balancing being a mom and a photographer

I am 27 and have been married 2 years and have been working full time as a hairdresser. We want to have

kids soon so I would probably work a lot less in the salon, if at all once I have a baby. My husband is a

school teacher and getting his masters as well. I'm starting to increase my client base with photography

and it will really increase once I tell my hair clients that this is what I"m doing. I want to start working out

of my home, hopefully with a little in home studio, and on location (parks, weddings etc...)

 

My question is for those of you who are moms and who do this professionally. What would you or have

you done or acomplished for your business before you had kids. And what advice would you give a

photographer who wants to raise her family and be a professional photographer. I do photography

because I love it and I work like crazy in the salon because we need the income. So realistically, can I earn

a descent income doing photography and have time to focus on my family/home? What equipment should

I must have before I do the in home thing! What have you found helpful?

This is a great question because I am in the same boat. I am looking forward to reading the responses.

Me too! I too, am interested in what others have done to make it work. I work part-time for a photo studio to help make ends meet (and to keep honing in on my techniques. Plus it gives me the opportunity to keep trying new things). I've been wanting to go out on my own for some time now, but can't seem to make it happen. The thought of not having that constant second income always makes me want to wait longer! I do weddings and various other shoots when I get the opportunity, but I just don't know if I can earn what my family needs if I do photography on my own. My kids are still little, so I may just have to wait it out, and keep learning while I'm at it!

 

Thanks for the great post, Casey!

 

Adrianne

Well, this might be a long answer and I'm not sure it'll even be what you're looking for. I 'officially' started my business right before I got pregnant with my third baby. I had a three and two year old at the time. I did my first paid wedding when I was 3 months pregnant and then the next twelve while still nursing. (That was fun.) So, it can be done. It depends on how much time you want to sacrifice with your kids. My husband has a great job and we don't need my extra income to survive so keep that in mind. If I wanted to do this full time, everyday, etc. I would advertise a lot more and work towards getting my own studio. I would also be more outgoing and tell EVERYONE I met what I was doing. I would work harder to build great relationships with local businesses so that I would have a really great referral network. THings such as giving them prints of their floral arrangements and bouquets, prints of the hairdo they did, etc. (for wedding vendors). Right now I find that I'm getting busy enough that I really have to concentrate on spending time with the kids. I also have the luxury of telling people that 'no, I just can't do that photo shoot'. I don't know. There are lots of things to think about. Getting your business really going takes time (sometimes lots of it), money (sometimes lots of it), and energy. You have to weigh the total cost against what might be achieved. Talk to a CPA, you don't want to do your own taxes. Make sure you have a well thought out and realistic business plan. You can't just write down on a peice of paper that you're going to be the next famous photographer and make $400,000 your first year. Make sure you have a lawyer and if you're doing weddings a bullet proof contract. Make sure you get liability insurance so that a cranky client with an attorney can't take your home and car because she tripped over your bag at a wedding. Make sure you have a reliable babysitter. I guess what I am rambling on about is to be smart and patient. Above all make sure your photography skills are good enough to charge for. You want a good reputation right off the bat. :)

Ok, I am not sure if I am the right person to answer this... but here goes.

 

Here is my story. I am a hairdresser, a mom, and a photographer. I started out doing hair right after High School. I worked full time in the Salon until my first child was born. Then I decided I wanted to stay home. I started doing a few hair customers at home, and by the time child #2 came along I had a salon in my basement. I was working about 30 hours a week at home in my basement salon. Then child #3. I cut down to about 23 hours a week... Then child #4.

 

Then came photography. It just kind of fell in my lap. I bought a camera (to take pictures of my kids)... started learning... and loved it. I decided I needed some customers to pay for my expensive "hobby". Then my photography business started growing. Now what do I do? There is not enough of me to go around!

 

Just 2 months ago, I cut my days working in the salon to only 2 days a week. I think I can make more money doing photography (If I quit buying new stuff:)), but I still love to cut hair. Some Of my customers I have been doing since I was going to beauty school, 15 years ago. They are my friends!

