How I started a Photography Business
It seems like only yesterday that I was working full-time in an Advertising Agency. I spent almost a decade working in corporate before circumstances pushed me into a full-time photography endeavor. Everyone’s business journey is different, and it’s worthwhile to see how others came into entrepreneurship because all of our stories are so unique.
In this post, find out how I went from a full-time corporate job to juggling two kids and a photography business, how I made all the mistakes before learning what’s actually important, and how I got to a 6-figure income two years after opening my Studio.
Starting a photography side hustle
It seemed like a good idea to start a photography business, on the side, while I was working full time (while earning a good income that would support the initial business investment).
At that time in 2013, I already had a 3-year old toddler who was going to daycare full time. I was waking up around 6am, getting ready, dropping him off at daycare by 7:30am, and getting into work an hour before anyone else because I needed to leave by 5pm (no matter what!) to go pick him up. Then I would make dinner, do the bedtime routine, clean up, and get ready to do it all over again tomorrow.
My life wasn’t exactly exciting.
The thing that made it a bit more interesting is being able to photograph my family on the weekends. But after a while, photographing the same person wasn’t as fun anymore (not to mention the fact that my child had no interest in staying in one spot or listening to anything I told him).. which is why I wanted the opportunity to photograph other people, not just my immediate family. In order to do that, I had to make sure I was legit - a legal business owner - which would allow me to work with people and support my “hobby” by bringing in an income from my photography.
Those first few years were very part time. I would have maybe one session per month. I was still busy with corporate work, with family life, and with all the other tasks I needed to accomplish. I brought in enough to sustain my business and afford some equipment upgrades - a new lens one year, a new camera the next. I was smart with my spending and always showed a profit at the end of the year, even if that profit was just a few hundred dollars.
The end of working in corporate
In 2015, I got laid off from my job. In fact, this was the second layoff I’ve experienced. Big advertising agencies want people in NYC, not Connecticut. But I had to be close by to pick up my children (I had my second boy in 2014) from daycare and couldn’t commute as my husband did. So instead of going out and trying to find another corporate design job (I was a Senior Art Director at that point), I decided to focus solely on my photography as my only income.
I had about 6 months of full-time daycare left that was already paid for, and decided to do part-time daycare for my youngest the next year, which would bring the cost down by half. In case you didn’t know, daycare is expensive! But the fact that my oldest was going into Elementary school that fall (which is free), I calculated that I could afford it with the income from my business, which, by the way, was still way less than any sort of livable wage.
Making all the mistakes
This is also when all my struggles began. Without my full-time job, I had no reliable income. I was still trying to grow my photography business. Kids were still a full-time job. And I made decisions that I thought were smart, which in hindsight, were the exact wrong direction to head in.
The truth is, I knew very little about marketing. I didn’t strategically plan things. I headed in one direction and then another. I changed my mind. I committed to a lot of free work thinking it would get me the “exposure” I needed to make headway. But I was just like any other photographer out there. My work was pretty, but that’s not enough to actually be successful in this field.
Learning about business
In 2015, I made the decision to get my own commercial Studio space. This idea came out of a simple conversation with a friend at a coffee shop where I confessed that I kind of wanted a space of my own. I went home that day and did a search of LoopNet to discover a couple of small offices available for rent in a commercial building in Riverside Connecticut. The smallest office seems do-able in terms of cost, so I reached out to the real estate agent and schedule an appointment to go see it. While on-site, she also showed me the bigger office option, for almost twice the price, and it was such a bright and sunny space that I knew I couldn’t settle for the smaller option. Not to say that the space looked beautiful - it had brown carpet, yellow walls, brown trim, and looked a bit dingy as it’s been occupied by a small law firm for the past decade.
My new Studio would take up about 50% of my business income at that time, but I knew that I could grow my business faster by having the space. So I signed the 5-year lease and spent two months doing all the renovations myself to save money (I did have help from a friend for the floor installation, thankfully). I’m pretty sure most people would say that wasn’t the smartest financial decision, but I was so tired of competing with all the other photographers in the area - the point was, having a Studio would set me apart and allow me to provide better service for my clients.
In the beginning, I didn’t even plan on using the Studio to photograph in. It was simply a space for me to do the sales appointments after the session. In fact, I had no interest in Studio photography because I simply didn’t like the look of it. I was all about candid, natural-looking images, especially when it comes to photographing families, so Studio didn’t fit my style AT ALL.
It wasn’t until January 2016 that it became clear that I had to basically scrap 3 years of my photographic work and start anew.
Investing & Growing
So that January/February, I redid my website, asked a whole bunch of my friends to come to the Studio so I could take their portraits for an entirely new portfolio of work, and build a Studio photography business from the ground up. Thankfully I had Sue Bryce as a mentor at that point and had a blueprint of what needed to be done.
But it wasn’t easy.
I once again had to invest in building up my business. I had to learn how to market my work not only on social media, but also locally because most of my clients weren’t on Facebook. There was a lot of going out of my comfort zone and trying new things to see if they actually worked. I invested in Studio lighting and education. I spent $5K one year on a Mastermind and a photography mentor to elevate my business and fix all the holes I had. All the while, I also had to juggle the needs of my children and the erratic Elementary school schedule alongside the part time daycare. I was the primary parent (very much a single parent during the week) and could never be too far from the people who needed me.
Being a Mom and an entrepreneur is no joke, and anyone who embarks on this journey deserves all the props and support they can get.
Becoming “Successful”
In 2018, I hit the magic number of having a $100,000 income in my business. Often we feel that once we hit those 6-figures, we now qualify as officially being a SUCCESS. But the truth is, nothing really changes. You still have expenses (often a lot more of them at this point) and you’re still struggling with certain things. You’re still scared. And you’re still unsure. The only thing that’s different is that there’s more at stake now. There’s more to lose, but you’re also hopefully a lot more capable of dealing with the challenges.
Most photographers never even get to this point.
And there are a few reasons for that, but it’s never because they’re not talented or good enough at photography. It’s actually all about the business part of it. As creatives, we are never taught the business side. Or if we are, we learn the business-school approach which may not actually resonate with what’s true for us or how we want to run things.
I learned so much over the past 7+ years. And I’m still learning. There is constant pivoting. I’m always quantifying what my clients need, how I can serve them better, and which type of photography can fill the open gaps in the area. I still have no interest in competing with anyone, which is why I make sure that the services I offer are different from everything else out there. And when a service stops being different, I change it, so I can offer more to my clients while keeping in alignment with my passion.
