This is the third month of the year and the third blog post I have written so far. At the start of 2018 I set myself the not so difficult task of writing one blog post a month for the whole year (12 in total incase you needed clarification!!).

This actually feels like a momentous one, It has been twelve months since I stepped out as a full time photographer. I have learned lots, made loads of mistakes and hopefully I can share with you some things which have helped me so far. Although I am still a total newbie so you should probably ask someone who has been doing this for ten years rather than one!

First a recap on my story - I worked in Education for 20 years or so, first in Devon and then in Somerset (where I currently live). I wasn't a teacher, I was a technician who got roped into doing some teaching (loved it) - started off in the Performing Arts and the Theatre and then moved onto Media - filming, photography, animation etc. I was supporting staff and students and learned loads about working together, the wheels of large organisations, lighting, sound, cameras and working for other people!! In 2016 I was made redundant - It affected me more than I realised at the time, I started plumbing with a mate for 6 months but as I came through coming to terms with being made redundant and as I unblocked student toilets I realised I should pursue something that I had dreamt of for a while.

So I took the plunge, lived off my redundancy money and slowly started building up photography (and now video) work. The first goal I set myself was to make ends meet - to make my rent and put food on the table for my family. Friends helped me out finding work, I cold called marketing businesses around Somerset, I sent emails and snail-mail advertising my services, I worked and refined my website (it's a work in progress), taught myself about SEO, shot all my friends so I could start building up my portfolio, I fixed computers for a bit and if I have to I will stack shelves if things get tight, all to enable me to pursue this dream. The other thing I got to do was take my kids to school, take a day off when I wanted (and get kicked off a golf course but thats another story), meet up with friends for coffee, all without having to put a holiday claim form in!

Building up work is slow, I’m told it takes around 3 years to get a business to the ticking over stage. I’m still on my journey and I currently only have 10p in my business account! (tho I have a number of invoices waiting to be paid so don’t freak out). I am on a journey and it’s not easy because I am a work in progress, as I try to get people to pay me to take photos I am also trying to get better at taking them. I am pushing myself more, trying new things with the end goal being to develop a style which is recognisable and for which I get hired! I am loving it, my work life balance has blurred edges because my work is part of my life now, it’s not something I go to and come home from any more.

So a few things that I have learned and am learning on this adventure...

Pricing is hard but basically whatever you think you should charge is probably not enough… ask yourself what is stopping you from doubling it? I did and couldn't really come up with many valid arguments.
You will spend more time sat at a computer than taking pictures (and I don’t mean editing).
You will still make stupid mistakes like switching the focus off and not noticing!
Most people hire who they know, that is why it is hard to break into this kind of creative work, basically clients have to take a risk, especially if they don't know you and your just starting. Start with every single person you know, you will be surprised who can help and what second degree contacts you can find (friends of friends).
As early as you can, find like minded people who you can chat with about business stuff, decisions etc. This has helped me immensely.
The majority of my work so far has come from a friend of a friend or an old acquaintance from years back, a referral is sooooo valuable! Because it is a trusted person saying I trust this person so you can trust this person, make sense?
Be prepared for failure, for clients to not like your photos and for things to go wrong, I don't mean every single job but the law of averages says one day you will have a difficult job, a memory card will fail, a backup drive will fail, your photos will not be good enough… Be prepared by thinking about what you would do if (when) these things happen and what you should put in place now to avoid or minimise problems down the line.
Have a decent backup solution - so many of my friends have lost images because they just have their laptop and one external drive and think they are covered (see blog post coming soon but spoiler… that isn't a backup solution!)
Be prepared to say yes (take a risk sometimes) I have landed some jobs which are outside my skill level, motion animation for example! I said yes I could do that and basically sat in front of YouTube teaching myself how to use the program. I delivered the job, got paid and taught myself another skill, my client knew this, was supportive and most importantly trusted me.
Communication is the best form of protection. Most disputes (normally around getting paid) come from each party assuming a different thing, it is better to write your expectations down in a clarification email, even if you have just discussed them as it is easy to be misunderstood.
Be yourself - not always easy when your trying to impress a potential client. We tend to attract like minded people and repel people with opposing views, so if you want to work with people who you like, would hang out with and can have fun conversations with then be yourself (I am a teccy geek and don't hide it any more haha!).

Constantly evaluate everything you are doing. I don't mean write a 10 page essay do but spend time thinking about what is working and what is not working, for example I sent a mailout to 20 or so web design companies in Somerset - I hardly got any response, why? Either because my photos are rubbish (nope) or because web guys usually just ask their clients for photos. There are the ‘all service’ agencies who try to do everything (definitely chase these ones) however they often have their own media production guys. I changed my marketing efforts to target people who book photographers (nb. see next point).
Don’t underestimate the seeds you are sowing - I got a job referral from a web company in Bath, I have no idea who. I may have emailed them back along but I still don't know who they are (client couldn't remember either) so even if the email you write today has no reply, one day months or years later you might see some fruit from it!
Don't rely on just leaving a comment on LinkedIn when someone is “looking for a…” If I see someone is looking for a photographer and it looks like a job I want to do then I will Google the company they work for, find out as much about it as I can, phone them and ask to speak directly to the person who wrote the “looking for…” post. This shows I am proactive, enables me to show my character and makes me a bit more memorable than the 100 other photographers who just reply to the post.
Be honest, this is a big one for me as one of my business values is integrity. It is important to me for people to feel like they can trust me, I will work hard for them and I won't add random stuff onto my invoice without talking to them first about it, It is so easy to tell a white lie in the moment to get out of a spot of bother but I promise one day it will come back to you! So I endeavour to be honest and have integrity as a business person and a photographer. Ultimately this is a self serving value as I will get more work because people will feel like they can trust me, but it would be hypocritical of me to tell my children off for lying if I am doing it at work.
This is a new one for me - follow people on Instagram who produce the work that you want to be doing. I look at my feed and am inspired to learn and get better, sometime it gets me down because I think I will never be as good as them but then I kick myself in the shins and remind myself that I’m on a journey and I can't even see the first bend let alone the end point!
Finally - have fun because at the end of the day thats the point! When I say fun what I really mean is fulfilment: “satisfied or happy because of fully developing one's abilities or character.” - boom!

Thanks for reading, see you in a month for my next post.