The 5 Lessons I Gained After 5 Years in The Photography Business

Running your own business is not a linear journey. There are an unpredictable amount of speed bumps that test your ability to stay on track. After taking the leap to start my photography business five years ago, I have experienced my fair shares of highs and lows. Along with the successes, wine-worthy celebrations, and meaningful moments with clients, have also come failures, moments of self-doubt, and lessons that paved the way to where I am today. 

Allow me to share what I learned in the hopes that it could help you on your entrepreneurial journey. Here are the 5 lessons I gained after 5 years in my photography business. I know they will help you persevere past hardships, grow, and enjoy the wonderful moments as they come. 

Setting boundaries is an act of self-care  

If you’re often losing track of time, lacking excitement in your day-to-day operations, or dealing with continuous interruptions, you might benefit from setting boundaries. As a newbie entrepreneur, I acquired this lesson through trial and error.

I didn’t value my time and often put clients before myself. My wellbeing took a backseat while I strived to meet everyone else’s needs and neglected my own.  

I eventually hit a breaking point before I enforced a set of boundaries that benefited my health, time, and finances.  

The type of boundaries you set and enforce are usually personal and tailored to your current situation. For me, I needed to create professional boundaries that allowed me to take a vacation without feeling guilty, only working during set business hours and managing my time wisely to prevent burnout. 

In the last five years, I learned; Setting and maintaining consistent boundaries is an act of self-care that feeds your health, both emotionally, and physically. 

You can’t push yourself to your limits and expect your clients to empathize when you feel the effects. You need to recognize and value your inner worth, create boundaries that benefit your happiness, communicate them to your clients and enforce them at all costs.  

When you take care of yourself and create a consistent schedule that serves you, the clients you want in your corner will appreciate your professionalism and clearly communicated standards. Remember, clarity is an essential component that delivers kindness to yourself and your clients. 

Time blocking is your productivity driver 

How do you balance meetings, client requests, and a growing task list with the things you care about? This is where time blocking comes in and saves the day. Yes, it requires consistency and motivation, but when applied correctly, this strategy will boost your productivity, giving you extra time to invest in what brings you joy and allowing you to grow as a person and master your craft.  

5 years in the photography business taught me a lot, but both the celebratory high-five days and the things that keep me up at night provided an important lesson; You need to control your day-to-day schedule before it controls you.  

Time blocking is a simple strategy that works for multiple occasions and situations. If you’re trying to juggle several projects at once, battle ongoing distractions, or find yourself glued to your email, time blocking is the winning entrepreneurial solution.  

Before you start color-coding your calendar, time blocking requires a bit of initial planning. 

The first step is to identify your high-priority tasks, subsequent deadlines and then prepare adequate time to organize your task list in advance. Once you have a clear idea of your tasks, divide your day into time blocks and dedicate each block to accomplishing specific tasks or a similar group of tasks. 

Pro tip: time chunking with time blocking packs a double punch. Chunking similar tasks in one block will allow you to dominate your daily energy and juggle multiple projects in a single time frame.  

I will say that deciding which tasks, in the beginning, was a challenge. It is easy to ignore the tasks that don't produce immediate revenue but still need your attention. While trying to manage time blocking, I learned setting time aside for content creation, continuing education, and improving my art are tasks that still attract clients and produce revenue long-term.

If you're struggling to balance these tasks as I did, just ask yourself what will make this ship sail faster and which ones will get me closer to my end goals? I can guarantee you it is not your emails or your admin tasks. 

There is a helpful book on this called The Twelve Week Year. It teaches you how to prioritize and value tasks that build your business long-term. I also love the Self Journal. I started using the digital one on my iPad in GoodNotes which is another great productivity tool to keep you organized, especially if you are like me and love a notebook! 

Time blocking saved my business and gave me control of my schedule which gave me peace of mind. I encourage everyone to try it. It’s a game-changer.

You can’t do everything alone, so delegate!  

Do you suffer from the I-can-do-it-all-myself mentality? I did! This mentality is unhelpful and unproductive, my friend, and doesn’t serve you or your business.  

When I first started my photography business, I thought hiring an assistant wasn’t in the cards. But I acquired a new mindset and gained a valuable lesson; Assistants are lifesavers to a business and one of the best investments any entrepreneur can make.

My mind operates at a million miles per minute. I need an assistant to balance the chaos and keep me on track. 

Assistants optimize your time both personally and professionally, enabling you to focus on bigger-picture tasks while they work behind the scenes completing smaller tasks. 

This extra help conserves your precious brainpower and allows you to grow your business without becoming bogged down by the daily minutiae. 

