Soebbing-Volk 1

Mercedes Soebbing-Volk

Mr. Rudebusch

Composition IV

8 Jan 2018

So, You Want to Start a Photography Business?

Starting any small business can be extremely hard, especially if you are unsure of what

your major should be in college, or even whether to go to college at all. For photography, there

are several opinions about what the “best” options are for receiving schooling. On the one hand,

some people believe that going to college and majoring in photography will allow you to learn

many new editing and picture-taking skills that will make you better than others in your field.

However, others make the case that majoring in business in college is the right way to go

because business is something that is not easily self-taught. Then, of course, there is always the

option of not even going to school and just starting your business, avoiding the costs of a college

degree altogether. While it is fully possible to be successful with a photography business in all

three scenarios, going to school for a business degree is the most beneficial path to pursue.

For some, going to school for photography seems to be the more logical major to study

for since you will mainly be taking pictures. Yet, there is much more to a photography business

than just taking a great photo. Michael Muraz, author of the photography website ​Another Angle​,

explains why photography, though important, is not as important as business in his article “Why

You Need a Business Degree More Than a Photography Degree” when he points out that,

“While photography skills can be learned with practice, business skills are not so natural for

most people. And if you want to make a living with your photography, your business skills are a
 Soebbing-Volk 2

lot more important than your photography skills”. While being a good photographer is the basis

of a photography business, being able to understand how to run a business itself will be the

backbone of the photography business. Of course, the case can be argued that photography

school still teaches new skills. For instance, Grant Whitty, author and photographer for the site

Improve Photography​, writes based off of his own experience, “I took Photo Image Making I as

an elective this last semester at CSU. Everything about the class revolved around film

photography, from photographs we made, to the photographers we studied. Working with film

has drastically helped improve my own photography,” meaning that even with the lack of

business information, majoring in photography, or at least taking photography classes, is still

beneficial to your business. However, with the broad range of information that the internet

provides, some of those skills can be learned without the added costs of photography schooling.

For example, MyStudio Table Top Photo Studios has a series of YouTube videos with many

different photo-taking techniques that are highly useful to beginning photographers.

Like any further schooling, there are costs that come with the degree. With that,

affordability must be taken into consideration if a photography or business degree is to be

pursued. PK, the founder of the personal finance website ​DQYDJ​ (Don’t Quit Your Day Job),

breaks down the costs of getting a photography degree and the ability to then pay for student

loans after graduating from college in his article “Should You Major in Photography?”. He

essentially comes to the conclusion that, according to data about how much photographers make

annually, this amount is typically not enough to pay off the debt that comes along with 4-year

college degree. Of course, there is always the option for a two-year degree, which then means

less debt and not necessarily less information learned. PK, however, relates the idea of getting a
 Soebbing-Volk 3

photography degree to playing sports: “Just like sports, photography is a profession with an

incredibly long tail of results. Most children in America pick up a sport when they’re young, but

only a very few will ever achieve the level needed to play in a professional league – let alone go

through the unpaid or little paid minor league or college gauntlet. That’s why, in aggregate,

athletes are underpaid”. Much like with sports, few people can actually make a very big name for

themselves in photography. This is not due to lack of talent, but because of the multitude of

people interested and capable of doing photography. Because of this, it is much harder to make

enough money to support yourself and pay off your debts after college.

In order to understand how a photography business could be run, taking advice from

those who have experience doing such is very beneficial. Lauren Lim, an author for the website

Photography Concrete​ and photographer, published two connected articles called “26 Things I

Wish I’d Known Before Starting My Photography Business”. Within both articles, she discusses

things she believes are important to a photography business based off of her own six years of

experience running a photography business. Lauren and her husband, Rob, both didn’t go to

school for either business or photography. Yet, they both work as full-time wedding

photographers now and fully manage to do so without having earned a degree. This being said,

the question is then raised if even getting a degree is worth it for a photography business.

College itself is expensive, no matter what the degree or where the education is being

received. Based off of a study done by ​LendEDU​, a website that is dedicated to helping its users

make smart financial decisions when it comes to taking and paying for loans, the average college

student graduates with $28,400 in student debts. Then, with a photography business in mind,

there are the added costs of things such as equipment and advertisement, which varies widely
 Soebbing-Volk 4

depending on what options are chosen. According to ​PayScale​, a website that finds the average

amount of money a person makes for a certain job per year, the average photographer in the US

makes about $42,720 per year. So, the issue here, then, is that opening a photography business

right away may not be possible due to student loans and other expenses. However, that does not

mean that further schooling should not be pursued. Actually, it may be more beneficial to have a

job before beginning a business in order save more money for the business. Not only that, but

having a job that is business-related prior to opening a photography business would be extremely

beneficial. Also, with a business degree, finding a job would be a lot easier, and those jobs would

more than likely pay better than those found with just a photography degree.

