Sometimes life can get messy…I mean, after almost 10 years of marriage, moving, two kids and owning a business…yeah…we have seen it get messy. Owning a business is hard. Our livelihood depends on it. It’s how we feed our family, it’s our mission field. When we started full time photography in 2009, we did not know where or how God would use us, but we stepped out on faith. Of course, I was still teaching at the time and we had the assurance of my monthly income. Now that this business is our sole income, it can be scary. What have we learned since I left my job in January…
We’ve learned to walk by faith. God does not promise to give us all that we want, but He does promise to meet our needs. (I have to remind myself of this every time I want to go shopping or redo a room in my house.) Those things are trivial and have no permanent effects on our family or the Kingdom. He is meeting our needs in awesome ways and for that we are thankful!
We’ve learned that some days…even when you give it all you’ve got…the reward may not be immediate. We are constantly thinking of ways to improve our business. We put our heart and soul into this business each and every day. Some days we easily become discouraged and think…maybe we should go back to our “old” jobs of teaching and finance, but we have to remind ourselves that this business is where God has us and the long term impact it will make is greater than we can ever imagine. When you own a small business…you really never get a break, a vacation or days off. Even when we travel, we are answering emails, returning phone calls, posting to social media and making sure that everything is running smoothly. Being your own boss is amazing and tough.
We’ve learned that no matter what you do…that not everyone is going to use our services. Some days this can be super discouraging. No one likes rejection, am I right? As small business owners…there is and will be rejection. Not everyone is going to love what we do or our style of photography. We will not fit everyone’s budget. We will not book everyone that inquires about our photography services but those that do book, what an awesome opportunity we get to make an impact on their lives.
We’ve learned to not look beside us…we do not look at our “competition.” We only look ahead. We want to be different, set apart in the photography industry. We want clients and potential clients to remember us. We strive to give our clients the best service possible. A business depends on its customers/clients. After all…if it wasn’t for them…we would be unemployed.
Why do we share all of these thoughts with you? Well, to let you know that we are just like everyone else. We get discouraged and we struggle some days. Owning a business is not as glamourous as most think it is. Its hard work; constant hard work, but we do it because we truly love photography and love blessing our clients with amazing images of life changing moments. We are blessed to be the owners of Wes Roberts Photography.
Blessings, Meg
These two kids right here...they are why we do what we do!