10 Tips for Surviving Your First Year in Business By Jessica Scheufler
I understand all too well how challenging starting a business can be. At first it seems like fun, and why wouldn’t it be? You get to make money doing something you enjoy. But after the excitement starts to dwindle, thoughts of doubt creep in. What if I’m not good enough? Why am I not booking anyone? What if the clients don’t like my work? Everyone can dream about owning a business, but being successful requires a little faith and support and a lot of elbow grease.
If you are new to the photography business, it is easy to become overwhelmed. Here are just a few of the lessons I learned during my first year:
1
Find a mentor (or two or three).
Having a mentor has not only helped me to stay focused on my goals, but it has also helped me through the highs and lows of business. Inevitably, there will be many bumps in the road during the first year,
and a mentor can be that much-needed shoulder to cry on. They provide perspective and insight that can help grow your business. As my mentor can attest, there have been many times (try every week) when I felt like I wanted to give up. I found that a simple phone call or email helped me solve problems that would have taken hours to figure out alone. And a mentor doesn’t have to be in the same business either. Anyone who is supportive of your
business venture will do. Lesson: Mentors can help solve problems.
2
Keep going, especially when it gets rough. I began the year full of
doubt and anticipation. Toward the end of the year, I started to lose focus. It is
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hard to keep going when you start to lose motivation and are constantly reminded of all the effort you are putting into the business; the returns can’t come fast enough. Yes, you will trip and tumble. You will make mistakes. This is probably one of the toughest, if not the toughest, lessons to learn. I seem to have a knack for doing everything the hard way at first. By making each mistake and learning the pitfalls, I now can anticipate (most) problems before they occur, which has saved me loads of time and money. Lesson: A business takes time to grow.
3
Know what your time is worth. At first, I shot because I loved photography. Getting paid for what I loved was a bonus. Now, after the honeymoon stage has worn off, shooting
feels like a job. Don’t get me wrong—this is still a sweet gig, but I now know how much time and effort goes into editing, designing and producing a product. That’s why I had to evaluate whether my prices actually reflected all this effort. One tool that helps me do this is a program called
SuccessWare. With this program I can analyze my costs, packages and sales so I know what I should be charging. Whatever system you choose, knowing your numbers is essential to the success of your business. Lesson: Knowing your numbers shows you where the business is heading.
4
Create a business that works for you. This is not as easy as it
sounds. I have a toddler, and while I would like to have regular work hours and family time, that hasn’t always worked out as planned. My mission from the beginning was to have a business that supported my lifestyle (I wanted to have a life and a business). Setting boundaries has helped me keep a better balance between work and life. For my business, this has meant meeting clients closer to home, finding a childcare provider that could keep my son two days a week while I worked at home, and not taking calls during dinnertime. I am not saying this is ideal, but it has helped me regain some balance. Lesson: Setting boundaries gives you a life.
5
Avoid doing everything yourself. I am what you might call a tortured perfectionist. I place so much pressure on myself to get things done right that they might never get done at all. Take, for instance, photo editing. Editing is fun at first because I want to see all my great shots, but then after two hours of looking through pictures, the process becomes extremely overwhelming. I evaluate each and every shot until I just want to move on already. Now, instead of pulling my hair out, I just send my files to my photo editor and let her do the dirty work. Letting go of the workflow is still something I am working on, but I can tell you how liberating it is to pass the work on to someone else. This allows me the time to work on the things that actually bring money into the business and to shoot what I want. Lesson: Hiring help allows you more time to shoot.
6
Reclaim your passion. After this long, long road, I definitely had thoughts of “Why am I doing this, again?” I think it’s natural to reevaluate goals, but I was close to reaching burnout and couldn’t figure out why. I hadn’t accomplished everything I had set
out to do, but why was I so unsure? I then remembered that I hadn’t been shooting for me. I was trying so hard to be the next big-shot photographer that I had forgotten why I liked to shoot at all. Now I try to focus on shooting more and bring a little bit of me into each session. Lesson: Shooting for yourself makes your product better.
7
Network, network, network. I must admit it: I didn’t think I’d like networking much. My first impulse when walking into a networking event is to find the nearest exit so I know I will be able to escape. The main reason I don’t like networking is that I fear vendors won’t take me seriously because my business is so young. My les-
Branding is just a buzzword for personalizing your business.
9
Don’t try out each and every new product. Being a photographer and self-
proclaimed gear head, it is hard not to want to try out every new gadget, lens, light or camera on the market. For the longest time, I wanted to upgrade my camera, but I soon realized I would be in debt before I ever made any money. I had to remind myself that I was in this business to make money, not to buy camera equipment. This also goes for new products. I see new albums come out each month, and I am tempted to include them in my packages. If I did offer everything and anything, how would that make my life any easier? I would need to have a system for each album, each new product, and each new line. Overwhelming me and the client is probably not the way to go. Lesson: Offering too much can overwhelm you and the client.
10
son: do it anyway. This year, I decided to network my own way. Instead of going to networking events where I might feel intimidated, I take one vendor to lunch. That way I can focus on one vendor at a time. I feel much more comfortable meeting people one-on-one, so contacting a vendor whose work I like didn’t seem as intimidating. It is still taking some effort, but I know that beginning a relationship with vendors will make my business more visible. Lesson: Marketing doesn’t have to be painful. Brand yourself. I didn’t know much
8
about branding when I started. Branding is such an overused term in this business. Every marketing book seems to focus on brand building, but what exactly is branding anyway? I discovered that branding begins with me and my goals. When I decided I wanted to start a wedding photography business, I looked first at myself. What do I like? What do I want to show? When I chose my logo, my website and my portfolio, I chose colors that would appeal to me. It is much easier to sell myself than something that seemed foreign. Lesson:
Develop systems. Systems are crucial to my survival. Everything I do from editing to hiring needs to have a step-by-step procedure. Once I create a new procedure, I make a printout and file it in a three-ring binder. This binder is my studio bible, a reference manual for how to get stuff done. At first, creating a manual is a huge undertaking, but I can’t tell you how many times I need to be reminded how to do something. Eventually, I want to be able to pass these procedures off to my employees, so they can do the work while I manage the business. Lesson: Systems can help you manage the workflow instead of having to do the workflow all by yourself. Well, there they are, my first year of lessons. Looking back, it is hard to believe that this little business is finally starting to turn a profit. All the sweat equity has begun to pay off, and I am gearing up for another season. After recovering from the year, I am going to start the next season by cutting a check to myself, the true mark of a successful business. As for next year, I can only hope that the business will get better with time—and maybe a little elbow grease.
Jessica Scheufler is a professional photographer and writer residing in Atlanta, GA. In addition to running a successful home-based studio, Jessica enjoys spending time with her husband and two-year-old son. Her recent work and projects can be viewed online at www.sublime-photography.com.