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Running a Successful Studio From Home
An article in the recent edition of Entrepreneur Magazine makes the argument that you can run a successful family business from home. If you have a home studio, it has some great tips for success.
While I don’t have any statistics to back it up, my guess is that we have equal numbers of professional photographers who work from home and have a separate studio. Both have their advantages: a home studio is a great way to get started, it keeps expenses low, and it allows parents to spend more time with their children. A separate studio has the advantage of seeming more “professional” to clients, and it forces you to divide your time between your work and your family.
But there is a hidden benefit to a home studio you may not realize.
- When children grow up watching their parents run a business day-to-day, they develop an entrepreneurial spirit. This is the drive to build a business and succeed on your own without depending on someone else.
- When a child’s parents work for a paycheck, they tend to grow up expecting to work for a paycheck.
While there is nothing wrong with working for someone else (after all, don’t we really work for our customers?) the ability to trust yourself to make a living with your own brain and hands is a powerful gift we can give our children that will serve them their entire lives. And there is no better way to for children to receive an entrepreneurial spirit than for them to see it in their parents every day.
What do you think?
Tags: business
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August 20th, 2010 at 11:30 am
I agree with you totally, and it’s a good thing that you brought out this point because many people in home businesses, or who work at home for other companies, tend to forget that they are doing exactly that, training their kids to work the American dream. Thanks for the blog.
August 20th, 2010 at 11:31 am
There are without a doubt 3-4 Home based studios vs each 1 Store front studios in the US today. Just look to the PPA and WPPI statistics. When PPA trys to run it’s 3day Studio Management Service they require a minimum of proven $50,000 a YEAR GROSS SALES. And with a membership of 25,000 they have a hard time filling those classes. It the 2 day $25,000 a year Gross sales they fill on a regular basis.
WPPI statistic are supposedly even further apart than the 3-4 t o 1. Most probably because they have Always catered to the smaller home studio group.
August 25th, 2010 at 9:16 am
“When children grow up watching their parents run a business day-to-day, they develop an entrepreneurial spirit. This is the drive to build a business and succeed on your own without depending on someone else.”
Having never filled out a job application in my life, I can attest to the wonder of watching and learning from my parents who began the business in an apartment in 1955 and continued in a small home in 1958. Dad expanded the home in the late 60′s due to business growth and when he retired the building was almost 10,000 feet. I watched and learned as a child and entered the business officially at 18 years old in the late 70′s.
Although they retired at the turn of the century (doesn’t that sound like the olden days), I continued and moved the operation to an “away from the home” location allowing the building to be converted to income property.
While is was “hard” being a kid and being “required” to “work” with the family business, I gained more knowledge about more areas of business and life than any other part of my educational journey. I can also say that the relationship that I had and maintain with my parents is one that far exceeds that of the typical Parental – Child dynamic. It continues to build as my enterprise succeeds against the odds in these challenging market conditions.
Thank you for broaching this subject. It is in my opinion one that is greatly overlooked and in candor, a consideration that most should make for the security of their business as well as the growth of the ability of their children to succeed.
Lastly, two of my three children are involved in my business when not in school. Not by edict but by desire. It seems that the jobs they can have in my company are better than the jobs they can have in another company at this point in their lives. It’s pretty funny, I never was able to negotiate a pay rate with my parents. See what we’ve done to our kids!
I do not know that my children will follow in my footsteps but I do know that they already possess the spirit of the entrepreneur.
Success in business is not a destination, it is a journey.