I've talked before about the photography business and essentially decided it would be way too much work to start one and not financially smart.
I just found a really long thread on DPChallenge by Eyesup that really puts the expenses and amount of work in prospective. Especially notable is Eyesup's quote of Prof_Fate's back of the envelope calculations of how much it takes to keep a photography business in... business. Then, check out Prof_Fate's assessment of the expenses on 02/28/2008.
I'd love to quote some of it here to give you a bullet point idea of what the thread's point is, but if you are at all interested in starting a photography business, then read the thread.
What I will say is that, as a 'mom and pop' operation (meaning the husband and wife both work for the business) needs to bring in about $200K in sales every year to just break even (that does pay the 'salaries'). In this area (the San Francisco bay area) I'd expect you have to earn substantially more to break even ($300-400K). The real trouble is getting started, because you won't make nearly as much when you are getting going.
Photography is a hard, hard business...
My business partner and I are starting a website that helps photographers start and run their business. The site is currently being developed by we do have an ebook ready which sheds some light on what goes into starting a photography business. If you are interested, you can go download it at www.photoadvantage.net. We will notify you when they site is up if you are interested in checking it out.
ReplyDelete