Freelancing. Being your own boss. Making your own rules. Working whenever you want, from anywhere in the world.
Sounds like a dream, right?!
The idea of working for yourself can be very different from reality.
When I ran my business as a side hustle, I managed to stay on top of my social channels, blog, and client work. So I assumed with more time on my hands – because my employed work wouldn’t fill my day – I’d have so much more time doing all the things that I’d be left with lots of spare time.
Oh how wrong I was.
9 things I’ve learned after 3 years of running my photography business
When I started my business as a full-time photographer and filmmaker in September 2019, I didn’t really understand how much non-creative work would be there to do for me. I really had no clue how to run a business sustainably and market myself, to be honest.
I never really had to do any marketing to get jobs before. Running a very small business with just a handful of jobs that didn’t have to pay any bills (like I did from 2010-2019), was a very different experience from what I would deal with as a full-time photographer and filmmaker running my own business.
So over time, I learned a few things that I’d love to share with you after 3 years in business. Let me share my top 9 with you.
1. That thing you do is not everything that counts
My job is to create photographs and films for my clients.
My business can’t run on that alone though. Less than half my time is spent working with my clients taking photos or filming them. The other half is editing, being online on socials, trying to win new clients, keeping an eye on my finances, writing newsletters, writing blog posts, updating and maintaining my website, looking after my equipment, networking, creating strategies and campaigns, running those campaigns and probably lots of other things that I forgot right this moment.
To be honest, had I known how much admin and marketing were involved in running this business, I probably wouldn’t have made the leap. Purely because I really had no idea how to actually run a business and because I don’t know anything about marketing – despite having worked in a. number of different marketing departments before.
So it was probably good that I didn’t really know what I got myself into. I learned on the job because I had to. But if I had a business background, things probably would have been much easier and less scary. But then again, as Marie Forleo says… “Everything is figureoutable”.
2. Understanding your numbers is crucial
Pricing your products and services can be one of the hardest tasks. What I know a lot of people do especially when they’ve just started out, is look at their competitors and create their pricelist on that.
That’s a terrible idea though!
You don’t know how this other person came to their numbers, what their cost of living and cost of doing business (CODB) is. They might have another job, don’t rely on the income at all or are the sole earner in a big household.
Running a sustainable business means you understand what your business costs you each month. There are CODB calculators available online to help you understand what you should charge. But basically, everything from your office (even if it’s a home office) to stationary, insurance, equipment, website costs, marketing spend, subscriptions, and memberships adds up. Those costs need to be covered. That comes on top of what you actually want to earn per year/month.
I keep running my numbers about every six months to make sure that the work I do pays for my business, myself and my life. The first time I did this exercise, I was shocked at how much I was undercharging my clients based on the amount of time I spent on each project. The prices I charge now technically make me sustainable but I don’t actually manage to hit my financial target every month (let’s keep this real!).
That’s another thing, I note everything down that I make and spend – that’s needed for tax reasons anyway but it also really takes the emotions out of money for me. Seeing my income and expenses just as numbers help me detach from them. It allows me to be a lot more rational about running this business.
3. Marketing can be fun – and cannot be avoided
I used to work in marketing departments for years – but I was always the one creating things and handing them over to someone else to look after distribution. So I really had no clue how to market anything. Getting to grips with how I sell my services and my business took a while. Selling can feel icky if you’re doing it in a way that doesn’t align with your values.
To be honest, I still struggle with marketing and I constantly worry if I do enough. But it’s all a work in progress.
Thanks to an amazing mentor, I started to enjoy marketing. I’m still not great at it at all times, but I have a clearer idea what goes into selling and marketing my services, how to do it efficiently and in a way that aligns with my own values.
4. There’s so much free content out there to help you
Almost everything I know about the topics above, I learned from free and paid resources online. I started with free YouTube content and podcast, online challenges, books and free webinars. As my business started to pick up and I had some money left after paying my bills, I reinvested that in paid courses, memberships, and tools that would make things easier and teach me more.
You don’t have to spend a lot of money to get started but once you do have some spare, make sure you invest it well.