 

Now I have 4 kids who are involved in shcool, church, sports, ect. I am involved in their school, and at church. IT IS HARD TO DO IT ALL! I limit my weddings to only 2 a month, and I fit portrait shoots in when I can. The thing I have found that I don't like, is this is a night and weekend job, and that is hard with a family.

 

As far as "growing my business", or "getting it going", or advertising, I have opted to just let it go for now. I don't advertise much, mostly word of mouth. I have a few free adds on sites like wedj.com or marketing tool.com.

 

I feel like I am running from 6:00 am - 11:00pm everday, between my 2 jobs, running my kids to their stuff, taking care of the house (although if I make more money maybe I can hire someone to clean! :)! )ect... you get the point. I don't know how much more I can do at this point, so I have to be content with the fact that I can only do so much at this point in my life. There will be more time later when my kids are older that I can take on more.

 

So, I don't know if this was helpful, but that is my story! Just remember, you can't do it all. Be content where you are at, and your kids are only with you for a short time. Enjoy them, the years will go by fast.

The answer is the same whether it involves photography or some other kind of business. If your husband and your husband work full time and engage in other time consuming actities the rest of the time, you will have very little family time. It does not matter if you have accomplished things for your business in advance of having kids or having the right equipment. There will still only be 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 52 weeks in a year. Nothing is going to change that.

 

This isn't to say that you can't pull it off but you will not be able to have your cake and eat it too. Compromises will have to be made. You are the only one that knows how much is acceptable to you.

thank you soooooo much for these responses. My heart feels so much better that there

are people out there who are in or who have been in the same boat as I am.

Kari, that's almost freaky that our lives are beginning so simular. I only hope to continue

on your same path! I love children and can't wait to have them. I know they are far more

important than money. But as you know it's hard when you want to use your talents to

help others.

Colleen, You've been an inspiration to me for a while and I REALLY appreciate and value

your input.

John H. you said a lot of things my husband has said to me. Very logical and truthful.

thanks to everyone whose written thus far, Keep it coming!

Casey, you are wise to be thinking of this now, before you start your family! Just a few thoughts:

1. Develop a realistic spending plan (aka "budget") if you haven't already done this. Ideally, this would be based on your husband's income, at least temporarily.

 

2. Get out of debt. Dave Ramsey a website and some great books to help you do this fast. www.daveramsey.com

 

3. Buy your "must have" equipment before you quit your day job, or you may find yourself going into debt for it later.

 

4. Don't count on being able to work through pregnancy. I was on bedrest for months with both of my pregnancies -- you just never know!

 

5. Know that you will be working nights and weekends, as Kari said. Plus, you will be busiest during your husband's down time, if he has a traditional teaching job. This can be good and bad. Choose the job that you don't mind working on into the wee hours!

 

6. Consider whether you really need a studio to do the photography you want to do. You don't have to make as much money if you are not running an actual studio. This would leave more time for family, and reduce your need for child care.

 

You're young, and you have time to plan and get your ducks in a row. This will really pay off later when you can have a career you love. Time management will still be an issue (as it would be with any job!).

 

Best of luck to you!

 

Shelly in Indiana

Casey,

I thought the same thing! I remember reading a post of yours a while back that said you were a hairdresser! Funny!

Casey...

 

While I'm not a mom, I think my situation may be relevant in this case. Currently I have two young girls (4 and 1 1/2), and I just finished a Master's degree. I have a full-time job during the day, and a photography business that has been growing substantially over the past 5 years. Needless to say, it's a pretty hectic time right now.

 

Here are some tips that may help:

 

1) Designate 1-2 nights a week for photography. Only work on photography stuff on those nights. The rest of the week should be for your family, friends, etc. Concentrating your efforts on a few nights will not only make you more productive, but your family will be much happier as well.

 

2) Consider how much work you want to do. When I first started, I said "yes" to everyone, and it can get overwhelming really quick. Sometimes you have to just politely say "I'm sorry, I can't work that into my schedule right now". It stops being fun when you're stressed out all the time because you have so much going on.

