And the story of what I did to leave my full time corporate job and become a full time photographer

I worked a corporate job for 3 years and I can’t tell you how many times I googled ‘How to be a full time photographer’ or ‘how to quit your 9-5’. Or something along those lines. Really, I just wanted a roadmap or formula. And someone to tell me when and how I could leave my cubicle, never attend an overdone employee appreciation pizza party again, or listen to another performance review or corporate townhall ever again. Have you been there? If this sounds like you, I see you, friend, I’ve been there and I’m writing the post I wish I had back when I was trying to figure all of this out.

So, let’s backtrack for a second so I can share how I even got to the point of wanting to be a full time photographer. In college, I dreamed of climbing the corporate ladder in a power suit and power heels. I majored in Business Administration with a double concentration in Human Resources and Business Management. And a few months before graduating, I landed what I thought was my dream job and I was so excited to take the first step of that ladder – only to realize on day one that the suit was actually pretty uncomfortable and the power heels were pretty miserable to walk in from my car to the front door, far more for an entire day. But more importantly than my fashion choices, I felt like I wasn’t in the right place.

Fast forward a few years when my husband got me a camera so I had a creative outlet after being drained at my HR job. I learned how to use it, started my business, and started my quest to being a full time photographer. It took years and there were plenty of times I wondered if I would even make it to the point of being full time.

But I did; I made it to being a full time photographer, and I’m going to share exactly what I did to do this.

1. Define your niche: I decided early on that I wanted to photography weddings after helping second shoot a wedding. It was exhausting, so beautiful and so rewarding and I was 100% committed. In my second year of owning my business, I added Brand Photography as another photography offering, mostly geared towards other wedding professionals in my industry.
2. Know your numbers: I wish I could tell you I did this early on, but I didn’t. I had ‘two incomes’ because of my 9-5 job and my photography business, and I had only a loose idea of what I was bringing in, what I spent on the business, and what I needed to save. If I could go back, I would heave read the book ‘Profit First’ much sooner than I did. It’s honestly such a brilliantly simple concept: dividing up your finances so you have a much more accurate picture of what the financial health of your business looks like. If I had done this sooner, I would have had a much better idea of what I did/didn’t need to be spending on for the business (like those extra fancy business cards), and what I could have been saving so I could go full time sooner than I did.
3. Build a strong brand and online presence: There are 3 things I can directly point to that helped me build my business as quickly as I did, and the number one thing on that list is having an online presence. At first, I really thought that this meant that I had to have a bajillion Instagram followers, but the truth is, everyone with a social media account, website, or anything that involves the internet has an online presence. The question is, are you building that online presence and using it to grow your business? Instagram was a huge driver of inquiries in my business, but it also served (and still serves) as a tool to build relationships with people and allowed them to get to know me for more than just my work (I talk more about that in this blog post: Building a Personal Brand & Building a Business). Take some time to come up with a sustainable posting plan that you can actually be consistent about. Whether that’s 3 times a week or 7 times a week, show up with value, ready to serve every time.
4. Build your community: I kind of hate the term ‘networking’ now. For some reason, it gives me the ‘ick’. I think it’s because it feels too “what can you do for me” and kind of disingenuous. Or, maybe because I’ve been to too many stuffy Human Resources conferences in my lifetime. But, we can’t escape the fact that building genuine relationships with people in our industry is necessarry and invaluable. And when we do ‘networking’ the right way and truly go out of our way to build each other up and help each other, we build our community. And that’s what I’m getting at here. Don’t just throw on a black blazer, go to a networking event, hand out business cards and tell everyone that you’re the best photographer ever. Take the time to be genuinely interested in who people are, what they do, building a relationship with others, and giving them value where you can. People can spot selfish and desperate from a mile away. But on the flip side of that, people can also tell when you’re genuinely interested in them and want to help them thrive.
5. Develop a business plan: If you want to be a full time photographer, one of the most valuable things you can do is start thinking long term. Think through the type of business you want to have, and start outlining the following:

• Your ideal client audience: who are you serving, how are you serving them, and what are their problems
• Your financial goals
• Your marketing strategies: where will you show up and how often? How will you provide value to the client you outlined in the first point? How can you serve your vendor partners by highlighting their work in a way that also educates your clients?
• Your pricing structure based on your niche, expertise, and market demand
• Your cost of doing business
• Your budget based on your lifestyle, business, and personal expenses
• Your revenue streams

ROADMAP: Once you have outlined the following, you can start building your roadmap so you can put some measurable goals, dates and deadlines, and accountability pieces around how you’re going to accomplish this.

Remember: when you put in the work consistently, each small step is going to add up whether or not you see the result of that work right then. There are a few things I can directly point to that helped me go full time (building a brand and online presence, investing in education, and building my community), but I didn’t see results right away from any of those things right away. It took time and dedication – but it’s possible! I got to be a full time photographer and I know the same is possible for you!

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