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Photography Business Plan

Things to Consider Before Writing a Photography Business Plan

You’ll need to focus on both the artistic and business sides of your trade.

Though having an excellent eye for proportion, dimensions, and light is great it isn’t enough to have a profitable business. You bring your skills to the table, but you’ll have to work as hard as any other business owner on your marketing, finance, and operations to have a profitable business.

And though it might seem intimidating, with the right amount of planning and strategizing you can do it smoothly.

Get the Pricing Right

It is important to study every aspect of the market and select the pricing strategy that suits your business the best. Your pricing as a photography business would depend a lot upon the niche you choose, your location, and the quality of your skills.

Develop Your Soft Skills

Good photography isn’t just about your skills with the camera, especially if you are dealing with people. You’ll need to make your customers feel at ease and have a friendly way of communicating.

This helps you become the person’s go-to photographer. As pictures aren’t just products you pay for, but memories that are cherished for years.

But at the same time, if communication isn’t your thing you don’t need to worry. As there are several other niches in photography that you can pick from.

Get the Right Equipment, but Don’t Go Overboard

The right camera, technical equipment, etc, are important to help you work effectively. But it doesn’t do to go over budget for it. Especially, if you are just starting out.

Pick the right equipment, but not the one that weighs down on your finances at the early stages of your business.

Why Do You Need a Photography Business Plan?

As you are ready to enter the industry, it brings us to the above question, why does one need a photography business plan?

Aren’t you just supposed to dive right in if you are passionate enough?

The answer is, NO.

Though diving headfirst might sound appealing, it can lead to a series of roadblocks in the future. Also, a business plan isn’t as time-consuming as it may seem to you.

It increases the efficiency of your business and acts as a guide on your road to success. Moreover, writing a business plan helps you get a clear idea of your goals and the opportunities and threats that stand in your way of achieving them.

Also, a well-researched and innovative plan can help you get funded. An investor’s confidence in you is directly proportional to the clarity of your business idea. A business plan can help you achieve just that.

How to Write a Photography Business Plan?

Writing a business plan is not as intimidating as it seems. A well-rounded business plan requires thorough research of the industry, a clear set of goals, well-observed and carefully designed strategies to achieve them, and a clear list of milestones and timelines for all the departments of the business.

A business plan should include strategies for all departments from marketing to finance. There are several resources like online software, business consultants, and predesigned templates that can help you in writing the perfect business plan .

Writing a business plan has become a cakewalk through online business planning tools which can craft an ideal business plan for you at the snap of your fingers.

Chalking out Your Business Plan

Though anyone can click pictures with devices as simple as a smartphone, it takes skills, a sense of proportion, and creativity to make people stop scrolling.

In today’s world of photo-sharing apps where people grapple for attention, the demand for excellent photographers continues to rise.

Hence, with the advent of Instagram, the photography industry is growing leaps and bounds.

Photography Business Plan Outline

This is a standard photography business plan outline that will cover all important sections that you should include in your business plan.

• Introduction
• Products and Services
• Financial Path To Success
• Keys to Success
• Company History
• Market Segmentation
• Target Market Segment Strategy
• Competition and Buying Patterns
• Web Plan Summary
• Website Marketing Strategy
• Development Requirements
• SWOT Analysis
• Competitive Edge
• Marketing Strategy
• Sales Forecast
• Year 1 – Digital Media Production
• Year 2 – Digital Media Production
• Year 3 – Digital Media Production
• Important Assumptions
• Projected Profit and Loss
• Projected Cash Flow
• Projected Balance Sheet
• Ratio Analysis

As you sit down to write your business plan, it brings us to the question, what all things you will need to include in your business plan? Read on to find out.

1. Write an Executive Summary

The executive summary section of a business plan works as an overview of your business and acts as a highlight of its aims and goals. It should be brief and precise and sum up everything your business stands for.

It serves as a pitch of your business ideas to potential investors and should have the following points.

• The kind of services your business offers (Eg. Commercial Photography, Travel Photography, etc.)
• Your target audience (Eg. Models, travel bloggers, influencers, etc.)
• Your strengths and past experiences
• Your goals for the company.

2. Business Overview

In the business overview section, you’ll jot down all of the business ideas you have and analyze how to bring them to life.

This section would consist of an overview of the functioning of your business. as well as your mission statement.

While writing this section it is important to be as precise as possible It helps the stakeholders of your business to know it better.

3. Describe the Services You’ll Offer

In this section of your business plan, you have to list the services you are going to offer. This helps you get a clearer idea of how to advertise your services and how to reach out to your target audiences.

For example, if you are a landscape photographer all of your marketing strategy and the list of resources and services you’ll need will be built around that.

Also, your target audience would be travel websites and tourism companies. And the ways of reaching out to them would be different than reaching out to influencers or celebrities.

4. Market Analysis

The market analysis section is a crucial part of your business plan.

In this section, you’ll write down everything you can find about the photography market as well as resources that can help you stay updated about the recent trends in the market.

For example, as a photographer, it is essential to know the trending photography techniques.

You can also include the size of the market, your competitors, areas that have the highest growth potential, etc Know the right market value of services and identify the existing market gaps that you can fill.

Let’s consider there is no food photographer in your locality and the restaurants around you need one, you can specialize in food photography to capture that market.

5. Create a Website Strategy

The Internet is the first place where people look for any product or service, hence your business must have a website to be discovered by clients.

A well-optimized website can help you in meeting a lot of potential customers.

Including a website strategy in your business plan is crucial.

6. Plan Your Finances

Your financial planning is one of the major deciding factors of whether your business will stay afloat or not.

In this section keep track of your company’s finances, jot down ways of making it more cost-effective. List down resources that can help you understand and manage your finances better.

Download a sample photography business plan

Need help getting started writing a business plan? Here you go; download our free photography business plan pdf to start.

It’s a modern business plan template designed for your photography center. Refer to the example business plan and follow step-by-step instructions to start writing your plan.

The Quickest Way to turn a Business Idea into a Business Plan

Fill-in-the-blanks and automatic financials make it easy.

Write your business plan with Upmetrics

A business planning tool like Upmetrics is the best way to draft your business plan. This incredible tool comes with step-by-step instructions, customizable templates, AI assistance, and business plan examples to help you get started.

You may also explore our library of Entertainment and media business plan examples before you start writing your plan.

So, whether you are starting a photography business or planning to grow an existing one, Upmetrics is the tool you need to create a business plan.

So, what are you waiting for? Start planning now!

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10 Key Components of Business Plan

Frequently asked questions, what are some common mistakes to avoid when drafting a photography business plan.

Following are some of the common mistakes to avoid when writing a photography business plan:

• Inadequate and inaccurate financial projections.
• Poor market research and ignoring industry trends.
• Undefined goals and lack of details.
• Not proofreading the document for typos and grammatical errors.
• Including outdated and irrelevant information.
• Not regularly updating your business plan.

What are some key financial metrics to include in a photography business plan?

Following are some of the key financial metrics to include in your photography business plan:

• Balance sheet
• Cash flow statement
• Income statement
• Break-even statement
• Projected business ratios
• Sales and revenue projections
• Projected expenses

How can a photography business plan help in securing funding or investment?

A well-crafted photography business plan will help your investors better understand your business domain, market trends, strategies, business financials, and growth potential—helping you secure investment.

Where to find business plan writers for your photography business?

There are many business plan writers available, but no one knows your business and ideas better than you, so we recommend you write your photography business plan and outline your vision as you have in mind.

About the Author

Upmetrics Team

Upmetrics is the #1 business planning software that helps entrepreneurs and business owners create investment-ready business plans using AI. We regularly share business planning insights on our blog. Check out the Upmetrics blog for such interesting reads. Read more

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Home » Blog » How to write a successful photography business plan.

• Photography Business Tips

How to write a successful photography business plan.

Whether you want to know how to start a photography business or take your existing one to the next level, the best place to start is with a plan. A photography business plan is a document that outlines what you hope to accomplish with your business. 

As your business comes to life or goes through change, you can use a business plan to measure your progress and re-calibrate your professional goals. In addition, if you are planning to pitch your business to potential investors for brand partnership opportunities, a business plan is one of the documents you can use to help bring credibility to your business.

However, learning how to start a photography business the right way doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Taking the right steps to showcase your photography services beyond your online portfolio website can set you off on the right foot and continuously help you attract the caliber of clients you want.

Why you need to make a photography business plan. 

Running a small business is hard. You may have heard the lifespan statistic that 20% of small businesses fail in their first 2 years, 30% fail in their first 3 years, and 50% fail after operating for 5 years. While this number is discouraging, the number one reason for the small business mortality rate is the lack of financial planning.

This is why using available tools is essential to your business’s long-term success and to your ability to grow your business. A business plan is critical in keeping you on track with your business goals and identifying where your business is lagging before, during, and after growth.

The main components of a photography business plan.

While you can customize the components of a photography business plan to suit your needs, the standard components are:

• Executive summary
• Business description
• Product or service portfolio
• Target market
• Competitive landscape 
• Marketing approach
• Operations & logistics

These elements work together to provide you and your possible stakeholders with a fulsome portrait of your business and its potential. We will go into further detail about these individual components in the following sections.

