Bootstrap a photography business for $150

Filed in archive Bootstrapper Tips on April 15, 2008

This idea came in part from an article by photographer Paul Morely about selling stock footage free on line.

In part too, though it evolved from my own enthusiasm for taking photos like the one above with a Samsung Digimax S600 I got for Christmas in 2006.

The idea may be a great bootstrapped business (or a way of bootstrapping another more sizeable business) for several reasons:
• Low overhead-Cost of cameras, even with high resolution, is low so just about about anyone with skill can lay their hands on the tools to make professional looking images
• Abundant market-Morely gives a sampling of the best sites out there and as a blogger I know the demand for royalty free images.
• Opportunity for expansion-With early revenue from free sites better equipment and a better personal website could be developed to easily grow the business.
• Source of revenue-Though there's nothing innovative at this point about selling stock footage on line, like consulting, the business could be developed to generate revenue for reinvestment into other ventures.

CAUTION: I gave one of these sites, Fotolia, a whirl over the weekend and of the seven images I uploaded all were rejected for use on the site.

I'm a professional photographer with a background in photo journalism having taken my own photos for stories going on a decade.

While I understand the demands of taking photos for newspapers and magazines are not the same as those for stock and promotional images my warning is to be careful that such a planned photography business does not become a freelancing gig instead.

If you need to focus too much energy on creating images for these sites that's time away from growing your core business and for the money you will receive it may not be worth the investment.