Photography Studio Rental Tips
4 Ways To Promote Your Photography Studio
Do you have a photography studio for rent or simply need photography studio tips? Sure you can rent to photographers, and you can do much more than photography rentals. In this blog post, I am covering 4 lesser-known ways to make big money with your photography studio.
Before I go any further about photography studio rentals – please know that you can always book a private Zoom session with me regarding your space. If you already have a studio or started the process, then your Zoom session will save you thousands. If you just found this page on Google but still trying to decide about opening a photography studio, then THIS is the blog post to start with. After that, come here!
I opened 5 Points Studio in Los Angeles, CA. and we hosted multiple movies, Super Bowl commercials, web series, TV shows, music videos, events and more. If you need one-on-one consultation with me about your endeavor, it would be very beneficial to book the session.
Host Movie Premiers at Your Photo Studio
Like the post says, there’s a Vimeo premier near you and that’s important with your photography studio tips. With the amount of money it takes to finance even a small film, many productions host fundraising events or sell tickets to their premiers. It’s a fun way to celebrate the crew’s accomplishments and have a good time! Many productions cannot afford or find a theater for this event.
Your photography studio could be a great rental! You can usually charge $400-$800 per event (4 hours) and there are ways to make additional revenue. You can offer rentals (projectors, chairs, etc..). Hosting a movie premier at your event space (photography studio) is a great way to advertise to other people in the industry. Some of the invited guests will need your studio in the future and it costs zero dollars to advertise your space.
You will get multiple bookings from each event, especially if you value the film community. They are loyal, tight-knit and they collaborate unlike any other group of people. Host a few movie premiers, no matter how small and watch how you start getting referrals over and over.
Here are some items your studio should have for additional rental revenue:
- Fold up chairs $2-4 per chair is a fair rate for rental
- Fold up tables $8-10 per table is a fair rate for rental
- Projector $45-$55 per rental
- Big Coffee Maker $12-$15 per rental
- Microphone/Speaker $30 per rental
Hosting Private Dinners at Your Photo Studio
You can host incredible dinners in your studio without having to lift a finger at about $1K-$4K per event!
Let me tell you a quick story. When I owned 5 Points Studio in LA, my good friend told me about her experience. Her NY group was looking to branch out to Los Angeles and they needed venuhey could work with.
My friend Katie described the events she attended as this “we pay about $200-$300 each for a full course dinner. The guests were exclusive and we had special seating. You don’t know who is sitting next to you. Sometimes it’s a celebrity, another time it’s a doctor, or a business owner. Each dinner has a theme with the food and decor. Then a special guest gives a talk or presentation and it happens every other month in a private setting”
Katie said she said next to incredible people. They were NY Times bestselling authors, TV personalities and CEOs of big companies. Every person has something incredible to add to the conversation. The events were held in unique places and they were decorated by incredible florists, party planners, etc… Once you join this inner-circle, you’ll hear about more parties and meet more people.
How Can I Find Party Planners For Exclusive Events at My Studio?
This is a fair question and I have a couple of quick suggestions to get the ball rolling.
- You already know that these big events hire florists. I would introduce yourself to every florist in the area. You cannot do this at once because it would not be personal. I would find 3 florists each week, especially the higher end ones. Write them a personal email and introduce your photo studio to them. Tell them what you do and what you like about their work. You can even invite them to leave marketing materials at your location, as a good gesture. You only need them to know you exist. The rest will happen on its own. They will eventually run into someone wanting to order flowers for their private events. At some point they might ask about any venue spaces that are easy to work with. This is when you come to mind.
- Look for hashtags on Instagram. Of all the photography studio tips, this is one of the most stealth and obvious ones. You can add the city name to “private event” and start looking at events. For example, “PrivateEventLA” or “LAPrivateEvent” and see what comes up. Stalk the post and see who was tagged. Was there an event planner you could reach out to? Was there a producer you could introduce yourself to?I want you to remember that event planners are always looking for the next great spot, the exclusive setting to please their clients. If you don’t sell them, they won’t be annoyed. Simple write them an email and let them know about your space. It’s as simple as that. 9/10 won’t respond back but at least half of those people will check out your space. You’ll end up on a roster of possibilities for future clients. Before you know it, your photography studio for rent will have multiple income streams.
Photography Studio: Rent To Content Creators
You know all of those incredible bloggers, YouTubers, TikTok people need space right? Sometimes it’s difficult to create at home because there’s a dog there. Maybe there isn’t enough space or too many people. Your only puzzle is…how do I become the answer to their problem?
You give them space! That’s another way to work your space. Photography studios for rent? Sure! You have that. You also have YouTube film space. You have multiple backgrounds for influencers, bloggers and a safe space to create.
You can probably charge about $35-55 per hour, and the average person will probably rent 2-3 hours. That’s not bad at all, considering it’s a small shoot. You were going to be at your computer working anyhow, so why not allow someone to use your space.
If someone has a big following, you can even trade time/space for publicity. One of their shoutouts could bring in many new people into your space! If you did this 3x a week, it would be possible to make little over $1,900 per month! That’s just from one branch of your business.
If you go this route, here are some items I recommend you have in your studio:
- Ring Light: I would include this with the rental
- iPhone Tripod Stand: Include this with the rental
- iPhone Wireless Mic: $8-10 Rental
- Big & Powerful LED Light: $15-20 Rental
- Light Modifier: Included with the light rental (above)
Photography Studio: Rent To Content Creators
Every makeup artist with a ring light is offering a makeup workshop. I’m not being shady, it’s a fact. Every florist blowing up on TikTok or dancer with 80,000 followers is offering workshops. Your job is to provide a space for them to thrive. You can charge $200-500 per day and depending on which city, I think you can push $800 easily (NYC, SF, LA).
Photography Studios Cannot Charge $800!
Sure they can and here is a perspective for you:
Said makeup artist charges $250 per student for their 8-hour class. They book a room full of students. We have 25 students inside the room. They’re pulling in $6,250 for a one-day class. You can ask for $800 without guilt or fear. This is why I push for my one-on-one Zoom sessions with me. You may need coaching to help you scale this business.
Let me shock you a little more with additional perspective. The makeup artist probably paid a videographer $900 to shoot and edit the class for them. I think they underpaid the videographer but they’ll try to low-ball or hire a beginner on a tripod. Why would they do this? Because they’ll sell the class to online customers around the world! Imagine if they sold the class at only $55 to about 500 students across their social channels. Don’t crunch the numbers because here is the math. They may pull in at least $25,000 in additional revenue from this one class hosted at your studio.
Tell me you’re afraid to charge $800 for the studio rental! I dare you to say you deserve less than that! In fact, I would love for you to charge more than the $800 but these are starting points. What if you hosted 4 workshops a month? I’m going to project a conservative number of $550 per rental. Can your studio benefit from an extra $2,200 a month just providing space?
Nice Photography Studio Tips. Walid, I Have Hope Now!
Good! Imagine making $2200 from 4 workshop rentals a month. Then add about $1900 from content creation rentals. Add about $1000 a month for equipment rentals. Then there are photoshoots you can rent out to, remember those photographers?! I would project you charge a low average of $350 per photo rental. You can rent early morning ours, overnight hours, etc… Let’s assume you rented the studio to 5 photographers a week. That’s $7000 a month in additional revenue for your studio. You can do this in your first 12 months of business. That total is about $12K a month or $144,000 a year from operating your own studio.
I hope you picked up a couple of tips from today’s blog post. If you want to grow more and get additional free tips right in your email, consider signing up for my free newsletter below. The newsletter goes out a few times per month and each one has something in it that will help your business grow…Sign up below!