INFO
A lot of people don’t think of a photographer or other solo vendors as being a business, because when they think of “business”, they imagine retail stores or corporations or even mom & pop shops, but a photographer is a sole proprietor and they’re doing the same thing as these other businesses, but with one major difference – they generally have to do everything the bigger businesses do, but they have to do it all alone…at least, until they start seeing some success!
Accounting? You. Marketing? You. Operations? You. Promotion? You. Sales? You. You wear all the hats! Even the ugly ones!
I know first-hand how difficult it can be to get started as a solo business owner – I’m 16 years in the game and I still struggle sometimes. It can be overwhelming on your own. But if you’re ready, willing and able to put in the work, there are lots of free resources out there that can help you get moving – I’m going to share five of my favorites with you! And these aren’t limited to photography or wedding vendors, even some of you normies will get some good use out of some of these free resources!
1. Canva (https://www.canva.com) – helps you make graphics, flyers and social media marketing
2. Unsplash (https://unsplash.com) – a really decent amount of high quality, high resolution images you can use in marketing, on your website, for almost anything
3. WordPress (https://wordpress.org or .com) – the best backend website framework, period. Free, with a ton of amazing designs (some for free, some for money, but all relatively inexpensive). Wix? Don’t you dare. Squarespace? Not bad, but not as good as WordPress.
4. Airtable – (https://airtable.com) – beautifully-designed data management. Need to track your financials? Want to track your fitness? They’ve got tons of addons, even for the free account, and it looks so pretty!
5. Me! (or a friend, or peer in your industry or a family member, even) – there is SO much knowledge and experience out there in the world, and so many people willing to share what they’ve learned, for FREE. Ask around, look for someone to help guide you.
There might be a small learning curve or figuring some of these resources out might take some time, but it is well-worth it to spend that time learning a free tool that could come in very handy throughout your career.
And because I’ve been through it already, if you’re really struggling to figure something out, just yell. I’ll help you. 
Need awesome photos? Check out my work at https://namu.love