10 Years as an Entrepreneur | Only Change Is Constant
LUMO Image 10 Years
Today, 1 April 2021, marks exactly 10 years since I founded my company LUMO Image!
Stunning 10th birthday cake by Kahvila Tuokio
I was already marvelling five years ago in a post on the LUMO Image website at how quickly time had flown. I suppose it's simply true that time flies when you're having fun. Being an entrepreneur hasn't always been nothing but joy and success, but fortunately that has been the case for the most part. COVID affected shoots in spring 2020 and early summer, but thankfully the rest of the year returned to normal and November–December was even a record-breaking period in terms of bookings.
The challenges of entrepreneurship still include irregular income and the occasional uncertainty about making ends meet, but compared to five years ago, I now have more regular clients who use my services on an ongoing basis, particularly on the corporate photography side. A big thank you to them! I have also grown accustomed to the fact that the calendar might look completely empty two weeks out, but these days I trust that bookings always pop up from somewhere. Especially on the corporate photography side, the booking lead time is very short.
A dedicated website for corporate photography
This brings us neatly to a change I made almost exactly four years ago. Originally, I only had the LUMO Image website, which served both wedding and family photography as well as corporate photography services.
Four years ago, I made the decision to separate corporate photography services onto their own website at www.petterilopponen.com, while keeping wedding and family photography services at www.lumoimage.fi. I also separated the social media channels accordingly. I believe this was the right move, as the LUMO Image site mainly generates enquiries for wedding and family photography, while corporate photography is enquired about through this site.
Demand for video continues to grow
Only change is constant. In the birthday post I wrote five years ago, I was already strongly anticipating growing demand for video production among my potential client base, and that photographers were already being asked about video capabilities. This has indeed come to pass, and video is now becoming an everyday part of corporate marketing.
Back then, five years ago, I was just getting started with video and had produced a few pieces. Over these five years, I have studied video production diligently and produced numerous videos for my client companies. I see strong growth potential for video in my business. Last year in 2020, video already accounted for over 26% of my total sales. Video production sales growth last year compared to 2019 was a good 10 percentage points, and I expect strong growth again this year.
Although the share of video will continue to grow, traditional still photography still holds a strong place in my heart, and I believe the importance of a good photograph will not diminish — quite the opposite, in fact.
A good place to continue forward from.