I was not supposed to make money off of photography
I was not supposed to make money off of being a creative – at least that's what I was told.
The backstory
Growing up I was a pretty creative child - as well as entrepreneurial! I would put on sketches or craft little things and make my parents pay for them. The summer I was 8 I painted a bunch of rocks and shells and sold them to vacationers on the islands we visited. I made around 1000 Finnish marks (around $170) that summer and stacked the coins up in little Uncle Scrooge inspired piles.
As I got older, and especially through middle school and high school both of these qualities were kind of muffled. My dad said you cannot make money off of art or being creative. But he said if I get a university degree (in something non-artsy) I can then do whatever I want.
Even though I was pretty stubborn and rebelled against pretty much anything he said, I eventually settled for studying psychology instead of taking the creative route. I enjoyed psychology in high school, so it seemed like a great idea and a good career to "settle" on.
Fast-forward to Jenna with a master's in psychology. Even though the subject matter was interesting, doing the actual job did not suit me at all. And I felt like I was terrible at it. Maybe, MAYBE, research would have suited me better, but practicing psychology made me quite miserable.
The move
After working in the field for about three years we moved from Finland to San Jose, California. Because I would not have a work permit for a while I knew it was a good time to experiment with what I wanted to do. While in limbo, I set up some photo sessions with local models to practice and to build my portfolio.
After about a year I had built up a respectable portfolio I applied to some modeling agencies to take pictures for them, and several of them said yes. YES! THE STARS HAVE ALIGNED!
When I asked about payments, the reply was that it is all done for free. Exposure would be my compensation. But exposure doesn't pay the bills...
This is when I thought that I can photograph newborns and families as my "day job" and then keep model/fashion photography as a hobby, and hopefully someday evolve that hobby into paid editorial work.
Three years into the newborn and family photography day job I am still working on making the business grow to be sustainable! Which I would not have had the patience for, if I did not realize that I love working with families so much more than working on fashion photography.
I am meant to make money being creative
I now know that making money by creating art or being creative is possible, I see my business numbers growing every year. It's not only possible, but it's just something that I have.to.do. Being an entrepreneur is in my bones, in my spine, and in my heart.
Now here is the thing, making money doing something creative is hard work and time-consuming. It means being an entrepreneur more than an artist. It means being massively stubborn about where you want to go (I am going to show you, dad!).
You have to know your time limits, know your spending (both business and life), and figure out how much to charge for your work to be able to sustain your business with the time you have. You also have to figure out what you'd WANT to spend more on, whether that's education, travel, or self-care. If you only account for your current expenses, you'll never get where you want to be.I keep hearing how business owners need to charge $50, $60 or $100 hourly to cover their expenses. That drives me crazy because nobody else can tell you what you should charge without knowing your life situation, your business model, or your numbers.
So, over the past few years I've stuck to a different way of calculating what I need to make per session for my business to be sustainable:
You need to know your expenses (which grow with each client)
You need to know how much money you need to bring in as a salary (account for taxes)
You need to know how many sessions you can realistically do per year
Divide the amount of money you need to cover your expenses, salary (and taxes) with the number of sessions you can do.
That should be the minimum you make per session.