What I’ve Learned in 3.5 Years of Being My Own Boss (That Retail Could Never Teach Me)

After over a decade managing teams in retail, I thought I had business figured out—until I took the leap into full-time self-employment. In this blog, I share the raw truth about what it’s really like to build a photography business from the ground up. Spoiler: it’s not all golden hour edits and client praise. We started with a failed t-shirt company, a poorly designed website, and no idea how SEO, marketing, or branding worked. After a long season of side hustles like DoorDash and Uber Eats, we launched our current brand, lastminutephotoshoot.com, and it’s only now—three and a half years later—that we’re seeing real traction. From hitting 40 monthly visitors to nearly 1,000, and getting consistent inquiries from our site’s contact form, every step has been a grind. I dive into how we learned discipline, balance, and self-respect—things I never learned while clocked into a corporate store. Whether you're a creative entrepreneur, new photographer, or side hustler trying to make the leap, this post will give you a brutally honest (and hopeful) view of what it really takes to build something sustainable.