This is about to get real personal…. I need help. I’m thinking of closing up shop due to complete and utter lack of interest. After mid-June I have NO more bookings or interest for the rest of the year. No inquiries, nothing scheduled, just the sound of crickets….. This is the time of year when session bookings should be rolling in and yet there is nothing. I can’t keep going if I’m not making any money. The math is simple. I’m all paid up through the end of the year in terms of my LLC with the state of NH, but soon my small business insurance will be up for renewal and I seriously have no reason to pay the premiums again. I just don’t know what to do.
I hate to fail, I hate to quit, and most of all I hate to give up on a dream. I thought I was better than this… I thought I could push hard enough. It makes me sick to think of walking away from all the hours every day that I put into educating myself, studying my Google analytics, learning to be better business person and photographer, and to have it not work out in such a humilitating way.
But, there it is. Business is business and numbers don’t lie. Photographers who are good at what they do have clients. And this has been a big wake-up call to me as far as what I do and my level of skill and talent at this time, and exactly what a complete lack of interest really means. I wanted to do weddings and really show people what an eye for storytelling I have. I wanted to showcase local restaurants and beautiful food in this area and help small businesses succeed. I’m an incredibly hard worker, a perfectionist, I always give more than I promise, and priced myself much lower than what my time is worth. But none of that has been enough.
If any of you out there have any ideas for me, I’d love to hear them. I can’t afford advertising with no money coming in, so it’s kind of become a Catch-22.