Are you convinced that there’s enough here for you to make a part-time or full-time living as a photographer? There are certainly scores of chances to take photographs and get paid for it. With this much variety, you’re bound to have an interest in one or more of the various areas of specialty.

How do you get going?

As mentioned earlier, overhead can initially be quite low for you. Other than film, a camera, a tripod and a floodlight or two, and perhaps some material to use as a background, you’re in business. The camera itself can be a basic camera such as one would buy in a store. The models are so good and do so much without your intricate involvement, you can easily get by with a store-bought camera for starters.

You have equipment. Now you need clients. We’ve made several suggestions already, but it comes down primarily to networking. You have to let people know what you do and concentrate on getting the word around to as many individuals as possible.

Networking is often a reciprocal arrangement. You leave your business cards at a modeling studio and you refer models to the studio. You take "food" pictures for a restaurant and you patronize it. That’s the simplicity of it. You build up a group of customers and they do the same through people like yourself. Many towns have "Referral Clubs" for this express purpose. It works well for all concerned. Networking is an ongoing job. You are always on the lookout for new clients. Rare is the individual freelancer who isn’t taking on a new client or two whenever possible. New work is critical to success and can be financially rewarding when coupled with your repeat business. New clients are future repeaters, as some of the earlier clients inevitably drop off for various reasons. Sending cards to your clients, an earlier idea, is a form of networking. Anything done in the quest for new clients can be considered networking. You can encourage existing clients to bring you new ones by offering a discount on their next service or additional copies of photographs you’ve already taken. New people are the lifeblood of any business and rewarding your clients with freebies or discounts is well worth the cost since it will be more than made up by the new work. It also encourages continual referrals due to ongoing discounts you may offer. Keep those clients coming!

You can work part-time of full-time under your own name for the business, or you can create a "company" name for yourself such as "Picture Perfect". If you do decide to name your business, you will need to acquire a business license (usually a simple process). Once you have the license, establish a new bank account in that name and "Picture Perfect" is ready to operate. If you use your home as your studio/darkroom, you’ll need to check with your local city and/or county council to be sure you aren’t violating any zoning ordinances by running a business out of the house. Don’t ignore the codes, especially as you’ll be having clients come to the house. If your city/county prohibits your home-based business, you can either open up your own studio in a commercially zoned site or you can do photography away from home like aerial, weddings, etc. If you do run a home-based business, be sure you acquire liability insurance for the home in the event a customer has an incident there.

Make sure your home/studio is safe and free of any objects which a client could stumble over or otherwise come in contact with and incur an injury.