4 Lessons From 4 Years Of Running My Business | 107

October 2019. I told myself I was going to start a photography business and make it work. A lot has happened in 4 years. Today, I’m breaking down my 4 biggest lessons from running a creative business for 4 years.

Over these years, I've stumbled, pivoted, and learned immensely. And today, I'm excited to share the top four lessons that have shaped my success.

These lessons have served me well. I hope they can help you grow.

1. It's Not Just About Skill. It's About Results.

When I first started, I thought all I needed to get clients and earn money was a beautiful portfolio. If I could take incredible photos, brands would be lining up to work with me and would give me their entire budget.

The business world doesn’t work that way. When I pitched my product photography, I would focus on how good my photos were. But when I was talking to marketing directors, they focused on how their marketing campaigns would boost their company’s sales or brand presence.

They were focused on results, and if I wanted to win them as clients, then I had to focus on results, too.

Think about it: if a client can double their investment by working with you, they'll see you as invaluable. So, always showcase your value and the ROI you offer.

2. Patience: Everything Takes Time

It’s so easy to see the “overnight success” stories on social media and think the same will happen to you.

The reality is, there are no overnight successes. Maybe you see an account with 1,000 followers go viral and balloon up to 30,000 in the course of a week.

We see this huge rapid growth and think they got lucky.

But we don’t see the hundreds of pieces of content they posted before that to get to that point.

I used to think that clients would come quick, subscribers would come quickly, but time and time again, I’ve been proven wrong.

We need to do the work without expecting results for an uncomfortably long time.

And if we can be consistent, we’ll eventually win.

I heard Alex Hormozi say this and it stuck with me:

“You cannot lose if you do not quit.”

3. Fall In Love With The Process

Every seasoned entrepreneur will tell you this: it's not about the destination but the journey.

You’ve heard this a thousand times. The reason everyone says this is because it’s 100% true.

If you're only chasing the glitz and glam, you might burn out before you even start. The key? Savor the day-to-day grind, the challenges, the learning moments.

When you love the process, setbacks become stepping stones. Steve Jobs said it best: “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”

Embrace the work you do every day and appreciate its impact on others.

When you make the work itself the goal, the outcome becomes irrelevant. You’re happy just being able to show up and work.

Reaching this point was really hard for me. I kept moving the goalpost further away. I thought that my next accomplishment would make me happy. But I only craved more challenge.

I accepted that true happiness comes from the challenges themselves.

After I embraced this mindset, I fell in love with the process.

4. Keep Investing In Yourself

One of the most transformative decisions in my journey was investing in education. Courses taught me crucial business skills.

A lot of other photographers I knew were starting their businesses around the same time as me. I saw them posting on Instagram about starting their business journeys and trying to go full-time with it.

6 months down the road, they didn’t have the same success I did, and I was trying to figure out why. Their portfolios were honestly better than mine, so what was to blame?

I can’t be 100%, but I think it comes down to learning the right skills and avoiding mistakes.

I invested in online education, that gave me the entire blueprint to run my business. I knew the steps I had to follow so that I wouldn’t make mistakes that would slow me down. My peers had to experience the mistakes themselves, and eventually, it caught up with them. To this day, it’s been the best investment I’ve ever made.

The transformation truly begins when you decide you're worth the investment. Today, I still continue to invest in myself by working with a business coach.

These four years have been an incredible roller-coaster, filled with highs and lows. But every lesson, every setback, has helped me in unimaginable ways. My hope is that my experiences help you in your journey, guiding you toward success and away from pitfalls.

Remember, in the world of creative business, your growth is continuous.

Stay curious, stay hungry, and never stop learning.