Specifications

You can design your flyers yourself or hire a designer. Then, you can choose from any of the local or

online postcard printing services, but make sure you look over the design specifications for the printer

you choose prior to submitting your files, so that they will print correctly. Many printing companies

offer help and/or easy to use online design programs on their website to help you craft your

promotional pieces if you are not comfortable designing from scratch.

I’ve always designed my own postcards and if you’d like to view some samples, check out my site:

CustomizedPostcard.com.

Flyers

By flyers, I mean paper flyers. You can start your business as simply and cheaply as going the old-school

route of making a flyer advertisement on your average 8.5 x 11 white paper. You could photocopy or

print from your printer and then distribute flyers wherever you can. Make sure you post your flyers in

places where it’s OK and not unlawful to do so. Talk to owners and managers of your local

supermarkets, laundromats, and other places of public commerce.

Portfolio Book

A portfolio used to be a standard amongst photographers and there are definitely times still where a

client, agent, or prospective business relationship will ask to see your “book” or portfolio. Most of the

time, you can get away with sending them to your website or bringing a micro-drive with your work. But

then again, for an in-person interview or meeting, it can be a great visual tool and one that is tangible to

impress and engage with your reviewer.

A&I Friedman is a specialty stationary and art supplies store which sells beautiful portfolio books and

cases.

For wedding photographers, you may even have a separate portfolio or one created from a photo

printing service in order to show engaged couples what their finished wedding albums can look like.

Mixbook is an example of an online service where you can have professional wedding album samples

created of your own work in order to show and sell similar books to clients

Custom Promo Items

Custom promotional items are fun and creative ways of getting clients or prospective clients to notice

and remember your business. I won’t go too far into it and there are countless types of products to

choose from but to name some quick examples; key chains, pens, pencils, magnets, and coffee mugs are

the usual standard customized items.

This is because they are typically the most cost-efficient items and are items that people generally keep

to use. Personally, I’m a fan of unique promotional items but those tend to cost more.

Check out ePromos for tons of customized promotional products.

Website

It’s no secret that web business is thriving and in many ways, overtaking in-person commerce. There are

many reasons to build your own website and many ways of doing so, but that’s another eBook, another

time. I’ll give you a few resources but let’s just say a website will help you promote your business, gain

clients, and establish credibility as a photographer and business. Honestly, if you don’t have a website

or at least a portfolio page somewhere online, it’ll be hard to be taken seriously by anyone on a business

level.