I live in a small town of about 5,000. The nearest big city has a population around 200,000. I was wondering if anybody here has some success stories in a small town area. What challenges did you face? What was your smartest move?

Is it wise to stick it out in a small town or is it wise to move to a more populated area? Which is more important: population or average income?

Thanks for your input.

Peace.

I have some math below, but to start...I tried doing some business in a small town and it didn't work. I used to be a stockbroker so I tried networking with other professionals in the town (lawyers, accountants...etc.). But they already had their 'go-to' business parnters. It was like trying to weasle my way into a good ol' boys club where they thought I didn't belong. If I had started business on my own there and had been successful, enough of the town would actually have been upset for having "stolen" business that it wouldn't be pleasant living there. I high-tailed it outta there!

SUPPLY and DEMAND:
Let's say one photographer could handle 50 clients in one year (weddings and seniors). In your town, let's say there are 500 clients available for that year (the whole town isn't getting married or graduating in the same year...and if they do, everyone will be out of business in 2008...lol). This means you're trying to capture 10% of the market (a huge market share for any business).

In a larger city (the nearest one is 40 times bigger)...the 50 clients you could handle only represents 0.25% of the market...a very feasible capture.


PEOPLE's ABILITY TO PAY
Average incomes will be lower in the town, and your prices will have to reflect that. So you'll have lower prices (relative to what you can charge in the city), and fewer clients (assuming you're not able to capture 10% of the market). Whereas in the city, people can afford to pay you more and you'll have an easier time capturing 0.25% of the market (50 clients).


That's just my .02 cents! Good luck with your decision.

It's hard to really know what to tell you because what I have done I would have done regardless of where I live.

My country-town has 2,000 residents, the nearest mid-size city is 1-hour north and there are a whole lot of wedding photographers trying to get their share of the market around here.

I promote myself within a 2 hour radius of my hometown and I travel within that area for a very small extra fee. I got an 800-number to reduce the reluctance for people to call who live on the outskirts (I think there are 4 or 5 area codes in the two-hour radius from my house). I make it widely known with my clients and their guests that I'll travel anywhere for wedding photography so that way my name is spreading to other areas.

Stay in touch with everyone that you know through a blog, casual phone call, newsletter, email or lunch date and give them a reason to talk about you.

In my small town the majority of the people who live in this area travel between 30 and 60 minutes one-way to get to work so it makes it easy for word to spread

Hey Steve,

I am in a small town. I'll get my thoughts together & get back to this one!

I find that getting your name out in a certain radius of your home is very helpful. Thankfully Delaware is a small state, so I cover all of it with no travel fee. When I lived in the northern part, 75% of my weddings were in Philadelphia, South Jersey, etc. And even though I moved 2 years ago, I'm still getting calls from referrals of those clients. After 4.5 years, I JUST booked my first wedding in my town for this spring. No one in my town really care for the photojournalist style, nor know about it. They all still want very traditional posed photography and they would cringe if they ever heard of it costing $3,500+!

So spread your name out there. The more the better!

Thanks guys for the thoughtful replies.

I see that there are challenges here, but there is a market in other nearby cities and towns. Being free to travel is key.

I am sure there are not more than 2 other photographers in this town. Some people use photographers from neighboring cities. In a town this size, everyone goes somewhere else for something, shopping, entertainment, work. People here are surprized that I am local and not an import from the big city.