Need Help, Serious decision to make

Hello all

Sorry about the long post, but I know that there are many knowledgable people here and I could really use a little advice. I know that this is ultimately my decision to make, but I would like to hear everyones opinions and thoughts.
I have the opportunity to try and open my own photography business through a government funded program. This program will financially support me for the next 9 months while I try and open my business. It also provides me with a great deal of business counselling covering pretty much every area. This counselling is available right through the duration of the program.
My photography experience revolves around Equine and general animal photography and this is what I love to do. For the last 4 months I have been shooting for an Equine magazine on a per assignment basis and I am learning alot as I go. I am also fairly experienced in baby photography as well as general portraiture.
Now, for the QUESTION. Do you think that there is enough work in animal/pet photography to make a decent amount of money. Sometimes I get the impression that the only way to make money with photography is by shooting weddings.
I would appreciate anyones suggestions and comments. Like I said, I know that only I can make this decision but your help will provide me with a little more insight.

Thank you very much for your thoughts
PS. This is the latest from my little man

What is the worst that could happen? You fail?? I would do it. You never know if you don't try.

To the best of my knowledge, there is precisely one person making a comfy living with pet photography as a business right now - see www.amandajones.com

There's a fellow in Northern Chicago who's garnered a similar reputation, but he stays in-studio, not traveling as Jones does...and his biz also caters to corporate and portrait clients.

There's also a fellow who took to his van this past summer, and went coast-to-coast gathering up pet shots on teh cheap, building an immense stock library in the process...but I can't say whether or not that action will lay a foundation for mortgage payments being met over the course of his working life.

I could be wrong, but what I have seen through extensive research on the matter is that there are a few who may also have the generic stock/greeting card market as FAVORING them as a supplier, but too it's likely that these folks also sell much other stock and images to pay the mortgage.

There are not many publications, either, that pay much money for it - most farm the assignemtns to a pool of photographers and take the best of the submissions, the rest of the photographers having spent time and effort for naught. . .and those pubs that do pay a lot (two or three at best), often hire professional/respected portrait photographers to photograph the animal with their celebrity owner.

I've seen many photographers with booths at canine and equine events, shooting pics much like one would at a college football game, and letting the animals' owners buy a $20 print on-the-spot...but can't imagine that's paying mortgage and putting the kids through college.

Back to Amanda Jones - she has a good business hook, and a sturdy business plan. She works referrals out of every city she travels to with $ incentives for shop owners to get her bookings, etc. Her gimmick is a well lit, shallow depth of field photo in large format that gives a fine art feel to the results. The prints are often huge.

Your posted image above is gorgeous, the lighting great, the colors well-managed and the image pleasing to view....but what's going to differentiate it? What's your gimmick?

That's food for thought, along with marketing, incentives, etc. That your project could be well funded is fantastic, and may prove the success.

As a man who doesn't gamble (and no business should be a gamble), I don't think I'd go for it as a source of steady income at all. A photography biz would likely also need other sources of income, pleading for diversity in the business.

Hope I'm not a wet blanket...just sharing what I've learned.

I think you would be better off doing all the available photography that you're good at, or that you can handle.

I have a pet photography studio in a city in North Louisiana, and I don't make a ton of money on it. People just don't expect to pay a ton of money on thier pets for something like photography. All the money I really make from just doing pet stuff comes from holidays. But if it's just during the regular season I don't see a ton of business. BUT...that's why I do all sorts of photography stuff, I don't just do pets, I do pretty much everything else but weddings, and I live comfortably.

It takes ALOT of word of mouth and advertising to really get everything going though. If you don't have people seeing your stuff out there you won't get much business, but then that applies to all business. I'm not trying to discourage you from starting your own pet photography business because really it all depends on the area you live in, around here there just isn't a really huge market for that type of thing. I'm the only one I know of in my area that does it on a regular basis though.

And there are PLENTY of people that have pet photography businesses that make it. Here's a couple examples.

http://www.dogumentarian.com/

http://www.bryantdogphotography.com/

Thank you all for the the comments so far guys. As I expected the answers are quite varied. But this is good, it is helpful to see different sides of the coin. Would love to hear more thoughts.

Thanks

Matt, thanks for putting a hair dryer on my wet blanket! I'm just curious, though - do you know for certain that dogumentaria and bryantphotography are making it on just the dog shots? Bryants has more than dogs on the site.

I'm trying not to be ultra-pragmatic, here:)

I think if you are going to do pets, you will have to do more than just "pets". Show dogs, agility, ect; and so on. This company sets up at dog shows and takes very nice pet photos. I was really interested in his set up. http://www.thewinningimage.com/twi/ I do think he also does other photography.

You could also do fundraisers which will augment some income and also help the cause you are fundraising for. It gets you a lot of sittings for a weekend. I am booked with about 75 sittings this weekend(and yes, I am afraid I have bit off more than I can chew)

Where there is a will there is a way. It just isn't always easy. I have a tendency to be a bit flaky, so, don't expect much pragmatism from me

lol well as far as I know bryant makes it just on pet photography. BUT they do people and pet photography together. It's not all just pets. I dabble in doing people with their pets but not all that often.

I think most of us here agree that you need to do other types if you're going to get into the business, but I really don't think the big hitters are weddings. They CAN make you the most money in one session, but you can make just as much in others depending on what it is.

The Dogumentarian site that I had linked I'm pretty sure she has another job that she does regularly.

If pet photography was one of the things I wanted to get into really bad I could, but right now I'm happy with the little studio inside the petshop we got. One of the best things you can do like others mentioned is hit up the dog shows. Rent you out a booth or hand out leaflets/cards whatever you need to do to get your name out. Petshops and fundraisers are really great ways to use your knowledge too.