We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brian Loeffler a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Brian, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later?

I began photography when I was 16 years of age as it was my dad who taught me the craft. I bought my first camera, a Canon AE-1, when I was 19 while I was at Ohio State, and no subject was off limits as I enjoyed photographing just about anything.

I had the unique opportunity to work at the Columbus Zoo’s golf course, the Safari Grill, during the summers of 1991 and 1992. While there, I made a lot of friends at the zoo who allowed me to photograph the animals. I saw everyone’s reaction to the photos I took, but my goal was to get my Bachelor’s Degree in Business.

Once I entered the Business world, photography was put on the back burner until 2021. So a full 30 years went by before I decided to take up photography again, and the Camera Industry significantly changed where it took me an entire year to catch up to the technology. It took me another 6 months to catch up on how social media is used to promote a business.

There are times I wish I stuck with photography given the adventures I might have taken to photograph various wildlife and landscape, but I am grateful to be doing it now even if it took me 30 years to get back to it.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am happy to say my clients have been very happy with the print images they have ordered, and they appreciate the customer service I provide to them.

I am very hands-on with their order by making sure the printer understands the order, when the order needs to be completed by, and then making sure the quality of the finished product meets my standards prior to delivering the print image to my client.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I was fortunate enough to work in the Business world where I earned a very good salary. I was able to use my salary to buy my equipment and set up my website while I worked to sell my photos as print images.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

The biggest help for me has been reaching out to other photographers to understand what has worked for them and what lessons have they learned from running their business.

The biggest piece of advice has been to take care of all of the monthly and quarterly filings each state requires for sale tax purposes.

Basically, if you do not take care of the regulatory filings then you will not have a business to run.

Contact Info:

• Website: https:\\unledded99-photography.com
• Instagram: @unledded99

Image Credits
Brian Loeffler, Owner Unledded99 Photography