The age old question for new photographers is knowing when to quit the day job and head out into the world of full time entrepreneurship. It is definitely a scary and exciting step to make! It’s the American dream to step away from the 9-5 and enter into self-employment, but sometimes the steps to get there are hard to see. Here are some tips of what to do before you quit your day job:

Give your 9-5 your ALL

• I am an advocate of you following your dreams and pursuing what you feel called to do. But at the same time being your own boss AND own employee is twice as hard as you think it is right now. If you are lagging at your day job and not working as hard as you once did when everything was new there, that is a bad sign. No matter if your side hustle is your current passion, work ethic is essential to being successful. When I was working 25 hours a week as a nanny and shooting 5 sessions and 2 weddings a week, I thought that I was allowed to “be a tired and distracted nanny” because I was working so hard at my business. The opposite was true. If I wasn’t motivated to be an amazing employee at my day job when I was busy, how could I trust myself to be an amazing employee to myself when things got busy in my business full-time. Just because you are making plans to eventually leave your day job doesn’t mean that you can slack off on your employer and essentially steal from them by not working 100%. Getting to live your dream takes sacrifice, and sacrificing your effort at your job is not the place to start!

Hustle, hustle, and then hustle some more

• If you aren’t burning the midnight oil and working on the weekends on your craft, you will never know if you are able to really build this business into something that can replace your day job income. Building a business requires sacrificing your free time so that you can get ahead. If you aren’t willing to work and work some more, you aren’t ready to make the jump to running a full time business. Being a business owner means that your business is on your mind at all times and you are working on it constantly. This can be a blessing and a curse, but its part of the job.

“Entrepreneurs are the only people who work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40.”

Get your finances in order

• Stepping away from your full time job is scary due to the lack of stability it will bring to your finances. Your side business should be generating around 60-80% of your day job salary so that making the jump isn’t putting your family at risk. Having a STRONG  emergency fund of 6 months or more of expenses is essential to help with security in the first few months of the unknown. Also you should also try to be completely DEBT FREE before the move. Debt is risk and there is enough risk in business without adding debt and money stress into the mix.

Here is my favorite resource for becoming debt free, Dave Ramsey.

Develop a diverse client base

• Do you have enough new clients and returning clients to keep your calendar filled? Are you using 3-5 marketing techniques that consistently bring in clients? If your client base isn’t strong enough or hinges solely on close family and friends, you might not be ready to go full time. Work on getting word of mouth to spread to people that you don’t know. Having multiple income streams, such as session fees and product sales also help as well!

Remember that the strongest businesses start small

• Chances are that you have big dreams. Dreams and plans for the future of your business. Strategies to serve clients on a huge scale are part of your day dreams and night dreams. This is all part of being an entrepreneur. The problem is sometimes this itch can cause you to grow too fast. Your business requires constant care, pruning, and reinvention to know exactly. Make goals and plans to accomplish over the next 1, 3, 5 and 10 years. A high percentage of small businesses die within the first 5 years. Growing too big too fast is the main reason for this, so take small steps to grow strong.

Learn, read and learn some more

• Educate yourself about everything you can before you make the jump. Learn about business, health insurance, accounting, shooting, editing, delivery, client management, etc before you leave your security blanket. Also, read this book before leaving your day job: Quitter by Jon Acuff

Becoming a Full Time Photographer | Quitting the Day Job