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Business Set Up

business set up until intellectual growth should commence at birth and Sith cease Onley at death. And I truly believe that, especially when I see mentors like Bird. I mean, Burt was 20 years ahead of me and he talks just like I talked. Now I'm gonna do this. Now I'm gonna change this. I'm gonna modify my life, and it's it's interesting. I don't think for an artistic person, it ever ends. I think there's a it's like a disease. It's like a madness that spurs us to do more, and it's almost like we have to. Our job is not it's not were not motivated. Our job is trying to build the reins to keep us back, because that's the hardest part for us is pulling the plug on some things so that we can have what we really want When it comes to organization, it's all about the set up and creating systems, everything from tracking Ford forms to the database man database, a database management. That's something that people are always curious about. Sure, it's awesome to have database management. I've got...

a great system and you pay a certain amount of money to have that But you know what? Back before I could afford that. I had a piece of paper and a pencil, and I will always go back to this. Nobody can. I mean everything that I'm teaching you today. I had to do by hand the first time I did it. So if it's not economically time for you to have these types of things, just understand. It may be a little more work from the penned from the pen to the paper, but it's totally doable. This is not something that you should discredit because you don't have the best software in the whole world. A few things you need to do start out. First of all, you have to get an employer or tax identification number. Everybody should have this. This is where the foundation of becoming a professional all businesses are required to pay federal and state taxes. You must register with the IRS, state and local agencies to receive your tax I D. Number or permit, and you also have to have an e I n or an employee identification number. And that's the tax I d. You receive from the federal government. Now they're an awful lot of tigers. One of the funny things that always comes out of this particular class when I teach it is how many people don't have their business license, and this inspires them to go get it. Because what I'm about to tell you, it's not that I don't care about. The government are paying taxes. They're doing the right thing because I do believe that's the right thing to do. But what I found for myself is the first time I got my business license. I was only 18 years old, and I just remember being on a high for two weeks because I had just thought it was. I didn't realize that it's just a piece of paper. At that time, it was confirmation that I was somebody and it was just It was the most basic necessity that you need, but it gave me that that little step up going okay, I got a license. That must mean I'm a really, really good photographer. It didn't but it did mean that I was giving my brain. I was telling my brain that there was value in what I was doing, and those stepping stones are the ones that are gonna make you, um they're gonna help you find that success. Now, there are lots of different types of permits and things that you must have. Every business is required to hold one or more federal, state or local licenses or permits those you will all have to do your own research. Every city state government is different across the world, so I cannot give you advice. Here in the United States, we do have a couple of resource is like business dot us dot gov. Um, you have to do research because without that, you can get yourself in trouble. You want to make sure one of the biggest questions that I always get is Do you pay taxes on your sessions? That comes up all the time in classes that I teach. And the answer is it will be different in every city for me in Colorado. Ironically, this was like 15 years ago. We called the local city trying to get them to tell us, Do you pay taxes on sale on session fees or not? Because some people consider it a service. Some people consider it a product. Technically, it's a service because you didn't do it. You didn't give them anything but your time. But we contacted the local city via phone, back and forth, back and forth. They couldn't give us anything. Finally, they told us we had to write a letter. We wrote a letter asking a question. They send us back a response, saying they didn't know. So we sent them back. A response. Is it? Well, we have to know because you have to know. So you need to know what we have. I have a stack of about 10 papers that back and forth letters to the local city asking that question. Nobody could give me the answer. So the final answer they gave us is nobody knows the answer. Now. We decided that with that being said, that we would pay taxes on our session fees because my opinion was I'd rather pay taxes than get caught not paying taxes. So for us, that's a decision we made. So sometimes it's not gonna be black and white. That's an odd case. But for us, it was something that we did our homework. We tried to do what we were told to do, and it wasn't as easy as it looks. So we aired on the side of caution and we made sure that, you know, we're covered either way. So that's one of those questions that unfortunately, I cannot answer because it will change with the wind. I think so. Alright, When you have a business, there are a couple things you have to consider as well insurance there. Lots of types of insurance. You have liability equipment, health insurance. We're gonna break him down because this is kind of where you get overwhelmed all of the insurance insurances, but maybe one or two I carry in my business when I started 20 years ago, there is no way I could afford all of these insurances. So you need to You need to look at the basic ones and say, You know what? These are the things I have to have Protect me. And these were the things kind of like the salsa box. These are the right now because this is important. And the next one is these air the next on the list. And then there are some that you may never need tohave at all. Business liability insurance protects you and your business from financial devastation by sheltering you in the event of a lawsuit for personal injury or property damage is liability coverage may be required for you to work in hotels or other proper Excuse me privately owned locations. So business liability insurance is something that I certainly carry. Um, I could tell you the saddest stories in the world about people who made simple, basic mistakes, not carrying this insurance. And there was a client or clients child that was injured, even severely. Toe where not only did they this unfortunate, a child or an adult were hurt, but that there weren't insurances to cover the damages. And so the photographers eventually were sued and lost everything. A simple light stand falling over on a child could be devastating life change for you if you are not covered now. Heaven forbid we never want to hurt anybody or have an accident, but they happen. That's why they're called accidents. They happen, and you need to protect yourself. There are other insurances that you