How I Went From $1k to $100k in a Year | Business Coach for Photographers & Creatives
Photo by yours truly of an elopement in Iceland.
How I went from $1k to $100k in a year as a photographer
Going from $1,000 to $100,000 in a year as a photographer going full-time was not so much about strategy but more about belief.
When you decide to go all in on yourself that is the only time you can TRULY go all in on your business.
I say it all of the time- business IS ALSO personal development as a solopreneur.
I remember when I wanted to go full-time in my photography business but I was fucking scared. I kept having thoughts of '..but what if it doesn't work?'.
At that time I was making MAYBE $10,000 a year from photography. Maybe. Was it because I was a bad photographer? No, it was because I didn't believe in myself that I could be a good 'business person'.
My thoughts were honestly trash 90% of the time, they loved to lie to me.
It was July and I thought 'by end of the year, I am going to force myself to go all in.' I was relying on a job I hated to be in 'just in case'.
JUST IN CASE OF WHAT? That is such a comfortable lie we often tell ourselves.
By the end of August, I had this 'now or never' gut feeling and said fuck it, I'm doing it. And on Sept. 1st I quit my barista job and went all in ON MYSELF.
I exited my comfort zone of 'just in case' and pushed myself to grow.
I wasn’t going all in on my business- a saying we like to hide behind,
I was going all in on MYSELF.
Photo by Business Coach Steph Zakas- Coach for Photographers & Creatives
With a $1,000 check from my only booked wedding for the coming year I went to a bank in Union Square, NYC and opened a business account. Cashed that check and felt like a fucking MILLIONAIRE. I believed in myself that I would make more money and book more clients- I felt completely capable.
That first year full-time, I made over $100,000 in my photography business.
How?
- Going all in on myself, there was never ever ever an option of it not working.
- I learned how to actually market and what marketing meant.
- I worked on my thoughts, a lot.
In my photography fulltimeversary, I like to reflect on this month. And this year, I love to reflect on my coaching clients who decided to go ALL IN on themselves and invest in coaching with me.
When you put yourself out of your comfort zone it kicks off something in how serious you take yourself, and a new fired-up belief in yourself.
I have coaching clients that after investing in themselves:
- go from 1 wedding to 51 booked in a year.
- go from $30k a year and feeling buried to now hitting OVER $150,000.
- go from charging $1,200 to now almosttttt $10,000.
- go from being afraid of marketing and selling to now doing it with ease and booking destination weddings.
- go from booking weddings they did not want to be working to fully transitioning their brand into elopements and loving their clients.
- feeling confident and in love with what they are doing.
- making about $18,000 IN ONE WEEK.
- booking less elopements but making more money.
- charging $20,000 packages.
- and honestly so many mindset wins I can't even list them.
