Suggestion on what should be my next "must have" for building a photography busienss

Must have customers

You have some good gear posted here. I find the list is never ending!

Just a thought....

Include in your budget, an allocation for school attendance, at least one in-depth seminar each year, usually lasting from 2-5 days in length.

Also have constant web site development/refreshment in your plan. Speaking of plans do you have a business plan? Consider taking classes and working on your selling and marketing skills as well as the true costs of having your own business. With photography gear getting to look more alike between professionals and other folks, the differentiation between us because of gear is diminishing. I find many gigs I work someone will have the newest fancy gizmo thinking I can do what he's doing.

Things you are missing:
Tripod, monitor calibration tool, printer, external hard drives, flash bracket, flash ttl cord, and reflectors.

Going into the photography business goes beyond gear. There's a lot to learn dealing with the business and administration side of the matter, down to marketing, designing packages for customers, coming up with selling strategies and being all the time in constant salesman-mode.

I'd say with Bill that you need to learn a lot more, not just about photography, but also about what it involves as a business. However, before you take the plunge, I'd suggest you start small and step-by-step. Can you come up with images that sell? How about cards? Can you sell your photos that way? Try making cards with cardstock from The Photographer's Edge, for instance. Offer prints to restaurants or businesses to hang in their walls, create an electronic portfolio through a website... But, first and most important, read about this "dark side of photography" (business) here in P.Net, elsewhere and in books.

Here is a good source of ideas too: the Nikonians' Forum on Becoming a pro.

One last thing: this was the advice I got, a long time ago, when I was inquiring about making some money from my hobbie (just to pay for more toys). I jotted it down... but never bothered to do it because I later realized that turning my hobby into an occupation would kill the joy of photography to me (and I have a nice, secure day job that pays the bills). However, if you cannot conceive life without a camera (neither can I but that's another subject), and are willing to go seriously into this, plan your steps carefully. And remember always that you're NOT the only photographer in town! Being aware of the competition keeps you on your creative toes.

Good luck!

BTW, Irene, after looking at your portfolio I saw you have a really good eye. Have you thought about stock photography?

None of the 5 things you mentioned. You need a business plan and a marketing plan. The SBA can help. As your business grows add more equipment.

As you add more gear and move into areas, like lighting and marketing , that you are not comfortable with, weeklong intensive workshops such as those offered by the Maine Photographic Workshops or the Santa Fe Workshops are good investments.

Thanks so much for the answers so far.

To give you all a bit more information -

I mentioned I am a SAHM. We do just fine with one income, but hey, extra $$ is always welcome!! I just absolute love taking photos, learning about photography and photo processing. I spend so much time on this stuff now, that I feel if I can make even a few extra $ on the side, that would be nice. I feel that I really don't have much to lose.

I plan on taking this very very slowly - right now I am just very much into the learning stages, offering free photos to friends and relatives to get as much experience as I can.

I also am fairly familiar with the absolute importance of a good business and marketing plan. My pre-kids education and career included a BS and an MBA in business along with quite a few years experience in marketing and product management. That is another thing that makes me feel I may have a bit more of a chance of success than others in our area. I know marketing, and I know how vital good marketing is.

I also live in a small town. Yes, that definitely makes for a much smaller market, but it also works to my advantage in some respects. We have very few creative photographers around here. A friend is getting married next year and she is having the hardest time finding a good photographer (I am definitely NOT up to that challenge yet). The local photographers are very old school - very cheesy shots, forced poses, uncomfortable looking photos. I definitely feel there is a need in this area for something other than the "studio" portrait photographers. In addition, I am lucky enough to be married into a family who is extremely active in the community. My husband is a HS teacher and a very well liked HS coach. He definitely has many many contacts. In fact, the engagement pictures I took were of a former student who he keeps in touch with. Once I feel comfortable with my ability and feel ready to be "in business" I am pretty sure I won't have a hard time finding potential clients. Although I am well aware I need to deliver a great product in order to be successful.

Thank you so much for your suggestions. The idea of a seminar is one I did not consider but it a really good one. I will have to look into that further.

There are countless people - me included - that want to make some sort of a living from photography. Normally, people with only a year of experience are completely wet behind the ears, but in your case I think you have a bit of talent. (from what I saw from you photostream)

As to the "must haves" I would suggest that you put in at least 1000 hours behind the lens and more than that amount in Photoshop. I've done much more than this in the past 4 years and I can tell you I have a long ways to go.

I'm afraid there is really no other way.

Good luck! I think you can do it. You have that X factor.

I'd say go get a tripod that's for sure.

While the D40 is great. If I was doing a lot of portraits and the like I'd want to be able to use off camera flash, which the D40 won't do unless you have a cord, which is limiting... so I'd say get the D70 or D80 if you're poor, and D90 or D300 if you're not.

I don't really know much about the business of photography, but if you want to do it, I suggest you learn the biz!

Also, it doesn't matter when you're a beginner and no one is looking for you...but you really really shouldn't be posting your full sized images on flickr like that. Those lovely portraits, unless they're your best friends or relatives (in which case you shouldn't be charging them anyways), are going to get STOLEN when the people in them find out that they can merely take your flickr photos and not have to pay you for prints. probably not an issue for you at this point...but it will be! don't be too trusting. I tend to limit the maximum dimension of anything I put on the internet to 800 pixels wide or tall.

best of luck to you!