Am I ready to start my own Photogrpahy Business?

So you think you might be ready to take your hobby and turn it into a photography business. You want to Charge for your services. How do you know if you are ready? What more can you do to prepare?

I am by no means an expert in this situation but from starting a few other businesses I will tell you I know it takes a lot of work to make sure everything is nice and legal. I am also a firm believeer that if you are going to be truly pro you need to have the gear that goes with it. Good quality camera bodies, lenses, flashes, tripods etc. While the gear doesn't make the pictures the photographer does, there is a real difference in quality between the consumer and professional level gear. Those entry level DSLR cameras have their place and produce great stuff and are great to start out on, but at some point you will want to and should upgrade before going 100% pro. Now on with the rest of the stuff.

1. Are your technical skills where they should be? Is your confidence level high enough? Can you walk into a house you've never been to before and find enough light, or the right kind of light, along with a decent so no matter what you get at least some decent shots? All this with kids you might not have ever met and perhaps are not fond of strangers? Uh oh what if they have nothing good for a background? How would you handle that? How do you handle less than ideal lighting situations? What about lighting outside? So you know what makes good lighting, or if the lighting is not ideal can you handle that? What if you have a subject that is always on the go? Can you adjust your ISO settings and get the results you need? Can you do the post processing you need? Can you shoot everything to newborns to families or the family dog? Do you know what settings you need for 1 person vs a family of 10? Lighting, lighting, lighting.. Do you know how to light your subjects?


2. The second question you need to ask yourself is if you are ready to start a business. It is a lot of responsibility and often much more than people are ready to tackle. If you have never owned your own business you might want to take some business classes before jumping into this. Make sure you have a good accountant and attorney.

3. Do you have vendor relationships? Do you know where you are going to get your images printed?

4. Do you have a business plan? Do you know what t will cost you to get up and running? Are you including costs like, location, website, insurance, accountant, attorney, taxes, book keeping software and other like items. How will you promote your business to generate customers? If not get started on that right away!

5. Are you comfortable with the post processing process? Do you know if you will use photoshop, light room, or something else?

6. Do you currently have or planning to take out a loan to get all the equipment you need? This includes backups for all your stuff, cameras. Flashes, computer, storage devices, media cards, lenses, batteries, etc… These things can all die from time to time, or at least get very sick.

7. Do you have a portfolio, or web page?

8. Do you know how you are going to proof images for your clients? Will you do it online, and if so which service will you use?

9. Do you need to worry about child care? Do you have that in place?

10. Are you going to run the entire business aspect yourself or will you look for outside help?

11. Do you know what your cost margins are? Do you know what you have to charge to make a profit?

12. How are you going to handle the legal side of things? Contracts, copyrights, model releases, Insurance, business licenses, policies etc?

13. Do you know how much you will have to make annually to cover costs and make enough to make it worthwhile?

14. If you shoot only location photography do you have enough locations to use no matter what the weather is like?

15. Do you have a place you can rent equipment from if something were to break or you need something you do not own yet?

16. If you plan to continue working your current job while getting things up and running do you know how much time you are going to be able to carve out of your schedule?

17. Are you good with handling stress and pressure? The pressure to produce top level product, to be timely and responsible at all times, to constantly keep your professional image in the fore front of your mind, to be constantly on the edge between the value of your services and profit you're attempting to make, making judgment calls on where to draw the line (time wise, client wise, business wise) can all add to the amount of stress you have to deal with. It can be very difficult to strike a good balance... but REWARDING.

18. Are you good at saving receipts and tracking expenses? Have you practiced tracking mileage for work related travel? Do you have a separate phone, computer, etc for business?

19. Do you have a company name, logo, brand identity, etc...?

I am sure there is many other things I am leaving out but these can be a good starting out point.

Other considerations before you start.

1. Take some classes in photography and Photoshop in addition to business classes.
2. See if you can get a part time job with a local photographer to see if it is really something you want to make a living at? (you might be able to get a paying gig but even a fe hours a week as an unpaid assistant could be VERY valuable.
3. If you are interested in weddings get a job as a second shooter.
4. You need to learn to handle the 60 million crazy things that will rise between you and a good outcome on a shoot, and the only real way to SEE how to do that, is to be in the industry before you risk your reputation.

Now if you have just bought your first entry level DSLR and find yourself asking any of the following questions you probably are not ready to go pro just yet..

"I shot a group of people. Why are some of them are out of focus?" Because you used your brand new f 1.4 wide open.

"Help, I have a shoot tomorrow. What lens do I use?"

“Help. I took pictures for someone today. How much should I charge?”

"Help, I have a shoot tomorrow. What settings do I use?"

"Help. I had a shoot yesterday. How do I fix this picture?"

“Help. I took pictures of my daughter’s best friend’s cousin’s pet iguana and she wants a poster sized print. Where should I get it printed?”