Hi Bill,

At the moment I still have a full time day job as a computer geologist (I'm actually quitting next week, but don't tell my boss just yet!) so my wife runs the gallery from 10.00am until 3.00pm. I take over from 3.30pm until 5.30pm on weekdays and 9.00am to 1.00pm on Saturdays. (No other retail outlets are open on Sat afternoon or on Sunday, so there are no customers around.)

In five weeks (after my period of notice has expired) I'll be in the gallery most of the time, running marketing campaigns, matting prints, being creative with my trannies, etc, etc. When I need to make new shots away from the local area, my wife will step into the gallery again to fill my place.

The next step is to open another gallery in the capital city of this state - that will be happening in September. That's when things will start to get messy for me, since I'll be hiring a manager for the current gallery in Kalgoorlie. It's a huge step for us, but it's one we must take to grow our business (I just hope "must take" doesn't become "mistake"! )

I have been considering that step but don't want to live at the gallery nor have to deal with hired help.
That's going to be difficult for you. The gallery is simply an outlet where people can see your work permanently on display, knowing you will be there when they are ready to purchase. However, people must be brought to the gallery by your marketing efforts, and that's where most of your time will be spent to make it a success. It takes a lot of work to keep people interested in your gallery, and hired help won't be able to do it as well as you can. You won't need to "live at the gallery", but you will need to be the "life force" of the gallery. By that, I mean you will need to devote a lot of your time to running it, whether you physically sit in there or not. In reality, you spend much less time making photographs than you do selling them.

Sounds like hard work? You bet! However, nothing beats the feeling of knowing people love your work enough to pay their hard-earned money so they can hang your creation on their wall.

Cheers,
Graeme