How to Succeed in Commercial Photography : Insights From a Leading Consultant

CHAPTER33 / SHOWUP

and few have the pecuniary knowledge that is necessary when

seeking to develop a profitable entity.

For some photographers financial avoidance may be limited

to not developing a marketing budget or to caving during the

negotiating process. If you dig deeper, you would hear other sto-

ries, tales about not invoicing for weeks after a shoot’s comple-

tion, never licensing images, still charging day rates, giving

clients all rights because it’s “easier that way,” and not working

with an accountant “except for my taxes.” You would ultimately

conclude that “showing up financially” is not a natural occur-

rence for most photographers.

Why do photographers seem to have avoidance issues when

it comes to money? Perhaps many are stuck in the old paradigm

that “photographers don’t need to worry about business

because they are artists.” It’s ok to starve because “after all that’s

what artists do.”

No, it’s not. Artists don’t need to starve. They can be and

indeed are successful. It’s time to stop all of the money avoid-

ance, now.

It’s a whole new world, has been for quite a while now, and

today’s paradigm demands that photographers show up, flex

their business muscle, and begin to pay as much attention to

their bottom line as they pay to the latest piece of hot new

technology.

Building a lucrative business is not impossible in the world

of commercial photography. In fact, there are many formulas

for being financially successful, and none of them are mysteries.

Why then does financial success elude so many?

ESCAPING A WORLD OF LACK

I would propose it is because scores of photographers live

in poverty consciousness; they live in a world of lack.

This is a condition that I understand well, as it is where

I began my journey thirty years ago.

When I was in the very early stages of my consulting business I

knew nothing about the financial end of running a business. I was

twenty-one, recently divorced, had a $20,000 debt (from a two-

week hospital stay with no insurance), and had absolutely no

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