There are definitely benefits to starting a photography business without a degree. For

instance, money that would’ve been spent on a degree can now be put towards the business.

Anything that would need to be learned for the business could be learned at any point rather than

following a school’s schedule. Though it would be a bit harder to learn the information necessary

for the business side of the photography business, it is still fully possible to learn without

schooling; that information may just take longer to learn. Most importantly, though, by not

getting further schooling, the business itself would then become the main focus, whereas, with

schooling, the focus would be directed towards assignments and tests. The major flaw in this

plan, however, is that there is always the risk that the business may fail. Based on a three year

study done by Dane Sanders- a business speaker, writer, and coach- by the third year of having a

photography business, 85% of the businesses that were opened, failed (qtd. in Dickson). If that

were to happen, how exactly would one be able to make ends meet? We live in a world where it

is more beneficial when applying for a job to have a degree rather than no degree at all, despite
 Soebbing-Volk 5

the costs needed to receive an education. So, while starting a business with no degree is

completely possible, there’s still the risk of having no degree to fall back on, should the business

fail.

With a photography degree, the focus would be more on one specific type of

photography. There is nothing wrong with just specializing in one type of photography, of

course. In fact, it is more beneficial to specialize in one field of photography rather than several.

This allows the most time and effort to go into perfecting the skills needed for that type of

photography. However, in reality, being able to make enough money by only specializing in one

field of photography in a business is a lot harder to do. Typically, at least in our area of the US,

photographers specialize in several different areas of photography rather than just one field,

unless they live in more highly populated areas. So, while it would still be beneficial to have a

photography degree, the knowledge needed to run a business would most likely not be learned.

Yet, with a business degree, one would still be able to spend their free time perfecting their skills

while still learning all the business knowledge needed to run a business.

What this all boils down to is that getting a business degree, despite the costs and time it

would take to pay off student loans, is worth its price for an individual looking to start a

photography business. What type of business plan will be used depends on the budget that each

photographer sets for himself or herself, which could vary widely. With a business degree,

something would be there for a photographer to fall back on if the business were to fail, but it

also would allow that photographer to potentially get another business-related job that would

help to provide money for the business and give more insight as to what working in business

would be like. Yes, paying off student loans may be difficult, but that is the case with any
 Soebbing-Volk 6

degree. There will always be time to improve photography skills as the business is built, but

being able to build and operate a functioning business is vital to any future successes.
 Soebbing-Volk 7

Works Cited

Dickson, Christina N. “So You Want to Enter the Photography Business?” Digital Photography

School, Digital Photography School, 4 Mar. 2010,

digital-photography-school.com/so-you-want-to-enter-the-photography-business/.

Accessed 15 Jan. 2018

Lim, Lauren. “26 Things I Wish I'd Known Before Starting My Photography Business // Part

1.”​ Photography Concentrate​, Photography Concentrate, 1 Feb. 2017,

photographyconcentrate.com/26-things-i-wish-id-known-before-starting-my-photography

-business-part

-1/​. Accessed 13 Dec. 2017.

Lim, Lauren. “26 Things I Wish I'd Known Before Starting My Photography Business // Part

2.”​ Photography Concentrate​, Photography Concentrate, 1 Feb. 2017,

photographyconcentrate.com/26-things-i-wish-id-known-before-starting-my-photography

-business-part

-2/​. Accessed 13 Dec 2017.

Muraz, Michael. “Why You Need a Business Degree More than a Photography Degree.” ​Another

Angle​, Michael Muraz, 23 Aug. 2017,

anotherangle.eu/posts/why-you-need-a-business-degree-more-than-a-photography-degree

/​. Accessed 13 Dec. 2017.

mystudiobyprocyc. “MyStudio® Table Top Photo Studios.” YouTube, YouTube, 7 Oct. 2008,

www.youtube.com/user/mystudiobyprocyc​. Accessed 16 Jan. 2018.

PK, et al. “Photography School: Should You Attend? An Income and Work Study.” ​DQYDJ​,
 Soebbing-Volk 8

DQYDJ, 11 Mar. 2016, ​dqydj.com/should-you-major-in-photography/​. Accessed 13 Dec.

2017.

Whitty, Grant. “I Want to Be a Photographer; What Should I Major in?” ​Improve Photography​,

Improve Photography LLC, 10 June 2017,

improvephotography.com/46309/whatshouldimajorin/​. Accessed 13 Dec. 2017.

“Student Loan Consolidation | Best 9 Refinancing Companies.”​ LendEDU​, Shop Tutors, Inc., 5

Dec. 2017, ​lendedu.com/blog/refinance-student-loans/​. Accessed 13 Dec. 2018.

“Photographer Salary.” ​Photographer Salaries | PayScale​, PayScale, Inc, 7 Dec. 2017,

www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Photographer/Salary​. Accessed 13 Dec. 2018.