I got an email the other day from friend and fellow photographer Greg Ceo saying that he was putting up a post on young shooters financing there first shoots and that he would like me to add my thoughts.  Unfortunately I was out of town on location and was unable to get to replying until today.  After checking it out here I decided I really wanted to link to the post in hopes of other eyes might get a chance to see some very valuable information.   I’m not trying to hijack your post, I promise Greg!

Anyhow I always tell up and coming shooters to make sure to have your financial house in order.  Good credit is a must if you want to have decent credit card limits and get decent business loans to grow your studio.  So if you are in school avoid all those credit card companies hitting you up and work on building a solid credit score.  Of course for bigger ad production advances still seem to be the norm, but there are exceptions.  Most likely as well you’ll start shooting editorial jobs, and I can fully attest to the fact that advances are pretty much now non existent.  My credit card has become essential to carrying larger shoots.  I have a plum card from American Express that waives any interest fees as long as you pay a very small minimum each month.  With clients paying more on and more on 60-90 day time frames you need to avoid those interest charges.  And even though you may be accruing interest charges for a clients shoot because of a slow payment cycle don’t expect to be able to bill them for that interest because they won’t pay it.  My feeling is the best thing you can do is to not over extend yourself and figure out your cash flow so you can keep a handle on what is coming in and out each month.  While it sucks that photographers are virtually becoming banks for client productions its te way it is and I don’t think much can be done to change this current trend. Best you can do is be prepared.

If you didn’t catch the link to Greg’s post you can read all the great info here.

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