consider if you're a member of P. P. A. You already have the indemnification trust. It's built into your association fees. It's a trust fund that protects photographers from allegations of negligence as an example. You're a wedding photographer and you're a new wedding photographer. That doesn't know you shouldn't shoot a whole wedding on a 64 gig card. And then the card crashes and you can't save the wedding. And the whole wedding is on the single card. I'm telling you this because it really happened to a photographer. And sadly, this photographer lost an entire wedding. What is the value of a wedding? What's the emotional value of a wedding? It's pretty substantial. What do you think? Your entire you trusted one person to capture? The entire thing every penny spent on that wedding is gone because you have no visual record. Yeah, there's IPhones and people. But you paid somebody to capture those moments whether they would have done it right or not. You now have proof that that doesn't exist so that the liability is tremendous. This photographer was sued over $300,000 on and in the lawsuit. They were required to recreate the entire wedding. To pay for everything is what finally came out of the lawsuit. So it was either paid the damages or re Can you imagine putting on a second waiting for somebody because you made one simple mistake. Now it's It's a rookie mistake. We all know to back up, back up, back up chute, multiple cards. We all know the rules. I could tell you stories of mistakes I've made nowhere near that expensive, thank heavens, but just stupid mistakes that I made that have cost me. And this is the kind of thing that you want to be careful from, even situations. And this happens day after day where photographers will have a server that, you know, they think they're protected cause they take all their cards and they put them on a hard drive and they're protected. Well, the minute that hard drive goes down, you just lost everything. There's a wedding on there. You've lost it. The indemnification trust provides you the ability to protect yourself. Number one, number two. They have a recovery like costs. Like, for instance, if you had Teoh take that hard drive and have it recovered, I don't know the numbers, so I'm not gonna quote, but there is a percentage of money that they will pay towards that. So something to think about. If you are a member. Of course, you want to have your equipment insured. If something happens, can you replace it all? Are you willing to take that risk if the tar? If your photography is a source of income for you, then you need to carry equipment insurance. I have had cameras. Sillen. It's super frustrating. You know, you just don't think about it until somebody walks off with your camera and it's just so so painful. I don't think there's ever been an event that I've been onerous tour that I've produced that hasn't had some equipment walk away, and it's it's ultimately very, very frustrating to know My thing is the emotional connection. How could somebody steal for me? You know, like I always a personal thing to me, but the reality is it can and will happen to you at some point. You know, when I see photographers were on maybe in Europe or somewhere like that, an entire camera bags or wrong just gone, walked away. Two camera bodies and fight lens is gone. That's where this insurance if it's your livelihood, like in my case, if I lose my entire bag, I'm not a business for the most part. I've got to come up with a whole chunk of change to get back what I had. So equipment insurance, I think, is in the top three that you would need property or renters. Insurance is, in most cases, you're required toe have them. If you own a building or renting property, Renter's insurance covers the loss that your landlords policy we will not cover. So, of course, if you're renting, you would have to have that secondary post there usually required, and you don't have a choice. Then you get into these weird ones that you're like head and even know that existed. Business Operating expenses This is a form of disability insurance if you're in and if you're the owner of a company, it covers your operating expenses in the event that you're incapacitated, unable to work so it covers things like salaries, benefits and utilities until you are able to return to work in a case like mine. When I had 32 employees, technically, I had photographers shooting for me, but they shot nowhere near the level that I did. If I were to say I have a serious accident, break both my legs and be out for 12 weeks. My company is out of business, period. There's nobody that could keep it up. So So there's a huge liability with being that person. So you need to make sure if you are, you know, like in my case, when my husband retired, that's something that I knew all of a sudden we amped up everything my life insurance, my disability insurance. All of those things were amped up because I knew that if something happened, we would not be able to cover it. Here's one that a lot of people don't carry because you don't need to have but key employees. Every business has an employee that you cannot live without. I have about eight. So there's a form of insurance that provides funds to bridge the gap until your key employees is able to return, Return to works. If you have somebody that you absolutely have tohave, that would give you the opportunity most about what we do. I think you can pretty much cover. It just means more work. Life insurance. A lot of times people think about this is just money for your kids, but what about your business in my case if I died tomorrow, please don't make that happen. But if I did, what happens to my company? I don't really. This is one of the things I can honestly say. I don't have a good exit plan because I don't want to go, so I'm not willing to think about it. But if I died tomorrow, you know, we have 15 to people that are, you know, that we support. And so all of those people would instantly be out of a job. I don't have a plan for my business. Continue without me because I believe I am my business. And I believe that once I'm gone, people would emotionally want to keep the name and keep the business going. But I was built on the foundation of my personality. I know that the key employees, the people that I love the most, they're so talented and so smart, all of them would be able to find something and do something amazing. And and I love everybody from top to bottom. But I have hourly employees that you know, that are just as great people. But they wouldn't be able to go on and find something else as well. So there are things like if you're in a partnership of that life insurance can be used to buy out the partner or Teoh. Pay for that, you know, so that your business isn't a complete loss. So lots of things to think about. Course. Workmen's compensation. If you have employees, you have to have this. There's no options. It is mandatory. Don't even mess around with things like this. Oh my gosh, I have a client of mine who lost everything they had because of this type of situation with without cover, having workman's comp One tiny mistake can take everything away. So so be sure you're keeping track of the ones that you must have. Andi, make sure you follow through.