I have been asked these questions thousands of times by friends, fellow photographers as well as students. While I have been in this tough industry for about 10 years, I believe that it is not impossible to start a photography company in Singapore….but very difficult.
After running Flashpixs Photography for the past 10 years, I think that setting up is the easiest part of all. The difficult part is sustaining it which I will explore in a different blog post. 🙂
Here are my 5 tips on “How to Set Up a Photography Business in Singapore?”
1. Have a Business Plan
All businesses have a plan and you should too. You can’t set up and run a photography business not knowing your plans, finances, cash flow, pricing and etc.
Try to be detailed as possible and let this be your guide on how you are going to profitable and sustainable. You can even use the Business Plan to sell your ideas and plans to investors or Mom & Dad’s Bank. Hehehe
2. Register Your Business
If you are really serious about becoming a professional photographer or setting up a photography company then you should first take yourself seriously before anyone will.
Registering a Business is a very easy process in Singapore. Everything can be done online and it takes less than an hour to set up.
As you are probably a small start up, a Sole Proprietorship would be sufficient.
Costs:
Name Application Fee $15
Business Registration Fee (1-year) $100
Business Registration Fee (3-year) $160
Head to ACRA’s website. Follow the guides and you can have your own registered company in less time it takes to travel from Pasir Ris to Jurong.
3. Set Up Your Business Banking Account
After registering for your company, you might receive a welcome pack from the Govt and in it, there will be information on how to Set Up Your Business Bank Account.
If you do not receive it, you can head to any of the banks in Singapore to inquire about setting up.
I truly believe that setting up a Business Banking Account is a vital aspect of any business. From my experience, many big businesses, as well as small ones, would not engage any professional services if they do not have a Business Account as they cannot make payments to a personal bank account.
Wondering why you didn’t clinch that big project? This might be your answer.
4. Have a website with a Professional Domain & Hosting
While photography startups are always strapped for cash, I believe investing in a website with a professional domain name and hosting is very important. Your website gives the impression that your company is legit (kept hearing this from the millennials) and ready for business.
Avoid those free websites and go for .com or .sg domains with your photography business name.
We highly recommend using WordPress with Hostgator for your website or Blog. Read more on how to set up your Domain Name, Hosting and WordPress installation from the link below.
There are Youtube videos too on how to set it up. If you are really a noob, hire someone to do it for you. Trust me, this is one hell of a good investment to make on your adventure as a professional photographer.
5. Have A Professional Email Address
Since you already bought a domain name and hosting, make sure you create a professional email name as well. This might be tricky to some but like I said earlier, there are loads of tutorials on Youtube.
And if you are planning to hire a website designer, inquire from them to include the email set up as well. Nothing seems more legit than a professionally done website and email address.
So here are my 5 top tips on how to Set Up A Photography Business in Singapore. Follow these guidelines and you are set up and ready to go for your entrepreneurial adventure as a Professional Photographer.
If you do have any questions or queries, you can drop me a comment below. I will try my best to answer your queries.
Good luck,
Shahrom
