Welcome back to the Cameron and Tia show! We are wedding photographers in Minneapolis, Minnesota and today we are continuing our business tips and talking about 5 steps to go from part time to full time photographer. Don’t forget to like and subscribe for more business content, and get ready for our free, live training coming up next week!
There are tons of ways to go about this! There are tons of ways to prep, there are tons of ways to feel responsible in making this choice. OR, you can look at what you have booked for the next year and feel confident in that and just jump – that’s what Cam and I did!
Now, it’s not necessarily what we would recommend but maybe that works for you and your personal safety net. Here are our 5 steps to go from part time to full time photographer.
Step 1 – Build up your Portfolio
Our first step for going from part time to full time photographer is to build up your portfolio. Build it up significantly so that you have enough demand, and hopefully you have enough demand looking forward. If you are a wedding photographer, this is a bit easier because you book so far in advance.
It would be amazing to look back and say, I’m a family photographer but I’ve booked enough in the past 6 months and I’ve seen this as a consistent trend, maybe even going upwards and I feel secure enough in this.
Step 2 – Replace your Income
Our second step for going from part time to full time is that you can replace your income. The way that tons of people recommend is to look at your yearly income and then spend an entire year trying to replace your income. In that, you are able to leave your job in a super secure fashion.
Of course, you’re factoring in that you are going to pay taxes. Most people estimate 25-30%. In addition, you’re also thinking about additional costs like health insurance and how you’re going to secure that.
Step 3 – Save Three Months of an Emergency Fund
Our third step is that you save three months of an emergency fund. If all of a sudden, things were to go awry and you are not able to book any shoots for three months of have any income, you will have an emergency fund.
Take your existing income, divide by 4 to get three months worth, and you can figure out what your emergency fund is. Save that up, put that in a savings account or somewhere that you are not going to touch it. That way, you have emergency funds and if you’re unable to predict demand, you know that you have those funds.
Step 4 – Budget for Personal Insurance
Our fourth step for going from part time to full time is to budget for personal insurance. This is going to be different for every person. That’s why figuring out your support system and what works for you is going to be different.
If you, as an individual, are leaving your full-time job with full benefits and then you go full time into photography and you can be dependent upon a spouse that can extend those benefits to you through a family plan, then that’s easy peasy. You know exactly what that amount is and you can budget for that. For anyone else that is single, do some research. Or in our case where we both have to figure out our own benefits. Whether that’s looking on the marketplace or a health share program, or just purchasing outright. Whatever that is, do some research so that you can feel equipped to budget for that.
Step 5 – Secure Moral Support
Our final step to go from part time to full time is to secure moral support. It’s really important that we don’t forget about this piece. The other pieces that we talked about are much more logistical and tangible, but I think it’s really important that when you’re leaving a traditional career, or whatever it may be, it’s important to figure out that you have significant moral support to do that. You have a spouse or partner, your children, your parents, or your friends that will support you through this.
If we forget about this and we have a partner or parents that are resistance to this, it is going to make this process a lot harder. If they don’t recognize the legitimacy of having a full time solo-prenuer career, you’re going to run into a lot of little road blocks.
It might help if you spend time with people who are a little more resistant and show them your plan. To say, hey, look at this. I have budgeted this, I have an emergency fund in case things go wrong, I can prove to you the demand and I have the next year booked out for wedding photography, people are going to come around to that more. Show them your business plan, your website, your branding. Show them everything you’ve thought through so intentionally and people will start to come around.
I think that securing your moral support troop that will be behind you, support you, and be a sounding board for you, is so important. It’s a lot different when you’re out on your own and working on your own. It’s different than being in a cubicle with 10 other employees around that you can vent to or that know what you’re going through.
More Business Content Soon!
If you are loving our business content, next week we have a brand new FREE live training that is releasing! It is totally free! It’s an hour long and you can join a whole bunch of other fun photographers. We chat with you all, answer questions, and basically we teach! We teach you ALL of the things! All of our tips and tricks and we would love to have you join! Join HERE.
On Tuesday, it is going live – all of the dates and times will open up and you can save your spot!
Don’t forget to like and subscribe to our channel! If you have any questions about going from part time to full time or any questions about the live training, let me know! Until next time!
