First, the meta: I would like to post to this blog more often, but since my art process tends to be boom or bust, I want to be able to fill in with useful and or pretty things on those weeks when I don’t have anything new of my own to post. So, in theory, Useful Things on Mondays, and Other People’s Art on .. some other day. We’ll see how this goes.
I had already written a different Useful Thing to post today, but then this new post from Photojojo came into my mailbox, and I know I have a lot of friends and acquaintances that have been thinking about this, so it jumped the queue. 
link: Photojojo: on starting a photo business
Go ahead and read it, I’ll wait.
…
My further thoughts on this, as one who has done it, failed miserably, and is trying it again (like Zack Arias, only not nearly as successful yet):
Think really hard about your working style:
Take a good look at your market
If you decide to dive in, think carefully about your equipment needs. Sure, it’s nice to think that since you turned pro, you really need the newest, greatest camera/set of strobes, but it is unlikely to be true — do your clients really need that size of file? Are you really going to be using 5 monolights — perhaps you should read up on Strobist-style lighting and get by with a couple of Vivitars until you are actually breaking even. I lived this one — not with the camera, which I have always been pretty cautious with (and from a budget perspective, being a Pentaxian rocks; my favorite lens is almost as old as I am and I got it for a song on eBay.), but I do have a significant investment in studio lighting — that was (and is) absolutely overkill for the shooting I actually do, and that’s one of the things that helped kill my business the first time. Most large cities have equipment rentals; track what you rent, and if you are renting something constantly, then buy it.
So, given this, why am I trying again to make a living in photography?
1) I have had entrepreneurship thrust upon me. My almost-full-time job became a very part-time job, and there are very few similar jobs to be had, and a lot of competition (did I mention that I live in Seattle?). And I really don’t want to go back to receptionist or barista land if I can avoid it.
2) It was already in the works to head back to full-time imaging — albeit planned for several years from now.
3) I learned a lot from both the first time I tried (and failed) to do this, and from what I did in the interim – namely, working pretty much every possible job from studio manager to production at an established, well-run, excellent studio. This kinds of follows along with the inevitable “find a photography and assist for them” suggestion that is always made in this kind of circumstance — but it may help more on the running a business front, and frankly, a lot of good photographers have people asking to assist them for free everyweek, so it’s not nearly as easy a gig to get as it used to be.
Do I expect to make “a good living” doing this? No, not really, not for a long time, maybe never. But at this point, the choice to do things that satisfy my non-monetary needs, as long as it keeps me in peanut butter, is better for me overall than making more money and being less happy.
Stillmary | 29-Jul-09 at 3:00 pm | Permalink
Be happy. Life is short. I read a poster recently that said something like this: Success doesn’t come to the strongest or most talented but to the one with the most will. You can and will be successful!