First Steps

First, let me give you a bit of background.

I've been contract / consulting for many years. I've worked with some of the biggest organisations around, both private enterprise and government. I'm the director of my own company, through which I do business, and I've got a few years experience owning and running a sizable retail store.

The point here is that I've been managing my own affairs for pretty much my entire working life. I do not fear the business side of things. I already have a company that will be the legal vehicle for the business.

However, I have to make sure that some extra things are in place before I get started.

First, I needed a new business name; preferably one that relates to what I will be doing. This took me quite some time, as I had to search each name I dreamt up in Google. Now if it's a name that's on the web, there'll probably be an organisation behind it. However, the opposite isn't necessarily the case; not all businesses are on the web. So I needed to do a search of business names to see if it was already in use.

Of course, all the obvious names were taken. However, eventually I came up with a name that filled a number of criteria;

1. It reflected the nature of the business.

2. It actually made some sense (in English anyway!).

3. It was unique.

4. It was catchy.

5. Last, but not least, it was simple.

Of course, I had to do a search for the name and, if it was available, register both the business name and the domain name.

I did the business name search and registration through the government facilities available through business.gov.au and the domain name and registration through GoDaddy.

To do business here in Australia, you'll need to register the business name in the state you are operating in and this Commonwealth (Federal) Government site is an easy first port-of-call.

GoDaddy is only one of a number of domain name registration and hosting services, but it was the one recommended by the photo-hosting site that I eventually chose, so that's good enough for me. GoDaddy is also often mentioned a lot in web forums and handles all the essential site-registration and hosting tasks that I need (and probably handles a heap more stuff that I don't need at the moment).

Let's recap;

• I already have a company.
• I've got experience running businesses (so no excuses then!).
• I've registered a relevant business name.
• I've got a domain name that's the same as the business name (I reckon that's got to be good).
• Oh, and I've started a blog!

So far, so good. The cost has been around $Au 100, which is even better!

Now for the hard work.

Nothin's Easy!

I made my first post yesterday.

Well, at least I thought I did, but everything just vanished when I hit "PUBLISH POST". And I mean vanished. Without a trace. I should have smelt a rat when I saw the "SAVE NOW" button flashing. I'll know next time.

The "Go Back" arrow didn't work. My words had simply vapourised in a puff of electrons. What a disappointment! My first brush with internet (as opposed to intranet) blogging failed miserably.

Anyway let's try again.

As I said in my phantom post, I'm a victim of the Global Financial Crisis. Since last November, I've only had three months of paid work. I've gone from feast to famine. Luckily, I don’t owe any money, except perhaps to the taxman. It’s uncomfortable going from easy comfort to “oops, can’t afford that!”, but at least I’m not destitute. Mind you, the wife’s not happy, so I’d better get moving!

Now, I haven't been doing nothing. One of the things I have done is to try to get into the business of making and selling photographs. So far I've made, but not sold any. Which brings me to the subject of this blog. It's going to be about my experiences, misadventures and hopefully, success at making a living in photography.

Now first up, I have to admit that I’m not a photographer’s bootlace. So if you’re a pro, you won’t find anything here. Neither will you find much if all you’re into is gear. I’ll tell you how I use my gear, but don’t expect technobabble and testing. After all, the vanished post saga should tell you something about my level of geeksterese!

However, I reckon I’ve got a reasonably good eye and a fair sense of what’s aesthetically good, so I can tell utter crap from okay. So I reckon I do have something going for me. Others can tell me if it’s talent and I’ll have to bow to their opinion.

So this will be a narrative about trying to get a business going.

I hope at least someone can get something from it.