As a wedding photographer, you are gonna have to decide how you want to present you and your business. Now, there are two ways you can do this that I'm aware of. There are your name as in, I'm William Carnahan wedding photographer or William Carnahan photography, or you can come up with an entirely new business name and use that as like your moniker or your calling card. So I actually do have my own photography company and it is called Helio Road Incorporated. I've incorporated myself and I originally actually started using that as like the photography name and I still have it in places, but it's sort of under the hood. Now I've shifted over to William Carnahan or William Carnahan photography. And there are advantages and disadvantages to both. When starting out. You need to check your local laws and see what conducting business is like. Often in many places in the United States, at least you can conduct business as a sole proprietor, which means you just be using your name as in Willi...

am Carnahan Photography or Sam Shizu Jones Photography. Now, other places may be more helpful if you actually create an LLC or you create an S Corp or you create a DB A, this is gonna be varying for all different areas all over the world. So it's hard for me to target in exactly what your situation would be like. But it's something that you need to research and look at this also has tax ramifications. So if you're gonna be earning money as a sole proprietor versus an LLC or corporation, it will be very different for the area that you are living in. So please research that yourself. Talk to the person that helps you with your taxes and try and understand what would be better for you from a business side. Now, from a creative standpoint, I have always thought that it might be nice to separate the person from the business. Now that's not necessarily like a good thing or a bad thing because I've also noticed that having my own name in the business has been really helpful for branding. People know who I am. They know exactly what's going on. Wayne Carnahan photography. He's a photographer versus Helio wrote Incorporated. What the, what the, what the hey is that? So deciding, do I want to present myself as an individual and a photographer or do I want to present myself as a company can be a very important decision? Something that I think is also very crucial to think about is your own motivation. If you call yourself a photographer and you use your name William Carnahan Photography as your business. You should be stoked on it. You should be so excited about that name that it gets you going because you're starting a business and I think it's really important to pick a name and pick an identity that you are gonna be excited about that. You are gonna be motivated by that. You're gonna have no problem with presenting to the world because that is an underlying thing that mm is really helpful when you're really down in the dumps or you can't get clients or you just gotta stand by your name and be motivated by it. So sit down and think about, I'm excited about presenting myself as a photographer or do I want to come up with something creative to separate myself as a bigger company? There are so many disadvantages and advantages to both. If you decide to later on do something else that's not related to photography, it might be nice to have already had a business name that you can hide your next artistic project under. However, if you're going to go out and network and meet people and have an Instagram or a youtube channel or some big social media, it might be helpful to have that name recognition. It all depends on how you see yourself going for the future. And if you can't decide if you're not sure, stick with your name, your name is gonna be always consistent. It's gonna be across the board everything and it will confuse people less. I found times when you're sending invoices or you're sending emails from some name where you haven't built up recognition, using your actual name is more helpful in branding and in people not getting as confused. And if they need to send money to you through Venmo or through an online service or through a check, there's no question. It's that person. I'm writing a check to that person. The most important thing that I want you to take away from this is to be excited about your name, really be excited about it. And also make sure you check with your local tax rules and your local business rules and see what would be better for you if this is going to be a full time gig. If you're in the United States, a really, really great resource for these types of questions is SB A dot gov, you can go to this site and they will answer all your questions on what the different type of business and entities are. And it'll really inform you on where you can go and it'll also get the conversation started with you and your tax person.

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Philip Ebiner

Professional video & course creator, photographer & teacher to 1mil+ students; 10+ years experience with 1000+ videos.

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Will Carnahan

11+ years experience as a cinematographer, camera operator, and photographer. Working with Disney, Nike, ESPN, PredPol and many others.

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Choosing Your Business name

Choosing Your Business name

Lesson Info

7. Choosing Your Business name

Lessons

What this course is about and how to succeed

Why you should become a wedding photographer

Business Section Intro

Building your kit

Where You Should Invest Your Earnings

Will's Wedding Photography Kit