Pet Photography Business Plan Templates and Samples
No matter what shape or size, most people treat their pets equal to that of how they treat a human. To these people, pets are family. Other people even prefer getting a pet than having a child. It is only natural that these people would want their pet to be photographed. It is also natural to hire a professional photographer.
If you already have the proper equipment for it, pet photography can be a lucrative business. As there are not so many photographers who specialized in shooting pets, it could mean that there is less competition for you. However, it takes more than pointing a camera at Cody and then pressing the shutter button to produce amazing animal pictures. No, pet photography is more than that. To be an efficient and amazing pet photographer, not only will you need exemplary photography skills, you must also be able to handle animals well. Master both skills, and you are well on your way to becoming a pet photographer.
The next step in your pet photographer career is to try and turn it into a business. You will need a business plan for that. A business plan is a formal statement of business goals, the reason for those goals and the plans or strategies for attaining them. Other things a business plan may contain are the background information of the people involved in the organization which in this case is you.
Business Plan
As mentioned above, a business plan lays out the foundation for your business. If you are just starting out, it will not make sense to create a detailed plan. For self-run businesses, which your pet photography business will be at the beginning, you will not need an extensive plan. A rough outline of your business plan will do and will be an amazing tool to refer to should you plan to expand your business.
Business Plan Versus Business Proposal
It is easy to mistake a business plan for a business proposal and vice versa. That fact is not surprising given the countless of times that countless people use the terms “business proposal” and “business plan” interchangeably. However, these two documents are very different. If you want to be a decent entrepreneur, it is imperative that you know their differences of both and when to use which document. For starters, a business plan is the overall plan of your business. As mentioned above, it outlines and details your overall business. This means that the business plan document will contain your goals, vision, mission, financial projection and other things that relate to running a business. A business proposal meanwhile is used to sell. In the case of a pet photography business, it will show your potential customers on why they should have you, a professional photographer, photograph their precious pet instead of taking the picture of themselves. It presents a good argument as to why they need to hire a professional.
One more thing, business proposals, and business plans are presented to different audiences due to their different purposes and different natures. A business plan will almost always be presented to the bank and potential investors that will help you secure funding for starting or growing your business. The business proposal meanwhile is presented to your customers for the reasons mentioned in the previous paragraph.
Knowing which is which is essential when it is time for you to create the aforementioned documents.
Key Sections of The Business Plan
A business plan will is a document that contains many sections. These sections guide the business owners of their overall business. It can also allow for potential stakeholders to know essentials things to know about the said business. A business plan should include the business’ description, goals, and missions. The general philosophy of your business, as well as your target market, should also be stated of in the business plan. Some other key sections of a business plan include:
- Executive Summary – The executive summary is basically the overall summary of your business. These section of the business plan should communicate an overview of your business concept, key objectives, plans on how to accomplish these objectives, ownership structure, management team, what you are offering, target markets, business advantages, financial projections and marketing strategy and be able to do this in at least one or two pages long. Although this page is usually found around the first few pages of the business plan, it is ironically written last. The executive summary provides the summary of all that is detailed in the plan, as a quick reference. However, as it is a summary, it does not need to be as detailed as the other sections of the business plan.
- Business Overview – The business overview is an overall introduction to your business. In the overview, you can write the history of your business from its beginnings to where it is now. Your business mission and vision statements should also be found here as well as your business ownership structure.
- Products and Services – This is the part of the business plan where you expand and products and services. You should include the details of the features, benefits, and competitive advantages of these services you offer. In the case of your pet photography business emphasizing on your competitive advantages is a must. Emphasize on what makes your business great and especially on why people should avail of a pet photographer than just getting a regular photographer.
- Industry Overview – This section of the business plan is your opportunity to demonstrate your business’ viability in your industry. You do this by discussing the size and growth of your industry, the pet photography industry or the photography industry in general, its key markets. You should also detail here how your customers can avail of your services and which targets will you be attacking.
- Marketing Strategy – A marketing strategy is used to describe your target market segments, competition. It is also in this part where the unique selling point (USP) of your business is specified. The marketing strategy should discuss your pet photography’s pricing and promotion with how you plan to promote them and how these promotions will appeal to each of your target markets. It should also include the cost of these marketing whether they be guerilla marketing tactics (social media marketing, word of mouth, etc.) or traditional (print, broadcast, tradeshows). Lastly, the marketing strategy should specify how you plan to sell or provide your services.
- Operations Plan – The operation plan details how you run your business operations. In the operation plan, include a profile of your management team, your human resource plan, business place, and an overview of your day-to-day operations.
- Financial Plan – Arguably, this is the most important part of the business plan. In this part of the business plan, you will need to show your projected final statements, at least up to three years worth. These should include income statements, pro-forma balance sheets, monthly cash flow and annual cash flow statements. Financial statements can include a lot of jargon and as such, it might be a good idea to summarize these statements into digestible sentences that are easily understood.
What Your Business Plan Can Show
You might think that since you are a small business that you might not need a business plan since you are a small business. Well, it is alright to just start out with a business outline if you are just starting out, however, if you are planning to make sure that your pet photography business will flourish into the future, creating one should be a no-brainer at all. With a business plan, your potential investors will see that:
- Trust – Creating a business plan can help you demonstrate the values of ethics and integrity. Ethics and integrity are what builds trust and that trust is greatly valued by people.
- Understanding of Your Business – In writing your business plan, you can prove to investors that you have a great handle on your business. In short, shows that you know your stuff. When you are writing your business plan, it is part of your job to articulate your mission and vision statements, your product offerings and how you plan to turn a profit.
- Financial Confidence – Your plan can show whether or not you have confidence in your financials. Being able to clearly articulate the risks in investing in your new venture and showing little to no fear of them would be a great trait to show to investors. Though, you should also include how these investors can recoup their money in case the venture fails to ensure them that they are in good hands.
Conclusion
A business plan is an important document for your business and its identity. Even if you are just starting out, your pet photography business will still get benefits for having a business plan, or at least a short outline of it. Not only will the business plan be is used to help you get a loan or secure backers, it can also serve as a snapshot of your overall venture. Creating a business plan requires an overall examination of the whole venture. As such, it will help define the identity of your business and thus, you can refer to it if you ever feel that your business is losing its way. That’s not saying that your business plan should not be flexible though.
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