While jobs in the creative arts, like photography, are infamously difficult to make good money in, it is possible. In this video, Evan Ranft walks you through how he turned the income from his photography business from low to six figures in 8 years.
Perhaps it’s because I’m English, perhaps it’s how I was raised, but I am desperately uncomfortable with talking about money. In fact, to exemplify this, just last night one of my best friends and I were talking about money made from investments. We both knew when we had made certain investments and what the price of those investments are now, but we both skirted around saying any numbers for a good hour. It’s deeply ingrained in me, at least.
The issue with this is when it comes to business. As a wise person once pointed out about employment: not discussing wages with people is how companies can keep their wages low. The same is true of running your own business in many ways, particularly as a sole trader in photography. I went into this career blind and not knowing how much I was meant to charge for services or even how much I should be making. I had to find these problems with my shins, so to speak.
This is why I appreciate when successful photographers, like Evan Ranft, go through the steps that got them to where they are today, even if they don’t talk specific numbers. Back when I started, this is the exact sort of content I dearly needed.