Nicole Pfeiffer Photography

Holy schmoly, 2012 was a trip! Last year certainly proved to be a busy and successful year for my business, but rushed and missed opportunities for my life. I have been writing and rewriting this blog post for months, debating what to talk about. What is too personal? I had more ups and downs, more laughs and disappointments than any other year. I never expected to be as busy as I was only one year after moving to Howell. I never expected to reach so many homes and computer monitors (some clients coming to me from over 3 hours away) and I never expected to push myself as much as I did and stay somewhat sane {the sane part is questionable}. My husband and I faced a handful of personal challenges in our lives last year (declining health of family members, losing people we love, supporting people in need). I lost my most beloved feline friend , Precious, of 14 years in March to cancer and it was one of the most difficult things I have had to experience and work through to this point in my life. I had Precious since my second semester of college, she went through 6 moves with me and was the only relationship that was promised. She suffered for some time while my husband and I tried to figure out what was wrong with her until she just wasted away and gave up. I was pretty broken for some time and still feel the void of her loss.  Two very wild and crazy Bengal kittens have stepped in for her, but will never take her place. My husband and I also quickly started down the Vegan/Vegetarian path, and even with the knowledge that has directed us this way, it is still a very different way of living, thinking and eating at the end of the year. For moral and health reasons, this was one of the most important decisions we have made and we are fighting to do what is right. I am not sure how these events effected my business this year, but they were pretty impactful {yes, a word I made up cause it makes sense} to me personally.

Through all the struggles, being a photographer allows me to meet some AMAZING people. Last year I came face to face with what really drives me… and also what doesn’t. We, as photographers, run a people business. This will push you, this will surprise you and at times, this will test you. I am a person, running a personal business about people and that isn’t always a piece of cake. Last year both surprised me and truly tested who I am as a person. Not just as a photographer or an artist, but as a person. I am emotional and sensitive and over-involved in what I do. I am proud and determined and work way too hard. And all this affects me. You have to be honest with yourself as much as possible if doing something like this is going to work and I feel a bit let down by last year. Not just in myself, but in how I allowed my business to take over my life and honestly, how I have allowed some people to make me feel. Most photographers don’t start a photography business because they want to be a business person or because they want to run a business. They start taking photographs because they LOVE to and it can become a business. And that is where it gets messy. I love what I do and I am blessed everyday to have this opportunity, but I feel I lost a bit of my passion and drive for it last year in the mist of trying to run a successful business and make so many people happy. I am only one person and can only do so much while trying to keep a smile on my face and act as if everything is going perfectly in all other aspects of my life. That’s just not real and I found out the hard way… it’s just not possible. 2013 will be a year of taking my life back.

I am honestly floored at how many inquires I received, bringing me to a point where I was turning clients away because I just didn’t have any time left. It is a very humbling feeling to be confronted with so many people wanting to work with you, but it is also a very real weight to carry as well. How do you make that many people feel special and happy and comfortable? How do you address so many needs, complaints, requests, expectations, assumptions, emails, phone calls, and personalities? How do you handle being involved in so many people’s lives and making it something amazing for each of them? I can say it’s been a trip. It’s been fun and rewarding and trying and painful (I did step on a nail while shooting and continued to shoot while bleeding after all) and I am so thankful for the clients that appreciate what I do and more so, who I freaking am. {yes, that deserved a freaking} My clients may not know everything that goes on in my life or realize that I even have one, but I am very thankful for the clients that understand… I am a person too.

So for my third year in a row, I’d love to reflect on how running a photography business and trying to keep a personal life has impacted me in 2012 and certainly, what will change for 2013. I won’t be going into detail about all my business changes, because some of them are personal or are saved for mentoring sessions, but I will address major changes. As I mentioned, last year was full of challenges, and though there is so much good and positive changes that will come from them, they overwhelmed me more than the positive aspects of running a business. And that is just the truth of it.

If you have been following these posts, then you know the drill. If not, these are just some ups and downs in the life of a photographer running a business… with no kids… just cats.{cause it totally makes a difference people} Here are some quick things that I found worked positively for my business this year – either new or continued!

