How to Avoid Burnout as a Photographer
For many parts of the United States, fall is the most popular time of year for weddings and portrait sessions, and the potential for burnout is real. It’s hard to say no to work, especially when there are busy—and slow—seasons to consider. Today, I have a few tips for avoiding burnout in the future.
Increase Prices
I don’t subscribe to the typical advice of following some simple formula based on the cost of doing business and gear to calculate prices as a portrait photographer. While this is excellent advice for some business models, I believe it’s both more complicated and simple at the same time for the service-based solopreneur photographer. Just because a photographer bought a ton of expensive gear and subscribed to all the popular photography and business software doesn’t necessarily mean they should charge more without education, experience, and demand. The type of client they are serving also plays a role.
Starting prices aside, raising rates is an excellent move once photographers start booking to the point where overwhelm sets in. It is the natural progression for any services-based solopreneur. When a business relies on one person to do everything, it must ensure it is maximizing profits without running the single talent ragged.
The simple pricing “non-formula” I suggest for those in the first few years of business is explained in class one of the Kickstart Your Photography Business™ course and supported repeatedly throughout the other seven classes. No math involved!
Say No
In the first year or two of starting a photography business, it's essential to say yes to all the work possible. This is how you learn and gain experience. After that, if burnout occurs, it’s important to say no to anything other than the ideal jobs during busy seasons. If the job doesn’t align with the business's goals, it’s a no.
Don’t Accept Work “For Exposure”
Burnout or not, I don’t suggest photographers accept an offer to photograph anything “for exposure” unless it genuinely is their ideal client. Typically, though, an ideal client will not ask for free work, so 99% of the time, if someone asks a photographer to take pictures to use them for exposure or marketing, I suggest sending them a brochure or price sheet instead.
This does not mean photographers shouldn’t take pictures for free, but it should be their choice to do so as a favor for someone very close to them or something the photographer sets up themselves to use for marketing purposes.
I teach my students that this type of free work should be part of their marketing budget and can be used at any time throughout their careers—not just at the beginning.
If photographers are already overwhelmed, it’s not a good idea to take up more time and energy for work they are not paid to complete, though.
Implement “No-Schedule Zones”
Some of the photographers' most painful sources of burnout are missing out on important events and needing more leisure time. So, they need to block important events on their calendars far in advance and have regular conversations with the people in their lives to know what’s coming down the pike. Most non-photographers don’t need to think more than a few weeks in advance. Successful photographers sometimes book one or two years in advance, so thinking through the events their kids will be involved in is helpful to avoid the burnout caused by feeling left out.
The part of owning a photography business that is so appealing to many of us is being able to work a flexible schedule. At this point in my life, I typically work a few hours while the kids are in school and then put in another hour or two after they go to bed. Of course, I also need to work some evenings and Saturdays for photo shoots. There is a difference between scheduling this time and working “whenever I can”—like I used to. Constantly feeling the need to be working in any free moment is a sure path to burnout. This is the primary source of burnout in my career, but once I formed boundaries between work and home life with a schedule that allowed for time just to be off—even bored sometimes—things turned around.
I also encourage my students to take one day off a week so the people they want to maintain relationships with know when they can access them regularly. I don’t take any work on Sundays anymore, and my life is so much better because of it.
Account For Post-Processing Time
Every photographer known to man is guilty of this one. We get excited about booking client after client—saying, “Of course, I can fit you in!” The money accumulates in our bank account as retainer fees are deposited. Then, all those sessions come around on the calendar, and the post-process editing, posting, and blogging tasks hit us like a tidal wave—instant burnout.
When scheduling sessions or taking on weddings, you must account for the post-process, or you will burn out faster than a sparkler at the end of a wedding night. If it takes you eight hours to edit a portrait session, one hour to post sneak peeks and hang out on social media supporting that post, two hours to write and post the blog, and you only have fifteen hours to work on your business each week, you probably shouldn’t even consider taking on more than one portrait session a week.
Taking on more work than you can realistically complete in a reasonable amount of time will stress you out, cut into your sleep and family time, and make you resent your business rather than revel in it as you should.
Cutting down your post-process time is vital to running a successful photography business. I can show you how in the Kickstart Your Photography Business™ course. Adding just one additional portrait session per week to your availability will pay for the course in no time—and continue to increase your profits exponentially as you grow in consistency. The best part? You’ll enjoy being a business owner rather than owning a business that runs you.
Schedule Business Back-End Tasks
Like accounting for post-processing time, scheduling things like accounting, taxes, marketing, and analytics will help you remember that these things must also be completed and demand your time and attention. Also, like accounting for post-processing time, there are oodles of ways to cut down on your back-end task time as well. I’d love to show you how in the Kickstart Your Photography Business™ course. Let’s face it; we didn’t start a photography business because we wanted to run one. We want to take pretty pictures that are admired far and wide. Don’t let the business part of owning a photography business stand in your way. In LPS’s signature course, Kickstart Your Photography Business,™ I’ll take you step-by-step through the process of setting up a business, stepping up your photography to pro-level, a workflow that will end in a five-star review every time, and how to market your business (with more than just social media!). I’ll do all of that with simple language anyone can understand and a community of peers to support you on your journey.
Did you know you can get a sneak peek of the first three lessons in class one and the introduction to each class before you buy? We want you to know you are making the right decision for you and your family. That’s why we also offer a 14-day money-back guarantee. Show us you put in the work in class one, and if you don’t love it, we’ll happily refund your payment. You have nothing to lose!
See you on the inside!
Xx- Megan