Hello, hello, and welcome back to the Business First Creatives Podcast y'all. That last one was a doozy. If you haven't listened to the podcast, Confidence. I want you to go back and give it a listen before you listen to this new episode because even if you didn't notice, I feel like I left you hanging in the last episode.

I feel like there's so much more that I could have said, and of course, immediately after I hit stop recording, I was like, oh my God, like one of the most important things that I wanted to talk about, I didn't. So rather than taking a stab at rerecording that episode, I decided I will just follow it up with this one.

So the thing that I left out of the conversation in the last episode is just how long it takes to reach that point of when you are starting to feel more confident in your business and. I'm gonna give you an actual number, but just because I'm saying this number does not mean that this is the same for every single person. Okay? So now that I've said that, I wanna say that year 3, as a photographer, seems to be a very critical year for a few reasons. Number. I have found in my own business as well as many photographers that I have coached, or the other friends that I have in the industry, year three is like, it's like fight or flight. It's that year where if you have been doing things in a very unsustainable, unprofitable way, year three is usually when you've had it.

Year three is when you decide to take a stand that, okay, I'm gonna give this, you know, the old college try. I'm gonna give it one more go. If I can't make this profitable, if I can't start to pay myself the salary that I need to live on, then I'm either gonna have to go find a job or I'm going to have to find, you know, another form of entrepreneurship to.

and guys, it's a really tough place to be in. I mean, because by year three you. Have probably met clients that you love. You feel like you're getting a groove, but you're just not getting either the volume that you need to sustain your business or you're not charging enough, but you're too scared to raise your prices because you feel like you're gonna lose everyone who's currently hiring you.

And newsflash, you might actually lose everyone who's currently hiring you, but that is to be expected with almost every single price jump. Now, I'm not saying that every single client is gonna leave you. There are going to be some loyal clients, the ones that pay you for 9, 10, 11 years, no matter how many times you raise your prices.

I love those clients. I would make sure those clients will never leave me because I would be absolutely sad, if I didn't get to continue to document some of these children that I've literally been documenting since they were born in the hospital. So believe me, I feel you. And while the last episode was focused on confidence, this episode is gonna be focused on commitment. I'm not saying that if you decide to leave the industry and get a job that you weren't committed.

But what I am saying is that most of the people who are successful in the photography industry long term, have a commitment to making it work that goes beyond their personal feelings. What they've learned is that they have to adapt what they know into something that can be sustainable and profitable. 

And guys, I feel like I say these words over and over again. I feel like I need one of those staples buttons so that I can just hit it and it can just say it over and over again. And so I'm sorry for repeating myself over and over again, but I still come across photographers today that don't realize that overnight success in our industry and really in lots of, lots of industries, overnight success is a myth. There are very few people that will open their photography business, create a website, put it on the internet, and immediately be fully booked. That just doesn't happen to most people in our industry. Now, are there some rare birds? Of course. I mean, I mentored someone a long time ago, like she had a really good network of friends and people in her personal bubble that were just ready to pay her. So I mean, she opened her business and I believe her starting prices were between 500 and 700. But like girl was fully booked like a couple months after she opened her business. But that is not what typically happens. Every photographer should assume, that it is going to take between two to three years to build your clientele, to build up the assets and the marketing resources that you need to be in this industry long term. 

Year three is a very important year in our industry. It is where you either get to sustainable prices, you decide to remain part-time and basically make it a semi paid hobby, or you get serious, you raise your prices, you up your marketing game, and you really go for it. All right. That is what I feel like I left out of that last episode, and so I hope that by listening to the previous episode, confidence and listening to this episode on commitment, that you now have an understanding that it is going to take a while for you to build the business that you want.

All right, that's it for this episode. I'll see you next time.