Starting a business is hard. I’ve done my best to be absolutely excited about it. I am excited, I’m ready to go, I want to do photography as a career, and I’m ready tell stories through that medium. I don’t know why, in all my dreams, I thought that would be enough. I thought that I could birth a business out of pure passion. I had hoped to my enthusiasm just make it happen.

 I’m slowly realizing that that’s not the case. I still use the word slowly, because there are times, hours even, that I can have a complete tunnel vision focus. There are still times when I don’t worry about expenses or marketing plans, but they are becoming fewer.

 I am discovering that running a photography business is only very fractionally about the photography itself.  

In my experience thus far 70 percent is editing, 20 percent is marketing, and a mere 10 percent is actually taking pictures. I have spent more time on social media trying to gain my business some momentum than I could have ever dreamed of. I have subscribed to more blogs that I ever have imagined existed. And from what I can tell, the email overload is just beginning.

 Fortunately there is hope. I’ve been able to find some really fantastic business resources. People who made the numbers side of it seem not so scary. People who remind me that the creative side is funded by the business side. People who bring logic back into my passion-filled endeavors.

 Starting a business is hard. I’ve done the research, about one in 10 startup companies actually succeed. I’m determined to be that one. But tonight, for this column, I’ll admit that I’m tired.