Money to Start a Photography Business - Portrait Critique?

I like the color and texture but I have a thing about cutting people's heads off. Are there any portrait studios where you live where you can work part-time?

You might talk to a professional in the area that is looking at retiring or has a growing business and offer to work for them for a few years. I live in a small town and do free lance work for the local paper. I don't make a living at it but I do get money to buy my toys. The bulk of my earnings comes from taking school sports teams photos. It is slow and takes time to build your business. I remember one of the early jobs I took the team photos and only 5 people ordered. Now I average about 75% or more of the team ordering. You will need to find a professional lab to process your photos. I use Mpix and have been very satisfied (www.mpix.com) They are reasonable and offer a wide range of services. My customers are very satisfied with the products. They have a very fast turn around time too and it is easy to upload your photos and do the final work on line. Good luck and keep us posted on how you are doing.

The way I earned money to pay for my camera equipment was by selling microstock. I have more information about microstock in my blog http://funonlinemoney.blogspot.com/2008/12/sell-your-photos.html When I started out in microstock, all I had was a cheap point and shoot digital camera. In just a few months I was able to buy a Nikon D70 with my microstock earnings. Then about a month after that I bought a nice telephoto lens! Now I have a Nikon D300 and several lenses, flashes, tripods, filters, etc. that I wouldn't have been able to afford without the help of microstock!