Starting a Photography Business

Social media and digital photography have fueled the love of photography amongst the Indian youth. More and more youngsters want to turn their hobby of photography into a business and many have established successful businesses. With low investment requirement, high demand, opportunities to travel and plenty of good-paying jobs, photography is certainly a business worth considering. In this article, we look at the procedure for starting a photography business in India.

Photography Business in India

The photography business in India is pegged at over Rs.1 lakh crores and growing at 25-30% year on year basis. Digital Photography has completely revolutionized the industry and made the film based photography industry obsolete. The recent shift to digital photography has created massive opportunities for newer companies and made some of the legacy photography businesses such as Kodak or Konica - feel under pressure. Further, the advent of digital photography has made starting a photography business less capital or training intensive - making it an ideal business for creative and talented entrepreneurs.

Investment for Starting a Photography Business

To start a photography business investment of anywhere between Rs.1 lakh to Rs.10 lakh would be required. The main investment in a photography business would be the equipment - a camera and lenses. A camera body can be purchased for anywhere between Rs.50,000 - Rs.3,00,000 and the photographer would have to invest in camera lenses for different types of shots based on his/her requirements. The investment in lenses can range anywhere from Rs.20,000 to lakhs. In addition to camera and lenses, other investment in a photography business would include lighting, miscellaneous equipment, laptop, social media advertising and a studio (if required). Since a good photography business can be started for less than Rs.10 lakhs of investment, the MUDRA Loan scheme can be used for availing loan from Banks, even in case of new Entrepreneurs without any track record.

Business Registrations

Majority of the photography businesses do not have annual revenue over Rs.40 lakhs. Therefore, a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) would be an ideal business entity for starting a photography business. As LLP does not require an audit of accounts when the annual sales turnover is less than Rs.40 lakhs, the Entrepreneur can easily maintain compliance for the business.

Two persons are required to incorporate an LLP. In case of photography businesses having a single Entrepreneur, a member of the family or friend of the Entrepreneur can be added to the LLP as a Partner with a very minimal share of the profits of the LLP.

In addition to an LLP registration, the Entrepreneur must obtain GST Registration for the Photography business.

Becoming Successful in Photography

Many young Indian Entrepreneurs have established successful photography businesses in India through their creativity and the power of social media. Since photographs are taken to be be shared and displayed on social networks, it is important for the photographer to have a strong social media presence and social media advertising strategy. In addition to having a good social media presence, creating a website and listing on photography or wedding service provider websites prominently would ensure that the photography business is successful.

The following are some of the successful Indian Photographers who have established great businesses around photography: