Shrinking violet?

[Daryl Everett]

I have been on the boards here for about a year now. I have asked for lots of advice and gotten it, for which I am very thankful. My current quandary is should I bother to invest my money and time in photography as a money making venture. I seem to oscillate between the feeling that everyone starts somewhere and that I have the ability to go somewhere with this and the feeling that I am going to do a dis-service to the profession and have no business trying my hand at this without finding a mentor (which I honestly am not in a position to do b/c of family situations). I have other talents that I could invest more time in rather than splitting my time hoping that something pays off. Some days I want to go and make the best of the equipment that I have and then other days I feel like my gear is so inadequate that I should just be a hobbyist and when the gear is broken and there is no money to replace it I'll just be stuck.
I think what got me started thinking on this more is the fact that I was looking at the "portfolio" and prices of an acquaintance and commented to my husband on how she has no business charging for portraits yet and will not make any money or friends in the biz with her prices. I encouraged her to check out these forums and am hoping she will glean from you as much or more than I. Anyway, I started to feel like how am I better than her? My pictures are better sure but they aren't perfect and I see a lot of photographers whose work makes mine look like trash.
I'm not totally sure what I'm looking for with this post. Perspective maybe, encouragement maybe. If you have the time to comment and/or look at my other posts and pictures I'll take it with a grateful heart.

[Jim Poor]

It's safe to say we all have the "I suck / I can do this" cycle.

My one question is that if "family situation" prevents you from a finding a mentor, how on earth do you plan to dedicate anything to the business?

I've not looked at your work, so I have no idea if you are ready, but the back & forth feelings are pretty much normal.

[lonni]

I think photography is one of those proffesions we do beceause we couldnt stand to do anything else, not one of the "fall back on" or "i am good at it so i can make it my profession" jobs.
I dont think we can give you any answers of make a decission for you, but like Jim i wonder why family situations would hinder working with a mentor and not your work.
I will say this, if you cant picture yourself doing any other job, take a leap, invest and give it your all.
HTH

[Daryl Everett]

Nice to know the cycle is normal. The family situation...my husband works full time nights and it barely makes ends meet. I quit my job as a teacher to raise our now one year old son. I took a leap and invested $1000 in equipment a year ago and haven't seen any return on investment yet. I no one wants to watch my son, except my niece but her schedule is tough because she has school. I can't really afford to work with a mentor since I would have to find a sitter and there's no extra money to pay said sitter. If I were getting paid something I could at least give her a little for watching him. A little morE than you probably wanted to know but I hope it clears up the question the two of you had.
I have a bit of money fromtaxes coming in and I can use it to get new business cards, inventory for my etsy gallery, business license and possibly some set up for art shows (though that thought scares the bajeebies out of me because of the investment and chances that it totally flops), or I can use it for my sign language business and savings. I know you can't tell me which way to go but maybe it will help clarify the situation.Please excuse any typos. The iPhone makes it fun to reply on here.

[inlina]

Hi Daryl,

Purely from an investment and business perspective, if you are already stressed either financially or emotionally then setting up as a business and trying to make sales is only going to make things worse initially. It is very rare that any start-up is smooth sailing, whether your a micro-business or have major investors.

I personally made a leap and invested a lot of time and money about this time last year. Over the course of the year I haven't been able to commit as much time to the business of photography as I had hoped or expected (day job, personal commitments, volunteer positions etc). I will be absolved of some of those commitments later this year, but until then it is a real struggle. If you are stretched for time, it is going to be a pretty big challenge.

CG

[Daryl Everett]

Originally Posted by inlina

Hi Daryl,

Purely from an investment and business perspective, if you are already stressed either financially or emotionally then setting up as a business and trying to make sales is only going to make things worse initially. It is very rare that any start-up is smooth sailing, whether your a micro-business or have major investors.

I personally made a leap and invested a lot of time and money about this time last year. Over the course of the year I haven't been able to commit as much time to the business of photography as I had hoped or expected (day job, personal commitments, volunteer positions etc). I will be absolved of some of those commitments later this year, but until then it is a real struggle. If you are stretched for time, it is going to be a pretty big challenge.

CG

I can understand that as that's pretty much what has happened over the last year here as well, except that my personal commitments don't include a day job, just a toddler/baby and a husband who is asleep 8am-8pm leaving me with the few hours between baby going to bed and me going to bed to work on the business.

[graciousness]

Hi Daryl,

As a stay-at-home mother of an almost 3 year old who is itching to have some sort of income coming in, I completely know your feelings and dilemma. For weeks, I have been thinking if photography should be something I should really focus on and pursue as part-time job. It's difficult, because you know it's not the no. 1 passion that you have and if really given, you probably have other means or passion that you would really prefer to get into if given all the time, space and free babysitter that you can have. But photography offers a creative outlet and possible part-time income potential at the same time; if only we were just a little bit braver and confident to go into this venture....

For the past few days, I had been weighing the prospect of possibly 'setting up shop' in several months after I have invested some more quality time, research and practice with my gears. I had already had excellent recommendations from other people who I had casually taken photos for (children's party, mostly and a wedding) and was told to seriously go into the business. Like you, I had seen photos from other photographers who left me questioning whether the industry or people have lowered their standards and are willing to pay for so-so photos. Whilst this should be an encouraging thought, it does leave us questioning our own work.

In regards to our situation and the difficulty of even having any part-time self employment because we can't afford baby sitters or daycare, we have to remember that they are not going to be little needy toddlers forever. Your one year old will go to school at some point and if your really look at it, that's probably in 3 to 4 years till kindergarten. When they start going to school, what excuse are we going to give ourselves if we hadn't figured out some sort of extra income we could be bringing in?

Let's look at the business side of this situation. If you are do decide at some point to start earning money from it there are a few questions we need to be able to answer, and those are:

• what type of photography are you going to concentrate on or spe******e?

• How saturated is the market for what you want to do in your area?

• Are you confident that you know enough about the business aspect of this and have done all the research that you need to do this properly, minimising the financial risk?

• Are you confident that you are ready and skilled enough to get into this and start charging people? If not, how much more time and money do you need to get to where you feel you need to be?

To me, it doesn't sound like you are ready as your confidence is lacking and your fear overcomes your desire and need to start earning an income. At the end of the day, regardless how good or bad you think you are, it's a matter of finding people who are willing to pay for your photos. Marketing requires a bit of work and guts, but it becomes easier when we have the confidence in our work and know it deserves to attract an income. What will it take or how much more time and effort do you need to get yourself to the point that you won't be questioning the quality of your work and know that you've got what it takes to make this work?

Perhaps you need to buy yourself some more time. Do all the other plans that you know you can execute better until such time that you have developed more of your photographic skills, and when your baby is a little older and not as demanding. This could be a year or two, or three. I do think there is definite merit in trying to get into this business if it gives you the creative outlet and income that you need in your life.

Sorry for the very verbosity...I needed to say all this to myself, too.

Cheers!

Grace.-