39 reasons why you should NOT start a photography business.

[e.rose]

e. (can I call you "e."?) That is just precious! Thank you for posting!

One thing I learned when I was working for one not-very-good designer is that his gift of gab and self-promotion carried him past all the really lousy design projects he did. There was always another new client willing to pay him for bad design. Truthfully, it made me sick.

J.

That's business, haha. That happens everywhere

 

[jaomul]

That link sucks

 

[e.rose]

That link sucks

Why?

Haven't you learned anything about critiquing around here? You can't just say it sucks... you have to state WHY you think it sucks. :lmao:

 

[jaomul]

That link sucks

Why?

Haven't you learned anything about critiquing around here? You can't just say it sucks... you have to state WHY you think it sucks. :lmao:

Sorry, there was just so many "sucks" in it. My sense of humour is obviously deteriorating with age

 

[e.rose]

 

[rexbobcat]

I honestly can't tell if it's supposed to be serious or humorous.

Part of me wants to laugh and the other part wants to play the world's smallest violin.

 

[e.rose]

I honestly can't tell if it's supposed to be serious or humorous.

Part of me wants to laugh and the other part wants to play the world's smallest violin.

I get the impression that it's supposed be be ... humorous, and slightly inspirational while still keeping it real? I dunno, haha. I thought it was funny.

Someone else that I know that also posted this and knows the photographer who wrote it said: "True, [Insert Name]. He's a hugely successful photographer who is sharing the realities of owning a photography business instead of sugar coating with unicorns an rainbows that its the "super fun and fabulous way to be known by people" opportunity that anyone can do."

But even with that, I think that his "Bonus" points are meant to be sort of a, "Yes this is all true... HOWEVER... if you can read all that and STILL really want it, here are the awesome things about doing it!!" kind of thing.

I guess we'll never really know since inflection isn't clearly shown through text, haha.

 

[rexbobcat]

I get the impression that it's supposed be be ... humorous, and slightly inspirational while still keeping it real? I dunno, haha. I thought it was funny.

Someone else that I know that also posted this and knows the photographer who wrote it said: "True, [Insert Name]. He's a hugely successful photographer who is sharing the realities of owning a photography business instead of sugar coating with unicorns an rainbows that its the "super fun and fabulous way to be known by people" opportunity that anyone can do."

But even with that, I think that his "Bonus" points are meant to be sort of a, "Yes this is all true... HOWEVER... if you can read all that and STILL really want it, here are the awesome things about doing it!!" kind of thing.

I guess we'll never really know since inflection isn't clearly shown through text, haha.

Yeah but at the same time I could find 50 reasons not to do a lot of things.

That doesn't mean that it's so horribly difficult. It just means that I found 50 things to complain about.

If he's tying to be funny, then kudos lol.

If he's serious, I think the point he's trying to make is kind of moot.

 

[skieur]

Work for a company where photography and video productions are part of the job and pick up private work on the side.

skieur

 

[e.rose]

I get the impression that it's supposed be be ... humorous, and slightly inspirational while still keeping it real? I dunno, haha. I thought it was funny.

Someone else that I know that also posted this and knows the photographer who wrote it said: "True, [Insert Name]. He's a hugely successful photographer who is sharing the realities of owning a photography business instead of sugar coating with unicorns an rainbows that its the "super fun and fabulous way to be known by people" opportunity that anyone can do."

But even with that, I think that his "Bonus" points are meant to be sort of a, "Yes this is all true... HOWEVER... if you can read all that and STILL really want it, here are the awesome things about doing it!!" kind of thing.

I guess we'll never really know since inflection isn't clearly shown through text, haha.

Yeah but at the same time I could find 50 reasons not to do a lot of things.

That doesn't mean that it's so horribly difficult. It just means that I found 50 things to complain about.

If he's tying to be funny, then kudos lol.

If he's serious, I think the point he's trying to make is kind of moot.

I think more than just trying to complain about stuff he was trying to give a heads up to beginners that it's not all clickin' shutters, smiling children and burning disks? Just like you said... as is with *anything*, there's a lot more to it than that. But we've seen enough new photographers, who are really enthusiastic, who don't realize that there is actual work that goes into it. Well... those that want to go into it for business. If you're not starting a business, then it really is just all clickin' shutters... sometimes smiling children... and depending on what you do with the end result, burning disks, haha. ::shrugs::

Like I said, I found it humorous, but maybe that's just the way I'm interpreting it

 

[12sndsgood]

I basically took it as a light hearted way to point out a lot of things people should think about before they take the plunge. I laughed because i fit several of the listed remarks but I went for it for the same reason Erose did. for the what if factor. Ive spent a lot of time in my life thinking about doing things and not doing them. or scaring myself out of doing them, or worrying about failing. this for me was stepping outside of that box and just going for it. even though i fit some of those marks on the list i'm not going to let them push me away from something.

 

[e.rose]

This post made me laugh so hard. Nailed it.

I love this one -
6. Most of the people that contact you will think you're overpriced. You'll never know how many didn't take you seriously because they thought you were underpriced.

Just the other day someone called and once I told them my price they hung up on me... haha
People don't realize that photographs do a lot more than just show up and take pictures. There are HOURS of editing involved too.

I would have MUCH preferred that happened to me over what happened the last time I actually took a wedding inquiry via the phone.

After that phone call there was a lot of slamming doors in my apartment, accompanied by the sucking down of a clove cigarette and downing half a bottle of wine.

I was not a happy camper. But NOT because they didnt' want to book... I was just pissed at how rude the dude was and how polite I HAD to be. It's not in my nature to stay smiling and polite when someone pisses me off. Someone bites me, I bite back. Which obviously goes against good business practices... so I took it out in other ways after the conversation was over.

After talking to that Nashville photographer friend I mentioned earlier in the thread, she assured me that I had done nothing wrong, and my pricing was fine... he just wasn't a client for me. I'm better prepared to deal with the "WHY ARE YOU SO EXPENSIVE?! THE OTHER GUY CHARGES XYZ!!!" responses a lot better now, but... for the time being... until I'm a little more practiced and rehearsed, I don't take those initial inquiries over the phone. I make them e-mail me and weed them out that way first, haha. If they're still interested THEN we talk on the phone.

I KNOOOOOOW, I know... "You lose clients by talking to them via email instead of the phone". Yeah, I get that... but I'm not that quick with my responses yet, and my anxiety kicks in and everything fails much much faster that way for me at the moment, haha. I'll get better with practice and when I feel better about it, I'll put my phone number back up, haha. I'd rather get zero wedding clients via e-mail than get yelled at on the phone and still get zero clients because they think I'm too expensive. I'm not even really sure I want to SHOOT weddings on the regular so... if I lose any, it's not really any skin off my nose.

Wow... sorry, word vomit. :lmao: