November 2005 was the first time I began to promote David Hubler Photography as a full time business. In the small market of Elkhart IN, I planned to offer general photography and expected to work with a broad base of clients, mainly photographing weddings, families, kids. Realities of the market and my own strengths have actually taken me in other directions.

I knew from much of the reading I had done and talking to other photographers that the success of my business would be based as much on my marketing skills as it would be on my photographic abilities. The marketing plan that I started with proved to be fairly good but it worked the opposite of what I expected. Getting steady sales in the family and wedding markets has shown itself to be more difficult than I originally expected. Developing sales with commercial/architectural clients has been much more effective for my business.

My experience before photography was in building material sales and marketing. That may be the reason that my best clients have been builders, architects, and material manufacturers. I can go and call on them, explain what I do and adapt my skills and ideas to their needs. That approach has gotten encouraging results for me but may be a terrible strategy for someone who isn’t comfortable in a selling situation.

Various forms of advertising, plus mailing campaigns, have not been productive for me so far. The results have been too small and slow to develop. They may remain part of my overall strategy but I have not experienced the kind of results needed to get a business started.

In order to support the child and family business I originally expected, I worked hard and invested some of my limited funds to establish an effective “in home” studio. In reality I have used it very little. The work that I have done with families and kids, including seniors, has almost all been on location, including client’s homes. The clients seem to be more comfortable and each set of images is truly unique. I plan to feature the location approach in future marketing, especially to seniors.

Wedding photography has developed much differently than I expected as well. I originally planned to do weddings on my own and jumped in with both feet. Before the date of my first wedding I met Sandy Parrigin, owner of Sandy Parrigin Photography in Coloma MI. She took me under her wing and introduced me to the real world of wedding photography.

The biggest lesson I learned from my experience with Sandy was that I enjoy shooting a wedding as part of a team, an approach they we developed together. I did do several weddings on my own this year and but don’t see that approach to weddings as part of the way I will work in the future.

Maintaining the focus required to build a profitable business has been more of a challenge than I expected. Since starting the business I have had an almost endless string of ideas for things I would like to do, projects I would like to work on, and markets that I would like to break into. I spite of being what I thought was a very focused and organized person, I find that frequent internal reality checks are required.

It seems that photography has brought out the artist in me that I didn’t realize was there. The creative opportunities that I see are fantastic but I need to remind myself that I can not do everything at once. For now, my main focus is building my client base, increasing my sales and controlling expenses.

If you are considering making the leap of faith career change to full time photography don’t expect a straight line to success. No matter what you expect, some your efforts will be successful, others will be disappointing. If you able to recognize both, and adapt to them quickly, you will greatly increase your chances of success.

A year goes by very, very quickly. Don’t accept anything but clear honesty with yourself about the results you are getting. Every day, week and month ask yourself; is what I am doing getting the results I need? If the answer is no, how can I change what I’m doing to make it work or should I go a different direction all together? What am I doing that is working and how can focus more time, effort, and resources towards that part of my business.

After the first year, is David Hubler Photography an instant success? No, but it is off to an encouraging start. I can see where my successes have been, as well as my disappointments. I hope to use the experience I have gained to capitalize on the successes, and be ready to adapt quickly as new successes and disappointments develop, reaching at least the first rung of profitable success in 2007.

To contact David or see more of his work, please visit him at www.davidhubler.com.

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