Entrepreneurial, Photography, Business-minded, Creatives – Just Do It!

I was talking to a friend recently about how I took lots of pictures at another friend’s wedding and put it up on a website for the couple, and the friend asked – “That’s such a sweet idea, Are you a budding photographer?”. Well, I replied “No, I just have a pretty good camera phone and the website bit only took a couple of hours anyways” – but that statement stir up memories which I thought I’d share before it completely deletes off my brain… in hopes of inspiring someone (just one person would do!).

“”Once upon a time, in the land of Leeds, I was a college kid in my first year and I had a business idea, the idea involved website, photography, wedding/events and creating jobs.

I was a Software Development student, so I went ahead to make a website that basically was like an online photography agency where clients can submit their need for a photographer, and I, having a team of semi-professional photographers (about 3 at the time) can send the photographers to the event – hence creating jobs for them (with the intention of expanding). I wasn’t a photographer myself.

The clients pay the website directly, while I paid the photographers. This was SO COOL – I was a boss at 17 (ofcourse this was in my own little world – not very many people even knew this was going on).

Here’s how the business worked;
The photographers would take pictures of an event (mostly weddings and birthdays), put the picture on the website (in a way that it tells a story). The client is given a special ID they use to access their pictures online… The advantage here is mainly to have an online copy of their special event photos, and as you can imagine, the unique ID can been sent to family and friends that couldn’t make it to the wedding or special event..
USP – Unique Selling Point
Although, this might sound basic, but our USP which was quite appreciated by the clients was the fact that, in the context of a wedding for example, photographers are trained to take only 60% of the typical wedding pictures you’d generally see in albums, the rest 40% were shots of things/scenes where/when the couple are mostly NOT present, or are busy paying attention to something else, just so that they can see what they missed even at their own wedding!! – This was sometimes controversial, but 90% of clients liked it.

Anyways… so that website/business lasted for exactly 7 months before DYING OFF for 4 main reasons (or at least what I thought were reasons).

1. First Reason – Promoting the website well enough to get clients was very difficult without money! – The best we could do was word of mouth adverts (which actually goes a long way by the way) and some door-to-door leaflets on Saturdays (all printed with my pocket-money, or most of the profit from the previous client).
   However, Not much promotion meant few clients – certainly not enough clients to stop number 2 reason from being a “reason”…
   1. 4 years later, What could I have done differently?
      1. I certain could have been more open and confident about my approach to promotion.
         I could have sought advice and help, not just from my team of photographers but from anywhere the opportunity might arise. But I didn’t see any potential opportunity because I had my mind set on the statement – “I can only afford to do this, so I’ll do this” … I never asked “What if I try doing that?” – “Is that completely impossible to try?” – because to me, they were considered “Impossible” – THE END!
2. Second Reason – Keeping loads and loads of high quality pictures on a web server and generally keeping a dynamic website running isn’t particularly cheap (not for me at the time anyway – I was in college).
   This issue by the way, is quite common. I don’t know the facts, and I might be very wrong here, but I wouldn’t be very surprised if Instagram was sold to Facebook partly because Facebook had the wealth/resources to handle something of that capacity for years and years to come – i.e maintaining and keeping millions of pictures and at a reasonable quality without going bankrupt.
   I didn’t have that kind of money and the images were getting much more than we could handle.
   1. 4 years later, What could I have done differently?
      1. Now I know the website could have been improved in ways where cost would have reduced (e.g. looking into how images could be rendered wisely to avoid web pages loading slow – instead I just assumed I had done my best and needed a bigger and hence more expensive server.)
      2. The images could have been optimised, to keep quality to some extent but reduce size.
      3. I could have asked for help from people that knew better at the time.
      4. It probably existed, but I wasn’t aware of services like gofundme and other online fund-raisers at the time, but I could have tried that.
      5. I could have used some business strategy that involved setting an expiry date for event images and hence automatically deleting them after some time… Or even better, offering to transfer the images into somewhere else if the client would prefer that (which meant releasing more space on the website’s server).
3. Third Reason – I had the idea, I had the team, I had the website, I was having some clients, but had no business orientation to make it all work – e.g. balancing my profit/loss table – I had no profit/loss table! 😀 I knew exactly what I could charge clients that’ll be considered “fair”, and yet be able to pay the photographers, and even get some profit at the top, but I didn’t know what was appropriate to charge clients to not only just pay photographers, but to also keep the website running, and to keep the website getting promoted well whilst still making profit on it..
   1. 4 years later, What could I have done differently?
      1. Easier said than done, but I could have sort after some business advise from college teachers – Although I feel like I actually didn’t even realise I was deficient of the business knowledge at the time. I was just “going for it”. Plus I can imagine business advise that gets so technical at that time would have just flown right past my head! – I’ve had a few of those business advise on another project 2 years later, so I know what they can sound like.
      2. I could have sought help from peers that knew better! – I’ve learnt over the years that listening to peers can be both powerful and well, sometimes not-so-powerful, but one can always go a long way with the right people, right words of advise, and right perspective around.
4. Fourth Reason – The emergence of cheaper “pretty good” cameras and amazingly good camera phones… It meant there were less demands for photographers in general which didn’t quite help with all the reasons above.. The business was dependent on more clients, not less!!!
   1. 4 years later, What could I have done differently?
      1. Start promoting to the world that those camera phones are simply evil!! – Just Kidding! Or am I not? We’ll never know! 😀
      2. I could have embraced the change, understand the effects of the change, and see if the business could still in one way or another progress with the change… instead of seeing the change as an impossible challenge.
      3. I could have revisited the vision behind the business and see what can be adjusted.

In general, it was a good experience, a real confidence booster at a young age, and it set me up well enough for taking on the next project a year later!

Here’s a general suggestion to MYSELF and anyone that chooses to take from it;
It might sound scary, risky & maybe even stupid, depends on where you stand, but one of these days, try saying “Challenge Accepted” to what you’ve never even thought you’d try, or what seems impossible or what you consider simply unnatural for you!, and don’t overthink it, just do it! – This is what demarcates ordinary people and people that ends up making a difference!””
– Ohh, and I love the statement in TV show “Friends” (Season 3, Episode 24 – “The One With The Ultimate Fighting Champion”), when Monica questioned her billionaire boyfriend’s insistence on being the Ultimate Fighting Champion despite getting destroyed in the ring, and she got a reply – “Let me tell you a story, when I set out to create MOSS865 you think it just happened overnight? – No!, There was MOSS1 that burned down my Dad’s garage, there was MOSS2 that would only schedule appointments in January!, and 862 others that I learnt from… just like I learnt from this other fighter never to allow someone to stand on my neck!”
– Lastly, knowing God makes things far less complicated and sets you on the right track especially as an entrepreneur or a creative person (young or old) – next time you see a Christian, ask them what I mean by this!