Still don't believe me? Evaluate your day-to-day.  Do you have a never-ending list of admin tasks? An overwhelming number of emails that seem to keep growing and keep getting pushed back?  

Your success as an entrepreneur does not have to be a one-person team. If you're feeling overwhelmed, divide and conquer, and hire an assistant with a range of skills that will benefit you and your business.  

Value yourself and price accordingly

Every new entrepreneur experiences the overwhelm and stress that comes with pricing their products/services. Even at the beginning of my career, I dreaded the how much do you charge question. 

My mind always played a repeat mix of anxious questions/statements; What if I price too high, and nobody wants to work with me? If I price too low, then I’m not valuing myself. 

I realized I was in a constant feedback loop that created a disservice for myself and my clients.

When I became strategic about my pricing and ignored my inner critic, I gained a valuable lesson; The way you price your services not only impacts your cash flow but it reflects how you value your talent. 

Let’s face it, as a business owner, you are the only one that can give yourself a raise. And if you want to master your craft by investing in your growth, you need to price yourself accordingly and continue to evaluate that price point based on your level of expertise and life situation.

I can’t stress it enough. Become strategic about your pricing and learn to value what you offer. Too many entrepreneurs fall into the trap of letting things slide and spending time completing extra requests for free because they're too afraid to lose business. This stress follows you to your client interactions, to the studio and causes resentment. 

You deserve a stable business that creates flowing abundance, happiness, and freedom. You don’t need to undermine yourself or your talents to attract and keep clients. Respect your time, value, and expertise, and never waiver on the things that matter most to you.  

If you need further guidance with this lesson, no problem. Check out this article where I discuss how to value your inner worth and charge a reflective amount.  

Niche down and find your tribe  

While we all want clients and need them for the sake of our business, we can be selective of who we wish to work with and say no to the ones we don't. 

If you’re a new entrepreneur struggling to make ends meet, it might be tempting to say yes to every client. But not all clients are the right match for you or your business. 

Even as an entrepreneurial photographer, I learned a valuable lesson; Discovering who you want to work with is as equally important as discovering who you don’t. 

I learned that jumping to work with every client brought me stress, an overload of work, and created discontent with my business. But when I pumped the brakes and niched down to a selective audience, my energy bounced back, and my business took off. 

I found my dream tribe. I began working with clients who were a vibrational match and I created special bonds with several different inspiring souls. 

As a business owner, you may find yourself bending over backward to serve every client, including those that don't empower your business or inspire you. But it will save you a lot of time and mental space if you niche down and find your tribe. 

It’s not selfish to only market to the type of clients that work best with you. In fact, it’s a smart business move. When you value yourself and trust your skills/expertise, the right clients will come, and you will experience more joy and happiness in your every day. 

Bonus: Systems balance the creative chaos  

As an artist or creative entrepreneur, I get it systems might not be your jam. They weren’t for me in the beginning. I feared adopting or following a system would restrict my creative flows and spontaneity bursts. 

I’m an artist who gets distracted, excited, and I will sometimes jump head-on without proper organization or planning. But I learned; Systems balance the creative chaos within your art and allow you to manage and value your time wisely.  

Time is indispensable and the most valuable currency. It’s not something we can buy back or renew. That’s why as artists, freelancers, and business owners, we need systems to hold ourselves accountable and receive the most from our daily work schedules.  

Systems such as time management tools, email management programs, and following routines help you balance the precious time you have to accomplish your business goals strategically and effectively. 

When I follow a structured system that provides room for creativity, I have adequate time to deliver a consistent look and experience. It prevents any possibility of overshooting and creates an empowering space for my clients to reconnect with themselves. 

I highly recommend systems for your photoshoots, client management and correspondence. For the latter, I love Dubsado. I’m grateful to have enough space to have different sets set up so we can pop around based on the vibe we want. The photo shoot system sounds restricting, but it actually allows for creativity. It also helps the timing of the shoot and the post-process work by not overshooting. 

Bottom line, even photographers and artists need a system. It's easy for us to get lost in a flow state and the whirlwind of our art that we lose track of time and find our energy depleted. 

Discovering and following a system that keeps you on track will balance the creative chaos in ways that serve both your businesses and your time.  

What lessons have you learned while running your business? 

There you have it, the 5 lessons I gained after 5 years in the photography business. These lessons aren't an exhaustive list but provide a snapshot of the ones I believe are the most valuable for any artist, freelancer, or entrepreneur to learn. 

What lessons have you learned while running your business? Please share your story and help other creatives.

If you want to celebrate your entrepreneurial journey, book a discovery call to discuss a photoshoot. I love celebrating female creatives and entrepreneurs, and I can’t wait to share this self-care gift with you.  

With love,  

Judith