Mistakes happen
Mistakes happen, begin brave enough to make them shows character, learning from them shows great business acumen.
You started your business because you wanted to try something new and follow your passion. Now you have got over that first hurdle of actually doing it. The challenge is to take it further and keep the fire burning. The fear of your business failing may have faded but the bigger challenge is to keep is growing. Sustaining it to a level where you can grow in other areas. Mistakes happen, don’t fear failure!
To try something and failing quickly without impacting your business too much is a learned skill.
To try something and failing quickly without impacting your business too much is a learned skill. Remember, mistakes happen. Assessing whether your new product is good enough or if it is gaining enough traction with your customer base is vital in reducing the impact a new product might have on the business.impacting your business too much is a learned skill. Remember, mistakes happen. Assessing whether your new product is good enough or if it is gaining enough traction with your customer base is vital in reducing the impact a new product might have on the business.
Common sense dictates that if you do not specialise as a photographer then you risk being a jack-of-all-trades who will go beyond doing what it takes to do any kind of job. As a specialist, you can gradually build your market value in one particular niche. That doesn’t mean you cannot find other streams of revenue within your business, to take the pressure off the main source.
As a specialist, you can look at other areas that complement your main skill:
- Training. As one of the resident professional photographers in your area, your expertise is of value to a widening demographic using sophisticated smartphones as new-age SLRs. Taking in individuals or groups to teach them the basics of photography, through to advanced workshops for the more serious amateur photographer could be an excellent revenue stream. It could open doors to more clients as you network with these groups.
- Stock photography. There is not much kudos attached to this. Given that you will take a large number of pictures at a wedding, for example, why not upload the ‘stock’ ones to a site? Once there is some momentum on this and maybe others, you will have built up a regular stream to complement the others.
- Corporate. This provides a safe bet, a potentially uninteresting but solid line of work. Estate agents, commercial builders, event companies, schools. These are all potential avenues of work away from your skill set that will not require massive investment to get going and are fairly light from a skill point of view.
The more you try to start new products, the more you learn of their potential lifecycle. Also on how much emotional investment you should give them. It is easy to keep bashing your head against a brick wall. But if you keep your head up, you will see the patterns and avoid the wall as to the frequency of those mistakes happening.
