Thanks for your thoughtful comment Daryl. I love that Assissi quote. I’ll have to post that on my computer. 🙂

I don’t mind if B&H is closed for Jewish Holidays, or Chick-fil-A on Sundays. Every individual photographer is going to decide whether or not they want to accept weddings that are on their sabbath.

I do get a tad bit embarrassed/irratated by those people of faith who trivialize their faith. Statements such as “God has lead me to buy this lens” or “I believe that God ordained this client to hire me.” And, yes I have heard these things said. As a person of faith myself, I hear that stuff and wonder, “Really, with all the stuff that’s going on in the world from cancer to earthquakes to homelessness – you honestly think God has nothing better to do than find you a sale.”

I have great admiration for people with integrity about their faith, but I don’t have the same reaction when people seem to be using their faith as a justification for preconceived ideas, much less trivial matters.

Hey Tim,

If you proposition yourself though specifically looking for Christian clients, you will most definitely turn off non-Christians. I don’t think that’s a good thing. Whereas I know for a fact that Mike Colon has plenty of non-Christian clients (who pay him good money) despite his overt faith on his website that says he honors “his lord and savior Jesus Christ.” But he doesn’t self-select out of non-Christian clients, he’s just stating what’s important to him.

I’m a Christian. But if someone referred a really excellent Buddhist CPA to me, I wouldn’t let that belief keep me from hiring him just because he has Buddhist saying on his card or website. Make sense.

On a more personal note, one Christian to another, I think specifically targeting only Christians kind of goes against the great Commission. But that’s just my opinion. Your business and the way you conduct yourself can be a great testament and even ministry. Why only target believers? Hope that helps.

1) who is your target market?
2) what are your business values and principles? (which feed into branding)

For some business owners, religion and faith *are* an important part of how they do business. It is part of their core ideology… and impacts most of their business decisions. (Chick-fil-A is a great example.) In turn, they often target a market that associates with this.

This is part of their promotional strategy. They are communicating their core ideology (their mission statement) and also a niche. These business owners feel that if someone doesn’t agree with this, is turned off by it, and doesn’t want to do business with them because of their religious leanings then it isn’t a match for their business. (Having a narrow niche will bring you the kinds of customers you want to work with. Not everyone is a customer match – and that is OK!)

So my questions revolve around whether positioning ourselves in the market as photographers who want to shoot weddings for that kind of client is inappropriate in the sense of using our religion as a marketing tool or if it is just stating our target market? Also, I wonder if there are other negative repercussions or unintended consequences to that kind of a business position.