Here’s a question: how did your start your photography business. Did you start part time while working a full time job? Maybe you’re doing that right now, and photography is your side hustle. That’s what we’re talking about today. Side hustles. Maybe photography is your side hustle. Or it started as a side hustle. Or you’ve started a side hustle to your photography. In others words, a side hustle to your side hustle.
In Godox and MoLight news, learn more about the new Godox QTIII Series strobes as well as an update on when the SNAP softboxes will be back in stock.
Here’s a question: how did your start your photography business. Did you start part time while working a full time job? Maybe you’re doing that right now, and photography is your side hustle. That’s what we’re talking about today. Side hustles. Maybe photography is your side hustle. Or it started as a side hustle. Or you’ve started a side hustle to your photography. In others words, a side hustle to your side hustle.
In Godox and MoLight news, learn more about the new Godox QTIII Series strobes as well as an update on when the SNAP softboxes will be back in stock.
Live from MoLight Studios in the heartland of America, it's your Monday morning jolt of hot photography tips with a frothy topping of the latest product news from Godox MoLight. And more. Welcome to the Monday morning cup of Mo with your host, the man who put the MO in MoLight Michael Mowbray.
Michael Mowbray:
Welcome to the Monday morning cup of Mo. I'm your host, Michael Mowbray. Each week I pour a cup of coffee and explore a single topic related to professional photography. So here's a question. How did you start your photography business? Did you start part time while working a full time job? Or maybe you're doing that right now and photography is your side hustle. And that's what we're talking about today. side hustles maybe photography is your side hustle, or it started as a side hustle. Or you started a side hustle to your photography. In other words, you started a side hustle to your side hustle, or a side hustle to that side hustle, which gives you multiple side hustles. I just like to say side hustle, according to a Harris poll conducted at the end of 2020 Did you know that 34% of Americans had a side hustle. Now think about it if you don't have one, but you probably have a friend who does or maybe your spouse does. So 34% a third of the population, a third of the working population. I shouldn't say unless kids are getting a side hustle now to what you know, hey, maybe you've got a lemonade stand and you're fixing bikes on the side? I don't know. I'm not here to judge another 24% plan to start one in 2021. That's over half the population. So yeah, if they follow through more than half of all Americans have a side hustle. Wow. Things have really changed since I was a kid. Now side hustles our side jobs are not new. They've been around forever. Back in the 1970s. Yeah, I'm that old back in the 1970s. When I was growing up common side hustles were things like selling AVON or Tupperware or working on cars in your garage or bartending at night after your day shift things like that. Why do people start a side hustle today though, almost half of Americans with a side hustle 46% said they were motivated to start by the prospect of creating passive income, which is by far the most common reason given. And there are other financial goals motivating this trend as well. diversify income was 33% save up for a specific financial goal was 25%. Save up for a specific purchase maybe a vacation 23%. Actually, I had a neighbor who did that a number of years ago, they their family wanted to go to Disney. So they took up a paper route, could you not the entire family took a paper route. And I can't remember how many papers they were delivering. But it was like a couple of routes combined together. And they all teamed together to do it. And they raised enough money to pay for their Disney vacation. So you know there are other reasons to do a side hustle might be a one time thing and might be a one time purpose might be something you're looking for a change in the future. And that's what we're getting to for the next level. Money wasn't the only motivator. non financial reasons for starting a side hustle include doing something fun or something they enjoy? 38% Maybe that was the impetus for your photography business. developing new skills 28% testing a specific business idea. 16% So with all this talk about side hustles what are the most common side hustles right now? Well, here are the top 10 delivering food and groceries is number one. So DoorDash things like that. Very close on the heels of that ride sharing. So Uber driving for Uber driving for Lyft. Or my favorite thing in the rural areas. It's not Uber, it's goober, it's a guy with a truck. Number three was starting a blog. I look up recipes. I'm the primary cook in our home, and I like to do it. It's part of my creativity. So I look up recipes all the time, or I'll find a recipe scanning through Instagram and I'll click and will take me to somebody's blog. And you'll know you know that it's monetized because you have to scroll through about 75 different pages and ads before you actually get to the recipe. Tutoring was number four, which I imagine maybe even on the rise today with a lot of distance learning and homeschooling with the whole pandemic going on. So tutoring is probably even hotter commodity online freelancing. renting your car was number six. I didn't even know that was a thing. I can rent my car I don't want to rent my car, but I could rent my car. That's weird. That's like, I don't know. I don't get that listing your house. I don't know if that's a side hustle that you're going to sell your house. I think that's just selling your house, isn't it? So, you know, some of these categories are a little strange. Buy and resell stuff that's been around forever. I see some places. There's people on my street where I live, who I think have multiple garage sales during the year. And I'm like, are they going and like buying stuff at other people's garage sales and then marking it up and selling it their own? I swear they are. And that's not necessarily a bad idea. You know, it's the basic core of commerce in this country is buying something and reselling it at a higher price. Number nine was creating stuff to sell, whether it's on Etsy or other other ways of doing that. Number 10 is interesting, helping people move. I thought