 

3) Set your prices at a point where it's worth it for you to spend the time away from your family. Weddings are pretty easy to price, but smaller events and portrait shoots can be tricky. Make sure to price your services so that you actually can make it worth your while. Avoid the temptation of offering huge discounts because you want to help someone out - you'll end up kicking yourself later, plus you're setting the precedent for future customers.

 

4) If you want to do in-home pictures for customers, you may be surprised at how much you can accomplish with available light, or a good bounced flash. If you're looking to get some strobes, you may want to look into 1-2 Alien Bees or a Novatron kit. I use the Novatron 240, because it's light, assembles/disassembles quickly, and it meets my needs.

 

Hope this helps. Feel free to contact me offline if you'd like additional pointers.

 

Jason :)

Great posts everyone! Especially jason about balancing photography work with ANYTHING. I don't have kids yet, but find all my "free" time taken up with shooting, processing, reading, etc... It is important to designate time instead of trying to mix all parts of life together. I will take some advice from your comments (or at least try to make myself).

 

Casey, I guess in short it takes goals and a plan and discipline to stick with the plan. Like any job a Mom has, I assume its not easy to balance. It may be though, that it would work out well to be busiest when your husband is not in school, then again, that takes away from time as a family. I've already wondered what it may be like to be working every weekend while most others are off.

 

Good for you for thinking this through ahead of time and best wishes with whatever you do.

Once that baby is born your priorities will be on her. You probably won't want to be as

busy as you think you'd want to be now. So be selective, only do the events that make you

a lot of money or further your career. Don't book 2 weddings a weekend. Get a good

babysitter, or train your husband. Life changes drastically after you give birth. As Colleen

mentioned, nursing while working a full day on a shoot (I won't get into the specifics guys)

but, it's not easy. Being away from your baby, is not easy. Any kind of post-production

work while the baby is screaming and hungry and needs her diaper changed and needs her

mommy, is very hard. You booked a wedding and the baby sitter bailed, now what?

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm glad I only shot a select few weddings after my

daughter was born last year. Granted, my family lives hours away, I don't have a nanny,

and my husband works weekends, so I don't really have any help. Now that she's 13

months, I feel more comfortable leaving her with a sitter, or at a friend's house, because

she isn't as needy. But being a stay at home mom, IS a full-time job.

 

I'd recommend getting all the equipment you want/need now, later there may not be time

or money to do so. Working as a hairdresser, you clock in and out, and you're at home

without further work responsibilities. Being a self-employed photographer, you're work is

at home and is never done.

 

I'm not trying to sound discouraging. I love my girl infinitely. I love to shoot, I love to make

money doing so. I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't go in over your head. Hope that

helps. Z

When my kids were young my then wife was still in school, going to medical school and then a three year residency. She's now a doctor and married to another guy...LOL Most of the time I was the one in charge of the kids. When my daughter was about 6 or 7 she started going on assignments with me, helping me set up light stands and such, and guarding my camera bag. Yes, I paid her. When she was 9 one of my clients, a local college, wanted me to shoot a B&W group photo of a twenty-fifth reunion at a hotel. On the way over Elena said "You did bring a second camera body, didn't you Daddy?" She then pulled a roll of color film out of her purse along with a pile of business cards and a sales book. She assured me that she'd take care of addressing all the photo mailers. We agreed that $10 seemed like a fair price for an 8x10. This was 26 years ago! She looked real cute running around taking orders from people. On the way home she counted the stack of bills. She had $520. I told her to keep 20%. She'd earned it! By the time I got the prints from the lab she had all the mailers addressed. We got reorders for almost as many prints later. Kids can be an asset to your business!

I am a mom of three, a part time nurse, and am trying to get my photography business off the ground. My ultimate goal is to be able to make enough money doing photography, which I love, to be able to quit or cut back on nursing, which I don't love.