• Using Facebook to find senior reps/senior clients: This may be questionable and sometimes risky, but Facebook is still a HUGE positive tool for me to use, especially in the high school senior market. This is where my client hangs out and will most likely be the FIRST place they see my work. Yes, the first place. All of my clients come to me by word of mouth – either by a senior rep or by their friends being tagged in a photo I took of them on Facebook. This little, annoying, always changing tool will continue to be a handy marketer for me until they completely ruin it for small business!
• Wardrobe consults: This continues to be a great aspect of what I do. Not only are they super beneficial for me and my creative process in getting to know my client, but it totally breaks the ice for the clients  I am working with and by the time they show up for their shoot, we are friends out having fun for the day {not some lady taking their pics}. Possibly working in Skype meetings has crossed my mind, but we will have to see how that works out. I had many clients confirm that this was a unique and special aspect of what I do! And I love that!
• Sample products: In 2011 I did not bring sample products to my wardrobe consults and I was missing out because I wasn’t able to prep my clients with products that I loved and believed in and felt they should own. Last year, I carried a few of my faves with me and most of my clients fell in love with them too and made sure to order them. Seeing something in person will always leave a better impression than seeing it online or just hearing about how awesome it is.
• Having more than one camera: Once again, this was a necessity. During a session, my camera lost some functionality and I had to use my backup camera. Little time was lost and the client even noted that it was a good thing I had an extra one!
• Finally having a studio: (mostly) It was great to finally work in a space with a proper floor and ceiling. I felt more professional and it was more welcoming. This was a huge bonus to my start of in-person ordering sessions! And though it is still not fully done and some rearranging needs to occur, I am more than excited to finally have a space to really work in. Spring of 2013 I have a Studio Opening party in the works that should be fun! Past, present and future clients (and friends and family) will be welcome for some sweet dance music, photo booth shenanigans and prizes!
• Not shooting weddings: After one year of not shooting weddings, I can say that I feel confident in my decision to stop offering this service. I still received lots of requests for wedding photography, even though I do not advertise this anywhere, but I didn’t feel like I was loosing anything by turning them away.
• Working with some amazing senior reps: Finding senior reps for me has always been a chance. I haven’t done interviews in the past, but hope to in the future. I just happen to contact some great girls that were open and took this challenge on right away with full gusto. I had more referrals from my reps last year than any other and was taken aback at how much they believed in me and wanted their friends to work with me. Not because they got discounts, but because they wanted them to have really great photos. I can’t ask for more.
• Referrals: This is what drives my business. When meeting a new client, I mostly hear that they found me through a friend, not that they found my website on Google. As much as a website and SEO can do for you from people outside the circle you work in… chatter will usually push you forward within that circle. I could not be more humbled at the number of referrals I received last year. I almost couldn’t keep up or keep them straight. With referrals, it’s not just about hiring me to create pretty art, it’s about trust. And this is so key in what I do and how I work. I appreciate each and every person who has ever mentioned my name or hired me.
• Having office hours: 2011 I started to put in place actual office hours and last year I stuck to them (mostly). This is so important and even though not all my clients followed this and would call or text at all hours about random stuff, I made sure that I was getting back with them when I had office hours. Photography isn’t life or death, there are no real emergencies. Contacting clients back in a reasonable time, during a time frame that you set aside for it, is the best way to start to separate your business and your life schedules.
• No longer offering digital files for purchase: Yes, this is a positive thing for my sanity and my future business. After more than a handful of red flags in the beginning of 2012, I put my foot down and stopped offering images on CD for print. As hard as this decision is because of the market I work in and the expectation of most clients, I have been debating over this decision since I started. I not only believe in offering my clients quality products and service from start to finish, but I believe in the print. I believe in something you can hold and look at and appreciate. I don’t believe in giving someone a CD of images that we have worked hard on so that they can be printed at Walmart on cheap paper with cheap ink. This is not a representation of my work. As much as the experience is part of working with me, the final product that hangs on a wall is equally important. There is no reason to pay a professional photographer a good amount of money to turn around and pay .09 cents for the final product. You are hiring and paying me for the final product. This would be like paying for the finest cut of steak (which I no longer eat), freshest veggies from your grandmother’s garden (that I probably helped plant) and imported beer from Germany (I don’t drink beer either) to have your neighbor’s 12 year old son cook out on the back deck.  Oh, and he’s a pyro. You just don’t do it.I will probably write a full blog post on this soon, because it’s a huge debate!
• 2 week online galleries: This was something I changed from 2011 (from months to weeks) and I am happy with this choice. Every photography studio runs their business differently and I offer my clients 2 full weeks of browsing their proofs online before they need to purchase. From a physiological standpoint, this is more than enough time to look at something and decide weather or not you like it. It is human nature that the longer you think about something, the more likely you are to talk yourself out of it. The longer you have to look at an image and pick it apart for all the things you don’t like in yourself, the more likely you are to dislike the entirety of the image created. This is true for most people. I have found that gut reactions are the best reactions when it comes to art and I want those gut reactions! From a business standpoint, I don’t have the time, energy or money to keep so many client’s galleries up for an unlimited amount of time. This effects my business and my personal life in many different ways – it’s like babysitting. When working with over 70 clients, that is a lot of sorting, uploading, organizing, and keeping tabs on. And all that takes time and energy. I set aside a certain amount of this for each client within a certain time frame. So anything requested outside of that takes away from my personal life and that just happens to cost money. I also pay to host images on my server per month. I am running a business, so I can not offer everything for free. Clients are welcome to request that I host their images for longer, but I can not do that at my own cost. This was a stress factor for me last year, with clients almost demanding that I do more than I was able to and not understanding why I couldn’t keep their galleries up for an unlimited amount of time. Like, for years. I do not want to still be addressing photos galleries and orders 3 years from now. Yes, I keep client images indefinitely, but there has to be an expectation for both my client and my business that things will be wrapped up in a timely manner. Bottom line. Moving forward, there will be changes to when galleries are posted and better information on why this is done.

