It is National Entrepreneurship Week this week, so I’ve decided I would share with you my start to entrepreneurship.
It’s a little embarrassing to tell this story. It’s the very thing I tell new photographers to avoid when they are starting out. But I didn’t know any different – I was very naive – which is probably the very reason I jumped in with both feet. And now that I am safely into year 11 of running an official business, I can go ahead and tell my story – as mortifying as it is.
It All Started with A Pop-Up
Lumuli (my husband) was attending his father’s funeral in Kenya. His dad had unexpectedly passed away a short two months before Lumuli and I had a trip planned to Kenya to meet his family. So – we rushed Lumuli on a plane to be with his family during this difficult time.
Now, Lumuli and I do not shy away from the phone. We spent the majority of our two-year courtship on the phone, with some conversations lasting over 8 hours. YES. EIGHT HOURS. So – when he was in Kenya, of course we’d planned to have some phone conversations. Idaho is 12 hours behind Kenya. So I would often stay up late in order to receive his call.
One evening, as I was surfing the net, waiting for an appropriate hour to call my husband, I came upon a Wedding Website. There was a flashing pop-up that read, “Advertise your wedding business here.” Hmmmm. I thought. I wonder if I could advertise my wedding photography business. The one I didn’t have.
This was my first calling to entrepreneurship.
Naivete Can Be a Good Thing in the World of Entrepreneurship
Now – there were several reasons why this thought came into mind. First – I had a nice camera. I probably spent a good $350 on it a few years ago (ha!). I wasn’t QUITE sure how to use it – but I knew how to put it on auto. And based on my wedding photographer search from the year before, I felt that I would be able to offer more. I had always been ambitious, so the idea of owning my own business was exciting. All of these things were driving me toward entrepreneurship, but honestly, the thing that drove me the most was that we needed the money. With Lumuli moving here on a fiancé visa, work was hard to come by. We were barely scraping by to make enough money for us to live month-to-month. So – It was a no-brainer. I thought – why not? Let’s use this free advertising ad and just see what I get.
Cart Before the Horse
The next thought was “what should I name my business?” – because obviously (insert sarcasm) you need to figure out a business name before you can do anything with your business. Since my husband was from Kenya, I decided to go with “Ashki Photography”. With Ashki meaning love in swahili it seemed to be a perfect fit! So there it was. My new business, Ashki Photography would be where I would begin my journey to entrepreneurship.
“Affordable”
At the time, I was not savvy with technology. I barely knew how to get onto the internet, so it’s beyond me how I figured out how to advertise with an online wedding website! The attractive quality I put out there for my potential clients was that I was “affordable” (cough, cough). I couldn’t use any of the other adjectives, because I had never even used my own camera in manual mode, nor had I ever taken on an actual wedding. BUT – I could definitely photograph your wedding as an inexperienced photographer on the cheap. And “cheap” was still an extra $300 I’d get on top of my teaching job. That was a big percentage of my normal paycheck! This entrepreneurship-thing was looking better with each passing decision!
Three weeks later, I received a phone call. “Stacy” said was getting married the Saturday before Lumuli and I were scheduled for our trip to Kenya to meet his family. The DAY before we were to leave. If you haven’t ever left on a trip overseas, the day before you leave is not the day to take on a BRAND NEW “experiment”. I was so high on the possibility of doing this for a living, I told her YES! I could do it. Let’s meet for a no-obligation consultation.
She met with me later that week. In my home. That’s where my studio was. I brought out my scrapbook with ornately cut photographs from a wedding where I was a guest. I told her that I’d never photographed a wedding before, but that I would be able to photograph hers and get as good, if not better photographs than what she saw in my cheesy, embellished scrapbook.
It Worked
Well. She hired me. For $300 + cost of goods – which was basically 4×6 images in an album. I don’t remember for sure, but I believe I shot the whole wedding in auto (THE HORROR!!!). I used a camera I’d received only a few weeks before and I bought a 2 gb CF Card for $200 along with our new iMac computer. We risked over $5000 for that first wedding. And I’ve never looked back.