Growing my side business(?)...Photography

[DaubsNU1]

I'm 53, been working at University for 30+ years. 

 

Started taking pictures of my kids sports 15 years ago. Someone asked me about family pictures...what would it cost? Did a few, made some $$. Cool idea. 

 

Created a web site, got an LLC, accountant, state tax ID, and officially started my side business.

 

Quickly turned in to senior pictures / team pictures / family pictures / headshots / a wedding here and there.

 

Word of mouth advertising mainly...it was easy back when my kids were playing sports and in high school...I had to turn people away. 

 

Now that the daughters are close to finishing college, and the wife's boys are getting to college age, I have more time to earn some $$ with photography. I've watched a few linked in learning courses on marketing, social media and I'm pretty tech savvy (build my own computers, have taught excel classes, active on facebook, twitter, instagram, snapchat). 

 

Senior pictures are my favorite, and have the biggest ROI.

 

What are the biggest challenges when growing a side business like photography?

 

What tips and suggestions would you have for someone in my shoes?

 

Thanks in advance!  Daubs

[txchaser]

5 hours ago, DaubsNU1 said:

 

What are the biggest challenges when growing a side business like photography?

A few come to mind:

 

Not keeping track of all of the actual expenses and factoring them into your costs/price. 

 

Underpricing your time. I saw this a lot in the knife-maker world - guys were amazing craftsmen but were getting paid something like minimum wage because they would work to hard on something relative to the market price. 

 

Turning a hobby into a job - point being if it's a side gig you have to decide your balance between just doing things you enjoy vs doing them because it pays. 

[huZZah]

Google has a “thing” to register your website so that it will come up locally when people google photography or senior pictures. 
 

I’ve had numerous friends start side photography businesses. Only a couple still do it because the others undervalued themselves or overvalued their expenses. Bought too much gear and never made money back for it. 
 

Ok, no offense intended here:

Be professional. Set times for shoots. Just because you’re a side business doesn’t mean you’re not a business. People pay you for your time. If they’re late, they’re late.  Time still ends when you agreed upon. If you’re late, you’re bad. This is one of the things that kills me about side business people. If you really want to grow it as a business be polite, professional, and freaking hold up your end.  And don’t let people treat you like you’re friends. 
 

Don’t do touch ups and stuff for free. It’s hours of your time. And if they want wal mart quality photos, they can go to wal mart. You’re a professional. 
 

Be mindful of what you can write off on taxes. It can really help you. I don’t like people that blur the line or just lie because they won’t get audited, but you will have legitimate things available to write off.  Remember that. Take advantage of it. 

Don’t let people take advantage of you. There’s no need to be rude if you’re professional. And if people are horrible to you, feel free to bill them for what you’ve done and walk away. Sending them to collections is a pain but you’ll win nearly every time. Insult to injury ?

 

Just my $.0002 from watching people fail at it. 
 

Edit: I’m also a gigging musician and composer. Very familiar with finding a value for my time and effort ?

[TnRiver46]

My fiancé has a new photography business, she loves it 

[GaryH]

30 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

My fiancé has a new photography business, she loves it 

I bet she has a lot of wildlife shots. ?

[TnRiver46]

7 minutes ago, GaryH said:

I bet she has a lot of wildlife shots. ?

Haha! Yeah some but I think food is her specialty and just getting into equine photos as well 

[Jigfishn10]

Good for you @DaubsNU1! My daughter started doing photography right out of high school. She went to a tech school that had a shop in photography, video, animation etc. She has a website, LLC'd and actually gets a ton of work on FB. She'll post and watermarks some of her work in IG which links back to her web.

 

Like you she does senior pic, weddings, bar mitzvahs, baby pics. The school had her do sport pics and video the drama club. She's doing great with it and I'm very proud of her....Sorry, dad bragging moment.

 

If anything, it's been kind of a seasonal thing. Honestly, Covid slowed her down, but I think she realizes that for her it's seasonal unless she can get into other types of photog. She does work as a waitress to supplement her income as well as goes to college...finishing up this month.

 

If you can diversify yourself, I'd recommend trying a few different things out. I'm in commercial construction and my firm always does project-end photos and my wife is a paralegal so she's trying to get her into doing photos for realtors. Just a few different ideas to throw out there for you.

 

Wish you the best of luck mi amigo.

[J Francho]

My advice, after doing professional photography gigs to significantly supplement my income:  Get a good lawyer and a great accountant.  The more you charge for your service, the easier the clients are to deal with.

[DaubsNU1]

6 hours ago, J Francho said:

My advice, after doing professional photography gigs to significantly supplement my income:  Get a good lawyer and a great accountant.  The more you charge for your service, the easier the clients are to deal with.

 

I've got a great accountant, and haven't needed a lawyer just yet. But I know a few. 

 

VP at work (day job) contracted me to do headshots for the University. Very cool of him. Not great source of income, but every little bit helps. 

 

SR pics are the best ROI...$500 for about three hours worth of work...90 minutes shooting, 30 minutes drive time...hour editing and processing. I don't mess with prints...just one price gets my customers fully edited images in color, black and white, and a "film grain" color. Delivered on USB and DVD for archives. 

 

I have a FB add running right now...and posting daily on Instagram. Watched a few Lyndia.com videos on marketing and social marketing. Learning. 

 

[J Francho]

I'm not sure if they still do this, but I had WHCC bolted into print fulfillment for my clients. You can charge whatever you want for the prints and take the mark up as profit. The only overhead is book keeping. 
 

https://www.whcc.com/products/prints

[DaubsNU1]

15 hours ago, J Francho said:

I'm not sure if they still do this, but I had WHCC bolted into print fulfillment for my clients. You can charge whatever you want for the prints and take the mark up as profit. The only overhead is book keeping. 
 

https://www.whcc.com/products/prints

 

Appreciate the advice!

 

I've been using Smugmug for a few years. Happy with their service.