own business

[tonytrot]

Hi There,I was wondering,what's it really like too, have your own Photographic business! Is it very hard work,and is it the best thing you have ever done,working for yourself.Is it very tough and are you guy;s working very long hours.? Tony.

[Richard Gould]

Tony, I became a full time professional in 2000, and yes it can be very hard work, and the hours can be very un sociable, fo instance I have been working today with the Jeraey Militia and their black powder canons, but I am able to work with film, I am the only photographer still working with film, and black and white at that, in the Channel Islands, and am turning away work, I am booked up weeks ahead, I have regular clients that keep coming back because they love what I do, so great, I am being earning a good living doing what I love doing, I also have a good fine art side, in fact this year print sales have boomed, so yes, it can be hard work and long hours, but for me it is the best thing I ever did, at my age (I will be 62 next birthday) a lot of people are looking to retirement, but that for me is the last thing on my mind, I am having a ball.
Richard

[Maris]

I quit commercial work when circumstances allowed me to do personal photography full time.

Looking back on the hectic days of trying to turn a dollar I reckon my time was divided:
30% chasing new customers, new work, and schmoosing old customers for repeat business.
30% business administration, accounting, and keeping the tax man happy.
30% chasing slow payers, bad debtors, maintaining studio and camera gear, etc, etc.
10% actual photography.

Before I went pro I never believed I'd go on vacation and not take a camera.

[Terry S]

Interesting to hear two opposing opinions.

For someone who longed to do it professionally before an accident put an end to the idea, I knew from lots of reading and research that the hours would be long and little time would eventually be spent actually doing photography. I also learnt this from a previous small business that I had, in that paperwork was never-ending and what most of my time was spent on doing.

BUT when one loves something enough, the sacrifices are willing to be had.

Terry S

[Steve Smith]

Originally Posted by Terry S

little time would eventually be spent actually doing photography. I also learnt this from a previous small business that I had, in that paperwork was never-ending and what most of my time was spent on doing.

Something I heard a few years ago about self employment in general was that in any year you can usually only bill your customers for 1,000 hours of work (or 20 hours per week) as the rest of your time will be taken up with secondary functions such as paperwork, etc.

So if you want to work for yourself, decide how much you want to earn in a year (before tax) subtract your expenses and divide that number by 1000 to get your hourly rate. If it sounds ridiculously high... then I wouldn't be surprised!


Steve.

[Adrian]

Originally Posted by Richard Gould

Tony, I became a full time professional in 2000, and yes it can be very hard work, and the hours can be very un sociable, fo instance I have been working today with the Jeraey Militia and their black powder canons, but I am able to work with film, I am the only photographer still working with film, and black and white at that, in the Channel Islands, and am turning away work, I am booked up weeks ahead, I have regular clients that keep coming back because they love what I do, so great, I am being earning a good living doing what I love doing, I also have a good fine art side, in fact this year print sales have boomed, so yes, it can be hard work and long hours, but for me it is the best thing I ever did, at my age (I will be 62 next birthday) a lot of people are looking to retirement, but that for me is the last thing on my mind, I am having a ball.
Richard

That sounds fantastic Richard, what a great life you have. From what you say, it sounds like working with film and offering silver prints makes a big difference. Is that what people are now after? I'd like to think that there is a growing rebound in favour of silver prints from digital. Folks always seem to be on the lookout for something different from the mainstream.

[Richard Gould]

Originally Posted by Adrian

That sounds fantastic Richard, what a great life you have. From what you say, it sounds like working with film and offering silver prints makes a big difference. Is that what people are now after? I'd like to think that there is a growing rebound in favour of silver prints from digital. Folks always seem to be on the lookout for something different from the mainstream.

Adrian,
My experiance is limited to working in a small Island, but we have set up stalls at local events and Craft markets, of which we have a lot over the summer where our only competion is from various Digital photographers, they are selling Inkjet style prints in both colour and black and white,there are six or seven here and when we compare notes at the end of the day my photographs, all black and white and silver prints, outsell them all by a large amount, especialy from visitors form France and Germany, as far as any commercial photography, I choose what I want to do as I am mostly a Fine art photographer, but over here people like what I am doing, remember in my niche market I am the last man standing all other local photographers having converted to Digi, but for me it's a great life,
Richard

[Steven Taylor]

It's all I have ever done... working as a photographer or in photography, I have taught and I ran a gallery as well.

I left art school in 1976 and went straight to work as an assistant. I had a couple of stints as an employed photographer (in the days when there were jobs for photographers) and as I said, I taught and ran a gallery for a bit, but mostly I have been self employed.

It's hard work and it's getting harder. Since the digital revolution the competition has become ridiculous. Film photography scared a lot off and kept our profession pretty elite. Commercial photography in 2012 is a commodity, especially weddings, which is my own particular specialism. Each wedding I photograph takes around 4 days of work. Client meetings, post processing, album design, printing and assembly etc. I charge for that, my prices start at £2,500 and last year I photographed 40 weddings, that's 160 days work. Add to that the time you need to spend on marketing. Nowadays it's all about social networking and PR, that's full time in itself.

This year I am well down on numbers. There was a serious web related cock up caused by another agency that lost me a lot of work, I'll not go into that now, but the main reason is that I am competing with photographers who are offering acceptable work at a third of my price.

Acceptable is the key word here. The majority of the public don't know or don't care if work is great or not, they just want acceptable. If I say £2,500 and the acceptables say £700, then I have to find some pretty tuned in clients, and I need a lot of them.

Do the maths, those that are charging £700 still have to put the time in, if they are going to do 40 jobs like I did last year, they will turnover £28,000. Those 40 jobs will take them 160 days to make and another 200 to 300 days to market and sell. Once you take out the overheads and the cost of doing the work, they will be living on £10 to £15k per year.

Thing is, being a self employed photographer in 2012 means working twice as much as everyone else for half as much money.

Still it's better than coal mining.

[Tom Stanworth]

I think the bulls eye is being closed in on in these threads:

It is becoming more difficult to turn a healthy enough profit. This means more time 'competing', which means time marketing rather than 'making'.

You need to stand out. If you don't, you have one heck of a battle ahead.

You might need a sideline profession, some or all of the time.

The more strings to your bow, the better, but you'll need to stand out in all of them.

Digital media has allowed hobbyists to compete with you (for fun) which impacts your income.

You can still be very successful, but it is more difficult than it once was.

You can still enjoy it, but that might also be more difficult than it once was.

[Steven Taylor]

You are correct Tom. I think professional photography as we have known it has limited life left.

Here is my new project...
http://alchemistsworkshop.tumblr.com/