Business advice

[emsmom0501]

What would be the best piece of business advice that you would give someone getting started?

I'm kind of doing my own thing right now. I am a sahm, and do some photos for people on the weekends. This far I've only done work by refferal, but I need to start branching out and getting more people in. 

[MomPhotography]

I just took a class in college called "marketing for the visual arts".. it has all the legal aspects of arts/photography, etc.. I'm taking some buisness/accounting courses as well.. just to know the legalities, etc of having your own buisness. It helps alot as there are many things that are copyright that you don't know about.. like a statue in a park that someone is sitting in front of.. you could get sued if it's a copyright.. I would suggest to at least look into the legalities of it first.. before you go much futher..

But other than that.. enjoy and have fun..  

[underdone]

what i have done is to check into all the state and federal laws for operating a business where i live and make sure that i am following them. open a separate bank account to keep your monies organized.  build a website because EVERYONE will ask to see it.  make it look very professional.  get some nice business cards if you don't have some already because that is the second most asked question.  and finally i had some professional postcards made with a voucher on them.  mine offer to convert the entire session fee into picture order.  i hand these out selectively to people that i meet who seem genuinely interested in having pictures made and whom i feel will be comfortable spending some money on them.  sometimes i just give them to people that i would like to photograph.  i find that these usually generate more clients via word of mouth-the real advertising.

 be real with your clients.  people will always turn to a friend first so be their friend.  ..but get the job done.

finally, start slowly and don't step in too deep too fast.  this will give you a little wiggle room for fine tuning.