The coronavirus outbreak hasn’t been kind to the creative industry. Photographers who used to travel the world for photoshoots are now stuck at home teaching their kids their homeschooling lessons. While being a parent is a noble venture, the loss of income will eventually take its toll on these people. Don’t fret because there are plenty of opportunities for creatives like you. And yes, you can still pick up that camera and find clients to work for and with.
Extra Services
Go beyond what you’re currently offering. Previously, your services include photoshoots by the hour and layout services. Why not up your game by offering other services that are equally important to your clients? Reach out to your past clients. Offer them picture framing services. Let them choose from their past photos and offer to process and frame these. Come up with creative and attractive frames to cater to all clients.
You outsourced your printing services before. If you have some money saved, you can invest in a printer now and offer printing services to your clients. Instead of getting only a percentage from the printing fees, you can impose your own prices on them. You can even give discounts to your loyal clients, so they’ll want to keep coming back to you.
Workshops
Aside from using your creativity, you can also share it. You can teach photography online. Many people are looking forward to gaining new skills while in quarantine. Create free video tutorials, so you can encourage people to check out the courses you offer. Many can make money by contributing to stock photo websites such as Shutterstock, so this is a worthy endeavor for many.
Photo Shoots
You can still do photo shoots during this time. Sure, you have to practice social distancing, but that doesn’t stop parents from wanting to commemorate their kids’ first birthdays, baptisms, etc. You can offer home photo services, wherein you will bring the props and set them up in your client’s house. As a precaution, require everyone (except the subject) to use a face mask or face shield. You may also want to recommend an outdoor photo shoot because that’s safer.
Freelance Platform
Join a freelance platform such as Freelancer or Upwork. There are also many Facebook pages that group freelancers together. You can find a lot of gigs there. Clients who are looking for photographers will post on these groups. You can then reach out to them privately to offer your services.
How-to Guide
Are you good at writing, too? Create a how-to book guide where you can discuss a variety of topics about how to take the best photos. You don’t need a publisher. You can publish these on the internet as an e-book. Yes, these are highly profitable. Many people made a lot of money from writing e-books.
You have to be creative to survive this pandemic. It’s not the end for your dreams. Your industry will bounce back, that’s for sure. But in the meantime, while the world is still grappling with this health crisis, find ways to offer more of your skills.
