How I got my photography business off the ground || CopperRed Photography

Hey there, not sure if you know me already but I thought after 5 years doing this awesome thing called photography I thought it’s about time I gave you a bit of a better introduction to me and share with you just how I got my business off the ground after giving birth to our first mini Maunder and moving internationally lol, the ideal time right?

Also if you get to the end there’s a Bonus GIVEAWAY you won’t want to miss.

If you haven’t clicked on from my vocabulary in my emails and social media yet I am British. I grew up on the South Coast of England, in a seaside town that literally overlooks France. I am the youngest of 4 kiddos and my parents still live in the family home, the only one I ever lived in growing up. My two brothers live back in the UK and my sister and I live here in Canada.

My hubbie and I emigrated to Toronto back in 2012 when he was offered a dream soccer coaching gig. We knew when we got on the flight that we wouldn’t be coming back, we knew this was a long term thing and that’s how it went. It’s been almost 7 years now and we still love where we live. We’ve bred 3 mini Canadians who have the cutest muggle accents, that is until they go to school lol. And I run my own photography business that I love. So how did I create it, build it and get it to where it is? Let me tell you…

I did not grow up in an entrepreneurial family. I wasn’t surrounded by business owners and dreamers. Quite the opposite. My mum was a high ranking nurse and my dad was the foreman of a metal work company. They were smart, educated and hard working but were definitely not dreamers with regards to having business mindsets.

My life revolved around sport and that’s all I lived and breathed. I went to Uni for Sports Therapy and graduated. I worked in the field for a year and was miserable. I remember thinking to myself one evening ‘is this what I really want to wake up and do for the next 40+ years of my life?’. Absolutely not was the fast gut response. Do you find yourself asking the same question?

So when the opportunity to move to Canada came about I needed a new career. I had no desire to restudy to gain an Ontario licence in my field. So then I threw around my options. I knew I wanted to be self employed. Over the years of working for others that’s something I knew 100%. I wanted to be my own boss, dictate the rules and set the goals and the processes to reach them.

My two options were a masseuse, because that’d be a super quick test after being a Sports Therapist or move towards something completely new. I had a friends camera from when she took a photography course and gave it to me on loan and I’d been dabbling around with snapping a few shots of friends. They seemed to like the end result and I quite liked doing it.

So there sat my 2nd option, photography. I didn’t need a qualification, I didn’t need a license or to take any tests. I knew that all I needed was a camera and a motivation to learn and try.

Unbeknownst to us though I had our first mini Maunder growing inside me. We landed pregnant! Total shock, total surprise and total curve ball. Sure we wanted kids but not for at least another year or two. We wanted to build a life in Canada before adding little humans into the mix.

I found out I was pregnant when I was still in the UK and hubbie was here in Toronto. I have this tradition of going a little over the top with announcing each pregnancy to him and this first one set the bar lol. I printed it on a shirt and wore it on the plane to Canada, hoping he’d read it in the arrivals hall of Toronto Pearson. I had my sister record the whole thing. You can check it out yourself if you need some warm and fuzzy feels lol

So after Elijah was born in the February of 2013 I knew I had to get the ball rolling on this photography business. But where on earth was I going to get my first clients? When you start a photography business in your hometown you tap into your friends, your family members and your distant relatives for opportunities to practice and to build portfolio and experience. None of that was an option for me. I had to start from nothing, literally nothing.

So where did I head…Kijiji and Facebook. Kijiji allowed you to post Ad’s for free and I had no money to launch advertising so that’s where I began. I was only charging and small amount because I had zero confidence, I knew I needed to get hands on practice and so I priced myself accordingly. In the world of kijiji this actually worked well for me. I ended up getting a lot of work via kijiji. BUT this was only because I was crazy cheap. Like I think I was charging $99 for a posed newborn session that took me 3+ hours to shoot, 3+ hours to edit and travel time.

Facebook moms groups were my other best friend. I joined them all, literally as many as would let me in and I was active. I would scroll them most days looking for moms-to-be who were posting about photography recommendations. Again because my low price point this method worked too.

I’m not 100% sure now but around 1 year after I knew I was actually getting much better and the end product was starting to dramatically improve. I had built a fair amount of portfolio images and felt confident in my ability to pose the babies. So the time came for me to up my prices.

When you up your prices you lose the clientele group from before, or at least that’s what I found. And that made it scary. Each time I’ve jumped price brackets it’s almost like starting a fresh slightly. I’d have to rebuild my client base in that realm of money.

I could not just avoid doing this though, because as you grow your photography company you realize how many costs are involved, from software subscriptions, double CPP payments because you’re your own employer, equipment, and so on and so on. So you know that in order to actually make money and build a successful business you have to charge a whole lot more than when you started out.

Do you know what I found when I upped my prices? Clients who never cancelled, who didn’t have a million requests and clients who just trusted me to do my job well. To this day my most difficult customers were the ones within that first year where I charged next to nothing for my services. I didn’t value my work and so they didn’t either. Makes complete sense to be now when I look back.

So Kijiji was no longer a source for me. It was great to get off the ground but now the ball was rolling well and I needed new angles. I wanted to move into the wedding world and so decided to invest in a couple of wedding shows. For someone in my situation wedding shows were crucial for launching my wedding business.

Like I said before I couldn’t start with shooting my cousins wedding or friend of a friends so I needed to find clients from scratch. Wedding shows did this. So I hit maybe 3 wedding shows over about an 18 month period and I got the ball rolling. I found clients who were so amazing, couples that I really clicked with at the shows and who wanted to have me capture their big day. I was blown away. I was equally terrified. Wedding are a whole nother world. There’s no re-do’s, you have to get it right on the day. That is enough to buckle your knees lol.

But I knew I wanted to shoot love stories and I knew that just like with my newborn sessions if I just pushed through I would move past the nerves and fears. I knew that I would get confidence and reassurance with each and every wedding I got under my belt.

Once I had a handful of weddings behind me something else stepped in to generate leads and bookings…word of mouth. Friends of past brides started to reach out, bridesmaids from previous weddings got in touch and it just kept moving forwards.

This has been the exact same story for all of my photography. From my Lifestyle Newborn’s to Weddings and Family sessions, my number 1 source of bookings is word of mouth recommendations.

Because of this I feel very strongly about the quality of service I offer my couples and families. I want to exceed their expectations wherever possible. I want them to be excited about booking up with me again because the first experience was superior to any they’ve had with someone else.

You’re reputation matters, your kindness, patience and attention to detail matters.

So I’ve put together a little 5 step guide to getting your business off the ground. It’s totally free! wahoo right?
No strings attached. I just want you to have something that can push you in a practical direction for getting things moving no matter where you find yourself at.

It is 100% possible for you to find your first clients, for you to build a business in a location where you know nobody. You can do it if you’ve got kiddos attached to the hip of if you’re free and single with all the hours in a day to throw at it. If you want it bad enough you can do it.

If you’re looking to launch and want to know how click on the Freebie below for a Guide on your first 3 steps.