How to Make Your Photography Business Fit Your Life
How many times have you, as a small business owner, felt pressured in to doing things a certain way because that is what
the main stream tells you is the “right” way to do it?
How often are those things simply not compatible with the things that are most important in your life? There are some people out there that would tell you that if you can’t do it the “right” way then you shouldn’t do it at all.
It is a bunch of hogwash!
I believe that the *magic* formula for ANY successful business is as follows.
- Excellent & unique products
- A price point that is appropriate for your target market
- Marketing
- Customer Service
If you have refined the 4 things listed above you won’t ever hurt for clients and no where does it say you have to do any of those items a specific way to be successful.
The reality is that we all have unique priorities. I for example, I have 4 children, we home-school, my husband is currently finishing his college degree on top of working a full time job and I run a profitable photography business.
Before I ever knew I wanted to “be a photographer” I got my Business degree. I knew from a business stand point from the very beginning, that handing someone a CD with 25 digital images on it wasn’t the “best” way to make money, but I did it anyways. Why? Because I loved photography, I had kids and I just couldn’t manage anything more than that at the time. Years later, I have more kids, more clients, higher prices and I sell products. I am however still a digital based business.
I have many of the same constraints I did when I opened Jenni M Photography (
www.jennimphotography.com) and the bottom line is that they rank higher on my priority list than my business does. They have molded my business in very tangible ways, using creative solutions, technology and electronic services they haven’t crippled it, but rather, they have defined it. To be honest, it is not a perfect system. (but then again, nothing is) Most of the time I feel like I need a nap, but because I have grown this business around my priorities makes it possible for me to do this thing I love while still taking care of the ones I love.
I know many who said I would burn out… but if I had done it their way, I would have never even started. To do it their way would have conflicted with the care of my family, and my family is the whole reason I started this crazy journey to begin with.
This is MY life, MY family, MY goals.
I choose to make my business fit my life,
so I can have both!
Jenni McCarty is a wife, mom of four, l'il bit granola, jean-wearer, iced coffee drinker, home schooler, more than just a little obsessed with photography, frustrated organizer (see “mom of four”) yet ironically logical,Pinterest addict andFacebook follower, sufferer of ADCD (attention deficit crafters disorder), displaced Alaskan. She openedJenni M Photography in 2012 and she really enjoys blogging about her personal family adventures whenever she has a chance.