2012 brought many new challenges to me and my business – some I never thought I would come across and some I never even knew existed. This is a list of experiences that will make my business stronger and me a better business owner. And if any of these circumstances can help another photographer, all the better!

• Being behind on starting the studio construction: I wanted to get the studio redone and have it ready before my first senior rep came for her session, but this did not happen. Construction pretty much started when my senior rep sessions did and it stressed me out. It made me feel unprofessional and as if I wasn’t giving them the royal treatment I wanted them to have. Everyone was great about it, but it made me feel less-awesome.
• Accepting too many senior reps: I accepted 10 girls to rep with me last year and that may have been too many with the way I was running my Rep Program. There just wasn’t enough time to do what I needed to, to make things happen with this many girls. This year I am not sure how many reps I will be accepting, as my program is still in the works, but I do have a lot changes in store and I am really excited to start the process!
• Accepting and interviewing senior reps: I have never interviewed for my rep positions, but this year I plan to. I want to get to know these girls better before welcoming them into my family and giving them so much of me for free. That is the honest truth about it. Last year, I had some great girls working with me who knew how to promote me to their friends and fully believed in what I do and trusted that I would treat their friends to a great session and beautiful photos. But not all my girls put in effort or seemed to care… which sucks. I worked with a variety of girls from all over, some being the only rep in their school and some being one of a few. I contacted most of them myself, but had a few that came and asked to rep with me. There is never a guarantee when it comes to reps – you are taking a chance that they will do the work and send people your way… even with incentives and requirements.  You just never know and it’s a very weird feeling to believe one thing and see different results. I take these girls under my wing, I treat them like family and I do take it personally when I don’t see them do the same with me. And I may need big girl pants here {true}, but when it comes down to it – I am putting myself out there for these girls – with my heart, my time, my money and my business. I do expect a level of respect and maturity in return. Moving forward, I will be holding interviews to get to know these girls more before I work with them and make sure they want to become part of what I do instead of just getting a free shoot and their hair and makeup did.
• My senior rep program: Last year, it worked, but it didn’t. It was a toss up and will be reworked! In 2011 I had 4 senior reps and only one did any work. I didn’t really have anything in place to make sure I was getting the return I needed by giving them a free shoot and free products. Last year, I at least put in a minimum order requirement if they didn’t refer anyone to me, but that still ended up not covering the time, effort and money I put out for the girls that didn’t do anything.
• Getting the parents more involved (mostly for my reps): The senior market is crazy. The students are the ones shopping for their photographer now, not the parents. I felt that some of the parents didn’t take their daughter being a senior rep for me seriously and just thought that I was giving them a free shoot. There was some misunderstanding and non-involvement in some cases that I would love to correct in the future. A parent’s word of mouth is just as powerful as the student’s!
• Hair and Makeup: 2012 started off pretty stressful with trying to find reliable hair/makeup professionals. The first handful of sessions I had booked with hair/make up either showed up late, didn’t show up at all, bailed at the last minute or made the client cry. For a moment there, I had to stop offering this service because these professionals were damaging my reputation. I even thought about taking classes myself to get the job done. After a month of looking and finding the right professionals who understood the retail client that I work with, I found a handful of amazing women that not only came through with last minute bookings, but made my clients feel beautiful! Thank you to Nicole Medor and Natalie Pohorecki for being my rocks last year and really being people I could count on! I hope to work with you just as much or more this year!
• Mailing out orders: This still goes here because it still doesn’t happen as quickly as I would wish. I did start mailing from home (in most cases) and this has helped, but only being one person has slowed me down when I am busy. I would love to have a turnaround time set in my head and stick to it in the future. I would also love to have an assistant once a week to address some office duties.
• Sending out reminders: This is such a small thing, but it has so much impact. I feel it is part of my job to remind people when things are up, when they are due, when something will expire, when we are supposed to meet, what time to be somewhere and where to be. I feel it is important to remind my clients that I appreciate meeting them, shooting with them and working on their order with them. I think all these things are VERY important. However… I found I don’t have the time to remind every client about every single one of these things. I tried to keep on top of it this year, but I just flat out couldn’t. I am desperately searching for some type of automatic email reminder system that will do this for me or at least help remind me to remind them about what they should have remembered.
