People buy what they want, not what they need, and money spent is money forgotten, there’s a great article by Daniel Priestley about this here.

It’s something we all do, we find a way to justify it and there’s nothing wrong with that, we all deserve to reward ourselves.

How often will you think about the money later.

A friend of mine once told me that and it’s stuck with me forever because it’s true. How often do you think about what you spent on something you wanted after you’ve bought it?

Most people will never think of it again because we adjust, we compensate and we fit it in with everything else we’ve got going on.

Overcome the fear of spending money on your business.

If you’re starting out in the photography business, you’re probably concerned about how much everything’s going to cost you to get to a money-making stage but don’t overthink it, because if you do, you’ll never do anything — you’ll be too scared to.

There’s a couple of things here, you’re no different to anyone else who’s trying to do this, it won’t cost as much as you thought and you’ll find a way to do it if that’s what you really want.

The path to profit is to understand people’s spending behaviour.

I’m Mark Lait and I used to do this too, I would worry about how much things were going to cost, and I would discuss the ideas, looking for validation of my concerns and guess what?

Be careful of what you seek.

I found them! People would agree and tell me that I was crazy trying to do what I proposed and I would go broke trying.

I eventually figured out that if I was serious about this I couldn’t afford to listen to them so that’s exactly what I did, I viewed everything with blinkered vision and didn’t tell anyone what I was thinking — and it was the decision that helped me create a million dollar business.

I’ve done this stuff and I can help you achieve that mindset too, subscribe to this channel, like the video and give us a thumbs up to stay in touch with what really happens in the business of photography.

What if you regret spending the money?

I see it when one of our clients has buyer’s remorse, they make a purchase and then go away and panic about the decision they’ve just made.

Eventually they come to terms with it, why does this happen?

Time heals all wounds.

If you give yourself time to think about it, you’ll reconcile with the fact. I think the difference between these two examples is that usually when someone purchases photography, they hadn’t planned to spend what they did on it — almost everyone spends more than they thought they were going to.

If you’ve thought about what you’re going to spend your money on beforehand, like setting up a studio, it can be scary … where will I find the money? how can I afford it? … here’s a truth about life, if you want something bad enough, you’ll find the money for it and if you can’t, you’ll find a way around it.

The difference between spending and succeeding.

That’s one of the key differences between the ones who make it and the ones who don’t. A lot of people think they need way more than they actually do and there’s an article here about what you don’t need to start a photography business.

How often do you think about what you spent on a haircut, or buying groceries? And this is something you do over and over again throughout life.

The guy that told me that money spent is money forgotten is an advisor I’ve used in the past and I paid him two and a half thousand dollars for a day’s training — twice! His name is Julian Walker from StudioMax in Melbourne..

I had forgotten about what I spent until I needed to remember the lesson.

How often do I think about that? Never, how often do I remember what he told me?

Every time I’m considering buying something, it helps me make the decision, it makes me ask myself the question ‘how much will I miss this money if I buy this thing compared to how much will I benefit from the purchase?’

You have to buy what you have to buy.

Buying gear for your photography business is a no brainer really, I’ve still got stuff I use that I bought more than a decade ago, and unlike a haircut, I’ve never had to but it again. Those things just continue to make me money.

If you want an overview of the business of photography, read ‘the roadmap to success’

When it comes to making a decision like ‘should I invest in starting a photography business, I encourage you to make your own decisions, take a leap of faith and commit yourself to it but once you do — don’t look sideways or backwards because that’s where doubt lies and if you let it in, you will falter — make sensible decision based on what you’ve seen before, because everyone does what everyone does so you will probably copy someone’s else’s model and adjust it to suit your style and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Spend the money, and then forget about it.

Be brave and be rewarded — that’s what I reckon, it worked for me.

Next time I’m going to talk about consequences and this is a really important lesson on creating urgency during the sale — see you then.