When it comes to building a wedding photography business it's all about professionalism. From generating the lead to delivering the finished wedding album, running a wedding photography business means you need to understand what it means to run a professional business.

Anyone can walk into a wedding with a digital camera and snap a bunch of pictures. But your clients are paying you good money to get the best pictures. They're also paying you to do it in a professional manner.

Being a professional means you're prepared for any contingency. You've visited the venue before the wedding and you know where and how you're going to position people to get the best portraits. It means you've visited the site of the reception and done the same thing. You've talked to the bride, the caterer, the baker and the limo driver and you know exactly what time everything is going to happen.

It means you have a checklist of all the shots you want to get and all the shots the bride wants. And it means you're going to do whatever it takes to get all those shots - without disrupting the wedding. In fact, if you're really professional, the bride and groom will hardly know you're there.

Wedding photography can be stressful and it's easy to lose control of the situation. If you're prepared for any emergency, though, most weddings will come off without a hitch. And handling a wedding in a calm, professional manner makes it look like you really know what you're doing. You're in control. It's good for business. You'll get a lot more referrals when things go smoothly.

Now, to make your business even stronger, you need to know your competition. A professional business person doesn't enter a market without knowing who his competitors are and what they're offering. It doesn't make sense to put together a wedding package at one price if your competitors are all offering a bigger package at a lower price.

Ask around about your competition. Try to see samples of their work. Get copies of their brochures to see what kind of prices they're offering. And then, don't try to meet or beat those prices. Try to offer a better service or product. Trying to compete on price just erodes your marketplace and eventually nobody is making any money. And you'll be able to command higher prices for your work if you're delivering a better product than your competitors.

In the end, the basic wedding photography tips for building a stronger business are the same as they are for any business: Know what your target audience wants and know what you need to do to compete for the business. Once you've got all that information you can put together your own competitive package and start raking in your share of the business.

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