• In-person ordering: This goes here because it is still a work in progress. I did not offer these in 2011, but jumped into it with everything I had last year (unfinished studio and all). I personally believe that talking with a client about their images in person is beneficial. I believe that seeing the products I offer in person is beneficial.  Last year I found that people are very “busy”, sometimes too busy to put any importance on ordering images. I had a lot of ordering sessions rescheduled (which caused other issues) – I even had some clients just not show up and order online without contacting me. I have found that I love doing in-person ordering sessions and will continue these this year, with some slight changes and better information on why these are so beneficial to my clients.
• Rescheduling ordering sessions: This was a huge issue for me last year. Things will happen and sometimes appointments will need to be rescheduled, but I had about 27 clients reschedule their ordering session with me, almost all of them not due to an emergency and almost all of them the day of their appointment. Three did not even show up and sent me a Facebook message later. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE. This does not give me a day off or easily let me squeeze someone else in, as most people may think. Most of my ordering sessions in September requested to move to October, which completely messed up my schedule (and future client’s options to schedule) and it pushed my work out another month. The amount of time wasted dealing with reschedules last year was too much. This year, clients will receive a discount on their order for scheduling and keeping their ordering session. If they are unable to make this session, that discount will be forfeited on their order for the inconvenience to me. I can not spend all my free time rescheduling my life for other people. This is the basic truth of it and if people can not respect my time when I offer it, then hopefully they will respect my time when they have to pay for it.
• Trespassing: Darn it. Who would of thought that this would have been something that didn’t work for my business? When I lived and worked in Saginaw (a somewhat more questionable area to shoot in), I did not have a fear of where I was shooting or if I would get in trouble. People are always kinda creepin on other people’s property up there. :/ But moving to Howell certainly brought trespassing to light with me. People don’t like it. {even if I am just a photographer taking a photo of a pretty girl in a pretty dress on a spot of grass} Last year there were a few flags raised, but nothing major happened and I was able to talk myself out of the situations. This year, I had the pleasure of having the cops called on me more than once, noticing no trespassing signs posted in numbers after being at a location more than once, and being threatened via Facebook, of all places, to stop using certain locations. I get it, it’s trespassing and some people are sue happy. So sadly, Howell is a little uptight about this sort of thing and I’ve had to resort to using more public spaces to shoot in. I will be location scouting in the spring to find cool new places to work in that hopefully don’t come with a slap on the back of the hand.
• Facebook Sneek Peeks: I couldn’t keep up with them last year, both due to the number of clients I worked with and my schedule. Previous years, I was on top of this. I pretty much had a healthy sneek peek up for each client within 24 hours. Last year I started that way, but as sessions and editing caught up with me, I got way behind. Editing my sessions and getting my clients’ galleries delivered to them on time was more important and luckily I didn’t have any real complaints about not having a proper sneek peek. But I understand this is important to my clients and I have to find a way to make it work for everyone. This year, sneek peeks will go up sooner and will only include a few images (like 3-5). I will plan to post more images once an ordering session has happened, but a full blown, 20 image sneek peek has to take a step back. I had some eye-opening experiences related to Facebook last year that have changed my way of thinking and how to use it – both good and bad.
• Yearbook headshots: I had a handful of clients unhappy with their yearbook headshot last year and it was a huge surprise to me. I am an on-location, natural light photographer. This is what I advertise, this is why people come to me. But when we moved and I knew I would have studio space, I wanted to offer the option to also have your yearbook headshot included in my packages! I didn’t want my clients to have to go to a chain studio for that when they were already paying me. I have studied in studio lighting, so I know what is needed, what would work best and about what it would cost. When I was looking into what type of studio setup to invest in, I choose to invest in a low-medium priced lighting kit and ordered a few simple backdrops (this was still about a $750.00 investment). There is no reason for me to invest in a $3,000.00-$5,000.00 studio setup when I primarily shoot outdoors. These are decisions you have to make as a business owner and I stand firmly on them. The bottom line is, a yearbook headshot takes about 10mins to shoot and is submitted into a book that displays the image at about 2 inches tall. My yearbook headshots are well-lit and simple and that is how they will stay. I realize that part of the problem was in that I did not showcase examples of these images to my clients before their session and I feel they came expecting something else (though I am not sure what still). Moving forward, I will not be investing in anything new, but I will be giving my clients the option to have their yearbook headshot taken with me based on my samples or taken at a chain studio so that we can focus on the unique images that they came to me for!
