Having attended a number of photography related seminars and conventions over the past few years (including the brilliant annual SWPP London convention, to name but one) and also read many professional journals etc. I did, mine some very useful information on starting out.
I must say that much of this information and certainly many professional photographers cast doubts on the higher education sector to provide graduates that were sufficiently capable of making a useful contribution to their business, without significant further input being needed and questioned whether the time (2-3years) would be better put to learning the business hands-on, maybe by working as an assistant or doing something else in the studio or even going it alone from day one. However in this economic climate that is easier said than done as "assisting" and such like opportunities are few and far between to begin in this arena and business start-up failures are still too high for comfort. Please feel free to comment with your reasoned opinions.
That all said (briefly) I've decided to take the plunge and take a full time photography degree. You may think this is a folly, but to my reasoning I am not straight out of school/college, I have some business acumen, I have experience of operating small and very large budgets, I understand the importance of having a positive cash flow, I have been involved with putting together and managing small and large projects, (previous project planner) and managing large departments, and know that marketing and the client are all important, albeit all in a different profession. So as I see it, I might have a business awareness advantage when having completed my photography degree .....well maybe, you might think!
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