Working with a Business Partner: How to Build a Successful Photography Business Together

By Catherine Connor

Running a photography business with someone else can be incredibly rewarding.

You have someone to share the workload with, another person to bounce ideas around with and, hopefully, someone who brings skills and experience that complement your own.

But there is another side to it.

When you work with a partner, disagreements about money, clients, workload, creative decisions or the direction of the business can quickly become personal. If your business partner is also your spouse, partner or close friend, separating the two relationships can be even more difficult.

A successful business partnership doesn’t happen simply because two people get along.

It needs planning, communication and a clear understanding of what each person is responsible for.

Decide whether a partnership is right for you

Before going into business with someone, spend some time thinking about why you want a partner in the first place.

Do you genuinely need another person to build the business you have in mind, or are you simply looking for company and support?

There is a big difference.

A partner can bring skills that you don’t have, provide additional creative input, share financial responsibilities and make it possible to take on work that would be difficult to manage alone.

But they also bring their own opinions, ambitions, working habits and expectations.

You need to be comfortable with that.

Don’t go into a business partnership because it feels like the easiest option. Discuss what you both want from the business and what success looks like before you commit.

Agree your roles from the beginning

One of the simplest ways to create problems in a partnership is for both people to assume that the other person is responsible for something.

Sit down together and work out who is responsible for what.

That might include:

• photography
• editing and post-production
• enquiries
• sales
• marketing
• social media
• accounts
• client meetings
• bookings
• website management
• equipment
• supplier relationships
• administration
• business development

You don’t necessarily have to divide everything 50/50.

In fact, trying to make every responsibility exactly equal can sometimes be counterproductive.

Instead, divide responsibilities according to your strengths, interests and available time.

One partner may be better at sales and communication while the other is more comfortable with the technical and creative side. Both are valuable.

Don’t confuse equal with identical

A good partnership doesn’t mean both people do exactly the same amount of everything.

It means both people contribute meaningfully to the business.

If one person spends several hours dealing with enquiries while the other spends those hours editing, comparing the number of hours spent doesn’t necessarily tell you whether the workload is fair.

Look at the overall contribution.

Who is responsible for bringing in work?

Who manages the finances?

Who handles the administration?

Who does the client meetings?

Who is responsible for delivering the finished photographs?

Once you understand the whole picture, it becomes much easier to have an honest conversation about workload.

Use your different strengths

One of the biggest advantages of working with another person is that you don’t have to be good at everything.

Photographers often start businesses because they love photography. Unfortunately, running a photography business involves plenty of things that have very little to do with taking photographs.

Accounting, marketing, sales, customer service, websites and administration all need attention.

You may find that your partner enjoys something you dislike.

Use that.

Rather than both trying to become equally competent at every task, identify where each person’s strengths lie and build the business around them.

There will obviously be some overlap, but you don’t need to duplicate every skill.

Have regular business meetings

One of the easiest habits to neglect is simply talking about the business.

When you’re working together every day, it can feel as though you’re constantly communicating.

But talking about what happened during a shoot is not the same as having a proper business meeting.

Set aside regular time to discuss:

• what has happened
• what needs doing
• upcoming bookings
• finances
• marketing
• workload
• problems
• new opportunities
• longer-term plans

Keep these conversations separate from the normal working day where possible.

It gives both people an opportunity to step back from the day-to-day work and think about the bigger picture.

Know what your partner is working on

You don’t need to know every detail of everything your partner is doing, but you should have a reasonable understanding of what is happening in the business.

If you asked your partner what their priorities were for the week and neither of you could answer, that might be a sign that communication needs some attention.

A simple shared task list or weekly planning session can make a huge difference.

It doesn’t have to be complicated.

What needs doing this week?

Who is doing it?

When does it need to be completed?

What is coming up that needs preparation?

Clarity prevents a surprising number of arguments.

Learn to disagree about the problem, not the person

Disagreements are inevitable.

In fact, disagreement can be useful if it leads to better decisions.

The problem comes when a business disagreement becomes a personal argument.

Try to separate the two.

Instead of:

“You never listen to me.”

Try:

“We keep approaching this differently. What are we actually trying to achieve?”