• Editing: I knew I spent a lot of time at the computer. But I didn’t realize or FEEL the pain of how much time I spent there until this year. This is a lot of what sucked time away from my personal life. Editing over 70 client’s galleries with 200-300 images per gallery is a heck of a lot.  I don’t think my client’s realize that I am not the standard. I shoot and offer WAY more images than any other studio, but I still provide a 3 week turn around. This is overlooked by many because it’s normal for me. And that took its toll on my mind and my body. The aches and pains of my back, neck, wrist and fingers hit me hard this year – having to take pain relievers almost every day and getting to a point where I couldn’t open lids or cut veggies. This is the reality of a photographer and it will have to change some moving forward. Within the last 2 months of my (editing) season, I started to get a cyst on my knuckle from too much time spent at the computer. The time away has not helped and I will need to find a way to address the current issue and keep from repeating it again this year. I spend more time on my computer than I do shooting and that sucks, plain and simple. I toyed with the idea of outsourcing my editing to companies that specialize in this – hoping this would gain me some time back in my life – but when I broke it down, I was able to sort and edit a gallery in the same amount of time that I would need to sort, upload, wait and pay for someone else to do it for me. The sad fact is that I am pretty fast at editing galleries, but it still is too much time away from living. Where the balance is here, I just don’t know yet.
• Shooting for myself, creatively: I pushed for these to happen this year and they still got overrun by being worn out. I was able to squeeze in a large fashion shoot in the spring (with road bumps of it’s own), but many of my other creative shoots were lost. I still haven’t touched the shoots that I was able to schedule and I missed out on working with some great girls because I had to cancel just so I could edit other work. Next year, fingers crossed, I find myself again.
• Ba-ba-blogging: Yep, totally didn’t happen again last year. I really tried in the first few months of the season. I even wrote out a schedule of when each client’s blog post was going live. But working with so many clients didn’t allow me the time to sit and write blog posts. Not how I had imagined them to be anyways. Getting galleries up and orders out was more important than my online presence. I would love to blog more in the future, but only time will tell if I actually have time for it.
• Doubting my gut feelings, how I feel and myself: Working with more than double the clients as the previous years, I was faced with questions and circumstances that had never come up before and amongst the rush of trying to run a business and please so many people, I started to doubt myself as an artist and a business person. Hold on to the people that support you, raise you up and want to see you succeed. There will always be those that want to tell you how to run your business that have no experience running your business. So follow your heart and your gut and be who you are. The people that are supposed to be in your life, the clients that will respect your work and trust in you will come around if you let them.
• My packages and pricing structure: This is a biggie because I think I finally have to change it! I have somewhat kept the same pricing structure from the start. I wanted to be different. I didn’t want to have a cheap sitting fee and over-priced print packages. I have always had starter packages that include mostly my time and talent in the cost with a handful of prints to get you started. Last year however, I found that clients were confused by this because of all the other chain studios doing the same thing (a cheap sitting fee and highly priced print packages). Clients didn’t understand paying for my time and talent upfront. This year I do have plans to finally change how my packages work, possibly work in some print packages and start grouping things that my clients need together instead of letting them pick and choose. A lot of this still needs to be worked out and really thought through, but I feel it is the best decision for my business and for the mindset of my clients.
• Giving gifts: I wouldn’t have thought this would be something to revise. Every year since I’ve been in business, I have given my clients free things. Sometimes it’s prints that I know they wanted but didn’t buy, sometimes it a large artistic print I’ve edited that I wanted them to have, sometimes it’s custom made wall art, and sometimes it’s handmade jewelry. The first year I was in business, I gave each client an 11×14 print that was artistically edited – and I think only one client contacted me to acknowledge this. In 2011, I kinda went over the top, both including free prints with their order, a custom made necklace for the girls and then I also spent over $400.00 on custom made Christmas gifts – and less than half contacted me to acknowledge this. Last year, I toned it down and only included free prints with orders if a certain amount was spent at their ordering session and only had custom items made for a handful of girls that I really connected with. Maybe a quarter of those clients contacted me to acknowledge this. I don’t know if they appreciate it – they very well may – but I feel people are so busy that they don’t even know there are free prints included? And that does honestly effect me. I love giving my clients thoughtful things and it’s sad that I hardly ever hear back from them once their orders are shipped out. When it comes down to it, this costs me money and emotional investment and if I don’t know if it even matters to the people I am putting that effort into, then I am not sure if I should continue doing it? Poo, sad-sack right here.
