morby wrote:
I guess the root of my fear is in the fact that I have a wife and two kids to care for. If I was on my own, or without kids, I think it would be a little different.
It would be totally different, I dont have a wife but I have a son.
D. Diggler wrote:
Why do you say that? I thought you really like what you are doing.
If I could be a wedding photographer for the rest of my life I would be. But when I look around I don't see a ton of successful wedding photographers that are older. Most are in their 20's and 30's. There may come a point when I can't keep up and I'm no longer relevant. Hopefully that won't happen, but it has happened to a lot of photographers i know.
Evan Baines wrote:
I'll chip in on this one with a somewhat unique perspective.
I experienced more stress running my business than I did getting shot at in Iraq. Seriously.
My business ran pretty darn well looking back, but even when business was good I was always in fear of not getting that next gig or wedding I needed. I was fortunate to have a wife with an excellent job and benefits, but the thought of supporting the entire household on just my business terrified me if we decided to start a family. I would say that as rare as the financially successful photography business is, the financially SECURE photography business is more so.
I think some folks are better at dealing with that kind of insecurity than others. For me, I prefer making life-or-death decisions for myself and/or others to the daily nagging worry about where the next job is coming from....Show more →
Thanks for sharing this. The "daily nagging" gets to me. This year I'm set, but what about next year? That's always on my mind. My wife and I went through our budget and we are financially secure until the end of the year (as long as everybody pays their balance). That should give me comfort, but my mind is now focused on next year. I haven't learned how to just be fine with where I am now and deal with the future once it gets here.
"There may come a point when I can't keep up and I'm no longer relevant"
This appears to happen in many careers. Mostly I have found it to be worse for employed people as they fall out of fashion with the managers above them and what they can do about that is limited. At least in your own business you have the authority to make changes.
With photographers that loose ground, maybe you need to identify what went wrong for them as individuals and not see them as a group that just got left behind? Did they research trends? Did they do poor marketing? Did they just get bored of the job but did not want to admit it? Did they actually want to change careers?
I'm personally taking steps to get out of owning a photography business as my main source of income. That is proving to not be easy either. It's an odd thing because this year we booked our biggest weddings yet but the stress doesn't go away with that privilege and I'm absolutely fearful of 2014-2016 from an economical standpoint. In 2014, when the affordable health care act will be in full force, our economy is going to be rocked to its core and anyone holding up a small business isn't going to be feeling well. People's taxes and insurance fees have already begun to grow and it has thrown our already very delicate economy into another recession (at least in LA but we're also dealing with higher gas tax starting in June, already implemented higher sales tax and income tax, well, you get it: High taxes are not conducive to running a healthy business no matter what big.gov says). Big businesses are already forcing people to go part time or plan on paying the penalty tax. It's very frustrating to be in the prime of my life and having to deal with these economical shenanigans. It's simple cause and effect. When you force people to give up money, even people with lots of money, they stop spending on things they don't need. And aaaaaaall that tax money .gov forces from them doesn't go back into the economy, it goes to people's pockets who keep the balance of power where the elites on both sides of the isle want it. When people don't spend on things they don't need, the economy is what you see today. Here's another equation, when the economy is even so-so a family will choose to buy the new big screen over the type of photography that's conducive to sustainability.
Evan Baines wrote:
I'll chip in on this one with a somewhat unique perspective.
I experienced more stress running my business than I did getting shot at in Iraq. Seriously.
My business ran pretty darn well looking back, but even when business was good I was always in fear of not getting that next gig or wedding I needed. I was fortunate to have a wife with an excellent job and benefits, but the thought of supporting the entire household on just my business terrified me if we decided to start a family. I would say that as rare as the financially successful photography business is, the financially SECURE photography business is more so.
I think some folks are better at dealing with that kind of insecurity than others. For me, I prefer making life-or-death decisions for myself and/or others to the daily nagging worry about where the next job is coming from....Show more →
cineski wrote:
High taxes are not conducive to running a healthy business no matter what big.gov says). Big businesses are already forcing people to go part time or plan on paying the penalty tax. It's very frustrating to be in the prime of my life and having to deal with these economical shenanigans. I wish I had seen the light 4 years ago.
Well said! More people in this country need to realize this for themselves and stop letting the 'media' acting as a branch of the government to shape their opinion of what grows the economy.
