When running a business it is important to manage your finances, what you are earning and what you are spending. Within one of our lectures we went into detail on what we should earn or be charging in five years time (2022). Depending on what we want to be doing for example, Assistant, Freelance, Building own business or other. By having this lecture it put into perspective what a photographer would have to pay to not only keep all the business going and up to date but also to pay for their personal life as well. 

Many aspects within a business are classed as expenses that you would not normally consider. Transport, hours worked, equipment, insurances, it all adds up. When working out what you as an individual should be charging, you have to consider depending on what line of work you are doing the equipment that you will need, how often you will be travelling and what your personal life costs. Putting it all together and thinking ahead puts into perspective how much you actually need to charge straight away and not let people take you for less than what you are worth just because you may not have the greatest amount of experience yet. As a business you have to make sure you are making enough to make your worth greater.

Within a business record keeping is hugely important. Keeping record of what’s going in and out of your accounts and when. Many business hire accounts for this as that way they know it is all being organised and monitored correctly. It also takes away any added stress to the business owner. 

For me I filled the sheet in as if I would be doing freelance work and setting up my own business in stages. I did not however include my plans to travel as that is not fully clear yet, so I focused the sheet on what I would be wanting to accomplish in my work rather than the more personal side. When I finish at university I will be going back home to Colchester in Essex where I am planning on setting up my own freelance photography business. 

Personally I feel I will be working in more than one area or genre of photography as I prefer working in multiple different fields of photography. From this I filled in the equipment list and everything else as if I was just starting out and beginning to ground myself as a business where I want to eventually be. From this and my personal expense it work out that I would have to be charging at least £250 a day roughly. 

Obviously over the next few years things may change and by recoding them on the XL sheet I will be in a better place to work out where I need to be and be charging in the future. The sheet I found extremely helpful as I would have otherwise not known how much I would even have to consider charging, if it would be fair or over priced. As a photographer you have to know what to charge your clients and not come across as an armature by charging less than you are worth.