 

My advice, if you are still in the learning process, is to read, practice, and learn all you can about photography before you have kids. If you have ever wanted to take a photography related class, now is the time. I didn't have the "luxury" of doing all this before I had kids, and after it seems there is never enough time. There was always a child that needed attention, a pile of laundry to be done, dishes,etc and trying to work a job on top of everything made the learning process for me a very long, slow, and often frustrating one.

 

I second the advice to get all the equipment you can now. After baby there will be diapers to buy and babysitters to pay - never cheap.

 

Be patient and flexible. With kids, the best laid plans often go out the window. They will get sick, they will cry and keep you up half the night, you will be tired. Things you had planned for the day go down the drain. Realize this now, and don't stress when things do go "off plan".

 

If you are serious about making this a business, treat it as a business. Set a schedule, hire a sitter during those hours, and schedule shoots and do your post processing during those hours.

 

Having said all that, I plan on marketing like crazy and focusing mainly on photography (instead of nursing) this fall when all of my children will be in school for the first time. Before that, I had a really hard time balancing the demands of children, work, home, and photography. (I don't know how you did it, Kari and Colleen). We also need the income from my job, so quitting was not an option. Also, my husband was working on his master's at night, and so was not home several evenings a week. So really, for me photography came last, and it's not until this fall that I feel I can finally focus on it. Hope that helps.

These are all great posts! What good advice! I wish I had asked this question before I threw myself into it! I just want to add that my husband was EXTREMELY supportive. I've only hired a babysitter for a wedding once. I could never have left my 3 month old with a babysitter. :) We live here in the middle of Washington and the closest family is 8 hours away. So, we just do it ourselves. Here's how a typical day goes for me (not that there are very many typical days!!)

6am - get up, run for 45 min (I must run or I will go crazy - really), take a shower before my husband goes to work at 7

7-8 check and respond to emails

8-whenever they get up (it's summer) feed kids breakfast

9-11 I work on marketing stuff, ads, my website, order pictures, etc.

The rest of the day I do the laundry, household chores, etc. I make sure I play with the kids and read at least one book. Leaving most of the day open makes it feel like I don't really work. :)

 

After dinner and after the kids go to bed (if I don't have a senior session or something) I spend 1-2 hours editing photos, uploading photos, basically all my photoshop stuff. Hopefully I go to bed before 12am.

 

Set a schedule. If it doesn't work, fix it. It can be done! But above all remember that your kids will only be little once and it goes by soooo fast. So, so fast. I don't want to miss it - photography isn't that important to me. Who knows - you may be the next Susan Stripling and I think she has 4 kids!!

Thank you to all! I especially feel Al gets a big pat on the back from me...my oldest is 5 and very interested in what I do...never thought of getting him involved once he gets a little older (he's kind of rough yet with the camera)!! That is such an awesome idea!!!

Thank you to all! I especially feel Al gets a big pat on the back from me...my oldest is 5 and very interested in what I do...never thought of getting him involved once he gets a little older (he's kind of rough yet with the camera)!! That is such an awesome idea!!!

sorry...didn't mean the duplicate post! ;-)

Great insight to everyone's personal life and how it impacts your business life.

Susan Stripling...Wow! I could only hope! But I am pretty determined and I'm a hard worker

so I really want to apply myself until I have a little one and then I know things will fall into

place even when it seems like choas. From everyone I've met and talked with I've NEVER

met anyone who said they'd trade their kids for a more sucessful and organized business.

They always say yes, it's hard work and not easy to balance things, but that their kids have

brought them so much joy and fulfillment. I"m the oldest of nine children so I do know the

sacrifice yet reward that they bring to ones life! My mom was a stay at home mom so

throwing in a work aspect for me is one that I really have felt that I needed advice and

knowledge from the experienced! Thanks everyone!