That small change in language can make a difficult conversation much more productive.

The question shouldn’t always be who is right.

It should be: what is best for the business?

Don’t let passion make every decision

It’s easy to become emotionally invested in a photography business.

That’s one of the reasons many people start one in the first place. They care about photography and want to build something of their own.

But passion can make difficult decisions harder.

You might love a particular product that doesn’t sell.

Your partner might want to invest in equipment that you don’t think the business needs.

You might both be attached to a service that takes too much time for the return it produces.

Step back and look at the evidence.

What do the numbers say?

What do clients actually want?

How much time does it take?

Is it profitable?

Does it fit where you want the business to go?

Being passionate about your business is valuable. Being able to step back from it when making decisions is equally valuable.

Separate home and work where you can

This becomes particularly important when your business partner is also your spouse or partner.

If you work together, talk about work together and then continue talking about work over dinner, it can feel as though there is no escape.

Try to create some boundaries.

You might decide that certain evenings are completely work-free, or that business discussions happen during your scheduled meetings rather than throughout the day.

You won’t always manage it, particularly during busy periods.

But having some separation helps protect the personal relationship.

Your relationship shouldn’t become a permanent business meeting.

Make time to think rather than simply work

Running a busy photography business can leave very little time for thinking.

There are enquiries to answer, photographs to edit, clients to meet and social media posts to publish.

The temptation is to keep working through the list.

But sometimes the most valuable thing you can do is stop.

Set aside time to look at the business rather than work in it.

Ask:

• What is working?
• What isn’t?
• What should we stop doing?
• What could we improve?
• What do our clients value most?
• Where are we wasting time?
• What would we like the business to look like in a year’s time?

This kind of thinking can be difficult to justify when there are jobs waiting to be completed, but it can prevent you from spending another year doing the same things simply because that’s how you’ve always done them.

Make room for new ideas

A business can become stale surprisingly quickly.

You find a product that works, a marketing method that brings enquiries and a workflow that gets the job done. Before long, you’re repeating the same thing year after year.

Regularly try something new.

That doesn’t mean constantly changing the business or buying new equipment.

It could be a new service, a different way of presenting your work, a new marketing approach or simply testing a different workflow.

Some ideas won’t work.

That’s fine.

The point is to keep looking for ways to improve.

Know when to ask for help

There is a strange pressure in running your own business to believe that you should have all the answers.

You don’t.

Recognising when you need help is a strength, not a weakness.

That help might come from an accountant, business adviser, mentor, photographer, solicitor or simply another business owner who has dealt with the same problem.

Sometimes an outside perspective is particularly valuable when two partners have been discussing the same issue for months.

You may have become too close to the problem to see the obvious solution.

Review the partnership as well as the business

Most businesses review their finances, marketing and sales.

It’s worth reviewing the partnership too.

Once or twice a year, ask each other some straightforward questions.

What is working well between us?

What is causing frustration?

Is the workload still fair?

Are our responsibilities still appropriate?

Are we both happy with where the business is heading?

Is there anything we have been avoiding discussing?

These aren’t always comfortable conversations, but they are much easier to have when things are going reasonably well than when a major disagreement has already developed.

Put the agreement in writing

If you’re entering a formal business partnership, don’t rely on a handshake and a shared understanding.

Get appropriate professional advice and make sure important arrangements are documented.

That might include responsibilities, ownership, finances, decision-making, what happens if one person wants to leave and what happens if circumstances change.

It isn’t pessimistic to plan for things going wrong.

It is simply good business practice.

A written agreement gives everyone clarity and can protect the relationship if circumstances change.

A successful partnership is a working relationship

The best business partnerships aren’t necessarily those where the two people agree about everything.

They are often the ones where both people understand how to disagree constructively, recognise each other’s strengths and keep talking.

Running a photography business with someone else can give you another perspective, another set of skills and someone to share the journey with.

But don’t take the relationship for granted.

Schedule time to talk.

Define your responsibilities.

Use your strengths.

Review how you’re working together.

Give yourselves time away from the business.

And remember that the partnership itself is something you need to invest in, just like any other part of the business.

If you get that right, having someone beside you can be one of the great advantages of running a photography business.