• Album Designing and the editing process: I had a lot of album orders last year and I was over-delighted!! I love designing these and getting to see them in person. Due to the volume of albums ordered however, this did take a toll on me physically and mentally. I had hoped to have December off to start planning next year and just simply have time off to do stuff around the house, but album orders were not wrapped up until the 3rd week of December. Part of it had to do with all the reschedules from September to October, but one of the main issues that will need to be resolved is the editing process that I go through with clients. I kinda-sorta had a process in place – I create the draft album, email it off and then the client is offered one revision for free. This is done to limit the time I spend per client on their album and to limit the amount of back and forth ideas that could be had. I totally let this slide and did not push clients into only one free revision and it bit me in the behind. This year, there will be firm rules and deadlines. I can not wait 3 weeks to get a revision back from a client. I can not email clients once a week to remind them that I need to order their album. I can not edit a whole album 3-4 times because a client has a different vision than mine. If you hire me for my vision, then we shouldn’t be that far off and I am doing the hard work! I would love to stick with one free revision and there will be a one week deadline.
• Explaining the process, my welcome packet and a black hole called email: The amount of time I spent answering questions via email and on the phone this year was redonkulous. I provide some info on my website, some on my blog, a lot in a welcome packet that I give to my clients and I speak with them in person about most of what will happen. Even with all this information, I was overwhelmed with emails and calls about things that I had already provided answers for. I can not spend as many hours as I did last year explaining basic things that I have already laid out. This is partly because people are busy and don’t take the time to read what I have provided them and partly because I can do a better job of pre-informing my clients about how to go about getting their questions answered. I need to reclaim my life back and that starts with getting back time spent on unnecessary things. This year will come with longer consults and more detailed welcome packets – see below.
• Expectations and Assumptions: Last year was the first year that I had to address client assumptions (little assumptions always happen and are easily addressed). But I was faced with a handful of challenges that were questionable and hard to fix since assumptions are created without proper proof or knowledge of what has happened or will happen. I can not stress enough how important it is to contact me with questions before you make an assumption about something related to what we are doing. It is so hard for me to address an assumption someone has made after the fact. Not understanding or knowing something is expected, but making an assumption that something will happen because you want it to is a whole-nother-monster to tackle. Please do not compare me to another studio or another photographer and expect me to do the same, or not the same. Please do not expect something because someone else got that something. Please do not assume that I offer or will do the same thing as a previous photographer has done that you have worked with. Please do not assume that something will happen because you think it should. If you have a question, ask. I am the one that has to be accountable for my client’s assumptions, even when they are unheard of. This year I will be rewriting my welcome packet and trying to address more questions and circumstances in my meetings. I don’t want my clients feeling that they don’t know what they are getting or what will happen next. And as much as I think some of this is obvious to them because it’s obvious to me, that is an assumption I am making. The more I can do to control expectations and lay out information for my clients in the beginning, the better the experience will be for everyone involved.
• Booking myself to the grave: 2011 was just about booking too much. 2012 I completely went overboard and packed my calendar to the point that I had no days off for almost 2 months straight. I tried to schedule myself days off, but with so many clients all gnawing at the bit, I caved a lot to make them happy. And in return… what this did in return… was break me down. You never want to admit that you’ve taken on too much, you never want to see yourself fail if you can prevent it from happening. And though I didn’t fully fail and fall on my face, I certainly lost a lot of myself in the middle. I take things on even if I think they are too big. I’d rather test myself and fail then not have tried at all. How do you know your limits and your strengths if you don’t? How do you know anything about yourself if you don’t? I did this to myself and it broke me. This may sound melodramatic, but when you work for yourself – you don’t stop, you don’t take a break, you don’t put it off to tomorrow – because the person you will disappoint first is you. And I don’t do that dance. During August and September, I had a total of 13 days that I did not have a client scheduled for a session or a meeting. Out of those 13 days, I had 8 days that I actually took for myself and did not address business related stuff (for the most part). The other 5 days were set aside for editing. That is 8 days off out of 60… and I don’t know if anyone noticed or cared. I pushed through as if it was ok and that was such a bad thing to do to myself… to my husband… to my family and friends. When my life is crazy, it totally affects my husband too and that is not fair. I wanted to do it all and I didn’t want to say no and it only hit me much too late what I had done. I missed out on life. I missed birthday parties, bridal showers, house warming parties, visiting family, going to dinner with friends, meeting my nephew when he was born. I wasn’t allowed to get sick or hurt or keep my dentist appointments or take my car in to get fixed. I couldn’t do my laundry. I was a workaholic and I missed out on life. And that certainly will not happen again. It’s not that my clients did this to me, it’s that I allowed my business to do it to me. As much as I want this to be a personal business, where my clients can come to me and expect understanding, I also need to put my foot down and make them understand that my personal time is important to me. I was so busy making my clients happy that I lost a lot of joy in my own life. You can have a career doing what you love, but if it consumes you, you might lose yourself to it. I welcome the new challenges and free time to live my life.

