May 2023 brought me to my first official year with Grace Keller Photos! WOW -to be honest I can’t even believe it has been a year. While it truly does seem like it flew by, I still can’t believe it’s been a year…
When I started this business last May the only things I was equipped with was my basic knowledge of editing, a creative eye due to being creative by nature, minor graphic design & marketing knowledge & how to go above and beyond for clients due to my 13 years at Chick-fil-A (I believe this has been the #1 thing that has caused my business to take off like it has -I’ll go more in depth with this later).
I thought it would be fun (for me to look back on years from now) but also helpful to other’s who are new business owners like me to have a resource they could go to. I don’t believe starting out is a one size fits all type of experience but these are the things that I have learned after one year. There is SO MUCH to talk through so I will be breaking up this blog into a three part series -the business side of things, the photography side of things & lastly, what worked and what didn’t during my first year.
Let’s get started with things I learned on the business side of things!
Taxes
I figured I’d get the most stressful one out of the way first HA! I literally had no idea how much was involved when it came to taxes. It’s insane.
To be completely honest, this part was the most stressful to learn and it caused a lot of headache & tears early on. Not from the amount I had to pay but just getting it all set up! It was super complicated (although it may not be as complicated as I thought and probably seemed more difficult because I was stressed).
I decided early on I wasn’t going to invest in hiring someone to get it all set up for me. I didn’t want to add any additional debt to my first year other than the necessities. I still stand by that decision, but boy was it stressful.
I did end up hiring a CPA to take care of my end of year taxes which is well worth the investment. He was so helpful & patient with me -I am super grateful for him. I highly recommend hiring a professional to take care of this part. I sleep better at night knowing everything is taken care of legally & that I am being financially responsible throughout the year.
Bookkeeping & Contracts
I invested in HoneyBook from the very beginning. With HoneyBook I am able to streamline all of my communication, send & file contracts, accept payments & keep all of my expenses in one place. This has been the number ONE best monthly investment for my business. I could do an entire blog post devoted to HoneyBook with how much I am able to accomplish through it! If you are a new business owner I highly recommend using HoneyBook!
If you’d like to try out HoneyBook I will link a code at the bottom of the blog for 25% off your first year -give it a try!
Pricing
The biggest learning curve (aside from taxes) has been how to price my business. I was in a unique situation where starting out I had the talent level where I could charge my worth BUT with being a brand new business owner in the photography field -it was difficult. I put the blame mostly on myself for feeding into the lies that others were judging me for my pricing with being brand new. Big mistake. You HAVE to look at what money is being spent monthly to keep your business running, how much you have to pay in taxes & any expenses and still be able to either pay yourself or build a savings. If you finish a session and by the end of it you aren’t making any profit -it’s time to up your prices.
How did I know how to price myself and when did I learn it was time to up my prices? Every single time I noticed my skill improving, after I finished educational courses & learned new skills, every time I invested in better equipment or added another perk to my packages. Another big indicator was when clients were telling me I needed to charge more -HELLO!
My in laws were a huge help for me when I was learning how to be financially smart with my income. Because of their advice, me not being afraid to charge what I am worth & being careful about what investments I made -I was able to pay off a pretty big starting investment (my camera & lens) 6 months after starting my business AND pay myself a couple of times throughout the year. I don’t say this to brag -but to encourage you as a new business owner to be confident in your skills, price yourself accordingly & be wise in your investments.
Marketing
I am really excited to talk through my marketing strategy from my first year! You may be surprised because it really is a super easy strategy.
Believe it or not I did not invest one penny into Marketing during my first year in business. Not one. I didn’t invest in any wedding traffic websites like the knot or wedding wire & I didn’t pay for ads on google, instagram or facebook. All of my marketing came from how I treated my clients when they booked me (word of mouth), consistently posting my work to my online platforms, my own graphics that I created and used on my social media accounts, staying up to date with my google profile all by myself, blogging & learning SEO on my own.
