I am toying with the idea of entering the freelance photography business at some time in the still reasonably distant future (when my photography is more up to scratch). I would offer portrait photography (candid and studio), product photography (which I do for my current workplace, see the banner and the product links to the left), and perhaps promotional photography for schools and businesses which I already do free for a friend of mine (the good shots on her website here are mine, though sometime they don’t look great once the web designer has worked them over, and the blown out shiny shots are hers with a little point and shoot).
If I did this, what would be the process of registering my business with the government, and where could I find out about the regulations I would have to meet? I would be tempted to use the living room of my apartment as a studio, though I could probably use the spare room at my church (which would give me better backdrop and lighting options), which is located on the corner of Zhongxiao and Fuxing, just opposite the new Sogo.
Don’t give up your day job!
Well I don’t have any intention of giving up my day job. This is just for kicks. Do you have any further advice?
You have some great photo’s so there’s no reason why you can’t be successful at it. One suggestion would be to set up a website on your own domain name as it’ll seem more professional to prospective customers than a site hosted as a sub-domain somewhere.
70% or so of the work of a freelance photographer is business, marketing and advertising. An average photographer who’s great at business and marketing will usually be more successful than a great photographer who’s poor at business and marketing.
And I’ve no idea of the laws and regulations in Taiwan as I generally don’t sell anything here - most of what I sell is to people in other countries and the money I receive doesn’t go into a Taiwanese bank.
Agreed. Remember to cull ruthlessly - don’t have lots of similar shots. I had a look at your collection of photos. They’re good but there’s far too much duplication.
Absolutely.
Are you going to use high-end digital or stick with film cameras? Or use both?
I was looking at a couple of photo libraries recently and I was shocked at how low the payments were. Some places just pay 30 cents or so per usage of your pictures. So, I would say portrait photography is the way to go.
Thanks, that’s very useful advice cfimages. I currently have a couple of friends who own schools to whom I would offer my services free of charge in order to build up a portfolio, and it might help me to gain a little recognition from parents.
Currently I take and print about 100 photos a month gratis for my friend at the Montessori school, and the parents are ecstatic about receiving regular shots of their kiddies, free of charge (for my part, I think of myself as supplying my friend’s school with added value). I recognise I’m not a professional, but these have been well received:
Basically I want to know if I have to register a business, how to do it, how much it costs, what I have to do about invoices and tax, etc.
Yes, you’re right. I really need to put a portfolio together. Those albums are just my ‘sharing my Taiwan photos with my friends’ albums, so I pretty much throw in everything I take.
I have an F80 (N80 in the US), and a D80, and I’m happy to use both (though I use the D80 much more these days).
Thanks for the tip. :bravo:
See if you can hook up with someone getting married and shoot that. I’ve done a few weddings in Taiwan and they are quite fun to shoot, although very tiring. A lot of the parents at the schools may well have brothers/sisters/cousins who are getting married - with a few wedding shots in your portfolio you might get some business there.
That’s a great idea, thanks. 
Would you have any advice on a hosting service I could use for my own domain? I would use my own server, but my up and download speeds are not that great and it seems like we still can’t purchase anything like I’ve seen in Korea and Japan (where my mates have 30-50Mbps connections which are amazingly fast).
Wedding photography is a money-making business here, but everyone seems to want the same old cliche shots that all their friends have.
I wonder if that could be changed once you were in the market?
Not so, IMO. I see people down at Bitan all the time getting wedding shots taken. Lots of trad. style ones with the poorly fitting Liberace tuxes and all that nonsense, but more and more of what I’d call “normal” i.e. Western-style sessions. Saw one just the other day in which the photog. had abseiled halfway down a cliff so he could shoot the happy couple screwing around on a diving board from above. Pretty damn cool!
That sounds promising. Perhaps there’s a market for people who want a little variety in their wedding shots. Though I’m a long way off weddings yet.