Write an executive summary.

The executive summary is a 50-250 word section at the start of your photography business plan that focuses on big-picture goals and outcomes of your company. This section summarizes the entirety of the document and should serve as the “elevator pitch” for your company, and its unique position to succeed. A good question to ask when compiling your executive summary is, “What are 3-5 things I want my clients to remember me by?”

Some of the elements to include in your executive summary are your experience, your specialties (ex. commercial photography , landscape , or wedding photography ), and key components of your business that contribute to your success, such as your marketing efforts or a unique angle you bring to the industry.

Explain your company in a business description.

While you may have a clear vision for your business inside your head, being able to succinctly express it to clients and stakeholders is key to your professional success. When compiling your description, it’s important to be as specific as possible.

First, learn about different organizational structures and the associated terms that come with the territory. Are you running a sole proprietorship, partnership, an incorporated company, or another type of business?

Second, your business description should also outline additional details including the history of your business. It gives possible stakeholders an idea of what your business is about and how it began.

In addition, you want to share your business’ mission statement. Because you will go into more details about the offerings and other aspects of your business, it’s best to keep your company description simple and provide only a high-level overview.

Describe your product and services.

This is the place to talk about the types of photography services and products you offer, and the ones you plan on expanding into in the near future. 

As part of your product and services description, provide a comprehensive pricing model. Your pricing model should cover the types of sessions, services (shooting, editing, formatting) you offer, and their associated fees. For example, do you offer mini photography sessions or 2-hour shoots? Is there a sliding scale for editing services, color correction, or airbrushing? Do you handle the physical production of photos, or is the handoff done digitally?

A competent photography business relies on the client’s clear understanding of your “menu” of skills and services.

Lastly, detail the types of services you offer and the types of products you want to focus on that bring you the most income.

Determine your target market.

Targeting your customers is no simple task, as small business owners want to serve everyone. Nevertheless, it helps you to focus on your customers who need your products. You’ll end up wasting money marketing your product to people who don’t need it or have any interest in it.

Understanding your target audience means researching your local market to identify where demand exists. You can search forums and Facebook groups to see what kinds of photographers people are hiring and how much they’re willing to pay. 

For example, a professional wedding photographer should join relevant local event planning and vendor groups on social media to build connections and promote their wedding photography services. Keep in mind that a wedding photographer often has to travel to a location to shoot the wedding, and make sure to factor it into your project estimates. 

While a target audience looks different for everyone, it’s important for your photography business to have a few areas of specialty that help build up credibility and steadily bring in clients.

Conduct a competitive analysis.

As you conduct research on your local market, you will start to discover there are a number of different photographers that offer similar services as you. To create a thorough competitive analysis, take the list of competitors, and evaluate them in different areas. Conducting this analysis will help you determine what sets yours apart.

When looking at your competitors, consider the following questions:

• Are my product offering and pricing model as straightforward as theirs?
• What is their tone of voice (ex. humorous/expert/familial)?
• Who is their target audience?
• What do they bring to the table that I do not, and vice versa?
• How can I differentiate myself from them?

To help you understand how your business is perceived, you can seek the help of a brand marketing professional. To take a more DIY approach, you can send your portfolio website to a roundtable of friends and colleagues and ask them how they would describe your business. Collecting these adjectives and looking for common threads can help you understand how your business is perceived and use these findings to your advantage in your marketing efforts.

Conducting a thorough competitive analysis can help you determine your own competitive edge and stay abreast of the competition. As a best practice, get into the habit of conducting a competitive analysis on an annual basis to stay informed about how your industry and your local market evolve over time.

Detail your marketing strategies.

In marketing, there is a saying that goes, “hope is not a strategy.” Yet many organizations allow an “if you build it, they will come” mentality to drive clients toward their marketing efforts.

In reality, a continuous funnel of new and repeat customers is what ensures their long-term success. This is why continuous marketing efforts are the number one way to ensure a consistent workload. Your marketing should work in tandem with a greater marketing plan that aligns all your efforts.

Because stakeholders and investors know the importance of marketing, they will look for a comprehensive and proactive marketing strategy when evaluating your business plan. This is why it’s important to outline the various marketing mechanisms you plan to use in your marketing plan.

Your marketing strategies encompass your marketing programs and your photography portfolio. 

Marketing programs.

Marketing programs mean any platforms, channels, or mechanisms you use to promote your company and attract customers. These may include email marketing campaigns, direct mail initiatives, local photography directory memberships, trade shows, your social media presence, and any paid social media advertising campaigns.

Photography portfolio.

Your online photography portfolio is an essential part of your marketing toolkit. After you make your potential customers aware of your business with your marketing programs, they will seek out a digital presence to explore your abilities as a photographer and to see if there is a fit. A portfolio experience can make or break a client lead, which is why it’s important to invest in a portfolio website that represents the unique offering your photography brings to the world. You can learn how to build a portfolio website the right way with our helpful guide.

Think about operations. 

While service businesses like photographers traditionally have fewer logistics than brick-and-mortar ones, it’s still important to consider the day-to-day logistics and expenses when compiling your business plan.

The operations portion of your photography business can include details like information about where you conduct work.  Many photographers choose to conduct business out of a home studio or office, holding a majority of their sessions at outdoor locations, client homes, and occasionally utilizing a professional studio. Meanwhile, commercial photographers almost always rely on a professional studio to conduct their business. 

Because different types of photographers have different operational needs, stakeholders will look for this information in your business plan to help assess the overhead cost of the operations. Understanding your operations also helps you to plan for potential opportunities in the future.

Draft your financial plans. 

This portion of your photography business plan is important to understanding the overall factors in the cash flow of your venture. Cash flow refers to the amount of money going in and out of your business. 

While compiling this section of your business plan may take the most time, it’s important to get it right to have an accurate understanding of the amount of money it takes to run your photography business, and which investments (ex. new lenses or editing software) are feasible within your business profits.

If you are a new business owner getting into photography, this section of the plan is where you outline the equipment you hope to invest in and what types of services it will be used for. Consider that as a professional photographer, you may need to invest in two copies of every item in case of malfunction. Some photographers, who may be just starting out, may use rental equipment to help them offset the costs of duplicates. However, the cost of renting can add up, which is why purchasing may be the cheaper option in the long run.

As a photographer, you are investing in hardware and software that is imperative to your job. To protect yourself, consider insuring your photography equipment and professional computer in case of theft. You can outline your insurance policy coverage and its cost in the financial portion of your plan. 

Create a timeline.

For photographers, a timeline is a management tool that helps you keep your business goals on track. Some of the key activities to include in your timeline are marketing, financial, investing, and operational in nature. 

In your timeline, consider setting goals for when you expect to pay back for the items listed in the financial portion of your plan. Calculating how many completed photography sessions it would take to cover the cost of the item can help you calculate this date.

It’s important to remember that timelines don’t need to be complicated. You can simply write down the task and the date by which you hope to complete it in sequential order. To help you stay on track, you can put reminders in your email calendar that notify you when you are nearing the anticipated completion of a task, as well as your personal deadline for its completion.

Putting your photography business plan together.

Compiling a photography business plan is an important step in starting your business and in evolving an existing one. While our photography business plan outline contains all the elements to run a successful photography business, there is nothing like drawing inspiration from what’s out there. A tried and tested photography business plan sample can give you the guidance you need to brainstorm the ins and outs of your business.

While all photography business plans are slightly different, most professional photography business plans are clear about their vision and how they want to get there. We’ve collected sample photography business plans from some of the best and most successful photographers in the industry and made readily editable templates for a fast and comprehensive photography business plan.

If you are just starting with your venture and feel a little lost, be sure to check out startup costs for your photography business and three business questions new photographers often ask . These guides give you the important information you need to get started on turning your photography dream into a viable business.

Photography business plan examples.

A sound business plan will set you on the path to success as a photographer. Whether you are a studio photographer, wedding photographer, or anything in between, these industry-specific photography business plan examples will help you kickstart your career.

Photography studio business plan.

If you run a photography studio, the most important element of your business plan is the photography business description. This segment in your photography studio business plan consists of a thorough description of all of the activities you engage in and the services you offer.

By keeping a detailed checklist, you can be clearer with your clients about the studio photography services you offer and market your business accordingly. Our guide to photography marketing shows you how to attract new clients the right way, without spending a dime.

Wedding photography business plan.

Creating a wedding photography business plan is a crucial step in better understanding your market and the opportunities you can leverage with your skills and experience. If there are any specific photography services you offer that other wedding competitors don’t, make sure to include them in your business plan.

If you are looking for a place to start, a simple Google search will provide you with a range of wedding photography business plan samples to work from, which can be tailored specifically to your business.

Now that you are armed with your photography business plan, you can attract better clients and be prepared for the future with a firm grasp of your competitive edge and industry shifts. Don’t forget that along with a solid business plan you need a beautiful website portfolio to show off your work and start getting clients.

Related Posts

Contributor

Cheryl is the Director of Content Strategy at Zenfolio and the Owner/Photographer at Portraits by Cheryl and Seniors by Cheryl in Raleigh, NC. Cheryl has mentored countless new photographers looking to build successful photography businesses.