5. Working for yourself can be lonely
I started my business just 6 months before the pandemic hit. At first, I enjoyed my free time, and the option to work from cafes and co-working spaces. But soon enough I started to miss my coworkers from my last job. That only got worse during lockdown when we couldn’t leave the house.
So be aware that running your own business can feel lonely at times. Working from coffee shops can help a bit – but that can get expensive and isn’t an option for everyone. But the bit about being lonely while running your business leads nicely into the next topic…
6. If you don’t have colleagues, make sure you find a network
Working on your own doesn’t mean you have to figure everything out by yourself. You might not have colleagues but you can find or build a network, a group of people who work for themselves. A network like this, whether you all work in the same profession or not, helps you to discuss the challenges and responsibilities as well as celebrate wins with someone who really understands.
Over time, I found a few different networks that help me massively in not getting too overwhelmed or caught up in certain tasks. The people in those networks are also great to try ideas with that I’m not sure about or act as accountability buddies. Plus I found clients as well as service providers I could hire from a group of people I trusted.
One of my favourite networks is called Found&Flourish. It’s for female founders specifically and the women in this network have made a massive difference in my business over the past 3 years! I seriously wouldn’t be where I am without them!
7. If you don’t look after yourself, your business will feel it
When you work for yourself, time seems to move very fast and some to-do lists just never seem to get finished. It’s so easy to miss a lunch break, don’t eat or drink enough, work too much and not leave the house on days when you’re stuck in work mode.
This can get really bad though. Movement and breaks are important to be productive.
Over the past 3 years, I’ve had a few meltdowns over work, or the lack of jobs, or got so overwhelmed that I felt paralysed and didn’t know where to start.
If you don’t listen to your body and make sure you look after yourself, your business will ultimately suffer at some point. Either because you burn out or you just can’t see the wood for the trees and make mistakes or get unattentive.
So make sure you don’t overdo it. Take the break, go for a walk, a swim, a gym or a yoga session. And try to set working hours that work for you – no matter what society says are “regular office hours”. I recently blogged about changing my working schedule to accommodate what’s best for me, my business and my productivity if you’d like to read more about that!
8. Don’t copy others, do it your own way (but find a way to not just shoot in the dark)
When I started photography as a side hustle, I was very much influenced by what I saw others do. Not just around pricing but more importantly about photographic style, what my website should look like, what I should write about and how.
I was a copy of many other photographers.
Part of it is just how we learn to find our own voice and style. It’s normal to try and emulate what we see others do. But in the long term, that’s not how you can run a successful business.
If you blend in with your competition and everyone around you, you literally can’t stand out for your clients to notice you. So dare to be different!
That does come with a caveat though. Just doing whatever the heck you want, may work. But it may also flop completely. A good way to find out how to do things to reach the people you want to work with is to just ask them. Send out surveys, ask people to have a chat with you, use social media polls. Then take what you gather and see where your strengths and your passion fit into that.
Be aware though that you might get a lot of contradicting feedback. Or you might realise what you can offer is not what people want. Be very careful when you work through your findings – it might be that you didn’t ask the right people. Or that your offer really isn’t right for the market (yet). Just don’t go back to copying others again when that happens!
9. Be yourself
Lastly, stay true to yourself. Do value exercises, ask yourself what you want and why and really dig deep into your strengths and weaknesses to make sure you work with and not against them.
Running a business is hard work. It’s never-ending.
If you do things in a way that make you happy, make you money and align with everything you stand for, you’re most likely onto something amazing! Integrity, authenticity and vulnerability can feel hard to maintain but stick with it. You can’t run a business pretending to be someone else – not without losing yourself though!
I’ve had my fair share of highs and lows. Doing everything by myself is a lot of work but I am my own boss, I choose my hours and (to an extent) my projects. It’s literally the best feeling to have this freedom!
Resources
Books
Freerange Human
Get Rich Lucky Bitch
Playing Big
Communities
Podcasts
Courageous Content by Janet Murray
The Janet Murray Show (discontinued)
Hashtag Authentic
