Grads Vs Debt

Take action, live a remarkable life, and kick debt in the face.

Archives for July 2014

How I saved over $1,300 while starting my photography business

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One of the most important aspects of getting out of debt is understanding how to leverage your talents to create multiple streams of income.

So about a month ago I decided to take my ammature photography to the next level and see if I could get any jobs photographing or filming weddings on the weekend. Luckily for me, one of my friends knew someone getting married and pitched the idea of me filming their wedding.

And they accepted!

So, the good news is this Friday and Saturday I have my first wedding videography gig lined up.

The bad news is I don’t have the equipment (or the money) to launch a wedding videography business. I do have a camera and a pretty nice 35mm lens. But to really create a great video I know I’ll need professional audio equipment, a lens that can (a) handle low-light situations and (b) capture subjects at a distance, and the know-how to pull it all together.

As we speak, I’m heavily in debt and working to manage my finances to pay off my loans on my engagement ring and small loans from my parents; not to mention save for a wedding, move into a new house closer to my work, and tackle my student debt payments. But I know that if I do this wedding video correctly it could lead to a great opportunity to generate extra income. So I’m looking at it as an investment — however, do I charge my credit card a few thousand dollars to try to start or is there another way to launch this photography business?

Luckily as I had my payment window open in B&H Photo ready to purchase a $1,479 (used) lens I did one last check on National Camera Exchange’s website to see if there was any other way to get a lower price. Thankfully, a banner display popped up advertising a new program where they  are renting lenses and other equipment to photographers. Immediately I called their stores and inquired about if I could rent a version of the $1,479 lens for a few days.

And they said they had one left!

And it was only $40/day!

They also had the audio gear that I needed to get direct feeds from the church sound system for only $20/day. After an insurance fee, the grand total for renting the equipment came to $85.  That’s over $1,300 I saved just by controlling my desire to go all out buying equipment and instead rent the gear and start small.

I’ve got a lot of planning to do to make sure this wedding filming project is a success, but I’m so thankful that I found a cheaper way to start my business than purchasing all the equipment outright at the beginning. I’m looking forward to scaling it if this weekend goes well.

Money Saving Moment #1: If you are looking to start a business, focus on creating value instead of purchasing the newest gear. Get good at creating value, then, as the customers come in, grow your business and the equipment you need along with it.

 

 

The Re-Launch of Grads vs Debt! (and why I owe it to a stranger I met in Starbucks)

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Day One PictureToday I am re-launching Grads vs. Debt. I’ve deleted all of my posts except my first post back on September 18, 2013. I want to keep that as a reminder of where I started.

 There has been a lot of ups and downs over the past few months. Here are just a few:

– My grandfather passed away.
– I got engaged to the woman of my dreams!
– I took on a job as head coach at a local high school (I’ve never been a head coach before!) with eight assistants to get to know.
– I passed 6 college courses (yes, 6 in one semester), 3 state-licensing exams, survived student teaching (barely), and finally got my teaching license.
– I also landed my first job!
– …but I have to relocate to work there.
– And on and on and on.

In sum: life became super busy this past spring as everything in my life sort of came to a head. My family life, my education, my professional life, and my personal life. I’m sure you can relate to that, too. You set a goal, you start to take action, and before you know it, something else sidetracks you and you end up forgetting you ever got started.

Well, today I’m starting again. In the business world they call that a re-launch. For me, it means something wasn’t working and changes needed to be made.

The biggest reason I wasn’t able to focus on my finances for the past several months was because I didn’t incorporate them into my life’s habits. I never had a day that I sat down to review my budget. I didn’t take time to review my credit card statements. I got lazy with looking over my bills. Routine and habit creation are foundational to sound finances. Sure, it would be nice to never have to think about money. But the reality of the situation is that you are going to have to think about money for the rest of your life. The sooner you begin to intentionally incorporate your finances into your daily/weekly/monthly routine, the better.

So no more excuses for me. No more going weeks without reviewing how much money I’ve spent or what my checking balance is. In the coming weeks I’m going to teach you the routines I’m creating around my finances and hopefully inspire you to create some of your own.

Now, a little bit about this picture.

Here’s the story: I was driving home from the World Domination Summit in Portland, Oregon this past week. It’s a 27 hour drive from Portland to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the only thing that kept me going was sporadic coffee stops along the way. In Missoula, Montana I stopped for gas and a Starbucks coffee. Waiting at that counter as they did a pour over of their light roast (because who has light roast brewing at 7:30PM, right?) something came over me and I decided that I was going to relaunch this blog, this initiative to get out of debt, and that from that moment on I was going to take massive action to capitalize on my talents, live my dreams, and help inspire people to take control of their life too. I wanted to give this blog another try, and, so I grabbed a napkin and asked the barista for a pen. I wrote “DAY 1” on the napkin and asked a random stranger (whose name turned out to be Mark) to take a picture of me with my iPhone.

And here’s the cool part: I ended up talking to him about my initiative, about trying to get out of debt and take control of my financial life, and how I was a teacher. Turns out he was a teacher too and my story resonated with him. So much in fact, that after I left and was in my car, he came outside and handed me a $20 bill and said he wanted to be the first to contribute to help me get out of my debt! How awesome!

There is a power to action. When you decide to step out and really move forward towards your dreams, I believe opportunities begin to manifest themselves for you to take advantage of. In this instance, Mark’s $20 donation helped me realize that my story will resonate with people out there, that I have something to share with you the reader, and that I should keep going with my ambition to clean up the debt in my life.

So today, I relaunch this website with renewed initiative and resolve to share my story, to live my passion, and to teach people how I’m going about getting out of debt. It’s a journey. I understand that. But I’m looking forward to it. I can’t wait to see what is ahead!