In my recent Boutique Breakthrough 2.0 workshop, a fascinating question surfaced from a male student. How does the boutique photography business model differ for men versus women and can it really work for men as well as it does for women? After 18 years of training photographers, I've coached hundreds of male students, though admittedly, our community still does skew more female. I'm pulling back the curtain with a behind-the-scenes tell-all from a few of my current male coaching students who are absolutely crushing it in the boutique photography world.
Ryan Vinson: My name is Ryan. I used to teach high school and when I left teaching, I started doing senior photography and sports photos. As far as boutique goes I specialize in seniors. Out of my 11 seniors this year, 5 of them came from auctions. I get in real close with the sports teams. Last year I switched over to sports and I have a whole different look than anyone else in town. The boys in particular gravitate to that. 95% of my seniors are boys. And I'm just kind of like, it makes sense to me.
Adam: I am a childless man. When I first went through Boutique Breakthrough, they said, go to sports games or events that your kids are in and talk to the parents there. That would be awkward if I showed up at these. One of the things that I learned is to lean into the sports team similar to Ryan. I had a lot of clients previously who were dancers and I do a lot of studio work with them. The boutique program has kicked those prices up a bunch and made it a lot more profitable than what I was doing. I also leaned into some of the programs that we do for fundraising and got a lot of local community businesses that are family-related on board. That helped get my name out to a lot of the local families.
Andy: I'm one of those photographers that does a little bit of everything from weddings to seniors. I've got five kids, one boy, four girls. So the last thing I wanted to do was spend the time watching my kids at their sporting events talking about work. I wanted out of the shoot and burn model and that made all the difference in the world for me. Having the business systems and tactics to have that income coming year around is huge. Photography can be seasonal, but it doesn't have to be seasonal. One of the biggest things that I've learned is that I am fully in control of bringing income into my business. learned that definitely through Boutique Breakthrough. It's about getting out, making connections, being visible, word of mouth, talking to people and networking.
Reggie: I think it can be harder for a guy. Before I was a photographer, I was a youth pastor. I worked with high schoolers all the time so talking to teenagers is very easy for me. When I got into photography, I didn't have any seniors to go to. I leveraged my son by doing composite portraits for his little league team. I do the team banner for the team and I put it on the gate. Everyone sees it and then they come talk to me. One of the big game changers for me is networking.
I hope this served you guys.
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