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BUSINESS STRATEGIES

How to create a photographer business plan

• Nirit Braun

When starting a business in the photography world, having a solid business plan is like capturing that perfect shot. It's essential for bringing your vision into focus and paints a clear picture of your path to success. In this blog, we'll uncover the core elements of a photographer business plan. Keep reading for step-by-step tips on how to develop your own solid plan.

Ready to get your business off the ground? Start building a website with Wix .

Why create a business plan for a photography business?

A photographer business plan is a structured document that outlines the goals, strategies, and operational details of your photography business . It offers a range of benefits, including:

Attracting funds: Whether it's cash from investors or a loan from a bank, your business plan is your ticket to funding. It shows you've done your homework—you know your market, your competition and how to turn a profit. When you paint this clear picture, investors are more likely to bet on your photography business and increase your odds of raising money for your business .

Focusing on the right resources : Your detailed plan helps you figure out exactly what you need to get your photography business off the ground. From camera gear to lighting, editing software to studio space, and even the team members like assistants (see how to create a virtual assistant business plan ) or makeup artists, it leaves no stone unturned. This ensures your operations run smoothly without missing a beat.

Moving strategically: Your plan is your strategic compass. It helps you define your target audience, your niche and what makes your photography special. Armed with this knowledge, you can create marketing magic that resonates with your ideal clients, boosting your chances of booking and retaining customers.

Taming the unexpected: Photography isn't all about picture-perfect moments; sometimes, you face challenges. Your business plan helps you spot potential hurdles by analyzing the market and doing a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) assessment. This foresight lets you put risk management strategies in place, ensuring your business can weather any storm.

Operating smoothly : With your business plan as your trusty guide, you'll have a clear path for day-to-day operations. It spells out workflows, processes, and timelines, making everything run like a well-oiled camera. Efficient operations lead to happy clients and great word-of-mouth referrals.

How to create a photographer business plan: 6 key components

Executive summary

Business and domain names

Market analysis and research

Operations plan

Marketing and advertising plan

Financial plan

01. Executive summary

The executive summary is a concise overview of your entire photography business plan. It provides readers with a snapshot of your business, highlighting its key aspects and value proposition. While this section appears at the beginning of the plan, it's often written after the rest of the plan is complete to ensure that all essential elements are included.

To write a clear executive summary for your photography business, focus on the following components:

Introduce your business, including your niche, style and the type of clients you plan to target.

Highlight what sets your photography services apart from competitors. This could include your artistic approach, quality of work, exceptional customer service or unique offerings and your unique selling proposition.

Briefly describe your ideal clients, including their demographics and preferences. Explain how you plan to reach and attract them.

Outline your short-term and long-term business goals. This could include targets for client bookings, revenue and market share.

Provide a snapshot of your financial projections, including startup costs, expected revenue and profitability timeline.

02. Business and domain names

Naming your business is a crucial step in building brand awareness and trust. A strong name should resonate with your target audience and convey the essence of your services. When brainstorming names, consider using a business name generator for inspiration. Ensure that the chosen name is unique, easy to remember and reflects your photography style.

Once you finalize your company name, it's essential to secure a matching domain name for your business website . A domain name that aligns with your company name helps establish a consistent online presence. Use a domain name registrar to check the availability of your chosen name and consider these best practices:

Keep it short and simple

Include keywords where possible

Avoid hyphens and numbers

You can also look to this compilation of photography business name ideas for inspiration.

Once you’ve landed on a small business name , follow the steps for registering your business .

03. Market analysis and research

Incorporating a thorough market analysis into your business plan helps you understand the competitive landscape and craft a more effective business strategy. Research your target market's preferences, demographics and behaviors. Study your competitors to identify their strengths and weaknesses. This analysis guides your pricing strategy, service offerings and marketing tactics.

By conducting a SWOT analysis, you can identify internal and external factors that could impact your business. This information informs your marketing approach, allowing you to leverage strengths and capitalize on opportunities while mitigating weaknesses and threats.

04. Operations plan

The operations plan outlines the practical aspects of running your photography business. This section includes details such as your business location, premises (if you have a studio), equipment and staffing needs. Define the workflow of a typical photography session, from client inquiry to final product delivery. Specify the equipment you'll use, whether it's cameras, lenses, lighting or editing software.

If you plan to have a physical studio, detail its layout and design to create a welcoming and conducive environment for your clients. Address staffing needs, whether you intend to work solo or hire assistants, makeup artists or administrative staff.

05. Marketing and advertising plan

In your business plan, outline your marketing and advertising strategies to effectively promote your photography business. Tailor your approach to your target audience. For instance, if you're focusing on wedding photography, social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest can be powerful tools. If you're specializing in corporate headshots, LinkedIn may be more relevant.

Detail your branding, including your logo, color palette and overall visual identity. Lay out your content marketing strategy, which might involve blogging about photography tips, sharing behind-the-scenes stories or showcasing client success stories. Additionally, plan your paid advertising efforts, such as Google Ads or Facebook Ads, to reach potential clients directly.

Use Wix’s logo maker to get some photography logo ideas for your business.

06. Financial plan

The financial plan is a cornerstone of your photographer business plan. It outlines how your business will be funded initially and how you project it will reach profitability. This section includes:

A list of expenses required to launch your business, including equipment purchases, studio setup, marketing materials, cost to start an LLC if relevant and legal fees.

Revenue projections to estimate your expected income based on your pricing strategy and the number of sessions you anticipate booking.

Include ongoing costs and operating expenses like equipment maintenance, rent, utilities, marketing expenses and insurance.

Provide a forecast of your revenue and expenses over the next few years as well as profit and loss projections. These projections help you understand when your business is likely to become profitable.

Detail where your startup capital is coming from and your funding sources, whether it's personal savings, loans or investments.

Determine the point at which your total revenue matches your total expenses, indicating when your business starts making a profit. This is known as break-even analysis.

Estimate your monthly cash inflow and outflow to ensure you have sufficient funds to cover expenses at all times.

Photography business plan example 1: UrbanLens Photography

Part 1: executive summary.

UrbanLens Photography is a creative photography studio specializing in urban lifestyle and portrait photography. Our unique blend of artistic vision and technical expertise allows us to capture authentic moments that resonate with our clients. We target young professionals and couples seeking vibrant and modern photography that reflects their dynamic personalities.

Our goal is to establish UrbanLens Photography as a leading name in urban photography within the next three years. With a commitment to exceptional customer service and innovative visual storytelling, we aim to achieve a 15% market share in our target region. Our financial projections indicate steady revenue growth, with profitability expected within the first year.

Part 2: company and domain names

After careful consideration, we have chosen "UrbanLens Photography" as our company name. This name reflects our focus on urban environments and our lens' ability to capture the essence of these settings. We have secured the domain name "UrbanLensPhoto.com" to align with our company name and provide a memorable online presence for our clients.

Part 3: market analysis and research

Through comprehensive market research, we have identified a growing demand for urban lifestyle photography among young professionals. Our target audience values creativity, diversity and authenticity in their visual content. By conducting a SWOT analysis, we recognize opportunities to leverage our strengths in capturing urban dynamics while mitigating potential weaknesses by continually refining our technical skills.

Part 4: operations plan

UrbanLens Photography will operate as a mobile studio, allowing us to capture urban moments in various locations. Our team will consist of the photographer, an assistant for larger projects and a part-time administrative support. For editing and post-production, we will use professional-grade software to enhance the quality of our images.

Part 5: marketing and advertising plan

Our marketing strategy focuses on creating an engaging online presence through social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok. We will showcase our unique style through a captivating portfolio, behind-the-scenes glimpses and client testimonials. Additionally, we will run targeted online ads to reach potential clients in our target demographic.

Part 6: financial plan

Startup costs

Camera equipment: $8,000

Studio setup and props: $2,500

Marketing materials: $1,000

Legal fees and permits: $500

Website development: $1,200

Initial operating expenses: $2,000

Funding sources

Personal savings: $6,000

Small business loan: $8,000

Revenue projections

Year 1: $40,000

Year 2: $60,000

Year 3: $80,000

Break-even analysis

Expected break-even point within the first year.

Photography business plan example 2: NatureCapture Photography

NatureCapture Photography is a specialized photography business focusing on landscape, wildlife and nature photography. With a deep appreciation for the natural world, our goal is to capture the breathtaking beauty of landscapes and wildlife, sharing these moments with individuals who share our passion for nature.

We aim to establish NatureCapture Photography as a recognized name in the nature photography industry within three years. By providing unique and captivating images that evoke emotion and connection, we strive to achieve steady growth and profitability, expanding our reach to a global audience.

We've selected "NatureCapture Photography" as our company name to reflect our dedication to capturing the essence of the natural world. Our corresponding domain name, "NatureCapturePhoto.com," aligns seamlessly with our brand identity and facilitates an online platform for clients to explore our portfolio.

Thorough market research has revealed a niche audience of nature enthusiasts, travelers and conservationists who value visual storytelling of natural landscapes and wildlife. By conducting a SWOT analysis, we've identified opportunities to collaborate with eco-tourism companies and contribute to environmental conservation efforts.

