Greg summed it up very well! I will add in this little guide I created for someone just like you starting out:
I will double down on the importance of having a permit. Even if you have insurance and something happens to a client on a workshop, the first thing your insurance company is going to ask is if you have a permit; if you do not, they will deny your claim, and just like that, you’re out of business and have potentially lost everything personally too. Also, I just heard a story where someone had a client tragically die on their workshop, it was not their fault, but because they didn’t have a permit, the workshop leader was convicted of manslaughter! The court specifically said he was negligent because of not having a permit. Don’t mess around with this!
Remember that you also become a travel agent when running workshops. This is one of the most annoying aspects of finding hotels, meeting spaces, etc. You’ll need to decide if you pay for the rooms and include it in the price or hold a block of rooms and let the clients pay.
Also, I will tell you that it’s very hard to break into the landscape photography workshop business. There are endless workshops out there, and it’s going to be very hard to build a client base. If you don’t have a good following or a niche that sets you apart, it will be a long struggle. I broke in getting really well-known for my night photography and did that for many years until I got burnt out. I switched to landscape, and it was a struggle for a long time. Sometimes I would only get one or two people signing up and wouldn’t turn much of any profit. Now we have no trouble selling out workshops, but it took probably 8 years to really get to that point. The point is, don’t think you’re going to make a living off of this right away. Give it at least 5 years to turn a good profit that you might be able to live off of.
When you’re ready you can list your workshop here https://theworkshoplist.com/ a client turned friend created this site and is just getting it off the ground.