I’m halfway through “The Personal MBA” by Josh Kaufman, and I’ve already gotten my $15 worth from the book. This is a fantastic book on the foundation of just what a business is and how a business becomes profitable. Are you more of a photographer than a business person? Are you new to photography as a business? Or, have you been running a photography business for awhile but need really to focus on the business? This might be the book for you. [break]
I won’t worry about a full review here. There are a ton on Amazon.com. I’d like to share just some of the meat of this book. And it is all meat by the way. [break]
How do we define a business?[break]
“Every successful business (1) creates or provides something of value that (2) other people want or need (3) at a price that they’re willing to pay, in a way that (4) satisfies the purchaser’s needs and expectations and (5) provides the business sufficient revenue to make it worthwhile for the owners to continue operation.”
– excerpt from the book.[break]
This is key. Take away any of these five points (just one), and you don’t have a business. Well, you can call it a business, but no one else will. You need to provide value that people are willing to pay for at a certain price. And that value has to satisfy the needs of the customer. And, this is key, it has to make it worthwhile for the owners to continue operation. That means that if you can make more money and enjoy your life more with a full-time job, then maybe a photography business is not for you. But, if you feel strongly that you can meet all 5 of these criteria, then you’ll have a happy and prosperous business. I highly recommend this book because it’s great reading.
