AS you ruminate on my last topic, I hope you have started to ponder over which venture you’d love going into. I wish you the best and would want you to know that there are as many business ideas as there are stars in the sky. However, it is crucial that the business does not clash with your academic works, which must always remain priority.

So, this week, we’ll discuss one of the vocations readily available to any savvy entrepreneur. This is photography. Though it may sound like an out-of-the-world idea, especially as most phones now come with camera that enable their owners do a ‘selfie’ or record events, but despite this, hard copies are still in high demand. Since most people cannot print from their phones or take that catchy shots that would store memorable events, they still depend on photographers to do this for them.

Can you imagine the amount of money one could make taking shots of fellow students participating in mid-week sporting activities, matriculation and graduation ceremonies, social club activities, lectures and seminars or ladies wanting to see how their latest attires fit or even medical students performing their first surgery with cadavers?

As some of these pictures capture important and special moments, people would be ready to pay to have them either in hard copies or in e-copies. Whatever, it is a win-win thing. Since ‘selfie’ cannot accomplish this, the photographer’s camera becomes the essential tool to tell the story accurately. Moreover, because of their small focal lenses, most phones are incapable of capturing pictures that are not near. The reverse is, however, the case with a photographer’s camera.

Roving the campus to take pictures is a business that does not require so much money to start. You do not need a very big camera either. A small digital camera of between N12, 000 and N20, 000 with eight to 13 pixels is ideal. This type of camera enable one takes pictures that could be enlarged.

If you are naturally shy, it may pose a challenge at the start. But to overcome this, just be determined and focused. You can begin with close friends, study group members and roommates to make it easier. From there, you can gradually expand your market.

While the aim should be higher turnover in future, it is important you first have a firm grip at this level, which will serve as a strong foundation, as it forms your primary market. You have to use these people to hone your skill, know how to position the camera and take different shots. Some of the inherent advantages in this are that they help to advertise your handiwork. They would also criticise your work constructively without any bias. What’s more? They’ll readily overlook your mistakes, if you mistakenly damage their work. Indeed, they could serve as guinea pig for your business.

Photography has evolved over time and the process is no longer what it used to be. For instance, there is no need of buying photographic films. Modern technology comes with a digital mechanism that allows handler to select pictures and in some cases print them instantly with a printer. This goes to say that with a printer that costs about N25, 000, the sky will be the stepping-stone to your dreams.

Aside taking shots that cost between N100 and N250, depending on locations and picture type, a creative student entrepreneur may even go further by selling epoch making pictures to media houses or even put together pictures of events for solo exhibition, which could earn him/her more money.

You could also do some out-of-school shows by covering events at picnics or during birthday ceremonies held on campus.

Remember, these pictures could be transferred to their owner electronically, which means you are also to update your knowledge of the Internet, while not undermining the hard copy market segment.

Be wise, begin now and invest in your future.