What a great thread! I've been wondering how all you mom/photographers balance work

and being a mom, too. I just started doing weddings recently and have been trying hard to

build my business up, but with two babies at home, it's been SUPER DIFFICULT. My kids are

still really small, though ... Roxy is 18 months and Kai is only 3 months. I try to do as

much as I can do during the day but 90% of my time goes to feeding, cleaning, playing,

soothing, refilling sippy cups and stopping Roxy from coloring everything in sight. I hardly

get anything done before my hubby gets home from work at 6:00. My advice to you Casey

is to hire a babysitter to come to your home just a few hours a day. If you're going to have

a studio in your home you can schedule all your shoots for those hours the babysitter is

there. I've thought of turning part of our house into a studio, but right now I know it would

be impossible to have a shoot here without someone watching the kids. I can see it now ...

as soon as the client shows up, Kai's hysterically needing something and crying his head

off and Roxy wants me pick her up so she can see the pictures on the back of the camera

(she's amazed by digital cameras). On the days you don't have shoots, you can do post-

production work while the babysitter's there. Just put your computer in a room with a door

so the kiddos can't see you.

 

That's my two cents. Good luck!

 

Sarah / www.roxyandkai.com

Well, I'm not a mom...but i'm a dad to a 10 month old. The thing is my wife also follows me to the shoot. She was first doing equipment & security management (a.k.a. bag minder). Then she started helping me out with the posing and album designs. Now i'm starting to train her to be a second photographer.

 

I don't think she'll ever want it to be a full time job. It is difficult especially with digital where you have to spend sometime in front of the computer. The shoot itself is rarely long but it's the other stuff like going to the lab and driving to pick up the albums and prints. It's a lot of time which could be spent with the family.

 

I think the best way is to actually reserve time. Maybe if you want to do photography professionally then you'll probably have to have longer delivery times compared to the full time non-parent. For me, i give it 1 month from the shoot date to deliver the items. If i finish it off early then fine. But it's always within a month. I think that's a comfortable few weekends to do whatever needs to be done. That way you can still spend time with family and do the photography thing.

 

Last Saturday we had a wedding. It was in fact my wife's cousin's wedding. So we had to bring the little kid 'cos it was a family thing but i was still the official photographer and my wife the second photographer. We brought our maid along but the baby was moody and didn't want anyone else than her mommy. So this picture shows how my wife balances being mom and photographer.<div></div>

To Casey and to you other Mom's and Dad's-I too am finding it difficult to juggle all of my priorities and photography. I am a stay at home mom, a dealer of antique & vintage jewelry, and a photographer. I have 2 kids, Mia is 4, and Tate will be 1 in September. It's kinda funny, today I was just thinking, when Mia was born, I was actually bored!!! Not with her mind you, I just didn't have so many irons in the fire. These days it's watching after the little ones, doing daily home chores, answering emails re: jewels, editing photos, taking photos...the list goes on and on!!! I'm really starting to get overwhelmed to be quite honest!

 

So here are my 2 cents...definitely take all the courses you can, buy your gear, buy lots and lots of great photography books, spend time with your husband, all before you have children. There won't be enough time in the day, I assure you! I adore my children, they are the best gift I have ever received, HOWEVER, they sure are needy! hehehehe...they come first, and all else is second, third, and so on and so forth!

 

And regarding an in home studio, I can say that mine works pretty well. I have mine in our basement, with a separate entrance so you don't have to have everyone roaming through your home! It's a descent size, and at this point really suites all my needs. I have 3 Alien Bees B400, and 1 B800, with softboxes, etc. I really like them and they work extremely well in my opinon. I found that you can also be pretty creative with your space and save some money. I was able to set up my paper backdrops with rods and chains I connected to the ceiling beams-works great! And thankfully my husband is also supportive, and sits when I have a shoot. I only schedule mine after 6pm in the evenings, or on the weekends. I do have family close by thank goodness, so if worse comes to worse I can call them up for a quick sitter. I just don't like to depend on them and take up all of their free time.

 

I hope I haven't rambled too much, I just wanted to share a little of my opinions on being a Mother/Photographer. I have really enjoyed this thread too, you guys give me HOPE! :)