Moreover, you have to know where to draw the lines.  There are plenty of people looking for the best deal, but they will keep pushing no matter who they are actually dealing with in order to get a better deal, even if it is seriously at your expense.  It doesn’t really matter that much to them.  So there’s a point at which to say this is the price, pay up front, or I’m not wasting my time even getting started. 

In this economy, you also should never accept checks, especially from people you know.  It’s harder that way.  All in all, you shouldn’t accept checks anyway.  But if you know what you’re doing and you have a good business sense to take care of things that might get messy, a photography business can be easily quite profitable.

The lists go on.  Some people had more money in the beginning than did others, and some businesses with more money in the beginning still fail.  It should be remembered that most small businesses in general fail.  But the simple reality is that every big business came from somewhere.  They didn’t just magically pop up one day, and for the most part their original owners were not always rich men or women, they had to come up with the start up costs from loans and otherwise.