you just got paid and beer and pizza for that. So I'm a little shocked, however, out of those top 10 that starting a photography business isn't in the top 10. Because for those of us that have been in the industry for a while, it seems like everybody and their brothers sisters cousin is a photographer, right? So here's the question, do you have a side hustle? And what is it? I started a poll in the podcast Facebook group. So when you get done with this, go on over there. And I'm just kind of curious, I just want to kind of take the pulse of the industry. And if you could participate in a poll, that'd be awesome. I'd really appreciate it. And I will give the results in a future podcast. As for me, I think most of my adult work life has been a side hustle, or two or three. I started off with normal single jobs like most people do. And after a brief stint in radio, I worked in an ad agency for more than a decade. But towards the end of my ad agency career, I felt a pull to do something, I don't know more. Something that was more creative, more creative than working in an ad agency, you may ask well, yeah, ad agency, you're working with a lot of other people and collaboration to create things. I wanted something that was all my own. So I dusted off my old Minolta x 700 and started to get back into photography. This progressed into picking up a used Mumia 645 1000 S Yes, medium format. And doing a little copy standard work for the ad agency when needed. You know, occasionally they just needed a little product shot for a brochure. So I was easy go to for that, shooting it on transparency film. So that's where I started with that stuff. Then I started to do headshots for new hires at the ad agency. Then, of course, I was asked to photograph of coworkers wedding. And then I was asked to photograph and other co workers wedding. And things progressed from there to the point where I felt this incredibly strong pole to leave the high paying job. Give up the company car, give up the benefits, give up the seat on the board of directors, and all that kind of stuff and venture out on my own start my photography business. It was a really strong poll, it took a lot of deep thought and prayers and all that kind of stuff. And I imagine a lot of you went through the same process. But I had a side hustle from the very beginning of my photography studio. So when I left to start my photography studio, I started a side hustle. At the same time, I started a small marketing and design agency just to kind of hedge my bet. And truth be told the agency was the majority of my income for the first few years. Because it took me a while to slowly grow the photography business to the point where it really could become the dominant source of my work and income. Around the same time I was getting some notoriety for my work and I was approached to be an adjunct professor at the local technical college. So that became my new side hustle teaching portraiture on Mondays at Madison College. I also began to travel the country giving presentations and teaching workshops for the myriad state photography conventions. And that's, that's yet another side hustle. Still photography related, but a side hustle nonetheless. Advanced a few years and I saw the opportunity to help introduce Godox flash equipment to the US market so I created MoLight as yet another side hustle. Now it's become a majority of my work in the photography studio and photography education have regressed back to being a side hustle. So I guess you could call this podcast a side hustle as well. How many side hustles do I have? I don't know. I do like having a lot of irons in the fire. It can be maddening at times, and it's definitely not for everyone drives my wife crazy, but she understands me and who I am. For me I chalk it up to wanting and needing to be a creator. I need to create things whether it's photographs, or businesses or books, or podcasts or even blueberry scones. So what drives you to do what you do do if you have a side hustle? What is driving that? additional income, more autonomy, the chance to test a business idea. Just know if you do have a side hustle, you're definitely not alone. Here's the latest news from Godox and MoLight. Godox recently announced the next evolution of their Qt series of studio strobes. The third generation Qt threes, the cuties are the top of the food chain for Godox strobes. They're built like tanks and they can take a pounding. They have incredibly short flash durations and rapid recycled times, which makes them ideal for freezing motion. They also have very tight color accuracy in color stable mode, so great for commercial photographers as well. The new Qt three series takes us even further as they can fire up to 20 times per second Yes 20 frames per second. I often shoot my cutie 602 at 10 frames per second. And these new models can do twice as many as long as you have a camera that can shoot at that rate and that's why I'm capped at 10. I'm shooting a Sony A seven R three that can do 10 frames per second. When I had a Canon five d mark three that was only five frames per second, but some of the newer cameras coming out can get up to 20. Godox has also replaced the traditional modeling light with a 40 watt LED making it not only more powerful than a traditional modeling bulb, but also daylight balanced and cooler than a tungsten bulb. These new third generation flashes will also power down to one 256 power. They're available in 400 612 100 watt second models and the QT. Three, the third generation Series of strobes will be arriving at MoLight Soon we have those on order. In other MoLight News, the long awaited shipment of SNAP soft boxes will be arriving any day. They've been unloaded from the cargo ship and are making their way across the country as we speak. So watch the MoLight social media accounts for an official announcement for when they have arrived back in stock. So what's going to be coming into all the snaps off boxes, the MoPhO parabolic diffused umbrella and watch for more details on several exciting new products that MoLight is adding to the lineup. Thank you again for joining me for Monday morning cup of Mo please subscribe and follow. I will be posting more information on the podcast Facebook page. So be sure to follow that as well. And join the Monday morning cup of Mo podcast group where you can ask questions suggest topics and join the rest of the community as we grow this together. Talk to you next week.