NatureCapture Photography will operate as a mobile studio, allowing us to explore various natural environments and capture stunning landscapes. Our equipment will include specialized lenses for wildlife photography and drones for aerial shots. Our operations will be streamlined to ensure efficient photo editing and prompt client delivery.

Part 5: Marketing and advertising plan

Our marketing strategy focuses on engaging with our target audience through social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. We will curate a visually captivating portfolio, share educational content about the locations and species we capture, and collaborate with nature-focused organizations for joint promotional efforts.

Part 6: Financial plan

Camera equipment and lenses: $10,000

Drone and accessories: $2,500

Editing software and tools: $1,200

Marketing materials: $800

Initial operating expenses: $1,500

Personal savings: $7,000

Crowdfunding campaign: $4,000

Year 1: $30,000

Year 2: $50,000

Year 3: $70,000

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Photography Business Plans

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Adorable Pet Photography is a start-up pet portrait company in Atlanta, Georgia.

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Phoebe’s Photo Studio will meet the needs of professionals and their families to capture the special moments in their lives and present them in the best light.

Photography businesses are all about capturing memories or events for your clients. A good business plan will help you capture their business. Get started writing your business plan by browsing these sample business plans for portrait photography, pet photography, commercial photography, and other related businesses.

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10 Key Steps for Writing Your Photography Business Plan

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A surprising number of photographers never write a photography business plan. If you plan to embark on a career as a freelancer, you need a plan. A business plan is a road map to success. It outlines your business-related goals and how you intend to achieve them. There is no need to have a very formal business plan. But the components of a traditional business plan can help you be more specific about your goals. This way, you are more likely to achieve them.

The Components of a Photography Business Plan

Create an executive summary.

The Executive Summary is where you define your photography business . What will be the legal structure of your business? Will you be operating as a sole proprietor? This is an overview of your business. It lays out how your business will meet the needs of your target clients. It’s helpful to write out a mission statement for your photography business. You should have tangible objectives and the keys to success.

Write a Product and Service Description

Consider Your Target Market

Assess the Competition

Develop Key Marketing Strategies

Consider Your Operations Strategy

Plan the Financials

SWOT Analysis

Make a Timeline

Preparation and goal setting are crucial to success in any business. A plan for your photography business can make all the difference. Start today by working on your photography business plan. If you can set aside 30 to 60 minutes a day, you’ll finish before you know it. And then you’ll be far ahead of most photographers, who have no plan whatsoever! Now you’ve worked out how to make your business plan, check out our posts on how to price your photography services or use social media marketing next!

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How to Write the Ultimate Photography Business Plan: A Detailed Guide

Are you looking to start your own photography business? Or are you someone who already owns one and are looking to take it to the next level? Having your own photography business plan is the first step!

Creating a business plan for photography is one of the most important things you can do to ensure that you have a higher chance of success.  It gives you clarity on what your goals are and how you go about achieving them.

In effect, it is a road map to success.

In fact, research shows that 71% of the fastest-growing companies have written documentation for their plans and business owners who took the time to write them saw growth 30% faster than those who did not.

Photography is a highly competitive industry where reputation matters. As a startup, it is hard to break into this industry and gain market share. Doing the initial research and creating a photography business plan will give you a head start. 

Read on until the end to find a downloadable photography business plan template that you can use to create your very own!

Here’s what we will be discussing in the blog:

• What exactly is a business plan and why should you write one?
• How do you go about writing a business plan?
• What is the lean business plan?
• Traditional business plan vs Lean business plan: Which one is right for you?

What exactly is a photography business plan and why should you write one?

A business plan is a document that outlines the product or service that you are selling, your strategies to market the product, your financial strategy (the revenue model and how revenue is generated) and includes information about day-to-day operations. 

It also specifies the goals that you set for your business and your ideas on how to achieve those goals . Ideally, you should create a business plan when you start your business but it’s never too late to start.

Having a detailed plan in place ensures that you are never confused about the direction your business should take and this helps you align day-to-day decisions with the overall goal you have for your business.

Writing a business plan involves analyzing the target market as well as the competition. This step might reveal to you that maybe this business is not as lucrative as you thought it would be. You might save a lot of time and money by altering your course.

If you plan to raise funds to start your business, either by approaching investors or lenders, a business plan is all the more important . A good and thorough document tells them that you are serious about your business and this gives them the confidence to invest in you.

How do you write a photography business plan?

An important question to answer is how to write a business plan for a photography business. It may seem like a daunting task at first, but we assure you, it is anything but.  

Here’s a photography business plan outline, read on to find out more about each section: 

• Executive Summary
• Business Description
• Market Analysis
• Competitor Analysis
• Marketing Plan
• Operations Plan
• Financials Plan

1. Executive Summary

This is the first section of the plan. This section is where you summarize the contents of the plan into a short pitch.

Potential investors go through multiple photography business plans in a day and don’t have the time to read through each of them in detail. The executive summary is what they will focus on.

You should clearly and concisely explain what your company is about, where you are now and what you hope to accomplish in the future. Make it short, sweet, and to the point.

Include the vision you have for the company, its mission statement, and a short photography business description of the products/services you provide. Since it is a summary, it is recommended that you write this section last but make sure to spend some time on it.

Here’s a photography business plan executive summary sample that you can look at to understand exactly what points need to be included in each section.

Remember, you have to include only the most important points in the executive summary. Make it engaging and interesting to read by creating a narrative. This will ensure that the reader remains captivated and reads the whole thing.

Vision Statement

When writing a vision statement , you need to ask yourself, “Where do I see my business in 5 years?”

Having long-term goals gives you a target to work towards. An important point to remember here is that you shouldn’t sell yourself short when setting long-term goals . At the same time, your goals should not be too unrealistic either. 

Because these goals take a long time to achieve, you might forget about them as time goes on. You may achieve certain milestones and become complacent. Having solid goals ensures that you remain on track no matter what. They help you monitor your progress and correct your course if need be.

Your business’s goals are determined by the niche that you are in, and your own personal situation such as how much time you can devote to the business.

Some long term goals could be:

• Having your own photography studio
• Employing 10 people
• Generating $500,00 in annual recurring revenue ( the average revenue for a retail photography business is $238,689 )
• Having 100 repeat customers
• Working for a retail client
• Having your work showcased in an art gallery
• Having your photo appear on a popular magazine cover, etc.

Mission statement

Next comes the mission statement . A mission statement is the business’ reason to exist. This is where you explain why you are doing what you do. Here’s what you need to include:

• Value – What is the value of your photography business in the market? How can it help your clients? 
• Inspiration – Why should people want to come to you?

Make sure your mission statement is clear and concise . Your short-term goals should have time frames associated with them.

A photography business plan example of a mission statement is:

“ To deliver professional and creative images at an incredible value, we make sure that customer satisfaction lies at the heart of everything that we do “

Just reading these two sentences tells you what the company does, and what it is they represent. This is what you should also aim for with your mission statement.

Writing an executive summary for the first time can be confusing and you might get stuck wondering what to include and what to leave out.

To help you out, here are some topics you can include:

• Business overview
• Product overview
• Target customers
• Management Structure
• USP and other success factors
• Long term goal

2. Business Description

This is where you describe your business. Ensure that the name of the company is clearly stated here.  Clearly mention your niche and give a short overview of what that involves.

Some popular niches in the photography industry are: 

• Wedding photography
• Portrait photography
• Commercial photography
• Event photography
• Product photography
• Freelance photography, etc.

Next, you should provide an overview of your business. Describe what the business does.  Start with a short sales pitch. Make sure to mention the USP of your business.

For example, “We provide wedding photography services to clients at an affordable price point. Customer experience is at the heart of everything that we do and customer satisfaction is our number one priority”.

Next,  mention the structure of your business i.e. whether it is a sole ownership business, partnership, LLC, or corporation. Include the names of the proprietors and other stakeholders in the company. 

Additionally, you can also include when the business was started, the struggles you faced along the way, and how you overcame them. The reader should be able to get an idea of what your business is by reading this section alone . 

Then, list the services that you offer. Write a brief description of what each service entails.

Highlight the services that bring you the most profit. These are the services that you should be focusing on when growing your business.

3. Market Analysis

Write a detailed analysis of the target market that your photography business aims to serve . You would have identified a niche that your business intends to cater to – like portrait, still life, landscape, travel, etc. 

Write a detailed analysis of the target market for your particular niche. This is where you prove to potential investors that you have a clear understanding of the needs and wants of the target market .

A great market analysis will answer the following questions:

• Who are my potential customers?
• What are my customers’ buying habits?
• How large is my target market?
• How much are customers willing to pay for my product?

Start by creating a client profile . Describe your ideal client. This gives you an idea of who you are selling to.  Fine-tune your marketing efforts keeping in mind these customer profiles for maximum engagement.

Creating a professional-client profile would ideally include customer demographics, customer psychographics, etc. This will help you identify who your potential customers are, and what their buying habits are:

For example, if you are a wedding photographer, your research will tell you that your average client is around 30 – 35 years of age. People in this age group are part of the millennial generation. Research shows that millennials spend an average of 2 hours and 34 minutes a day on social media. Therefore, your chances of reaching them are highest if you market your business on social media.

If your business is already operational, you can look back at the previous clients that you have had and analyze them to find common trends. This can provide valuable insight into who your ideal clients are.

