Why I Came Back to Photography Full Time (and why it’s a risk..)
Have you heard the big news?!
For the last almost-2-years I’ve been working full time in admin, and my photography work (and my floristry business that I run simultaneously) has been a before-9am/after-5pm/weekends thing taking up a lot of that time!
But my brain started chugging away around mid/late 2025, that I wanted my work situation to look different than it currently was. I was really craving flexibility in my routines, and missing the work from home aspect my admin role couldn’t really offer me at the time.
Also, I was a little low on capacity with working full time, running two businesses during mornings/nights/weekends, living alone and keeping my house clean and my life admin on track, plus have hobbies, a social life, exercise sometimes and maybe get some rest!
So something had to give.. and I decided it was my salary! 😅
But I didn’t just suddenly decide to quit. I made a long term plan, including the below:
I ramped up my social media presence across both businesses, and my personal instagram (which has a reasonable following!)
I redid my budget, made a month-by-month list of all my bills for 2026, how much they are/roughly are, and when they’re due.
I broke down my bookings for all four quarters in 2026 to get an idea of income, where gaps were, and target work to fill those gaps (or make sure the busy seasons balanced out the quieter season)
I started covering off some big bills for early 2026, and squirrelling away some savings for months where the outgoings are higher.
I powered through Christmas at my job (our office went to a skeleton staff Dec 24-Jan 12, and I was said skeleton). I didn’t take any annual leave then, which maximised the payout I received in my final payslip, which I saved all of.
I resigned mid January, and gave four weeks notice to give my job as much time to transition smoothly as possible (there was zero malice in my resignation, just doing whats best for me, and I didn’t want them to be stuck at all!)
And look at me now!
As of early Feb, I’ve been flying solo, but I’ve had so so so much support from every corner of my life. I’ve already felt my capacity open waaaaay up in my mind, for extra conversations or trains of thought, or putting some ideas into action - I just didn’t have that brainspace before for a lot of things and I was really struggling to keep up. My days look a lot different now, and I’m loving the different options I now have.
It’s definitely risky to not have that stable salary to fall back on anymore. It won’t always be easy but I’m excited to crack in, hustle, cook lunches at home.. and maybe sleep more! (Maybe)
2026, let’s absolutely go.
