You’ve got a camera.
You can take a good picture.
Now it’s time to to turn your hobby into a business!
It’s exciting when you finally take the leap into becoming a business with photography, but it can also be a bit scary.
Now is the time you have to set yourself up for success and you have to start thinking from a business perspective to do that. It’s not all instant profits and cash flow from the beginning. You need to be smart about your goals, what you need to spend and what will give you the biggest return on your investment.
First
Start a list of all the things you will need to buy each month for your business. These are your expenses. This site has a lot of financial calculators to help make things a little more clear.
You’ll definitely want to include these things on that list:
- gear
- website charges
- marketing budget
- software
- permits/fees
- gasoline
- insurance
There will be other things too, and they will be dependant on you and your business. But listing out what you will need to spend each month is a good start.
Next
Create a profit goal for yourself.
How many sessions would you like to book?
What is realistic?
How much would you like to make?
Thinking about all of these questions will help make planning easier and help put things in perspective like your pricing and what to charge.
You also want to make sure you always put money aside to put back in to your business to spend on next month’s expenses! This savings goal calculator might be helpful.
Finally
Don’t give up!
Each month look back and your expenses and profits and make adjustments so that you can be successful! You may find yourself eliminating expenses you don’t really need OR having to add things into your budget that you really DO need.
Think realistically and mathematically when setting your goals and your pricing.
Your pricing may be off and you may need to readjust to meet your profit goals. Remember you are now a business and need to start thinking that way!
Give yourself some grace and some time to get started and work all the kinks out. But remember to keep at it! You’ve got this!