Next, analyze the industry. Include the current size of the target market, the growth rate, and so on.

Photographic services is a $35 billion industry globally , with the US accounting for $15 billion or 40% of the total market share. Further, the industry is growing at a rate of 0.6% annually in the US.

4. Competitor Analysis

Running a small business can be extremely competitive, especially a photography business where reputation counts for a lot. So in order to be successful, it is imperative that you have a very good idea of the competition that you are facing.

This is where competitor analysis comes into the picture. A good competitor analysis tells potential investors that not only is there a good market for this business but also that you have a great understanding of the market. This improves your chances of securing funding.

Start by making a list of your closest competitors . These are the people that offer the same services as you do and appeal to the same clients as you do.

For each competitor, make the following list:

The benefits of doing this are twofold:

• You will know exactly where you stand with respect to the competition 
• You might notice some additional opportunities that might otherwise have remained undiscovered. 

Competitor analysis helps you identify gaps in the industry that are currently underrepresented. Focusing on these gaps will ensure that you have fewer direct competitors. 

Alternatively, you can beat your competitors at their own game by offering the same services that they do at a lower price , or by offering additional services that help you stand out from the rest.

Any good business aims to solve the problems that people face. The inferences you draw from this analysis, combined with the market research, will help you address the pain points that customers have in this industry. 

For example, you might have learned from your market analysis that the customers would like the option to buy photo albums. Your competition analysis might reveal that only 1 among the 5 photography studios in the area offer this service. In this instance, offering customers the option to buy photo albums will help you stand out.

5. Marketing Plan

In this part of the photographer’s business plan, you outline how you get your product or service across to customers. The marketing plan should include the promotions strategy, outreach, and PR campaigns to be undertaken over a period of time. Write down the cost of these marketing strategies and compare them against the potential benefits to measure their effectiveness. 

Make a list of the various promotional activities and strategies that you plan to do. These can include:

• Cold calling
• Advertising, both locally on billboards, etc, and in the media
• Distributing pamphlets
• Referral programs, deals and discounts
• Workshops, etc.
• Converting CTAs on social media channels like Instagram and Facebook

For example, if you are a wedding photographer, you can tie up with a local bridal clothing store and shoot some of their new collections, and have the photographs printed and displayed in the store. This will be a free promotion for you as you are creating awareness among the customers of that particular store.

You can also host a photography workshop that is free to enter. This builds customer relations and brand awareness in your locality.

Innovative marketing methods like this can get word of your business across to potential customers while reducing expenses on your end. The ideal photography client will need around 15 to 20 touchpoints with you and your business before they’re ready to make an inquiry. This requires a lot of effort in advertising and marketing.

If the marketing plan is complex, it may be difficult to implement. In this case, identifying marketing firms that you can outsource this task to makes your life easier and leaves you with more time to focus on the core business. 

Make a detailed sales forecast for the next quarter, the next 6 months, and the next year based, and include deadlines for your sales forecasts so that you have a target to work towards. This will ensure that your business is on track and leave adequate time for corrective measures if you find that it is not.

6. Operations Plan

The operations plan describes the day-to-day operations of your photography business. A proper operations plan ensures that everything you do on a daily basis is aligned with your long-term goals.

A well-written operations plan will streamline your workflow and ensure that things run smoothly and efficiently. This implies that your clients will have consistently great experiences when doing business with you. As long as a good operations plan is in place, your business will run like a well-oiled machine. 

Each process should be documented. Segment your processes as follows:

• Lead generation
• Meeting the client and understanding their requirements
• The actual shoot
• Editing the images 
• Delivering the finished product back to the clients. 

Having such a detailed operations plan in place will ensure that your business will come across as a professional outfit and clients will keep coming back.

The more tasks you can outsource to employees or third parties, the more time you will have to focus on what actually matters; the core business. Hiring editors and other photographers can reduce your workload. You may need an accountant to manage the finances, a marketing manager to oversee all marketing efforts, and so on. 

The operations plan should clearly state the distribution of roles of each employee working in your company. This removes ambiguity and ensures that work gets done in an efficient manner. 

An example of the role distribution is given below:

You, the owner : Oversees all day-to-day operations, meets with clients, takes decisions on important matters, primary photographer at all major shoots.

Assistant photographer: Assists with larger shoots and handles smaller shoots. Takes care of logistics when going for shoots. 

Editor: In charge of post-processing. Decides which photos are included in the final draft. In charge of printing oh photo albums.

Receptionist: Schedules customer appointments, handles day-to-day tasks and answers phone calls. First point of contact of client interactions.

As your business grows, you may need to hire a receptionist to handle appointment scheduling. Alternatively, photography booking software can handle all your appointment scheduling needs. It also offers a lot of additional functionality like reports that help you stay on top of your business.

7. Financial Plan

A good place to start is by creating an expenses worksheet. This is a document that keeps a track of all your expenditures.

One-time expenses are those expenses that you incur at the time of setting up the business. This usually constitutes the biggest chunk of the pie.

Some examples of one time expenses are:

• Certification Costs
• Insurance Costs
• Other photography equipment like lights, memory cards, etc.
• Studio remodeling
• A company car, etc.

Next, list the recurring expenses. These are essentially bills that you have to pay on a recurring basis.

These can include:

• Software subscriptions
• Employee salaries
• Marketing and advertising costs
• Office supplies
• Phone bill, etc.

Included below is an example of an expenses worksheet. You can use this as a reference when creating your own expenses sheet.

Next, elaborate on the revenue model you have chosen for your business.

In photography, there are broadly 2 revenue models:

• an hourly-rate model where you have a fixed hourly charge
• a fee-upfront model where you charge the client a one-time fee depending on the service you provide. 

You can decide upon one or the other, use a mixture of the two, or come up with a system that is unique to you. 

Once you have decided upon a revenue model, you have to decide on prices for your services. Depending on your market positioning, you can charge a premium for a better service/experience. As long as you offer something unique compared to the competition, that is also in line with your pricing strategy, your business should thrive. 

It is essential to remember that pricing strategies are not set in concrete . Maybe you are resource-limited in your starting days. You might only be able to provide a few basic services. This is by no means a death sentence.

Eventually, you will have more money to invest in people and equipment, allowing you to offer more services. As your client experience improves, you can charge more. The pricing strategy is dynamic. One thing to keep in mind is that you should always provide a value proposition , no matter the price point.

Now write down estimates of monthly revenue taking into account your billable hours, your expenses such as rent, utilities, staff salaries, and other instances of cash flow. Another approach to pricing your services is to start with a target monthly income for your business and work backward , dividing that income by the number of billable hours to get an estimate of how much you should be charging per service per hour in order to achieve your goals.

8. Appendix

The appendix contains links to supporting documents. This can include links to research docs, renders of your office/ photography studio, names of supporting businesses that handle marketing, logistics, etc . Basically, any document that is not directly relevant to the business plan but you feel may add context can be included here.

To help you avoid spending a lot of time on creating the design of your plan, here is a free photography business plan template for you. All you need to do is enter your email below and you’ll get your very own downloadable copy!

Download the free photography business plan template!

Save it or print it out and use it to create a robust business plan!

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What is the lean business plan.

If you are not looking for external funding and feel that a full-fledged, fleshed-out plan is too complicated, you can try creating a lean version. As the name suggests, this is a condensed form of the business plan for a photography studio . It is just one page long and gives a broad overview of specific aspects of your business.

While the business plan primarily exists to secure external funding for your business, the lean version helps you optimize your business and manage it well .

If you are just starting out with your photography business and don’t have the time or necessity to create a business plan, you should look into creating a lean version of the same. This helps you define your goals and ensure that you are on course.

The lean business plan has 4 sections:

• Business specifics

Remember, the perspective of the document changes because it is a document that you are creating for yourself . The information in this is for your reference.

At the end of the day, you know your business better than anyone. This document is there to provide some guidance as you are starting out and to ensure that you are on track to achieving your goals. Try to keep it as short as possible. Use bullet points wherever you can for easy readability .

This is where you define the strategy that your business will use to become successful. Define the target market, the problem that the target market faces, the solution to this problem, and why you think your business is better than the rest at solving the problem. This will give you clarity on what your business needs to be and what you should be focussing on to succeed.

Execution deals with the day-to-day tasks that you need to do in order to achieve your goals. It includes everything from product, to management, to sales and marketing. Start by defining the services that you offer . This is the core of the business and everything else wraps around it. 

Next, describe the management structure of your business . Who does what should be clearly defined. Create roles for each of your employees and delegate specific tasks to them. Some scheduling software help you assign staff roles and empower employees to make their own decisions. If you feel that you have a shortage of manpower, identify those areas where you need employees and create a recruitment schedule.

Create a marketing plan that you are going to use in order to raise awareness amongst the target market and generate leads. This should include all advertisements, PR campaigns, and other outreach activities. Estimate the cost of your marketing efforts and create a timeline .

Finally, write down sales projections based on your marketing efforts. Make sure you include deadlines so that you have targets to work towards.

Business specifics 

This is where you describe your business. Start with your niche. Then list the services that you offer and explain briefly what each service entails. Also, describe the USP of your business.  Include a short description of the operations. 

