I spend a lot of time surfing the Internet and looking at fashion magazines and photos to find ideas and inspirations. The more you expose yourself to, in terms of style, colours, tone, lighting and technique, the more ideas you'll have. I learned that it is very important to know what you want from the shoot, to know or have a "vision", which is the tone or look of the photoshoot in your head.
When you get a variety of ideas in your head, you'll be more confident in your work because then you'll know what you want to achieve and you know what to look for during the shoot.
Having a good team of people you can work with is important. The models, makeup artists and stylists all play a very crucial role in achieving the result you and the team have in mind.