Multiple Streams of Photography Income

I've been in the game for a while, not nearly as long as a lot of professionals, but long enough to learn a thing or two about the business.

Today, I was talking to a friend of mine that is a newer photographer trying to start up a business and the issue of income came about. He asked me:

"Where do you make your money?"

I was a bit perplexed at first because the answer seemed obvious to me. I make money shooting assignment gigs, or selling prints.

After I thought about it a little bit though, I came upon an idea that I had learned about a while ago as I was reading some business books. It was an idea that I had never implemented due solely to being to focused on just starting a business.

It's simple, yet very difficult.

Generate income from multiple streams.

When I went into photography, I had a one track mind really; Make a living. That meant: get gigs, sell photos, get more gigs, sell more photos. I think a lot of photographers may thing the same way (correct me if I'm wrong here).

What I overlooked was the potential for automated income and the multiple streams that I could potentially be getting paid for.

So, I've been sitting around for the past couple of days now, trying to restructure a portion of my business to be more geared towards 3 things (with an explanation as to why below).

1. Multiple Streams (i.e. stock, sessions, staff work, print sales, etc.)
*Should one stream run dry, it effects my total income far less than if I were to lose all of my business. For instance, if all streams were to contribute 10% to my total income, and one dried up, I'd only take a 10% decrease in income rather than if I only had one stream and it dried up. I'd be at 0% total income then! And that's not good.

2. Automation (work that I don't have to be present for, one time set up and very little management)
*Obvious reasons here. If I can maximize my pay per time worked, I can raise the amount of total income I can earn. Ideally, working 0 for income relates to an infinite pay scale. I can spend a lot of time not working. haha.

3. Longevity (the amount of time between the start of the stream and when it dries up)
*The longer the better here... the shorter the stream, the more often I have to set up another stream.


So, what did I decide on?

I haven't.

That's my issue.

So, what's the benefit to you for this article? The benefit is that I've opened up a a new thought process for you and hopefully you can apply that to your business model.


My goal is to not have to work for my business the rest of my life... I'd like to eventually have a tangible business that I could sell, with a model that was worth something WITHOUT me being there.

Does that make sense to anyone else?