Start with the money that has been invested into the business. This is your capital expenditure. Specify whether the business was bootstrapped or if the money was borrowed from a bank . If it was borrowed, write down how long it will take for the business to be debt-free. 

Write a brief description of the pricing model. Include financial projections . Make a list of your monthly expenses and current monthly revenue. List how much you charge for each service and determine how profitable they are. Finally, write down how much you should charge for each service to achieve your financial goals.

Traditional b usiness plan vs Lean business plan: Which one is right for you?

When writing a photography business plan, the first question that you need to answer is, “Why am I writing this? Is it for myself or am I writing it to pitch to investors?” The content and structure of this document will depend on your answer to these questions.

If you are writing it to secure funding, it is recommended that you stick with the traditional business plan. It has a more rigid format and will include all the relevant information banks and investors look for. Remember to go into as much detail as possible so that the person reading it can get the full picture.

If, on the other hand, you are writing it for yourself, then you can be far more flexible with the content and structure. In fact, this is the perfect opportunity for you to write a lean business plan. You can include only those parts you find relevant to your business and word it however you want

You don’t need to follow these exact steps when creating your plan. You can pick and choose those topics that you find most relevant to your business.

It is important to know the basics of how to write a photography business plan when applying for a loan or pitching to potential investors – that means including the executive summary, business description, operations plan, and financial plan is a must

Make sure to include all the relevant information so that the readers can get a complete picture of your business. Remember, a photography studio business plan may not be necessary to start a business, but a well-written one can save you a lot of time and money in the long run.

While having a written plan for your investors will facilitate your business to be profitable, as a business owner, you have a responsibility to make sure your processes are optimized as well. A booking software will do exactly that! It will not only help you book more, but also save time by managing your daily admin, boosting booking convenience, helping with marketing, and much more!

Don’t believe us? Try our 14-day free trial to decide for yourself!

About Appointy We at Appointy, help business owners grow and run their businesses with our online scheduling software. This blog was a part of our ‘Manage your Business’ category, where we provide expert tips, and resources, or simply talk about the challenges that small and medium businesses face every day.  If you have any thoughts on this blog or would like to chat about your business struggles and achievements, let us know in the comments below.  We love a good talk!

Amazing plan. It is really interesting. Thank you for sharing this information.

Glad we could help 🙂

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Photography Studio Business Plan [Sample Template]

By: Author Tony Martins Ajaero

Home » Business ideas » Art & Craft Industry » Photography Business

Are you about starting a photography business? If YES, here is a complete sample photography studio business plan template & feasibility report you can use for FREE .

Okay, so we have considered all the requirements for starting a photography business . We also took it further by analyzing and drafting a sample photography marketing plan backed up by actionable guerrilla marketing ideas for photography businesses. In this article, we will be providing an in-depth sample photography business plan template.

A Sample Photography Studio Business Plan Template

1. industry overview.

Photography business is one of the businesses that can unarguably survive in any part of the world as long as the business is well positioned.

The photography industry can boast of creating jobs directly or indirectly for countless numbers of people all over the globe. One good thing about the photography industry is that it has various areas of specialization ranging from wedding or portrait photography to wildlife photography or travel photography, amongst many others.

Over and above, starting a photography business is what we have chosen to do because having done our due diligence and research, we have realized that it is a business that is highly profitable if well planned and managed.

Without a shadow of doubt, there is a high rate of competition in the industry, but we have been able to create a unique Business model that will help us gain market acceptance and also work our way to the top of the ladder in the city where our photography business is to be located.

Some of the things that will help us stand out in the industry include that we will ensure we deliver quality photography jobs at rock bottom prices in our city at all times.

Much more than delivering quality photography jobs to clients at rock bottom prices, we have further gone to invest in a CRM software that will help us effectively win new clients over and also help us effectively manage our existing clients.

We intend exploring referrals from loyal clients as a means of generating leads that we will eventually work hard to convert to loyal customers.

2. Executive Summary

• Current Situation

Currently, we have chosen a name for our photographing business, we have concluded the name search exercise at the corporate affairs office and it is good a thing that the name we propose to call our business is very much available and so, we have started the process of incorporating the business with the government authorities.

After we strike that of, we will apply for Tax Payer’s ID and also open a corporate/ current account with any bank of choice for business. Opening a current bank accounts is especially important so that we can start on a professional note, as well as attract corporate clients who will be able to pay a premium for the photographing services rendered.

Part of our strategies to effectively position the business; is to rent an office space in a busy business district in New York City. The space we intend renting will be big enough to accommodate our studio, reception, as well as our administrative office.

And we have also gone ahead to involve a competent realtor whom we think will be able to give us exactly what we want. Needless to say that one of our dreams is to run the best photography studio in the whole of New York district. This is especially why we are leaving no stone unturned in paying attention to details.

• COMPANY’S DESCRIPTION

We are a topnotch – all round Photography Company and have a great vision to become the one – stop shop when it comes to photography in New York City. We are currently a team of passionate photographers who have come together for the sole purpose of creating a brand that will compete with leading photography companies in New York City.

We also intend to go beyond just making memories, but also will build relationships such that will offer all round photography services.

This means that we will cover wedding photography, child photography- where we capture the milestone of every baby from infancy to late childhood, capturing of nature and landscapes, beauty coverage- pageants, modelling shows, and what have you, as well as other areas too numerous to mention.

Our photography company would also be in the business of training rookies as well as budding photographers who want to be closely watched in their photography endeavor by a mentor. There are also plans not to make our photography business limited to just capturing pictures.

We will also be involved in the sales of photographing digital cameras, lenses, camera stands, photography software, as well as other consultancy services. Furthermore, in the nearest future (our five years goal to be precise), we shall commence to sell franchises and become one of the best photography business in the world.

3. Our Products and Services

Of course, like every other photographer, we shall be into the business of covering events. However, we shall take our services a notch higher, by paying attention to details- like having pre- shoots and after- shoots. Why after shoots? Well, the after- shoots will basically involve capturing the after event moods in pictures.

There will also be the production photo albums, photo books, framed pictures, as well as soft copies of edited pictures as requested by our clients.

Much more than rendering the services, we will also like to be known as a one stop shop where competitors can come purchase equipment that will help foster their expertise. As a result, we are to be involved in the sale of digital cameras, and other photography hardware and software.

We intend to deal in brand new equipment as well as the fairly used type. This is so that we are able to give those who couldn’t possibly afford the brand new stuff the opportunity to still be in the trade by selling the fairly used types of products to them.

We believe that the photography trade wouldn’t be complete without having to offer consultancy services. This is why we will be offering photography training and consultancy services. As a result budding photographers, as well as novices can always run to us to garner more knowledge about the trade. Our consultancy services ranges from providing advisory services to setting up photography studio for our clients.

4. Our Mission and Vision Statement

• We have a concise vision and mission in view and that is: To become a world class photography brand and to be amongst the top 5 le aders in the photography trade in New York and The united states of America.
• To make top notch photography services available to a wide range of clients that cuts across different classes of people at affordable price.

Our Business Structure

Our plan is to start the photography business with 4 key employees who are expected to handle more than one role per – time. They include:

• Chief Operating Officer and Lead Photographer
• Office Administrator
• Sales and Marketing Officer

Assistant Photographer and Office Assistant

5. Job Roles and Responsibilities

Chief Operating Officer and Lead Photographer:

• Responsible for providing direction for the business
• Responsible for leading the team to cover events
• Responsible for the day to day running of the business
• Responsible for handling high profile clients
• Responsible for fixing prices and signing business deals
• Responsible for recruitment
• Responsible for payment of salaries
• Responsible for signing checks and documents on behalf of the company

Office Administrator:

• Responsible for the day to day administration of the office
• Responsible for handling correspondence
• Manages customers
• Manages vendors
• Handles all incoming calls and emails, et al
• Responsible for handling payment collections and lodgment of cash and checks in the banks
• Any other duty as assigned by the Chief Operating Officer

Sales and Marketing Officer:

• Responsible for marketing the company’s products and services
• Responsible for promoting the company
• Responsible for creating marketing and sales strategies, etc.
• Source for exhibitions and opportunities for the company to leverage on to promote the business
• Represents the organization in some strategic business meetings
• Responsible for hiring and training of freelance sales reps
• Assists the Lead photographer at all times
• Runs errands for the organization (i.e. job delivery to clients, purchase of supplies and stationeries et al)
• Responsible for transporting cameras and other equipment to and fro event locations
• Ensures that the office and environment is kept clean at all times
• Any other duty as assigned by the Chief Operating officer

6. SWOT Analysis

We are quite aware that we need to leverage on our strengths if we intend building a successful photography business in the united States of America and that is the reason why we have taken time to analyze our Strength, our Weakness, the Opportunities available to us, as well as the threats that we are likely going to face in the photography industry.

Our strength is not limited to the robust professional training, certification and experience we have acquired prior to setting up a photography business, but also our rich network, passion and ability to convert leads to loyal customers within a short time – frame.

Part of our weakness as a start – up Photography Company is that we have fewer employees and experts, and also we have limited cash to execute all we intend executing before launching the business. For example, we would have loved to build our own customized CRM Software.