Example of my life for a couple months. Blue = 2-4 hour session, Red = 2-4 hour wardrobe consult or ordering session, Green = print order days, Orange = editing days, Yellow = days off that I was away from my home, Red Text = days that galleries were due and I spent time uploading those before my day really started. The rest of the time is a mess of rescheduled meetings that were usually filled with editing.

This was a year of firsts for me! Running your own business, especially when dealing with people, will bring you many crazy and adventurous stories and experiences. Here are a few of the good, the bad, the weird and the awesome that crossed my path!

• This year I had a record of over 70 shoots, with 67 of them being high school seniors! This adds up to over 140 people that I met and had to remember names of!
• This was the fist year I was ever told the reason someone chose not to hire me was because I was too good, too busy and they didn’t want to mess up my schedule. So they chose to work with a photographer that was less experienced and not as good on purpose. :/ {yes, I still question this explanation myself}
• This was the first year I offered my days off for an additional fee added to their session and clients booked them!
• This was the first second year that I was hired by a client (4 to be exact) to shoot their real senior portraits for them even though they were repping for another photography studio.
  
• This was the first year that both of my cameras broke in a short amount of time and I had to reschedule a session in the middle of it.
• This was the first time (mostly) that I have come across a mean-spirited comment about myself on the internet made by a client. I came across a comment a parent (yes, the parent) made about me on an image of mine. I will only say that bullying is disgusting at any age and posting comments such as that on a public forum, on a teenager’s photograph that she is obviously proud of, does not show your children how to behave.
• This was the first year that I found a previous client of mine breaking copyright (and the law) on purpose with images that she received from her session (again, a parent who should know better). This not only degrades the quality of my work and reflects poorly on me, but it is illegal and affects my business. This is very sad and it weighs heavy on my heart. Due to all the issues I’ve had over the years, I no longer offer digital files on CD.
• This was the first year that I seriously hurt myself on a shoot and had to go to med-express when I was done shooting. (yes, I finished the shoot after stepping on a nail and bleeding all over)
• This was the first year that I had a client email me to complain (more than once) about the number of images I posted to Facebook for their sneek peek. This is a free media tool that I use to display my body of work. This is where I post images that I feel best represent my vision, my style and my ability. What I post to Facebook and in what quantity, is my choice. I post images that I am passionate about and if I am not necessarily as passionate about one session as I am another, please do not take that as a form of offense. I will click with certain people more than others, I will plan differently with certain people over others and I will work better with certain people over others. But this does not reflect at all on how I will treat you or provide you the service you have hired me for. For no reason, whatsoever, should someone think that they are being treated differently or unfairly by me solely based on the number of images I post to Facebook. This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever come to encounter and I am deeply bothered by this notion.
• This was the first time I have ever received a gift from a client (the daughter) for simply being me.
• This was the first time that I was hired by a professional photographer who teaches photography courses in college to shoot their daughter’s senior pictures!
• This was the first time that someone who wasn’t able to book me in the summer and went to another photographer for their senior portraits, booked me for the following year before they go off to college because they really wanted a session with me and felt they missed out because of timing. What an honor!!
• This was the first year that I had multiple clients scan their photos and upload them to Facebook. This is illegal folks and is explained on my contract and in my welcome packet. Even after contacting the clients to let them know of this and to please remove the images, I had some clients request that I give them something in return for free to keep them from uploading illegally scanned images. This is upsetting and beyond disrespectful. This damages my reputation because other people think that is the quality of images I am producing and it effects my business because I have to contact clients and sound like the “bad guy”. I am not the bad guy, I am an artist running a small business who believes in my legal rights.
• This was the first time that a daughter’s mother did not hire me, but her step-mother did!
• This was the first time that I ever received a graduation invitation in the mail from a client, that they had paid me to design! {love you Lucy}
• This was the first year that I ever felt let down and under-appreciated. I won’t go into details, but I will say that I didn’t feel that my work and what I was doing made a difference or matter as much as I felt it should.
• This was the first time that I ever received a Christmas card from a client. (no, this doesn’t happen more often)

Moving into the 2013 season I have HUGE changes coming. Changes is becoming an over-used word, I know, but last year was an eye-opener on many levels. Being faced with the amount of clients I had last year, I was really able to see what I sucked at and what needed to be changed so that I had a life. I feel that I will finally have some structure to my business this year and am so excited to start planning everything new!

