Everybody wondered how suddenly you became a camera man and professional one for that matter with a customized jacket as MD-cool photo. Guy tell me the secrete, I said to my friend is it this simple? He smiled and said to me, do you have a phone with camera? I said yap deepen my hands in my pocket brought out my blackberry phone and handed it over to him. He turn it on gave me a shoot without me even getting ready and he smiled and said go ahead and develop it that’s how simple it is, go get the necessary tools, learn for few weeks and you are ready. I wow i said with a smiled, we shook hands and pated.

Everyone that want to start a photography business always come up with questions like what type of camera do they need to go pro, what kind of event and people do they need to connect with, how huge the capital need to be, and what type of photography jobs are there in your country. Wait a second I thought you’re a student? So going pro will require you having a stationed location/office or studio and we don’t want that for now…..

Sorry those questions are wrong! My friend Mathew started off below with the practical realities of going professional and I tell you he paid 95 percent of his tuition fee from his photography business.

If you last until the end of this article I will cover the basic things you need to know to get into the business with grand style.

Starting off as a professional

Wound you like to snap anything you want, anywhere you want, anytime you want, anyway you want with a great camera? Will you love to travel to luxuries places anytime you want and snap anything at your own phase?

The only way here is to keep your daily academic routine and schedule, take shoot at your own free time

So Start Small and Scale In No Time

The first thing you need is where to get a very cheap camera my recommendation is ask questions on where you can get dirt cheap camera’s you can take your time to check site like DHgate and Aliexpress, Jumia and Konga.com and because you’re a student and I recommend you buy your camera’s, printers and all the electronics during this time because of the huge discount. Check out this camera and how much it cost

or you need a professional camera?

Everyone thinks photographer that make a lot of money got there by having a very good camera from the beginning.

No

If you are doing this for money just to support yourself as a student you need not to focus on buying expensive equipment at the beginning until it makes business sense, better camera only makes it easier for you to produce results. They don’t make photos any different from the camera you already own for that reasons I will say your camera doesn’t matter.

Your Target Market or Client

Remember the client is always right, always do what the client wants, even if he is an idiot (J), he may be stupid but that’s too bad, I have had a lot of stories about photographers who thought they were right and the customer was wrong , then they lost the job duh! This isn’t about art it’s all about commerce. Do the art on your own time. One of the reasons I recommend this kind of business to student is that most of its big short is tie around weekends which gives you enough time to focus on your academic schedule.

Weeding’s: this is the easiest way to make money on weekends. You can put in few cash to start today, decent guys pulling in at least a few thousand just to give a C.D with photos to the bride, that serves them from having to deal with print letter, old timers will try to charge for shooting and then take print orders for profit, people hate that sell them the C.D let them print on their own, and get on the next job or get your printer at the scene of the event
Matriculation ground: another juicy place to make money is during matriculation as others are excited about the day you will in the others ends be making some cash for yourself. Family and friends comes together to keep memories alive by taking some group photos so take this chances. Bingo!
Holidays seasons celebration like Christmas, valentine and others :photographers make lot of cash at this season because that’s when the jobs is in high demand in places like pack and other relaxation places and pop you are there.

But here is the important reality to make it as a photographer, you must become your own boss, you don’t have the luxuries of working for someone else, as a photographer you’re in charge which is great but you almost have no one to go for advice or direction, you are on your own your services depends almost entirely on your own ability to run a small business, almost nothing depends on the quality of your photographers

Have you started any business before? What was your challenge or lessons in the process we will love to hear it use the comment section below?

Cheers

We all succeed together.

source:www.campusbiz.com.ng