• Opportunities-:

The United States of America and New York City in particular is one of the cities in the world that attract tons or diverse classes of visitors, coupled with the fact that some of the finest photography schools are located in New York. It is easier for a start – up photography business to leverage on these factors to build to their businesses and that is exactly what we intend doing.

There are well established photography businesses / photographers in New York City who may not need much stress to convince new clients to patronize them. There is also the threat of the huge cost of running businesses in New York City, as it is on the high side. Hence, we need to be on the top of our game if we must grow our photography business to profitability.

7. MARKET ANALYSIS

• Market Trends

There is always a readily available market for the photography industry, and whoever is hardworking and can produce decent photography jobs will always make headway in the industry.

But in recent times, because of the advancement of technology, it is now a lot easier for non – professional photographers to take cool shots or ‘ selfies’ that can be processed to classic portraits from their smartphones or other computer devices like iPADs and even digital cameras.

In view of this, it has been observed that people only engage the services of professional photographers on rare occasions.

We are quite aware of this; which is why we took our time to study the market and we have been able to identify marketing and sales strategies that will help us generate profits from the business. Part of the marketing and sales strategies that we will adopt are;

• Mouthwatering promos for the first 12 months and then subsequently when the need arises
• Participate in photography exhibitions and expos
• Neighborhood, door to door and mouth to ear adverts to introduce our business
• Engage in roadshows to introduce our business
• Leverage on social media platforms cum online marketing to source for clients
• Create a loyalty program that will help us convert leads to loyal customers

8. Our Target Market

No doubt the target market for the photography industry is pretty wide, but in order to easily stay focused and pursue our target, we have clearly defined our target market as;

• Young Executives
• Intended couples planning to get married
• Churches and other religious centers
• Wedding planners
• Corporate Executives
• Event Planners

Our Competitive Advantage

We are fully aware that there are several top notch photographers in New York City who already have their own loyal clientele base, but we are have done our due diligence and we are ready to give them a run for their money.

Despite the fact that we are new in town, we have been able to critically study the existing photography businesses around our location and we were able to identify some lapses on their part and we plan to work towards making their lapses our strong selling points.

One of the advantages we are bringing to the fore is excellent customer’s service. It is no doubt every business owner will work hard to keep their customers, but if they are not operating on the same page with their customers, they will find it difficult to meet the need of the customer.

In addition, if they can’t meet the need of the customer for a period of time, the customer will definitely source for another company that can meet their need.

In view of that, we have designed a CRM Software that will help us effectively engage our customers from time to time. We will be able to know what our clients want and we will work hard to meet their needs per time .Also the fact that we are new and are willing to deliver photography services at a price that is about the lowest in our location is also an advantage to us.

9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY

• Sources of Income

Much more than generating income from covering events like Weddings, Parties, Thanksgiving services, Naming Ceremonies, and all forms of events that will require taking pictures; we will also engage in the sale of digital photography cameras and accessories as earlier mentioned.

After a period of 5 years, we would have succeeded in selling our brand to the entire populace in New York City and beyond. That should give us a platform to generate more income via providing photography related consultancy services and trainings to as many aspiring photographers that will need them.

After a period of 10 to 15 years, we will start selling franchises of our company in the United States of America. These are basically the areas where we will concentrate on to generate income for our photography business.

• Marketing Strategy and Sales Strategy

We will adopt the aggressive marketing approach because we believe that for us to win over clients in the already saturated market, we must be aggressive. Part of our marketing process is to get the contacts (phone numbers or email addresses) of leads, then send them introductory mails or call them to introduce our businesses to them.

After a week or thereabout, we should follow – up with another call or email and try as much as possible to book an appointment to see them.

We are quite aware that we don’t have the financial capacity to hire enough employees that can cover the entire city and beyond; which is why we will engage freelance marketers to help us market our services. They will be paid commissions based on the number of clients and the amount of the tasks done. In nut a shell, we will explore the following marketing and sales strategies to promote our business;

• Direct Marketing (Staff)
• Online Marketing
• Referral / Network Marketing
• Revenue Sharing Business Partners (Event Planners and Contractors)

10. Publicity and Advertising Strategy

From the report gathered from our feasibility studies, we have been able to identify some platforms that will help us effectively create awareness and promote our photography business. Here are the platforms we intend making use of to promote and advertise our business;

• Place adverts on national newspapers
• Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook et al
• Attend photography exhibitions and conferences
• Engage in roadshow from time to time
• Distribute our fliers and handbills to targeted areas from time to time
• Door to door and word of mouth promotions

11. Our Pricing Strategy

In as much as we will not compromise quality in any of our jobs, we have decided to enter the market with rock bottom prices in our business location. Our prices will be the prices to beat in the industry. We will offer discounts to loyal and repeat customers.

Part of what will enable customers get discounts, is when they successfully refer clients to us and if the cost of the services they want exceeds a certain amount of money. The amount will be determined from time to time by the management as the business grows; so there should be no fixed amount for now.

Our philosophy when it comes to pricing is that; ‘We appreciate making smaller profits from many clients, than making huge profits from fewer clients.’

12. Startup Expenditure (Budget)

• The Fee for Registering a Business and Obtaining the Necessary Insurance:
• The Amount Needed to Rent a Facility and To Setup a Studio: 5,000 USD.
• The Cost of 2 or more Standard Cameras (Nikon D7100 and Nikon D610): 3,200 USD.
• The Cost of Good Camera Lenses(Nikon 35mm f/2.0, Nikon 50mm f/1.8, and Nikon 85mm f/1.8 lens): 1,500 USD.
• The Cost of Computer, Software and Computer Accessories: 1,504 USD.
• The Cost of Launching a Website: 600 USD
• Additional Expenditure (Adverts and Promotions et al): 1,000 USD

Going by the report from our research and feasibility studies, we will need an average $10,000 to set up a standard photography business in New York City. Ceteris Paribus, we are likely going to break even within the first 2 years of starting the business.

Funding / Start – Up Capital Generation

As regard raising the start – up capital for the business, we have decided to explore the following means;

• Source for seed capital from angel investors (leverage on any available opportunities to pitch my business idea)
• Generate part of the start – up capital from my savings
• Apply for loan from the bank
• Invite Interested business partners

N.B-: I have been able to save about $3,000 and I intend to raise the balance by applying and obtaining a loan from the bank and also from seed capitals from angel investors. Although, I intend raising part of the start – up capital by inviting interested business partners, but that will definitely be the last option to explore because I intend owning %100 of the business at least for 5 years.

13. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy

The bigger picture of this photography business is to grow beyond New York City to other major cities in the United States of America.

As such, we intend spending the first 5 years of the business in building and communicating our brand. We know that once our brand has been accepted by the general public, it will be easier for us to successfully sell our franchise to interested entrepreneurs who intend leveraging on our brand to start their own business.

In addition, we will ensure that we invest in regular training and development of our work force.We will work hard to stay abreast with the latest technology in the photography industry and the changing trends as well.

• Photography Training and Certification (for COO and Lead Photographer): Completed
• Business Name Availability Check:>Completed
• Business Registration: Completed
• Opening of Corporate Account: Completed
• Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
• Purchase of Insurance for the Business: Completed
• Renting of Office Facility (Studio) and Setting Up: In Progress
• Conducting Feasibility Studies: Completed
• Sourcing for Angel Investors: In Progress
• Applications for Loan: In Progress
• Writing of Business Plan: Completed
• Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
• Drafting of Contract Documents and other relevant Legal Documents: In Progress
• Design of The Company’s Logo: Completed
• Graphic Designs and Printing of Marketing / Promotional Materials: In Progress
• Recruitment of 3 employees: In Progress
• Purchase of the Needed Cameras, lenses and other Accessories: Yet to Commence
• Purchase of Computer and Software: Completed
• Negotiation with Freelance Sales Reps: In Progress
• Creating Official Website for the Company: In Progress
• Creating Awareness for the business but online and in the neighborhood: In Progress

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The 46 best photo spots in Moscow

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1 The Moscow Kremlin

2 Red Square

3 Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure

4 st. basil's cathedral, 5 bolshoi theatre.

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16 Grand Kremlin Palace

17 state historical museum, 18 public museum of the moscow metro, 19 cafe pushkin, 20 armoury chamber, 21 vorob'yevy gory, 22 all-russian exhibition center, 23 moscow zoo, 24 alexander garden, 25 sokolniki park.

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26 Muzeon Park of Arts

27 ostankino television tower, 28 patriarch's ponds, 29 neskuchny garden, 30 museum of soviet arcade games, 31 dormition cathedral, 32 the carlton, moscow, 33 monument to minin and pozharsky, 34 annunciation cathedral, 35 russian state library.

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36 Winzavod

37 museum of the history of vodka, 38 komsomolskaya, 39 moscow state university, 40 poklonnaya hill, 41 ostrov mechty (dream island), 42 business district "moscow silk", 43 vorob'yevy gory, 44 memorial eternal flame, 45 street adventure.

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46 Underground gallery

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Explore nearby places

• Likino-Dulevo
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• Orekhovo-Zuevo
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• Rumyantsevo
• Dzerzhinsky
• Sovkhoz Imeni Lenina
• Dolgoprudny

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Moscow throughout the year

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Looking for day-by-day itineraries in Moscow?

