You charge WHAT for an 8×10?

As tax time rolls around yet again, I’m in the third year of preparing taxes on my photography business and it’s NOT pretty.  To run a successful photography business it is SO much more than a camera and some prints!  Behind that $60- 8×10 print (and that’s cheap for true, professional images!) there are many business expenses to be paid, such as the following:

• photography equipment (which we ALL know is not cheap!)
• editing software
• business insurance
• electricity
• web hosting
• business bookkeeping
• gas and repairs for vehicles
• business marketing
• internet service
• phone service
• professional development 

… and I could go on, and on, and on, and on.  Oh and those taxes I mentioned too; don’t want to forget to pay those!!!
These are exactly the things I did not know when starting out.  I had no clue to be honest.  NO CLUE.  But when I decided to upgrade my camera last year (from the one that had been passed along to me for FREE, thank the good Lord above) I knew I was doing something wrong.  How in the world do photographers survive when camera’s alone cost a couple thousand smackaroos?  And how do so many photographers still have a life beyond their computer?  How do these photographers that I follow on facepoo and twitter have time beyond sessions and editing to exercise, cook for their families, do crafts with their children, etc.?  I was on a mission.  I needed to find a happy medium and good balance of my many hats in this life. 

That’s when I stumbled upon my happy place thanks to Alicia Caine’s book, Happy Place: The Life Plan, Posing as a Business Plan. This book, put plain and simple, defines me.  I needed help, I admit it.  I was pulling numbers out of the air trying to run a business, and after three years of it, I found I was killing myself.  And I realized this as I was still editing at 2am EVERY morning, even on weekends.  This had become my routine.  There was little devotion time in my life, zero exercise, no gardening, no crafting with my son, and many other things that I was missing in my life.  Who had I become?  I was unhappy and had already quit photography about 3 times.  Just ask my husband. LOL  But I love it tooooo much honestly to put my camera aside.  It is a creative outlet for me.  That’s how I started in it, and that’s how I aim to keep it.  No longer will it become a chore to me.  This book truly is “a common sense journey to the heart of your business!” which was the selling point for me.  I needed something common sense.  And I needed to find the heart of my business.

With that said, bring it ON 2011!!!  I’m so pumped as to what yummy goodness becomes of this year 🙂  And because a post is better with a picture, I leave you with a little picture of my heart, and another one of my happy places.  I had time (thanks to that good ole book mentioned above) two weekends ago for a little family outing to the coast.  I love my life!

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