It’s Okay To Make Money With Your Photography

What Does Your World Look Like At 4am?

Part of why I love photography is the stories behind each photograph. A true photographer can take a photograph, and have it tell a complete story.

So what would your story be … at 4 am?

4 am project

The 4 am Project is looking for photographers to take a photo on April 4th at 4 am, and share it with the world. Whether you’re up planning and setting up for an amazing shot, or you pop out of bed a couple of minutes before 4, start planning now.

If you head over to 4 am Project, you can get an idea of what other photographers are already doing. Some of the photos up on the site are amazing, and really capture the essence of the idea.

What does your world look like at 4 am?

Filed Under: Blog, Get Inspired Photography, Just For Fun Tagged With: 4 am project, improving your photography, theme photographs

Starting Up A Photography Business Is Like Riding A Roller Coaster

by Virtual Photography 5 Comments

I’m definitely thinking 2009 will be the year of the entrepreneur.

Back in December, I wrote a post The Return Of The Entrepreneurs. And now just a couple of months later, I’m amazed at the number of emails from people truly wanting to take that next step, and open up their own studio.

Because I’ve been answering so many questions about starting up a photography business lately, I decided some of my thoughts would make a perfect post.

image source gypbrc.co.uk

My start into my own business
Back in the early 90’s, Andrew and I had a dream of owning our own studio, and earning our living through the studio. We both had full time jobs, and worked at the business on nights and on weekends. The jobs we did for the money. The photography we did because we loved it.

Obviously we started where most photographers do. We loved it. We’re passionate about it. And had dreams of it becoming our careers. We both come from 9 to 5 parents, so we were never exposed to the entrepreneurial lifestyle. We had no idea what we were doing, and took each step completely blind.

Our first big step was having Andrew go full time. After being downsized three times from three separate positions in three separate industries, we knew it was time. So we opened up a small studio, and took on every type of client that called.

But I still held on to my full time job. Corporate, 9 to 5, with a ton of travel.

Then along came my daughter. We chose not to do day care, and she became a studio baby. Because we were focused on weddings at that point, most of the people work came on the weekends, with occasional client meetings during the week. (And we even wondered if you could use your child as a tax writeoff because bride-to-be’s loved it that a father was caring for his daughter during the week while I was at work. We booked many clients because of it – and just kidding about the tax writeoff!)

It’s Okay To Make Money With Your Photography

by Virtual Photography 1 Comment

“I don’t want to look like a used car salesman.”

How do you approach sales within your business? money

A successful business owner charges enough to build a healthy, thriving business. They charge what they’re worth. They charge to grow. And they charge based on what they should be getting, not what others around them are charging.

The used car salesman puts the image of forceful sales into our minds. The last thing we ever want to be is seen as pushy.

But there’s a big difference between being pushy, and giving people the products and services they want.

One of my favorite authors is Jeffrey Gitomer, who has written many books on selling. One of his quotes is, “people don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy”.

If you’re good at what you do, and your passion shows through, selling is the easy part. People will seek you out, and make your job of selling easy.