How many wedding/portrait photographers peak in their 40-50s? How many can sustain beyond that? When I was in my 20s this job seemed like it was too good to be true. Now that I'm in my 30s the job seems largely at odds with my life goals - it is an obstacle to many things instead of an enabler. And while some people may be upset with the healthcare reform as someone who is completely self-insured and dealing with some medical issues the recent reforms have allowed me to stay in business rather than being forced to seek a job to manage medical expenses. The overall circumstances to running a thriving, profitable, sustainable photography business keep worsening. That isn't to say it can't be done, just that the sacrifices that it may take become less and less appealing over time.
We are self insured and my wife has a preexisting condition. It's still going to do horrible things to the economy. Since nobody really seems to know what's going to happen 1/1/14, I sure as heck hope I'm wrong. Oddly enough, the most successful wedding photographers I know (with that, I mean people who are making hundreds of thousands per year, not hundreds of thousands of facebook fans) in the LA area are 40-50's. It's a very different market, though.
TRReichman wrote:
The overall circumstances to running a thriving, profitable, sustainable photography business keep worsening. That isn't to say it can't be done, just that the sacrifices that it may take become less and less appealing over time.
TRReichman wrote:
while some people may be upset with the healthcare reform as someone who is completely self-insured and dealing with some medical issues the recent reforms have allowed me to stay in business rather than being forced to seek a job to manage medical expenses
For those of us in America trying to support a family with this business, healthcare reform is one of the best things that's ever happened. Now ... if you're sittin' pretty like the guy above who has a wife "with an excellent job and benefits", healthcare reform may not matter much to you.
I'll chip in as another member of the Greek chorus of exiting or exited wedding photographers.
My wife and I have decided that this will be our last year of weddings. This is our second full year of business, and we're calling it quits after our last wedding in the fall. Why? Because they stress out my wife. We both have full time jobs and I'm doing full time school as well, and she feels the weddings take up too much of what little free time we have. She doesn't want me to shoot alone because she doesn't want me gone several weekends a year. Oh, and our first child is on the way next year (that's a pretty big factor). So we decided to end things. We were a mildly profitable business, as we spent nothing on marketing and bought all of our gear used and in cash, but to put it succinctly, with all we've got going on, we need time much more than money.
If I were single, it would be a different story. For me, weddings are fun and easy money. Or if we were wildly successful and making as much as we do in our day jobs, that would probably alter the math (e.g., we might have decided to shoot full time and leave our day jobs). But the way things are, my wife would rather have us home for several more weekends a year and pass up the extra cash than keep feeling starved for time and stressed. And now that we've decided to start a family, I don't want to miss a minute of my child's life if I don't have to. Family comes first.
I don't think I will be looking for wedding gigs in 2015. However, this year and probably next, I am still in the game if anyone has the money to book me. People are crying for "cheapest" here. I recently got ripped off of a couple of wedding jobs from a Pakistani studio where I freelanced for about four years. I guess "being yourself" is not always what people are looking for. You do have to be a member of that particular tradition to be on top but that is what happens when you freelance for someone else. Owners do everything to protect their reputations in the eyes of their clients. The clients were all doctors, so that tells you something. When the owner got sick his wife sure needed me to fill in for him to save the studio. I am disgusted with "would be clients" who do not hire experience. So, yes, jobs have tapered way down.
Fear. It is a good emotion to have I think. It is a fight or flight response. I used to have a lot more fear when we (wifey and I) first started out a few years back. Mostly because we were fearful of competition and not knowing what's what. These days I am more calm. Please don't misconstrue as over confidence. We're more calm because we feel everything we have today and what we achieved thus far was really truly by God's grace. As the good Lord and I know, I am not very good with anything although I try hard and work hard.
This year has been a great year for us. Lots of growth. People are finding us to shoot them despite us admitting not done that genre before. Their reply was they love our style and it is already better than those that does that genre. Huh? If you were to tell us back in 2012 that we will be shooting internationally in 2013, I'd say whatever you are drinking is too strong. But we have, we did and we are being requested again.
Having said all that, I do have some sleepless nights. Not because so much of the $ aspect. It has more to do with the brand's direction. Where should it go. What clientele are we targeting. Why have we not reached peak efficiencies? I am the sole income earner in the family after we decided that it was better for my wife to stay at home to be with our children. Family first. Don't know how but despite losing a major chunk of income, our lifestyle didn't change much at all. Our fear has been largely overcome by faith because I sure as heck don't know how we got all these clients sometimes. Our locale is super saturated with photographers!
