030: Why You’re Not Booking and What to Do About It

Episodes The Bearded Tog

November 22, 2017

Why You Aren’t Booking

Are you looking at your empty calendar for next year and wondering why you’re not booking any clients?

Some creatives are confident and prepared for the next year. Their finances are in order, lots of clients are booked and they can rest easy. For others, it’s not that simple.

Maybe it’s an inconsistent year or you haven’t booked what you need to pay your bills. You’re getting inquiries but you’re not hearing back from clients after you send them your pricing or they’ve decided to go with someone else. You feel hopeless.

In this episode, I tell you the truth about why you’re not being booked, reveal survey data from over 600 photographers, and give you the steps you can do now to level up.

Why you’re not booking and what to do about it

- You might not be booking clients because leads look at you and see a disproportionate value. What that means is your pricing might not match your skill or experience level.
- You might have raised your prices a little too much a little too fast. If you are now in a different price bracket, you will have to market to an entirely new set of people than you did before.
- If you seem very similar to other photographers in your market, leads will choose the one with the lowest price.
- Clients need to feel like they got a great deal or a great value for the price they paid. Your pricing should start just a little bit under what your brand or company or yourself as a person attracts.
- Does your skill level match the price you want to charge? Are your skills where they need to be? Have you been able to create a diverse portfolio that shows who you are and what you can do? If the answer to any of that is no, you need to get out and find people to photograph every day, for free, and build your portfolio, your skills, and your network. Show that you are a proficient photographer.
- Do you have enough experience? If you are just starting out, leads may not trust that you have the experience to do the job.
- Something that will incredibly help your business even though it’s terrifying to do, is to email the leads that did not book you and asked why they didn’t. That’s the best way to find out why, and be willing to accept whatever the answer is.
- If you are not getting work, you must create the work. Go photograph every day, and share it.
- I believe you can do it.