• Redefined packages: I will be changing up my packages again! I don’t have the final details worked out yet, but I will be moving to a different structure. I have always done things differently and sometimes that is confusing to my clients because of the over-populated normalcy out there. {yep, cool new term right there} And where I don’t want to conform and become those studios, I will be making some changes to open my clients’ minds better! My price range will remain ball-park to what it is now, but there will be new options and new packages. I want to focus on the clients that want different and unique and something more than a pretty picture. I will be shooting sample work for a fantasy package in the spring and can’t wait!
• Wardrobe consults and the time invested: 2011 was a year of learning and working this into my business model. 2012 was a year of tweaking how much time and how far I would drive for these. Where I want every client to have this experience and be able to meet and get to know them before our session, it’s not reasonable for me to spend 4 hours on the road and 1 hour at this meeting for a client that only books a 2 hour session. The time I invest in this one client exceeds what they would be paying me, bottom line. This realization hit me hard in the middle of the season and I was able to mostly correct it, but it did make for some very confusing emails, meetings and organization. It’s not what I wanted, but it has to be done. I can not spend more time on the road and talking to a client than I do actually shooting with them. I hope to really nail this down.
• My Spokesmodel Program: Yes, spokesmodel.  First I will no longer refer to this as a rep program. I want it to feel and project itself as something more fabulous, so I will now have amazing spokesmodels working with me! I want to work with students who want to be an ambassador for my studio, not a sales person who wants free stuff. It’s a little thing and I hope makes a small difference. I will also be completely changing how this works and what is included. After working with so many spokesmodels last year – spreading out their sessions over 2 months and not getting them their promotional products soon enough – I will be shooting everyone on the same day. I may do a themed shoot or  possibly mini sessions, but it will be a larger, more extravagant affair! Spokesmodels will now be able to use images from this mini session as promotion while they are still in their Junior year and then earn credits towards their actual session during the summer. I will also be including a free smart-device App for their smartphones and iPads!
• The amount of images I offer: Both due to the daunting task my client’s face of having to sort through over 200 images and due to the amount of time I spend editing over 200 images, I will be trying to not only shoot less, but also offer less. I will always shoot more than the average photographer. And I will always offer too much variety. But I do hope to bring the level of options down to only feature the best of the best for everyone’s sake! My hands and butt will love me!
• Facebook and digital files: Last year I found that Facebook is so much more than what I expected it to be and mean to my business. I had more demand for images to be posted to Facebook, but this demand was going to overrun my business page in the wrong way. I don’t want to post every image from a session that a client likes, bottom line. I want to post the images that fully fit my brand. But my faves aren’t always the client’s faves. Moving forward, I will be posting the most powerful images to my Facebook page, but giving my clients watermarked images for their Facebook page of images that they have purchased. Now that I am not offering images on CD anymore, I am hoping that this will be the happy middle for my clients and I. I will also be offering a digital App for smart devices for clients that want digital images to show off.
• My welcome packet: This is a planning walk-through I provide clients that book with me. Before last year started I had looked into the cost of producing a magazine style welcome packet. I felt this was very me, it fit my style and I wanted my clients to feel as if they would be the next cover model. However, I never got around to designing the layout and working out how many copies I may need. (it’s not cheap and I wouldn’t have got enough based on what I planned to order and how many clients I actually had) And I worried that if information or policies changed on my end, I would be stuck with that incorrect information within such an expensive handout. And I was right, I did end up changing a handful of policies and packages as the year progressed and I was able to address what needed an immediate change. And I like this option. So as much as I would love to produce an actual magazine, I will compromise and keep my trusty red folder with changeable information. I will be redesigning the layout to replicate a magazine, however, in the hopes that this makes it a little more jazzy! I like jazzy things. And I have been thinking about making an online version as well! Things to do, things to do.

And just for reference, here are some samples of my yearbook headshots. Examples will come in my welcome packets now and be included in part of my contract

The biggest thing I need to look into is how to make this a more enjoyable experience for both my clients and I. Last year was full of unexpected situations (both amazingly good and shockingly bad) and I don’t want a repeat of that again in the coming years. I want each and every experience with me to be a good one and something that my clients can look back on in a few years and still say “yeah, my photographer was awesome, we’re still friends actually”.