The turning of the year is a great time either to get your photography business rolling or implement new practices to kick it into high gear.  While possessing first-rate technical skills and taking compelling photographs may give you an edge over competitors, establishing your photography business and competing effectively requires you to think strategically and to secure a firm grip on the management and financial aspects of your business.

Whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned pro, this is a great time to time to determine what works, what doesn’t, and to adopt practices that will strengthen your operations, drive revenues and boost profits. Take a look at the following list of five New Year’s photography business resolutions and select the right ones for you.

• Create a business plan (or revisit the one you have): Writing a business plan is a critical step in the success of any small business.  It can serve as a roadmap for building and managing your business. If you have an existing business plan, revisit it and ask the hard questions: Did your business accomplish what you set out to do this past year? Why or why not? Make notes on what steps may help you achieve unfulfilled goals and determine what goals need to be revised. Your new or revised business plan should include realistic and specific goals, as well as concrete steps for reaching those goals. For example,
  • Set a goal of reaching three clients per month. Then create an offer designed to bring in those customers. This could be a New Year’s email to your current client base that extends discounts to those who refer business to you and promotion codes for new customers who come to you via referral. Include gift suggestions for all occasions, including photo calendar gifts for the New Year, family portraits for a special anniversary, or pet portraits for birthday gifts or notecards.
    
• Leverage the power of LicenseStream: Many photographers now have sites online to promote their work, but remain reluctant to post all of their work online for fear of piracy. Alternatively, they offer only a subset of their images through stock agencies. Photographer, writer and historian Joseph Sohm is among those who have turned to LicenseStream to help him address these problems and to promote, track & create new revenue streams.
  • Says Sohm: “LicenseStream empowers me to publish all of my photographs directly to my Web site and to global search engines, so that anyone can find my search-optimized photos online and pay for them with a mouse click." Sohm's “Visions of America: Photographing Democracy,” is a book of photographs taken over 30 years and across 50 states that offers a sweeping portrait of life in the United States. It recently won the Gold medal for “Best Coffee Table Book” at the 13th annual Independent Publishing Awards in New York City.
    
• Engage with Social Media: In addition to leveraging LicenseStream to publish to major search engines and other Web sites such as Flickr, photographers also are turning to a range of social media channels to share information, socialize, develop trust and authority online in a way that builds their brand and fosters relationships that help grow their business. (For more about how photographers are using social media and the results of such efforts, check out the Social Media Survey conducted by Jim Goldstein and compiled by Jim in partnership with Taylor Davidson.)
  • As we’ve written about in the ImageSpan blog a social media strategy typically involves engagement with customers and partners via multiple avenues. For example, many photographers are Blogging to Build Relationships via columns they write regularly on their websites. Alternatively, you may want to explore how LinkedIn Provides the Missing Link between Social and Professional Networking that helps you build your brand, leverage the community of Facebook for Fun and Profit or Grow Your Network with Twitter.  
    
• Don’t go it alone: Even the most experienced and successful of photographers eventually may feel they’ve hit a brick wall when it comes to cultivating their business. While many photographers will find camaraderie via online forums, it doesn’t hurt to build a community of local peers with whom to meet, share experiences, and business tips and tricks. Photographer Steve Castillo of Menlo Park recharges his batteries by meeting regularly with other photographers to swap information about the latest technologies and promotional ideas. Says Steve: “These meetings are great for learning about new ideas and for reinforcing basic promotional techniques, such as sending clients reminders that you enjoy doing business with them, and finding ways to stay connected to them.”
  
• Revisit pricing and expenses: The threshold of a New Year also is a great time to review all of your efforts in 2009 and determine which were profitable and which were not. As part of this process, it pays to revisit pricing. Are you charging enough to cover costs and grow your business? Are your prices in line with norms for the type of photography and geographic market in which you operate? Are your profits sufficient to pay for your overhead, new equipment and training? This also is a good time to review expenses. Consider sharing workspace costs, equipment, and combining different talents to collaborate on projects and expand networking circles. If your passion for photography far outweighs your business acumen, it may be worth spending a little more upfront on a business consultant who can help you run your business more efficiently and profitably. 
  

 What else is on your list? Click on the “Comments” link below to share your top New Year’s photography business resolutions with the LicenseStream community.