Reply To: Starting a business…

[Loke]

Even in the U.S. there are even differences between states lol..but I”ll do my best…..I’ve been doing side photography since 2008.

Legal stuff:

Not sure about the UK and business entities…here it’s either you’re a sole proprietorship, partnership, llc, s corp or c corp….

Then you have to get a fictitious business name — I don’t know about other states in the U.S. but in California, this is done a the local level (city you live in) –if you use your name you do not have to register, but if you use another one you have to register, publish and pay an annual tax…..

With the above entities (federal ), the LLC/Corp each have to pay 800.00/annual tax regardless if you make money or not…..sooooo I don’t even suggest doing that until you are bringing in income , or have another job where you can pay that tax every year…but again, this is  for the U.S. I don’t know how it works there….that, in addition to whatever state taxes might incur for seller’s permits, etc.

Insurance is down..so that’s good…

what else?

oh contracts and stuff….since I’m  a photojournalist, I am an NPPA (nppa.org) member so it’s given me a lot of great resources……..NPPA has a great calculator to figure out I’m sure other photographers know about it…it’s the CODB calculator  to help with figuring out your rates and you can still access it without being a member..just google it…. where you can get great info on writing up contracts, go to to the ASMP.org  (American Society of Media Photographers) and look at their business resources guides which will give you tutorials on contracts and other useful info…..you might have to adjust for UK law, but I imagine they are similar…

Finally, as for web, I have a friend that uses:  http://photobiz.com…..get everything in one place if you don’t want to do your own.

I am a web designer so I do my own web sites and I’m cheap 😉 . Hope that helps, and good luck!! Above all else, marketing marketing marketing….and good customer service.