I Made the Leap, Now Let's Hope There's Water in the Pool...

I lot of people would say that quitting a steady paying, secure job with a great small company in a time when our state's unemployment is in the teens is a stupid idea, like "sticking-your-hand-in-a-running-garbage-disposal" stupid, but on April 29th I said goodbye to 4 years at my day job and hello to an unknown future doing what I love.



It was a long decision but ultimately not a hard one; I knew I didn't want to be a project manager for a commercial door hardware company, I wanted to be a photographer, and the longer I stayed at the day job the less likely it would be that I'd ever leave. It wasn't a bad job, in fact if I had any real interest in doors, frames and hardware it would be a great place to work until retirement, but with the slowing economy came less work and with less work meant more time to obsess about photography from a place where I couldn't do anything about it. I knew something had to change before I got burnt out on both fronts and self destructed.

Maybe that's a bit dramatic.

In any event I'm now into my second week of self employment (read: NOT UNemployment) and I'm still trying to find my rhythm. Where do I start? How to I take SBI to the next level, to make it a real profitable, sustainable business and not just something I do on the side for kicks? I know the answers will come and I know eventually I'll have a workflow that keeps me on track and gets everything handled. I've got an amazing wife who, despite knowing she has to win most of the bread now, supports me and encourages me when I start to freak out a little. I have a growing network of supportive fellow photographers who give me insight and something to look forward to. It's going to work out.*


* he says to himself 100 times before falling asleep each night.