Get inspired for your trip to Moscow with our curated itineraries that are jam-packed with popular attractions everyday! Check them out here:

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Street Photography Tips, Interaction, Travel, Guides

Feb 14 2017

33 Street Photography Photos from One Week in Moscow, Russia

After one of my best experiences of the year shooting in  Saint-Petersburg , it was a difficult follow for my next stop in Russia’s capital. Still, Moscow  doesn’t disappoint. While not as photogenic of a city as Saint-Petersburg (not many are), Moscow brings a bigger mix of urban, cosmopolitan city with a blend of European influence and Russian character that brings its own atmosphere. At over 12 million people, Moscow is the second largest city in Europe by population, and it can feel even bigger. 

So here’s 33 photos that I was able to capture during my time in Moscow…

33 Street Photography Photos from Moscow

For more info on moscow, be sure to check out my first impressions from a street photographer’s perspective . and stay tuned for one of my city street photography guides to moscow..

Have you photographed Moscow before or do you plan on it someday? Let me know about it in the comments below!

And let me know which photos you like best too!

Click Here for More “33 Street Photos” from Cities Around the World

February 15, 2017 at 12:48 pm

I’ve looked at the first one so many times yet still don’t understand it :D Great collection Forrest, thanks for sharing!

February 20, 2017 at 8:34 pm

Thanks, Jacint! Ha, yes, I was happier with how that one came out when I looked at it later. About the only time catching someone as their eyes shut kinda works. Cheers!

March 14, 2017 at 12:58 am

This is the scene from old and famous Russian comedy “Kidnapping in Caucasian style” on the standing board in 1st picture. There should be three heroes but central one removed by photoshop. You can stand in the middle and make a photo

July 8, 2017 at 1:07 am

Thanks for sharing your powerfull photos from Moscow I have plan to have some street photography there, maybe at the end of July given that russia was a Communist country someday and today it has Orthodox population, how was the feedback of people, police and etc to the camera and street photography does it need a license or some govermental permissions to do street photography?! thanls

July 19, 2017 at 1:13 pm

Thanks for the comment and kind words. I’ve spent a good amount of time photographing in Russia now and have never had a problem. You don’t need a license or permission and I’d say candid photography in Russia is easier than most places. People don’t tend to care much and just live their lives. As for police, that can be different, they usually don’t like it, but that’s true in most countries today. You should have a great time with street photography in Russia, good luck and enjoy!

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NASA’s attempt to bring home part of Mars is unprecedented. The mission’s problems are not

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Massive cost overruns. Key deadlines slipping out of reach. Problems of unprecedented complexity, and a generation’s worth of scientific progress contingent upon solving them.

That’s the current state of Mars Sample Return, the ambitious yet imperiled NASA mission whose rapidly ballooning budget has cost jobs at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge and drawn threats of cancellation from lawmakers.

But not all that long ago, those same dire circumstances described the James Webb Space Telescope, the pioneering infrared scope that launched on Christmas Day 2021.

The biggest space telescope ever has so far proved to be a scientific and public relations victory for NASA. The telescope’s performance has surpassed all expectations, senior project scientist Jane Rigby said at a meeting recently.

Its first images were so hotly anticipated that the White House scooped NASA’s announcement, releasing a dazzling view of thousands of galaxies the day before the space agency shared the first batch of pictures . Thousands of researchers have since applied for observation time.

“The world has been rooting for this telescope to succeed,” Rigby told the National Academies’ committee on astronomy and astrophysics.

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Yet in the years before launch, the success and acclaim Webb now enjoys was far from guaranteed.

The telescope cost twice as much as initially anticipated and launched seven years behind its original schedule. Some members of Congress at one point tried to pull funding from the project. Even the journal Nature referred to it at the time as the “telescope that ate astronomy.”

After a thorough assessment of the project’s needs and flaws, NASA was able to turn the troubled venture around. Supporters of Mars Sample Return are hopeful that mission will follow a similar trajectory.

“A lot of great science will come out of” Mars Sample Return, said Garth Illingworth , an astronomer emeritus at US Santa Cruz and former deputy director of the project that is now the James Webb Space Telescope. “But they’ve got to get real as to how to manage this.”

Last year was a crisis point for Mars Sample Return, whose goal is to fetch rocks from the Red Planet’s Jezero crater and bring them back to Earth for study.

In July, the U.S. Senate presented NASA with an ultimatum in its proposed budget : Either present a plan for completing the mission within the $5.3 billion budgeted, or risk cancellation. A sobering independent review found in September that there was “near zero probability” of Mars Sample Return making its proposed 2028 launch date, and “no credible” way to fulfill the mission within its current budget. NASA is due to respond to that report this month.

The James Webb Space Telescope was further along in its development journey when it reached a similar crossroads in 2010, six years after construction began. Frustrated with the ballooning budget and constantly postponed launch date, the U.S. House of Representatives included no funding for the telescope in its proposed budget, which would have ended the project had the Senate agreed.

In a statement, lawmakers castigated the mission as “billions of dollars over budget and plagued by poor management,” foreshadowing the criticisms that would be leveled at Mars Sample Return more than a decade later.

To forestall cancellation, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) ordered an independent review of the project, which was under construction in her state.

The board determined that Webb’s problems stemmed from a “badly flawed” initial budget. All the technical expertise needed to complete this ambitious project was there, the evaluators concluded. But getting it done with the amount of money currently set aside would be virtually impossible.

Illingworth remembered that review when he read the Mars Sample Return assessment , which offered a similarly stark conclusion.

“Some of the words are very familiar,” he said with a chuckle.

When the Mikulski review came out in 2010, Illingworth was deputy director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, which now leads science and operations for the James Webb Space Telescope.

He was sympathetic to the challenges facing Mars Sample Return managers, though chagrined that the James Webb Space Telescope’s hard-earned lessons have apparently faded so quickly — especially the importance of having a realistic budget from the beginning.

NASA missions are managed by very smart people with established histories of doing very hard things. How does something as terrestrially mundane as budgeting continually trip them up?

“The problem is that the models that you have as a cost estimator — and they have very complex proprietary software models that attempt to understand these types of things — are all built on things that have happened , in the past tense,” said Casey Dreier , chief of space policy for the Planetary Society.

“By definition, when you’re trying something completely new, it’s very hard to estimate in advance how much something unprecedented will cost,” Dreier said. “That happened for Apollo, that happened for the space shuttle, it happened for James Webb, and it’s happening now for Mars Sample Return.”

Mars Sample Return also has some mission-specific challenges that Webb didn’t have to contend with. For one, it’s happening at the same time as Artemis, NASA’s wildly expensive mission to return people to the moon .

Expected to cost $93 billion through 2025, Artemis got a 27% increase in its budget over the previous year, while Mars Sample Return’s guaranteed funding is 63% less than last year’s spend.

And while NASA’s ambitions are growing, its funding from Congress, adjusted for inflation, has been essentially flat for decades. That leaves little room for unexpected extras.

“We are tasking the space agency with the most ambitious slate of programs in space since the Apollo era, but instead of Apollo-era budgets, it has one-third of 1% of U.S. spending to work with,” Dreier said. “If you stumble right now, the wolves will come for you. And that’s what is happening to Mars Sample Return.”

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Not all ambitious scientific endeavors survive the kind of scrutiny the sample return is facing. In 1993 Congress canceled the U.S. Department of Energy’s Superconducting Super Collider, an underground particle accelerator, citing concerns about rising costs and fiscal mismanagement. The government had already spent $2 billion on the project and dug 14 miles of tunnel.

But in the same week that Congress ended the supercollider, it agreed — by a margin of a single vote — to continue funding the International Space Station, a similarly expensive project whose cost overruns had been widely criticized. ISS launched in November 1998 and is still going strong. (For now, anyway — NASA will intentionally crash it into the sea in 2030.)

The space station’s future was never seriously threatened again after that painfully close vote, just as Webb’s future was never seriously questioned after the 2010 cancellation threat.

JPL, the institution managing Mars Sample Return, has already paid dearly for the mission’s initial stumbles, laying off more than 600 employees and 40 contractors after NASA ordered it to reduce its spending.

But projects that survive this kind of reckoning often emerge “stronger and more resilient,” Dreier said. “They know the eyes of the nation and NASA and Congress are on them, so you have to perform.”

NASA is set to reveal this month how it plans to move forward with Mars Sample Return. Those familiar with the mission say they believe it can still happen — and that it’s still worth doing.

“Do I have faith in NASA, JPL, all of those involved to be able to deliver on the Mars Sample Return mission with the attention and technical integrity that it requires? Absolutely,” said Orlando Figueroa, chair of the the mission’s independent review team and NASA’s former “Mars Czar.”

“It will require very difficult decisions and levels of commitment, including from Congress, NASA and the administration, [and] a recognition of the importance, just like was the case with James Webb, for what this mission means for space science.”

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Corinne Purtill is a science and medicine reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Her writing on science and human behavior has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Time Magazine, the BBC, Quartz and elsewhere. Before joining The Times, she worked as the senior London correspondent for GlobalPost (now PRI) and as a reporter and assignment editor at the Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh. She is a native of Southern California and a graduate of Stanford University.

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