I don’t want to run a business.
That’s my thought process today. The Christmas period and the first week of January is so nice and quiet isn’t it? People actually have other things preoccupying their lives and we kinda get left alone.
Then the second week of Jan hits, and man alive doesn’t it get noisy with people telling you what to do?!
Now… if you’re a business first photographer today’s email isn’t for you.
I’m not a business first photographer. I didn’t get into this job for the money or to be a business owner. I got into it because my whole soul craves daily creativity and I love cameras and I love taking photos and I love people loving those photos.
I just needed to replace my salary. That’s it. And then later on I just also needed to replace my wife’s salary. So two salaries. I’m not gonna say ‘that’s it’ because honestly that’s a feckin lot.
Anyway I digress.
I have no interest in running or building a business. I just want to make art and do enough things so that 25-35 couples a year find me, love what I do, and book me.
But all we’re fed, all that’s shouted at us, all that’s laid down as law is that you have to do all this business bullsh. Remember bullsh?
Well listen. I’m not saying it’s easy, and it’s getting harder, but I’ve managed 16 full seasons of this job by putting my art first, and not letting the business bullsh be the driver of my bus.
So I guess I’m writing this for you if you’re just constantly thinking ‘but what about the photos? what about the art?’.
Well I think they’re what matters, and if they genuinely do stop mattering then that’s the day I genuinely hang up my cameras.
But it’s never gonna happen.
I’ve watched people make art, let business take over, lose the connection to their art, and wonder why the bookings dry up.
Don’t get me wrong I’ve also seen people who don’t care about photography or art or weddings but love business, create incredibly successful wedding photography businesses.
I’m not here for that. I’m here for the art.
I will always come back to the only line that’s ever truly resonated with me in a photography business sense and that’s from Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon. And he said something along the lines of “do your work and show it to people” as a way of being able to continue living a creative life that orbits your creative work. That’s all I’ve ever tried to do and realistically all I’ll ever try and do.
Now what I will say is ‘showing it to people’ is the business. But when you boil it down to that, the business becomes a little easier on you. You don’t have to set up automations, you don’t have to run complicated CRM systems. You don’t have to understand sales funnels and track your conversion rates or boil your lovely customers and potential customers down to numbers on a spreadsheet or amalgamate them into a pie chart.
I’ll wrap it up because today was supposed to be a ‘bite size’ email and I’ve already failed at that.
If you love business and you want to be a business owner first, photographer second then crack on with all the businessy stuff.
If, like me, you just want to be a photographer, play with cameras a couple of times a week, make photos, make art, and make people happy with it, then don’t listen to all the THINGS YOU HAVE TO DO in business.
Do your work and show it to people consistently. Cheers for that Austin mate.
Thanks for reading, have a great week. And if all you do this week is read a load of books or consume a load of movies or look at a load of paintings that charge up your artistic soul, I happen to think that’s a pretty epic week in the life of someone trying to make their living from creativity.
Adam
