expensive photography sessions with very few famous photographers available and when photographers ruled the industry are in the dust of the past.
If you want to be in this business, you are more than welcome to do so. But you must remember a very hard fact – you must be ready to suffer losses initially; besides, you have to be ready to be patient, dedicated, and serious. No one is here in this industry just for fun.
Every business income is taxable in Australia. The system is there to help you run the business legally and it is there to save your future when you become jobless.
Tax return is for your own benefit so you should always learn the tax rules and have your taxation done by an authorized tax accountant. If you run an illegal business, you will fail to earn people’s trust as well as the trust of the government. Let us learn the steps.
As starting a photography business in Canada, you will need some paperwork, and permissions to start.
There are a few legal documents you must have if you want to open a photography business in Australia. These are:
If you have these you can start a business in Australia.
People would line up to have their photos taken by the master photographers.
However, with the advent of information technology and photography tools being cheaper, anyone can study and learn photography and take beautiful photos even with their smartphones.
Now, the rate at which the number of photographers is increasing is changing the game around in favor of the clients. Now we have so many suppliers that demand is less than supply.
Thus, the control is in the hands of clients and when clients hold the control, photographers cannot sell their service at a high price tag.
With almost everyone having a good smartphone, people would hardly hire a professional photographer. This is the reality of this business in this part of the world, Australia.
So, keeping in mind that you may need a lot of time just for a start or client you should start your project. Work seven days a week for at least five to six years. And then you will be able to see any worth mentioning results.
Just think about the scenario. You are doing a long shift somewhere but the work does not excite you. Hence, the only thing you like about it is the regular income.
It is like a prison cell to you and you feel suffocated. You love photography and you forget to notice the time. And when you have a camera in your hand or at your computer working on your photoshop edit jobs.
Well, this scenario is fine as long as you do not quit your job on a whim. Remember, your passion or love for photography does neither buy you food, pay your rent nor your bills.
So, you better not jump the gun and start realizing your fanciful dream and end up diseased. Without a proper plan, this can really happen.
The best way to do this is to work on your off days. Do all of your photography work on this day. Take this as a side job. Try to schedule your clients on the days you do not have your shift.
Slowly try to grow your client base and gradually cut the number of days you work at your regular job.
This is very important. You must learn to balance between the two jobs. There can be seasons when you will not have many clients then you can support yourself with your regular job. Do not just leave your regular work for an unforeseen prospect.
Unless you have a secret stash of money or a wealthy sponsor. You are going to be just like any other photographer with no or very small amount of money to start a business with.
It is going to cost you a significant amount of money to buy photography equipment.
Even the cheaper options are not cheap enough for everyone to buy. Besides, you cannot risk buying second-hand ones as they might break at an important time and ruin the day and dissatisfy your clients.
Clients can easily be bothered and you can quickly lose them to your rivals in the market. You will have to buy a decent DSLR camera.
The package most has the body. You may need to buy additional lenses according to your photography style and genre, for example, starting from telephoto, macro lens to wide-angle lens.
For real estate photography we need wide-angle, for parties on various occasions we need a telephoto lens, etc. Try out various options at eBay or Amazon for a mirrorless DSLR camera.
You have been to numerous job interviews only to find ‘job experience’ listed as one of the points the employer wants you to answer.
Consequently, there is a value to ‘experience’. Photography is no exception at all.
For example, you are absolutely new in the industry and a client wants to involve you in one of his projects. But how would you convince him that you have skills?
Another important thing is to learn how to work with your photos in Photoshop or Lightroom environment.
These the tools for your business and you should learn them yourself. It will help you want to reduce expenses on professional post-production editing services.
In short, keep your main job and start working on your photography business on the side, slowly increase your presence in the market.
Moreover, offer free services, when the demand for your services increases slowly stop giving free and start asking for money, build solid connections and offer trustworthy services.
This is how you can start your own photography business in Australia.
