If you’ve been in the photography business for any length of time, you’ll realize that very little of being a professional photographer has to do with actually shooting. A small percentage of time is spent with you and your beloved camera and bag of lenses and a large amount of time is spent finding more people to pay you so you can spend more time with your beloved camera and lenses.

So, you’ve spent hours on your photography education – how to work that camera and those lenses and how to find (or create) some good light to make an image, but until someone puts money in your hand to use that knowledge, your photography is really just a hobby. That’s when you realize that you must devote time to things that have nothing to do with photography. From marketing to social media, advertising to bookkeeping, to be a successful, working, professional photographer, your knowledge must extend to how to run a small business.

business-tips

Luckily, there are many business savvy people to learn from and in this CreativeLive clip, 6 top entrepreneurs (five of whom are not photographers) give us their best business tips. The six include: Chase Jarvis (photographer and the co-founder of CreativeLive), Jon Acuff (NYT Bestselling Author and self-proclaimed Quitter), Sophia Amoruso (author of #GIRLBOSS who built her eBay business in her apartment to a $100 million dollar online fashion retailer after stealing a book), Lewis Howes (a former pro athlete who lived on his sister’s couch for a few years before building several multimillion-dollar online businesses, NYT bestselling author and podcast host of The School of Greatness), Nir Eyal (author, educator and founder of two start-ups) and Guy Kawasaki (author and marketing executive; one of the original Apple employees responsible for marketing the MacIntosh in the 80’s).

The videos gives a lot of insight that can be easily applicable to your business. And if you are looking for more, be sure to check out some of the other courses on CreativeLive, which are all currently 40% off for their sitewide Holiday Sale. Check it out here.