Taking the plunge.

urbanaries

A local pro who I assisted a few times under said if I learn only one thing from him, that a photographer can never succeed long term "on the fringes" or as a "weekend warrior". To perfect the product to the client as well as profitability, one has to treat the business as if their livelihood depended on it. At the time I thought it was a weird comment, but I am coming to realize it to be gospel.

I am not a great photographer, and I have a lot of areas to improve, but for some reason I find myself in demand. Whether its the fact that I smell nice or am meeting an unmet need here locally, my new leads (word of mouth and Angie's List referrals) are approximately 5-6 per week. I miss a ton of phone calls during the day because I'm at work. I had to stop Google advertising because I was driving business I couldn't complete in a reasonable timeframe.

I can't keep working 90 hour weeks. Something's gotta give.

I will never be able to grow my business in terms of perfecting customer service workflow, target marketing increasingly lucrative demographics and volume until I have FT time to devote to it.

So, for those of you who consider photography your full time income, how did you take the plunge? What factors did you consider and plan for, and what was just the leap of faith? Did you have a safety net? Are you the head of household/breadwinner (I would need to be), or does your spouse pick up slack?

DJ-S1

Lynne, I was embarassed to mention it earlier, but...it's true, you do smell good.

I'm sure it's actually a combination of your results and your personality that is getting you referrals. You could be the nicest, sweetest smelling photog in the USA but if your work sucked nobody would be rushing to your door. Don't sell yourself short!

I'll be interested in the pros' responses to this thread, good topic.

urbanaries

DJ-S1 wrote:

Lynne, I was embarassed to mention it earlier, but...it's true, you do smell good.

!!! everyone smells good over the internet!!

Scott_Quier

Wow, Lynne. This is so exciting and I'm sure a little bit more than a little scary for you! It' won't be long before I'll be able to say, "I knew her when she was still shooting part time!

DJ-S1 wrote:

I'll be interested in the pros' responses to this thread, good topic.

- I will be very interested in reading the reponses of "those who have gone before."

dragon300zx

Congratulations Urban..

Its great to hear you have the hardest step down. And thats getting leads. You need to weigh the money you need to be making with the kinda leads you are getting. If you will be able to make enough closing say 10% of your leads you should be good to go. But from the sounds of it right now you simply need to decide if you are ready to take the plunge. It's never a sure thing but if you work hard enough at it and you want it bad enough you will be able to do it.

Van Isle

Do it!

I quit my job as an Officer in the Navy, 9 years pensionable time, to follow a dream to ride my motorcycle around the world raising money for women's education in Afghanistan. And I'll be working on my photog stuff on the side.

My advice: if you want it, do it. You WILL make it work financially, if you need to. Accept that there will be tough times, expect that you might have to get a joe-job from time to time to make ends meet, and worse case scenario you give it your all for 5 years, business doesn't work out, then you get back in to your previous field.

Yeah, get 'er done.

VI