Ever taken out a loan for starting up a photography business?

[ChrisAdval]

I've heard some became pretty successful due to the loans and instead of long term growth of a business of slowly starting up with own investments and funding with a loan made it possible to properly startup at a good decent speed... has anyone on the forum invested into getting a loan to start up a photography business?

[graciousness]

I haven't, but I do think it is a good idea if one doesn't have a capital start up. It really shows how committed and serious you are with doing the business and clients want to see that you have invested properly in your business, so then they invest in you.

I do think it's a mistake for people to think that they can just start the business and doing things so cheaply that it makes them look unprofessional, i.e. using a free website instead of hosting your own one, using gmail or yahoo as business email, not having proper gears and relying on paid jobs in the future before they buy what they need, etc. It's not like you need to put yourself in serious debt (as in tens and thousands of dollars) to invest in a photography business, unless of course you are thinking of opening your own studio.

Invest in your business so people will invest in you.

[Biomech]

Yup yup £15,000 :P Repayments are a bastard, but we're still turning a small profit even with the repayments going out. Once we get rid of the loan our profit is going to jump epically - can't wait

[oldwolf]

Originally Posted by ChrisAdval

photography business?

I haven't taken out a loan but you have to pay attention to the word business.

Lots of great photographers out there that know nothing about business and that's where they fail. They can have the greatest gear in the world but if they can't run a business and market themselves then they're just great photographers having to repay a big loan.

I can't remember who told me this but a photography business is about 10-20% making images. The other 80-90% is about running the business.

Of course you can always hire someone to run the business side while you do the fun stuff. There are lots of successful photographers that do that as well.

Good luck.

Nope, never took out any loans. Either had the cash or waited and made do with what I had/have.

I hate owing people money, I only have my home mortgage and my student loans and that's all I owe people. Never owned a credit card in my life and never had a car loan payment.

~Eric

[BK553]

The start-up costs have dropped so much that it really shouldn't be necessary. it used to be that you had to buy an expensive camera, expensive film, expensive darkroom, expensive light meter, expensive studio lights etc... Now you can buy a dSLR for under a grand that is monumentally better than just a couple years ago...a photo hosting account, some insurance and a business license and you're good to go. The rest depends on you knowing what to do with it.

[Rentham]

No loans. As Randy Moss would say, "Straight cash, homie."

[prince]

Originally Posted by maxharvard

Nope, never took out any loans. Either had the cash or waited and made do with what I had/have.

I hate owing people money, I only have my home mortgage and my student loans and that's all I owe people. Never owned a credit card in my life and never had a car loan payment.

~Eric

Eric.. Please accept my bow down.. I wish I had NOT put anything on my credit card.. I am not as crazily into credit card debt but well above my comfort level.. Last month I have put a plan in place, and will be hopefully out of it in next 3 years

I have debated this idea of taking out a loan but not sure yet.. I don't think I will go that route in near future though.

Without a repayment plan, or worst case scenario of your business not working out as you expected.. make sure you know how you are going to repay the loan before even applying for one.

[Niresangwa]

On something as tenuous as a start-up photography business, especially in this economic climate, I don't know why you would want to saddle yourself with a small business loan, nor do I forsee it being easy for you to secure that loan in the first place..

[Dennismc]

Also unless you have aaa credit, getting a loan for a small start up, in this climate will be next to impossible.

I know! When one of my main investors in my studio/gallery backed out, looked into taking a small (less then 10k) loan out, most banks wouldnt even talk about it, the couple that did, wanted such a insane rate, It wasnt worth it.

Heck even the SBA loans want 3/4 of the loan amount in secured capital as well.

So no loan here, doing it all self funded, (with a little high blood pressure thrown in for good measure)