I was recently published in this Forbes special piece about side hustling. I’m still kind of in shock how I made it on here. Literally, the journalist emailed me out of the blue and I hopped on the phone the first free hour (8AM) I could get. Some say I got lucky. I agree. But what you did not see is the persistence that took me to get here. Forbes only took some selections of my interview. I’m sharing some more thoughts here on how to make your side hustle successful.
Set a path towards profitability
A lot of people tell me they have 6, 7 figure businesses. That’s great. That’s your gross revenues. Then I ask, how much did you keep in profits? Hemming and hawing. I made $210K in total from side hustling over 9 years as a wedding photography. I got there from $0 by focusing relentlessly on profits. I rarely, if ever, did things for free. I had a standard friends and family discount, but I discounted off of high-margin items, not my core offering. For every client I had, I calculated the marginal cost it took me to get that client (how much albums cost, how much time I spent working on the gig, taxes I’d have to pay, car rental, and assistant fees). Then I also took my fixed costs (equipment, website, insurance, technology investments, and divided it by all my clients). I set a minimum profit margin – the minimum amount I wanted to make for each hour of work. And stuck to it. If people did not want to pay, I said, “These are the same prices i offer everyone. If I gave you a discount, I’d have to discount everyone else”. Because I offered a luxury product, I could do so.
Get help where you are weak
I mentioned briefly that I got instructors. That is true. There were areas I was terrible at. My taxes were very messed up the first year. One year I owed I think $10,000 in federal taxes (and thank goodness I had the money to do so). This was WHILE i was already saving and budgeting – I was just clueless how business taxes worked. I definitely felt shame when I had that tax bill. Anger that I didn’t do better. I allowed myself to get mad (for a little), then immediately went to get an accountant. Now, I didn’t like them very much (they also made mistakes), but at least in the two years I worked with them I learned everything I needed to learn. Then I let them go, and went on to file taxes correctly going forward.
I paid for workshops. I learned lighting. I learned posing. I learned how to sell better. I read on how to optimize a blog (and yes, my current blog layout is a disaster, it’s a 2019 goal to change the layout of this blog). I paid for editing keyboards and album software that would speed up how I can edit and design. Those investments (the editing keyboard was $600, the album software was $300), would save my HOURS of work. Sadly, today, with the way Adobe changed the industry, those tools don’t work anymore. I’d have to buy new ones. The point is, systems build discipline, and discipline leads to success
I faced my worst clients and learned from them
In the 9 years of service, I can count maybe 4, 5, really, really unhappy clients. And boy, I learned from them.
One client fired me as their wedding photographer because they wanted a very different style. I learned from them to make sure people actually wanted what I offered.
One client fired me as their wedding photographer because I scheduled an additional wedding on the day of their engagement shoot without checking with them – by this time I was in year 3 and should have known better.
One client I had to do a reshoot because the weather had messed up. Now I’m not in control of weather, but I learned to set expectations better when it came to unpredictable weather in New England.
One client told me I had a bad attitude towards the end of their wedding day, and seemed like I couldn’t wait to leave. It was true. I was really tired that day, I’d over-exerted myself, and was not doing my best. It taught me that I had to bring my A game, each and every time, and put up a good face, no matter what. That was also the year I decided to reduce the number of clients I’d take, and up my price to reflect the increase in quality as well.
Set a few customer service rules, if you are a client facing company
Some of you might not be a customer service focused company. Just think of the countless companies that treat you like crap because you’re just one number in a big tangled mess. However, as a wedding photographer, absolutely, service mattered.
I responded to emails within 1 business day, but told my clients that I was usually off on weekends.
I always tried to make them happy, even if I don’t think I was necessarily wrong. You don’t argue with your clients, you don’t bite the hands that feed you.
I respected my clients’ wishes for privacy. In the beginning I begged to be able to publish photos from all the photoshoots I did. One time I encountered a potentially very high end client, and lost because they didn’t want to be published. I was a struggling photographer then, no one knew me. A few years later, I had no problem granting privacy clauses. I didn’t need the publicity anymore.
I took all photograph requests that were within reason. If a client wanted a photo of everyone at a wedding, I upgraded them to a second shooter who’d do table shots, or I offered a photo booth option. If a client wants more photos with Mom, they get more photos with Mom. If they want a specific shot with an heirloom item, no matter how oftentimes I’ve done the shot before, I will do it for them. I have found that for a lot of people, their ego gets in the way of business. And to that I say, stay humble.
I gave myself room to relax
As I mentioned above, to prevent burnout, I didn’t accept all clients who knocked on the door. I raised prices too so that fewer people could afford me (but made sure the quality of what I delivered met those pricing expectations). I eventually took a Sabbath. I had to get away from it all too to remember why I’m doing it in the first place.
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