Math

Somewhere during the beginning of December I usually remember that back in early May I got really tired of entering data into QuickBooks and therefore really have no clue where I'm at financially heading into the last couple of weeks of the year. This evening while The Fiancée was studying for her pediatrics shelf exam tomorrow (I'd wish you good luck here babe, but I already know you're going to nail it!), I finally did some crunching and the results are pretty much what I expected.

Overall, like a bunch of buddies I've talked with of late, my editorial numbers are down on the year in total days billed and total number of jobs. The good news is that they aren't as low as I was expecting when things were dead slow over the summer and into August (I was worried about a sub 60-day mark). As of this moment I'm less than 20 days off of my all-time best year, and less than 10 jobs off as well. Additionally, from a quick glance it appears that, due to above average (for me) space rates and stock sales, I'm actually going to have a 15-25% rise in gross income when all is said and done.

I'm certainly not sharing this to be obnoxious -- god knows there are dozens of shooters who could make my bottom line look like a "Misc." (or even "Altoids") line item on one of their smaller invoices. I'm simply trying to share what things look like on my end of the world so that together we can take a hard look at what is going on.

The first lesson I take from this snapshot of the JLPFL spreadsheet is that editorial assignment photography cannot be relied upon solely, let alone shooting 50 days for The Gray Lady a year. Like I preached (to myself) in an earlier post from April that Andrew was kind enough to link to this week (I had forgotten about that one, mate), the smart bet is on diversifying. And on that note, hopefully in 2008 I can further enlarge my sweet little green pie piece labeled "advertising & corporate."

Lesson number two is that the 30% I was until recently splitting with a third party is a very precious thing. I can't imagine what I'd be looking at right now financially from a cash flow perspective if I had stuck around at Redux (or any agency). Actually, sure I can... it'd be a lot like last year and my infamous $75.00 Christmas check. The bottom line is that over the last 3 months I've booked just as many jobs, am making more money, and am getting paid on average 50% faster, allowing me to manage my business a hell of a lot better.

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Comments (2)

Sounds not all that bad John. I am currently sitting over my taxes to figure out if I have or need to spend money before the year is over. ;-)

After a disastrous 2002-2006, 2007 is on track to be my third best year ever, since the bubble in 97-2001.
Funny thing about shooting 50 days for the Gray Lady, you could shoot another 100 days for someone else and still shoot 50 for them, there can be overlap, as long as you are not getting on the plane! :) But I am just agreeing with you here as another kind of diversity, or a kind of incremental diversity, and taking as many no-expense days as possible, that money is worth twice it's value in cashflow. Anyway, heard you called while Andrew and I were imbibing and said hi, thanks for the shout.

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