Been wondering when to rebrand your photography business? This blog post covers 2 reasons not to, two myths, and the signs you are ready…… and why I’m a damn hypocrite.

I’m totally outing myself here.

But I think brand & website designers are always the first to say, ‘you should rebrand.’ If something isn’t working, your colors, fonts, and logos need a complete facelift.

And while I do believe your brand and website do have some magic damn powers when it comes to solving business problems. They don’t solve every issue.

I look at my own brand and website and go ‘meh,’ and that’s okay… for now.

The reason I’ve not rushed to fix it and spend every evening agonizing over a gorgeous website I’m happy to risk judgment of ‘well, she’s a designer, so shouldn’t her website be amazing ’-kind internal torture that plagues me is because I’m not ready.

So what do you look out for when you’re just not quite there yet?

THE TWO SIGNS YOU’RE NOT READY TO INVEST IN BRAND & WEBSITE DESIGN YET

01. YOU’RE STILL FIGURING THE SHIT OUT

This can mean you’re new to your industry and honestly just rolling with coffee, ADHD hyperfocus, and seeing what the hell comes of it. It can mean you’ve been in business for a year or so. You’re still fully nailing down what you love the most. Or like me, you’ve been doing this for 8 YEARS, yes… 8, and you’re currently on your way to a mid-business crisis.

I’m still figuring out a lot in my business. As I’m sure a lot of people are right now; with AI and all algorithms being the biggest jerks on the internet. Crisis ensues.

Although I like to think that after a year of soul-searching I’m now on my way out, and that a beautiful rebrand and rebuild is coming soon… I’m still just making sure. Because even when you’re DIY-ing, the energy and time investment alone is a lot.

(Mental note to stock up on coffee. Because if you think designing your own website is hard, trying to be a designer. lol)

02. YOU DON’T HAVE THE INVESTMENT YET

I will never, ever, freaaaakin’ ever tell anyone to get into debt, take out loans, or stress yourself out to make that investment.

There are plenty of great templates online, and honestly, hire a recent college grad to put your content into them. That’s not to say it will do your business any justice, but that’s okay if it doesn’t. The right brand and website do make a huge difference. And yes, sometimes you have to make money to spend money. But it’s not that deep. (other designers probs totally shaking their heads at me)

Okay, so these are my main ones. If anyone comes to me and has any of these hesitations, I ask them to pause and sit with it for a while. When clients come to me, I want them full of energy, excitement, and creativity, not stressed af.

It’s also why I don’t typically get upset when clients inquire and don’t get back to me. Although yes, I do get a little overly excited about potential projects, it never upsets me. If I’m the right person and it’s the right time, I’m sure they’ll get back to me.

So following on from that, I also wanted to go over some signs that people THINK they aren’t ready to invest, but actually, if it’s the right time, you absolutely still should.

TWO ‘I’M NOT READY’ MYTHS.

01. ‘I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I WANT MY BRAND TO BE’

This is my favorite one because I think people think they have to come to the a designer with a fully formed idea of what their brand should be. I’ve had clients actually think this and then completely go off that vision during the process.

I say this with love; any seasoned designer who’s been doing this a while will know EXACTLY how to pull that out of you. We have a brand workbook that is like therapy; trauma dumps are welcome. It helps me get to the heart of who you are. Not colors, fonts, logos. You as a person. What makes you tick, what are you obsessed with, why do you love what you do. Who are your clients, and I don’t mean age, location, and income crap. I mean why you and them vibe and meet emotionally. All this good stuff is PURE gold.

THEN we’re thinking about aesthetics, with all of that in the back of our minds. And sometimes that means a big shift, slight tweaks to the direction, or (which I find so fun) it’s still spot on—this usually means you know yourself hella well.

Designers don’t book projects knowing exactly how the project will turn out. We don’t have solid ideas as soon as you inquire. The whole part of the process is figuring that out, discovering and playing, trying different things.

It’s actually better not to have a solid idea in your head. All that’s required is that you know yourself and what you like.

02. ‘I HAVE TO HAVE MY BRAND PICTURES DONE FIRST’

Well, I can’t speak to how other designers and their launch process work, but with 95% of my clients being photographers, you guys KNOW what pictures you want and where. So I actually hand over the website to my clients to play around with. You can tweak any of the copy, swap out images, and if that means waiting a few weeks for your new brand shoot images to be ready, that’s totally cool too.

THE SIGNS YOU ARE READY TO INVEST

I think the best way to figure out whether you’re ready for a rebrand and website design as a photographer is to assess where you’re at and whether you’re struggling or just want to reach a goal faster.

I did mention that good branding and website design can sometimes have a kind of magical power when it comes to solving business problems.

But only when you are ready for the next step in business, such as:

• You’ve finally found a style or niche that you love so much that you’re sooo ready to lean full into that.
• You’ve decided you don’t want to be in a niche and you always want to be a multi-passionate photographer
• You found your people and the clients you really want to work with. You want more of that; but maybe you’re not attracting as many of them as you hoped.
• You’re struggling to raise your prices or just having people question them a lot
• You feel buried underneath your business, your brand doesn’t feel like you, and your audience can feel it too
• You’re investing a lot of time and energy into marketing. So what’s the point in working hard to get all these people to your website, if it’s not going to convert them.
• You’ve been lacking in inquiries, or you’ve seen good traffic to your website and then nothing
• The people that are booking you are just not seeing your creative value
• You’re sick of social media and finally want your website to start marketing for you through SEO
• YOUR MOBILE WEBSITE IS RUBBISH. This last one is all caps because, guys, most people are now viewing websites on phones; you can’t slack on this anymore 🙃

Okay, there are probably a few more, but you get it.

If you say yes to any of those, then a thoughtful, intentional, lead-with-personality brand and website can, without a doubt, help you. Not to mention, there’s even more if you want to go all in. For example, welcome guides that give your clients a wow experience or passive income setup so you can supplement your off-season with extra $$$.

But note: these things only get solved when you work with an experienced designer who isn’t only interested in design, but also does strategy, SEO, and copy (or works with a copywriter).

I hope this post helped you figure out if you are ready or not. And please don’t judge my own website too harshly 😂

If you’re leaning toward rebranding soon, I have another post that might help: 5 questions to ask yourself before rebranding your photography business.

If you think you are ready, then I’d be sooooooo stoked to chat with you. You can read all about my brand and website design services for photographers, wedding pros, and creatives here, and you can reach out about your project by filling out my contact form.

Thanks for reading <3