How Not to Burnout When Doing Photography Workshops

Hosting photography workshops are one of the best ways to earn money in a photography-related business. Aside from having a studio where you can have clients who want their pictures taken, you can also have the opportunity to share your expertise with other photographers in the same field.

However, doing workshops are quite difficult. Aside from finding your market, you also have to carefully organize your workshop flow in order to provide full satisfaction to your attendees. “If you already gained a way to constantly find prospects, it may be a challenge to keep up with the energy that is needed for a fun and exciting workshop,” says Ismail Sirdah, the CEO, and founder of Lulu Promotions and Music.

In this post, we will be looking into 5 ways to avoid burning out when hosting photography workshops.

How Not to Burnout When Doing Photography Workshops

1. Come up with a workshop outline

Before starting and promoting any kind of workshop, it is essential to make an outline of it first. When a program has structure, it is easier for you to keep up with the flow and prevent dead time where you may be forced to talk or entertain your attendees. Additionally, having an outline makes it easier for the workshop participants to set their expectations. It would also be clearer for them to see the goal of the workshop you have provided. Be sure to have a copy of your outline on hand, and show it to your participants on screen. If not possible, give them handouts of the workshop online to help them see the topics to be covered.

2. Invite guest speakers

To avoid having the floor all to yourself, invite guest speakers who would want to speak to your workshop. To save money, find photographers and lecturers who are willing to speak in your workshop in exchange for promotional purposes. If let’s say, a photographer is wanting to promote his newly opened studio in the community, you can invite him to speak for a portion of your workshop. This will allow you to have a little bit of downtime, and at the same time, you are opening doors for other hopeful business owners to promote themselves. When contacting guest speakers, present them the opportunity to advertise their business. Also, give them a token of appreciation at the end of the workshop.

3. Divide attendees into small groups to do activities

Another way to add downtime yet still provide benefits to your participants is through small groups. After a theoretical lesson, you can ask your attendees to divide amongst themselves into small groups to either discuss or make a small project that will be presented at the end portion of the topic. Give them around 15-20 minutes to discuss and create. At the end, draw lots on the group who wants to present their idea or project first in the whole class. This will not only allow you to prevent burnout but will also encourage your workshop students to think of their own ideas. By doing this, you are encouraging your participants to be creative and responsive to what you have taught.

4. Alternate your workshop schedule

Each workshop has a core topic. Whether you are teaching black and white photography, wedding photography, still life or nature, it may be helpful to alternate these schedules to decrease your burnout. Instead of teaching in workshops where you do a single topic day after day, it may be good to alternate your workshop topics. You can do a black a white photography workshop on a Monday, have wedding photography on a Tuesday, and do nature photography on a Wednesday. By doing this, you will prevent the monotony of teaching the same topics over and over again in a period of time. You will also have the chance to meet new people on a weekly basis, depending on their topics of interest.

5. Mentor a trusted apprentice

“A good way to scale your business is by finding people you can trust, people who you can delegate tasks to,” says Ismail Sirdah. By mentoring a trusted individual, you are not only freeing your time to do more things for your photography business, you are also creating opportunities for your mentoree to grow in his or her career path. Set up a schedule where you can give the outline and information to your mentoree, and listen to how they deliver a dummy workshop. Appreciate strong points and provide constructive criticism. Build your apprentice’s confidence to do some of the workshops you were previously hosting. This will allow you to save time and energy, and to focus more on building your photography business through other profitable ventures.

Follow these simple techniques, and you are sure to grow your photography business through workshops, as well as other wonderful possibilities.