Turning my Passion into a career ~

[imagemaker46]

Like I said, I'm 45 and I've been around the block a few times....in a good way, of course. No, I completely understand what everyone is saying, especially Keith. I was very brief in my initial post so everything business related you guys have been mentioning I'm also aware of.

I'm an entrepreneur type personality. Frankly, the business side of photography is just as exciting to me. I use to dabble in stock photography supplying images to iStock, Alamy and several others but soon realized that shooting stock was quite boring and my images really never did anything so I became frustrated with that pretty quick. I'd rather deal with people. In my current job, for nearly two decades, I've been working with clients in a different industry, but I enjoy the people connection principle. Yes, some folks can be quite annoying and rude, but for the most part I enjoy working with people.

I understand what you're saying about when photography becomes work it will no longer be a passion. Humbly, I disagree. I've thought about all this long and hard and the freedom of working for myself far outweighs any issues that may come along with a business. For nearly 20 years I've been stressed out, unhappy and tired of working for someone else. I can't control any business decisions and the so-called leaders where I work are a bunch of incompetent monkeys. I could run circles around them in a business sense. But, I'm just an expendable grunt, filling a need.

Photography will be just one service I will provide but I also have experience in video, writing and I'm very creative. I use to be a graphics designer years ago. So I have some ideas to keep me busy and I will offer a variety of unique services that will separate me from a large majority of my competition.

So back to my original question:

For now, getting into this part-time, what should I do with my photos? Let's keep it simple and get some opinions on this for now ok?

1. Do I create a WordPress site to market my business and just sell them time and material by providing a DVD and other services?

2. Do I create an account on Smugmug or like Zenfolio and allow my clients to order from there but only charge a fee for my time?

3. Do I charge a fee for my time AND try to sell them prints and deal with the shipping and everything else involved with an actual product? (This seems like the most stressful to me and so much could go wrong)

Again, thanks for all the feedback. I really do want to work for myself one day, more than you can imagine. For those who do this already I so envy you and I hope you realize what you have. There are so many folks like me who have to work for someone else and deal with a high-stress environment every single day with no escape or decision making. I'm getting too old for that nonsense! Heck, I'm 10 years older than my boss and the majority of the leaders at my company. What's wrong with this picture? Only because I don't have that crisp piece of paper on the wall called an MBA. (kicking myself now)

Working for yourself can be very stressful ive been doing it for over 30 years and would love to work for someone else with all the perks like holiday pay

I have to agree with what gsgary has said. I've been a photographer for close to 40 years now. It has it's highs and lows, more lows in the past 10 years than all the years before. Not having a guaranteed pay cheque every month, some months not having a cheque at all, there have been lots of times where I could have been the stress poster child. I love what I do, but it is a job that I do, I work at it in some form every day, and it doesn't always mean taking pictures.

Sounds like you are living in a stressful environment, but you will be walking out of one into another with no guarantee of success. I would save the money, buy the gear and then walk out the door and see what happens. Photography these days is a competitive mine field, if you're lucky you'll be able to negotiate your way around it, make sure you have the map back.

 

[The_Traveler]

If you like photography, keep it as a hobby.

Like sex, once you start doing it for money, the glow goes away really quickly.

 

[manaheim]

If you like photography, keep it as a hobby.

Like sex, once you start doing it for money, the glow goes away really quickly.

Speaking from experience, Lew?

 

[OhioGuy]

Well, thanks for the honest feedback from everyone. It seems there are more negative comments about photography businesses than positive so I will keep pursuing information and form my own decision one day. I will try to start doing this part-time which will give me a better feel for it. No worries, I am not quitting my day job but it may be something I can slowly build.

Thanks again!

 

[The_Traveler]

Good attitude, good plan, good luck.

L

 

[imagemaker46]

Well, thanks for the honest feedback from everyone. It seems there are more negative comments about photography businesses than positive so I will keep pursuing information and form my own decision one day. I will try to start doing this part-time which will give me a better feel for it. No worries, I am not quitting my day job but it may be something I can slowly build.

Thanks again!

This is the best way to test the waters. Good luck

 

[12sndsgood]

Well, thanks for the honest feedback from everyone. It seems there are more negative comments about photography businesses than positive so I will keep pursuing information and form my own decision one day. I will try to start doing this part-time which will give me a better feel for it. No worries, I am not quitting my day job but it may be something I can slowly build.

Thanks again!

Part time is the best way to start things out. It will start slow and you can start seeing what is working for you and what isn't, start working on a more detailed plan of how you want to run your business. It usually starts off with friends, and then branches out to friends of friends and then just people who find you as word of mouth starts coming out. I started doing more and more shoots for free at first, I do a lot of model shoots as practice and I would schedule a few shoots in a week to see if I could handle working while doing the photography thing to see if I could handle the stress, See if the fun you have doing a shoot a week and editing as you like is the same when you have back to back shoots and people are calling you in a couple days wondering where there photos are etc, etc. some of the people that are telling you to keep it a hobby are the guys who have been doing it fulltime for 20 years. you have been in your field for that long. if someone came along wanting to do what I do I'd probably tell him to choose something else as well. I've done the work doing a job you don't really care about for 20 years and was making good money. But I'm getting to the age where good money isn't making me happy and I'd rather spend my time being happy then to work at a job I don't like. It is a hard field to make money in, and for most people (99%) there not going to be rich, but sometimes you have to decide what is more important for you.

 

[astroNikon]

This is one thing I'll be testing the waters too ... slowly getting into doing this on the side, more as a "professional hobby" than a business. At least for now.

I've learnt that there is so much to learn to taking a "great" versus "good" portrait that I want to be able to do "great" portraits.
Up until lately, I've only really taken pictures of the stars/planets, and my kids sports. I'm getting better at them all though, slowly.

It's a very rewarding activity. Just keep at it.
It also can be profitable, though as many have mentioned, difficult.

But then, profitable businesses have to start somewhere. Otherwise, no one would even start anything.

 

[kevinmac]

Well, thanks for the honest feedback from everyone. It seems there are more negative comments about photography businesses than positive so I will keep pursuing information and form my own decision one day. I will try to start doing this part-time which will give me a better feel for it. No worries, I am not quitting my day job but it may be something I can slowly build.

Thanks again!

I say go for it! I'm in a very similar situation as you.