Tom Trevatt

Tom Trevatt always wanted to see the world through a camera, but when it came to building a successful photography business, that was never going to be enough. Through ad spending, his podcast and word-of-mouth recommendations, he was able to generate the leads he needed to keep on taking portrait shots. Here, he shares his tips and tricks for making it on your own as a photographer.

What I do

My creative practice
I'm a portrait and headshot photographer. I work with actors, artists, creatives, entrepreneurs, therapists, writers and many more to create meaningful portraits that connect with people. I love spending a few hours with someone to collaborate on the creation of beautiful imagery that will transform their lives – whether that means getting that dream role or building a career they love. I am also a mentor, offering workshops, coaching and help to photographers looking to grow their business. And last but not least, I'm an academic, teaching on an MA in Art and Politics at Goldsmiths.

Influences and inspiration
Baroque and Dutch masters painting, experimental fashion photography (Paolo Roversi for example) and 90s portraiture on B&W film.

My training
You definitely need to know how to use a camera, light your subjects and direct people. Then, you need to know how to build a business and market yourself. I don’t think there’s specific training you need, but undertaking mentorships, workshops and education is a great idea!

Favourite recent project
Anything where I get to spend a few hours in the studio and create beautiful work with someone. I’m currently working on a new project with a stylist/set designer to produce beautiful photographs of artisans and their work. It’s in its very early stages, so watch this space.

A normal day usually looks like…
If I’m shooting, I get up around 9am, do a workout, have breakfast, etc., then head to the studio for around 11am. I work with my client for four to five hours and then cycle home. In the afternoon, if the weather is good, I’ll try to get outside, read, eat, spend time with my partner, friends and so on. On days I’m not in the studio, I’m usually at the laptop editing, doing admin or marketing.

How I got here

Starting my creative journey
I was lucky, my flat in South East London had a spare room that I could turn into a simple studio, so for the first six months of the business, I used that space. I mounted three constant lights on the walls on accordion arms to allow some adjustment and got myself some simple modifiers. Like many aspiring headshot photographers, I found Peter Hurley’s Headshot Crew early on in my journey and joined up, learning lighting, posing and following simple guidance for how to shoot the Hurley-style headshot.

There was a steep learning curve, and while getting to know lighting quickly was very helpful, the process has its limitations. I also don’t think I really fit the vibe of the crew. After a few months, I left, staying in touch with Ivan Weiss, a portrait photographer based in London. We became friends – Ivan was a decade ahead of me in his business and had a lot of helpful insights at the beginning - often acting as an unofficial mentor when I needed some advice.

During this period, I did a number of things that I think set me up well for the rest of my business journey. The first and most important thing: I shot all the time. I nearly always had my camera in hand – not just shooting portraiture, but street, landscape, cityscape and documentary style too. I always wanted to see the world through the camera.

Landing my first few jobs, clients and/or commissions
In the early days of the business, I did shoots for two of my friends, Devyani and Sanjit, leading to numerous clients through word of mouth. Both of them were incredibly helpful, posting those photos to their LinkedIn, Instagram and probably even Facebook profiles. I am still in touch with some of the amazing clients that came from those posts and am still generating business from those initial leads. This was a vital start to my lead generation process.

In those early stages, I was nowhere to be seen on Google, buried deep in the basement of the search engine. I relied on word-of-mouth, networking and Google ads to generate leads – with most of my business spend going on the latter. I hoped that I would get to the front page now and then and that people would click, and they did. By mid-2024, I was spending somewhere in the region of £1700/month on ads. I managed to generate fairly consistent, if not massive, amounts of business this way.

Portrait photography by Tom

Biggest challenges along the way
Cash flow – the business costs a lot to run and staying on top of the financials is something I’ve had to learn along the way. No one teaches you how to do it!

My social media and self-promotion vibe is…
Instagram has been very helpful – multiple people have found me through the app. But these days, the algorithm is working against photographers rather than with us. LinkedIn apparently works well for some photographers, but I’m yet to enjoy that.

Three things I've found useful in my career:

Courses, programmes, initiatives, access schemes or job boards I've found helpful
Headshots Matter is a networking platform for headshot photographers, which has been incredibly helpful. While I didn’t stick around for long, in the early days of my practice, I did find Peter Hurley’s Headshot Crew helpful.

From the beginning I listened to a lot of podcasts: Alice Benham is a great business coach and has an equally wonderful podcast, Starting the Conversation, about business; PhotoBizX has been an incredible resource for all things photography business (I have even had the pleasure of being invited on as a guest); About Creative Experience with the amazing Tom Wright is always a joy to listen to; and The Amy Porterfield Show is useful when it comes to marketing tips. Otherwise, I have found YouTube to be a useful platform - I'd recommend creators like Chris Do, Evan Ranft, Thomas Heaton and Vuhlandes.

Portrait photography by Tom

My greatest learnings when it comes to making money and supporting myself as a creative have been…
Don’t look to others in your field to determine your prices; you have to work out how to price yourself based on your own capacity, business values and ambitions. I run through all my pricing strategies in my mentoring programmes, helping photographers to build aligned businesses.

My advice

My most useful career tips
I remember having a long conversation about creative confidence with Dwayne Brown from Headshots Matter around two years ago. Creative confidence is the idea that you're unapologetically yourself as a creative. It was this conversation that gave me permission to be myself as a photographer and a concept I've taken forward in my own mentoring.

'Find out who you are and do it on purpose' is a mantra I adhere to. I love helping photographers to be creatively confident, rather than fitting into some preconceived box that the industry or whatever has put them in. For me, that meant leaning into my artistic background, but for someone else, it could be their love of bright colour and expressive movement, for example.

What I'd say to someone looking to get into a similar role
Build something that makes you want to get out of bed in the morning, not something you assume pays the bills but which you hate. I’m not built for working for someone else’s enrichment, and whenever I’m talking to people wishing to change their careers, build a business, or so on, I have to be honest and tell them to follow their passion, as trite as it sounds. Really get to know yourself. I feel like joy, fulfilment and expansive experiences are what so many of us are missing in our lives.