Today we’d like to introduce you to Rahul Rana.
Rahul, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My grandfather used to run a photography and film advertising studio in Bombay. They did the publicity for Hindi films (aka Bollywood). You can say photography was in my genes. Initially, I just thought of it as a hobby and focused on my job as an IT consultant, which took me around the country, as well as a stint working with the US federal government. It was during this time people started noticing my work and asking me to shoot small events and wedding ceremonies. As the word and work spread, it led to couples booking me for the entire wedding day and multi-day weddings. I started taking photography and business workshops and classes, which inspired me to take the leap and go all in. I quit my job, started a company and became a full-time photographer and business owner.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
When you initially start out on your own, you quickly realize how much extra work you have to do yourself. You take on many roles – CEO, CTO, marketing, advertising, accounting, taxes, meetings, etc. I would say 10% of my time is spent actually photographing. The rest of the time is spent on just running a business. I had to first learn how to do those tasks and figure out how to divide my time between each. Eventually, when the work picked up, I had to learn to let go of control and delegate or outsource some of the tasks that I hated doing or that just took up too much of my time. Once I let go, I found it incredibly liberating and had more time to do the things I specialized in. As a result, the work quality increased.
I don’t think starting a business can ever be a smooth road. You’re always battling not just other peoples’ opinions, but also your own inside voice. Many people around me questioned my choice to start a business from scratch when I already had a stable job.
The hardest part, though, is battling your own demons. While success eludes you, the doubts keep popping up in your head – Are you good enough? Do you match up to others? Should you do something else? Why aren’t people hiring you? Was it something you said? You have to constantly remind yourself that success is the result of a slow and steady grind. Very rarely does it come overnight.
Rahul Rana Photography – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
From the outset I knew I didn’t want to become a high-volume photography studio. You end up taking the same generic images for everyone and it tends to look like a mass produced product. We focus primarily on weddings, fashion and boudoir portraits and we limit the number we do in a year, so we spend more time with each client, getting to know them and their family. That allows us to create unique artwork for them that showcases their personalities and their relationships. We are known for photographing South Asian (Indian/Pakistani) weddings not just in Chicago, but around the USA and the rest of the world as well.
One of our most important jobs as photographers is to preserve a family’s legacy, so we only use archival quality materials in all our prints. In fact they’re what you’d find in a gallery, rated to over 200 years! Compare that to a USB or CD of images that ends up sitting in a drawer somewhere. The way technology changes, computers have stopped selling with DVD drives as a default option, USB drives may get replaced by something else, so in a few years you won’t be able to see those digital images. Even with the cloud and massive storage spaces on our phones, you end up with thousands of images to sift through and they lose their value. What would you rather have, the Mona Lisa hanging on your wall, or a JPG of it? 🙂
We take pride in the fact that couples tell us they love to show off these albums and wall art when guests come over. No one has ever come to us to say, “We show off our USB all the time!”
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success to me is the ability have freedom to choose what I work on, to wake up in the morning and look forward to going to work, the ability to use my creativity, be able to spend time with my loved ones, be able to explore life and have new experiences.
The most obvious marker of success for a business is revenue and client satisfaction. You can track client satisfaction through their referrals, while revenue gives you the freedom to live your life the way you want.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.rahulranaphoto.com
- Email: hello@rahulranaphoto.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/rahulranaphoto
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/rahulranaphoto
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/r4hulr
Image Credit:
Rahul Rana Photography
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