How to Grow a Boudoir Business to Six Figures in a Year

You’ve been growing your boudoir photography business for a while now. You’ve booked clients here and there, had busy seasons, and even enjoyed four-figure or five-figure months. 

Now, it’s time to take your boudoir business to the next level. Let’s talk about how to grow a boudoir business and hit that six-figure-a-year mark!

Step #1: Create consistency in your schedule. 

To grow your boudoir photography business to six figures, you need to figure out two things:

1. How many clients you need
2. How much each client needs to spend

Determining these two simple factors will create consistency in your schedule and get you closer to hitting those six figures. You’ll also be able to predict how much you’re making more easily and track your progress toward your goal.

To figure out those two important numbers, you’ll need to bring out the spreadsheets. 

(Or you can grab my Full Time Formula from the TLC Shop and let it do the work for you!)

Here are the numbers you need to know to start creating consistency in your schedule:

• How many hours you want to work each week
• How many weeks a year you want to work (minus time for vacation, personal time, etc.)
• How much time you spend per client

For example, if you want to work 20 hours a week and 40 weeks per year, you have 800 hours per year. Subtract a third of that for running your business (so time not spent on clients), and you get 533 hours. 

Most photographers spend an average of 8 hours on a client. So, divide 533 by 8, and you get 67 clients per year or 6 per month. And if you wanna make 100k in a year? Divide 100,000 by 67, and you’ll see how much each client needs to spend to help you hit that goal.

In this example, it’s $1,493. This is your sales average goal, and we will use it later in Step #3! 

Instead of booking three clients in one month, nine in another, and maybe four in the next, you can always strive for that magic number you calculated.

Step #2: Focus on your ideal client.

If you sell to everyone, you make no one happy. Well, not exactly. But by marketing your boudoir business to everyone, you risk spreading yourself thin and getting overwhelmed. It’s much easier to understand who your ideal client is and sell to them.

To figure out your ideal client, ask yourself these questions:

• What’s her career? What industry does she work in?
• Is she a mom? Wife? Bride?
• Where does she shop? 
• What local businesses (spas, hair stylists, nail salons) does she support?
• What does she do for fun?
• Where does she spend her weekends?

The more you know about your ideal client, the more you can tailor your brand and business to attract her! And you can build a marketing strategy that puts your boudoir business where it is.

Do this work up front, and every choice you have to make in your business will be easy. You already know the answers to your questions since you know your ideal client so well!

Step #3: Build your price list intentionally.

We got rid of your random, sporadic client schedule. Now let’s do the same thing for your price list! Instead of picking prices according to what “feels” right, I want you to build a price list that’ll actually help you hit your six-figure goal.

The good news is the math you did in Step #1 can be used here, too! Remember your sales average goal of $1,492? We’re going to build your hypothetical price list around this number. 

Say you have five options for albums on your price list. Your middle option will be your sales average goal. Let’s bump that up to $1,499 because it’s a nicer-looking number. Now, your two higher-tier items will cost more than $1,499, and your lower-tier items will cost less.

Your clients will see that item in the middle and think, “Hmm, that’s a good deal. I’ll go with that one!” It’s more enticing simply because of how you organize your prices. That’s a little sales psychology for ya.

If you’re wondering what products to offer on your price list, or if you wanna learn more about sales psychology, these secrets to pricing as a boudoir photographer can help!

Step #4: Let your website turn leads into clients. 

The fourth step in growing your boudoir business is to stop using your website as an online business card. Instead, create a high-converting website that turns leads into clients for you.

I used to have one of those online business card websites! My site had my name and contact information…and that’s kinda it. Leads would land on my website and have trouble finding the information they needed to know. They’d leave. Or I’d have to spend a lot of time on consults, giving them the information they wanted.

That eats up a lot of your time. And we all know time as a photography business owner is precious!

Your website should have all the information your client wants or needs to know in order to book you, like:

• What your business is all about
• How you can deliver a great experience and great photos to them
• What sessions include and cost
• What your work looks like
• How to contact you

Having a high-converting website should be a top priority over Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and so on. It turns leads to clients so much more quickly. It frees up your time so you can enjoy a booked-out schedule, too.

Step #5: Drive traffic to your website.

Once your high-converting website is ready to go, you want people to land on it and become qualified leads! You’ll want a strategy that drives traffic, and client leads to your website. I’ve created something called my Forever Booked Out Method to do just that.

My method involves 3 steps:

1. Nail down your ideal client. (Hey, we’ve done that already! High-five.)
2. Build your high-converting website. (Got it covered!)
3. Focus on your traffic drivers.

Look at that, we’re already on Step 3. What are traffic drivers? Everything you do in your business can send traffic to your website. 

That includes:

• Email marketing
• SEO
• Blogging
• Social media
• Events (e.g. bridal fairs)
• Referrals

Some are short-term, some are long-term, but should all work together to drive traffic to your site and convert leads to clients. And if you notice, you don’t even need to use paid ads in your strategy!

Start growing your boudoir business

That was five simple steps to grow a boudoir business to six figures! Not bad, right? Let’s recap what you need to do:

1. Create a consistent schedule by figuring out your sales average goal
2. Understand and focus on your ideal client
3. Build your price list around your sales average goal
4. Create a high-converting website
5. Drive leads to your website

It’s a simple process in theory, but each step requires research and work, of course. If you’re scared of making a mistake or want to work toward six figures sooner, I have something for you. My 6-Figures Simplified group coaching program is opening soon. Learn more about it here!