Word of mouth was by far the biggest free Marketing I had. People care how they FEEL when they are with you. They care about how you treat them & the little things you do for them without them asking for it.
My job at Chick-fil-A over the last 13 years -but more specifically over the last 2.5 years was a HUGE blessing for my business. It’s no secret that when you go to Chick-fil-A you are going to leave feeling cared for, feeling like the team loves their jobs, and that the food is going to be delicious.
I remember reading posts through a few Facebook groups early on in my business, where other business owners where giving advice that I just simply didn’t agree with (and that is ok!). For example -if emergencies happened and clients needed to cancel or reschedule -these other business owners just had no grace at all. It caused a lot of nasty fights and bad reviews that they complained about which had the business owner scrambling for a solution on how to fix it. If clients had a special request that might have been an inconvenience -the answer was a strict NO. It truly blew my mind. A lot of situations could have been avoided if they simply showed a little grace and tried to go above and beyond for their clients over all experience. I am not saying there aren’t times where boundaries need to be set BUT in my opinion you should always try to do the best for your client. Period.
Anyway, why did I just go on that tangent? It’s because I truly believe that what helped my first year as a business owner go so well was because after each and every session I left knowing I did everything I could to go over and beyond for my client. If they needed to reschedule, I found a way. A family emergency came up and they needed to cancel -no problem. They wanted to add a special momentum to their session -absolutely. They wanted their session to be at their home because they just moved in and it is where they are building their memories -I’m there! When I wanted them to leave with a special token of their time with me, I gave them a polaroid. I new they had a special invite to send out -they got their gallery in 2-3 days. THOSE are little things I did to make it special for them.
I could go on an on about making your clients feel special. Maybe I will make that it’s own blog post but for now, those are some ways you can market yourself for free!
Portfolio Building
It’s OK to do some work for FREE. I am going to say that one more time. It’s OK to do some work for Free.
What do I mean by that? When you are first starting your business (I am speaking to photography specifically) you might not have a lot of work you are able to show your potential clients. There may be certain types of sessions you don’t have a lot of experience in. Do some sessions for free or at a super discounted rate and build your portfolio. During my first 6 months I took on a lot of paying clients but I also did A LOT of modeling calls to help give myself practice & to build my portfolio. I personally found that was an easier strategy than handing out discounts. During an average month I would have about 5-10 paying clients (full price) as well as 2-3 clients who were on a model call. This helped me continuously add new work to my website, have content to post on social and gave me practice in areas I was weaker in. After 6 months I took on less models (maybe 1 or 2 for the remainder of the year) and moved on to fully booking paid clients.
During the winter months this was a game changer for me. In Iowa, it gets brutally cold in the winter and as a natural light photographer -we weren’t going outside for sessions between the months of January and March (ish) so booking model calls just so that I could stay behind my camera shooting & having work to show was vital. I did book a few studio sessions but those aren’t something I am interested in at the moment so they were few and far between.
Just be careful not to stay in the “this is for free” mode. I feel like I had a good balance but there were times, specifically with friends, it was easy for me to say “don’t pay me”. There is a difference in building your portfolio at the start of your business & not needing to do that anymore. I am at a place now where I don’t need to hold sessions for free to build anything so a new strategy has to be put into place.
Moving into year two of GKP I now have a donation fund I added into my business model. This is for sessions that I give away for free (through social media giveaways, giving back to the community, and for sessions I want more practice in). Once that donation fund is full I don’t hold anymore free sessions (another thing I learned from my current part time job!).
There really is so much I learned that I could talk through -but in an effort to keep this semi short & save some for my next post I am going to stop here. I hope this was helpful to anyone just starting out -I know for me it was helpful to read other peoples experiences & apply some things that I took away. I am only in my second year so I still have a lot to learn but I feel like it would be a waste to not share some things that helped me have success during my first year!
Thanks for reading friends! I appreciate you & your support!
-G
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