In her ongoing online series, photographer and educator Michelle Harris is breaking down how to build and run a successful associate photography team. First, find out whether building a team makes sense for you right now with your photo business.

You’re into the idea of working together on a team, teaching and pouring your know-how into others, and outsourcing what you can to balance the pressure of someone working on your behalf. Cheers to you! You are ready to begin building an associate photo team.

What’s Your Why?

Now listen, I love you and I want you to succeed, so I want to be so authentic and real with you about associate teams: If the foundation of your associate building is not strong, then at the first sight of struggle, the cracks will become devastating. The first question I want you to answer for yourself is why you are doing this. I am asking this because when the bride calls upset that certain photos weren’t taken, that the hired photographer didn’t show up, and you’re up late working through customer service issues, your “why” is the only thing that will keep you from quitting. 

Why do you want this? Are you so booked that you can’t even envision adding another wedding or event? Does it crush your business-savvy soul to turn away a client? Have your packages become so expensive that most clients in your area can’t keep up? (By the way, go you if this is the case—I love a boss that knows their value!) Maybe you see clients that your heart connects to but your packages just don’t sync up financially and you’re ready to scale your business.

Whatever your why is, I need you—need you—to define it. 

Where Should the Team Exist?

There are two popular ways to structure a team in relation to your existing brand, and those look like this: 

1. You continue serving your clients under your current brand, but you have associate photographers shoot weddings for you.

2. You create a separate company and have the photographers shoot weddings under that brand.

If you’re creating this team to continue to book weddings around your same price point, I recommend option number 1. If you’re creating the team to fill in the price gaps, I recommend number 2.

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Neither is right or wrong; it is truly about knowing your client.

If you do not know your client yet, I want to challenge you to wait on this and take the next 30 days to do nothing but study your client. Become obsessed with them. What do they do? What do they like? Where do they shop? This is so important so that when it comes to marketing, you have your client in your head, you know their needs. And then you can pick the branding structure that works best for you. 

Starting a Separate Company

I went with number 2, and in choosing it, I thought about my why.

My why was to serve my clients more. My why was to give brides an experience that they deserve and didn’t have to lose out on because their budgets weren’t high enough. I hated getting inquiries from potential brides who said they wished they could afford me but couldn’t and feared they wouldn’t find someone they could feel comfortable and confident with. My why was to make extra income to set away for my family.

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I easily identified my why, but with that, I chose to identify the things I didn’t want too. I didn’t want to feel responsible for creating a full-time income for my team and block them from having their own businesses. I didn’t want to make website pages of bios for my associate photographers. I didn’t want to become the one source of income for these fellow photographers and experience the intense guilt when I didn’t have an event to give her to help her pay rent.

My goal with this business was and is to pour knowledge and love into these photographers so much so, that eventually, they will be too busy to shoot for me. I want them to use this time to build confidence, build their own business foundation so that they can go off and kick it on their own. I believe in community over competition deep in my heart. I let my photographers use the images from the weddings in their portfolio and run their own businesses.

Integrating a Team in Your Existing Brand

Back to number 1. Having them shoot under your current brand is also a viable option. You can find someone who is not a fan of editing or marketing and simply enjoys shooting. Typically this requires having them sign a non-compete contract, which I am a huge advocate for. If you are putting in some work, I want you to protect your business.

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Think about how supported your clients can and will feel knowing there is an entire team. Though they will only have interaction with their photographer, there is a true shift in a bride’s mindset that feels comforting, knowing there is a team around her.

The other benefit? Two brains are better than one. You are the boss, and I absolutely honor that, but I’m about to drop some truth here: We are not always right, and we don’t always have the best practices or best ways of doing things. Having someone on your team means you are physically bringing the chance to level up and learn.

The last piece of comfort here is security. Having someone on your team in your brand means that you pass the bus theory—the idea that if you were gone tomorrow (or, as the theory holds, hit by a bus), your business would either completely stop and fail or would succeed because you have someone who can carry on and service your clients.

It’s a Win-Win

This is so much information, I know, and choosing between both branding structures might seems like life or death, but here’s the best part about both options: You are still in charge, you are still in control. If you pick one option over the other and it doesn’t land, there is no reason you can’t change it. 

Take it slow, take it step by step, chose good people and build their skills. Your customer service will be the life raft through bad times, so good people should come first. You’ve got this, and I’m here to cheer you on. Now go build your team!

Next, how to price your team.

Michelle Harris is a destination wedding photographer and educator based in the Washington, D.C. area. She is the owner and lead photographer of M Harris Studios, owner of an associate photographer company Laila Chanel Studios, and the creator of the wedding photography conference Hustle in Heels.