I have the skills I just need to figure out how to get started. I want to do outdoors photography including pets and children. I would also like to do birthday parties. Not big on weddings.

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You could take a couple of weekend seminars to help learn a few tricks but I believe in the school of hard knocks. Just go do it but make sure you are as skilled at running a business as you are at taking photos. If not start studying and researching business management as much as you learn photography

You either do freelance or own a business, not both. Freelance is like a migrant worker. You and your assistant go from newspaper to newspaper, getting pictures for soft news. But he keeps hitting on the dignitaries. A business means you have a sign in front of your store and you work for you. if you want to freelance go to places and show them your portfolio. If you want a business, register with city hall and start a business plan.

You need to generate business and make a name for yourself. You need to develop your brand. You are looking at a very narrow market space with the portrait and pets photography. Ask yourself the following questions. Q1. How will I make money off this? This is an important question that needs a bit more than just "By photographing people". how are you going to charge ... by time, by print, a mix of both? Also mixed in there, you have to discover just how much you NEED to charge to turn a profit. You need to consider things like sales tax, income tax, cost of business cards, contracts, portfolios, flyers, newspaper ads, a booth a pet shows, domain name registration costs, web hosting costs, website development costs, general admin costs (like phone, cellphone, transportation ...) ... you then need to figure out how much you want in your pocket as well. Remember to budget for gear rental, gear replacement, new gear purchase as well. Your business needs to grow and for that, you need manure ... er I mean money. Q2. How will I drum up business? It doesn't matter if you are the next Ansel Adams or Annie Leibowitz(sp?) if no one has never heard of you. How are you going to get the word out that you are in business? Q3. Ok so the calls have started ... now how to I convince them to hire me? Ok so people have heard about you (flyers, radio ads, you had a booth at a pet show ... whatever) ... now how to you get them to hire you for a shoot? You need to sell yourself to them. Have a good portfolio targeted for the client type. In other words, showing wedding photos to a dog owner looking for pet pics might be nice but showing them pet pictures is much better. Q4. What's the government going to want to know? Last thing you want is to go to jail for tax evasion or tax fraud (or equivalent wherever you are) or pay huge fines, penalties and interest because of you didn't know something. You need to know what you need to declare, when, and how. Do you need to register a business? Do you need to collect and remit sales taxes? What are your reporting and/or remitance requierments? What documentation do you need to keep and for how long? What type of insurance do you need (probably liability for you and your "staff" and commercial property insurance for your gear). You need to contact a lawyer and an accountant. A lawyer for legal requierments and to talk about contracts and an accountant so you can find out what you have to declare and what you can claim.