This post is a guest post by Tanya Hirschy.
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When I first timidly started my photography business a few years ago I would frequently hear, “I didn’t know you took pictures.”
“Me neither” my response would be, followed by nervous laughter. This showed my lack of confidence and slightly revealed how overwhelmed I was. Maybe you can relate.
Then all at once my young business unexpectedly exploded with clients. Here’s how I handled the overwhelm and uncertainty I felt about my success so early.
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I’m guessing the answer is “yes”.
You are not alone. It’s incredibly difficult to find balance while running a business.
Most new photography businesses are started by people also working another job or who are stay-at-home parents who have a full-time job (plus some!) raising children. Once you do get to the point of going full-time, you still don’t have enough time to do everything you want to do to sustain and grow your photography business in the way you want it to grow.
Personally, I’ve justified all the extra work by believing that “one day” it’ll get to the point I want it to be at and I won’t have to work as much.
It’s a lie. The more you grow, the more time it takes to sustain, and you can’t ever really just ignore it without negative consequences.
Yet at the same time, you need to find balance. Your kids are only young once, and life is too short to work all the time. Not to mention the fact that you are utterly exhausted from late-night editing sessions so aren’t the person you want to be during the day.
So what do you do? Do you fold? Do you cut back? Do you get an extra job so that you don’t have to do photography for the income and just do it for fun?
Let’s dive in and talk about how to find balance long-term in your photography business.
