How I started my photography business, while being a stay-at-home mom.

Finding a career path that leaves you both passionate and driven is an intricate process. You can either feel destined to do what you do or on the flip side, not feel any sort of connection to what you’ve done. We could use the word “done” in past tense, as it becomes so easy to linger in a situation that may not be right for you. Worst case, you end up spending years of your life working towards something that isn’t truly fulfilling. 

This was me and my journey. In fact, it was a series of time spent career after career. Each morning I would wake up, perform a monotonous morning routine, before heading off to my 9-5, cubicle laden work environment. Unfulfilled, uninspired, day after day. 

I’m here to share with you, that it doesn’t have to be that way. After our first daughter was born, nothing was more important than being a stay-at-home mom, whatever that meant for my career and it’s outlook.

Below, I’ve shared how I was able to not only fulfill my desire of being a stay-at-home mom, but also create a meaningful career path for myself by implementing these methods: 

• Creating a starting point and mental business plan
• Crafting a brand strategy and visual mood board
• Keeping on hand a side opportunity you find enjoyable
• Stress management and taking needed time for yourself
• Investing in a solid CRM 
• Make your brand official with an LLC. or sole-proprietorship.

Each one of these building blocks, helped me fundamentally create a profitable, but more importantly desirable career path that I still enjoy today—all while juggling being the best mom that I can be. 

Method 1: Creating a starting point and mental business plan

Just START. And while doing that, visualize your goals being accomplished. For our family, a starting point meant first transitioning to a work from home schedule that worked for both our wallets and our peace-of-mind. This meant taking advantage of nap-time and doing the bulk of the legwork when it was time for bed. 

I’m going to let you in on a confession: I disliked a lot of what I did as my starting points. These interim roles went outside my comfort zone, belief system, and ultimately just wasn’t at all for me. But the kicker here is, it made ends meet, when it was needed. Best of all, it was temporary. Constantly visualizing an end game for these “meanwhile” positions, was the push I needed to continue  building a strategy for my most desired career.

Method 2: Crafting a brand strategy and visual mood board

This goes hand in hand with creating a mental business plan. You’ve got the mindset, you now have job security of some sort—you’ve decided to move forward with a “meanwhile” role, now comes putting it all into perspective. I can’t tell you how much this helped me with truly seeing a bigger picture; a vision of what my brand would one day be. I did exactly what you’re most likely thinking:
I opened up Pinterest and started crafting different boards filled with colors, images that evoked the feeling I was after, aesthetics I was going for and brainstormed inside and outside-the-box business names.  I spent weeks and even months trying to put together a business name that best resembled the culture and message of my brand—even going as far as trying to design my own logo with any free time I had available. The simplest of visions, such as dainty floral illustrations, fonts that spoke to my brand identity, and even just browsing inspirational templates, all helped to curate, while bringing to fruition the building blocks of my business model.

Method 3: Keeping on hand a side opportunity you find enjoyable

In the midst of undertaking a role that allowed our family to stay afloat monetarily, it was crucial to also take on a side-gig that better aligned to the career path I yearned for—in at least some capacity. For my situation particularly, this meant offering product photography services, once bedtime in our household hit. 

Product photography was always something I had wanted to dive into, however I never quite knew how to get my feet wet. I began with helping small businesses promote their own products through marketing imagery. My online shopping carts became full of lighting equipment and backdrops of all different variations. Even going as far as purchasing a new lens that would deliver the macro shots so many businesses requested. Though this may not have been the right time to splurge, to me it represented another footprint in the right direction of my end goal. With some time, I grew more devoted and appreciative of not only furthering my learning and skillsets, but also the strong business relationships I built with others elevating their own brands. These somewhat “pro-bono” opportunities, ended up being some of my longest and most loyal customers when it came to their own marketing and content arsenals.

Method 4: Stress management and taking needed time for yourself

In the world of motherhood, parenthood, pet-hood (making this a thing, as pets are kids too) this feeling is I’m sure ALL too familiar. You simply must make time for yourself—whether it’s a long shower, a quick nap, a workout routine, or even just a brisk walk. 

Mothers especially, speaking from personal experience, it takes what seems like a lifetime to get your body, mind, but more importantly YOURSELF back. At the time, getting my health back on track was the last thing I felt like doing. Negativity was at an all time high during this time period, so any physical gym memberships took a backseat—which led to the discovery of at home workouts and the start of getting confidence back. 

I turned to a friend’s at-home-workout training program Mission Rise; Steph is a legit unicorn in the world of all things fitness, positivity, and motherhood herself. Fast forward today—it changed EVERYTHING. This ended up being the fire lit under my ass, which ultimately led to the push and form of stress management I never knew I needed—real talk, tell her I sent you if you’re in the feels like I was! With each workout able to be cranked out in just 20 minutes flat (with warm-up and cool down), I found myself many times finishing two classes instead of one, while feeling more confident and accomplished every time.

Method 5: Investing in a solid CRM Platform

CRM is short for Customer or Client Relations Management and an interface that will not only set you up for success, but visually outline and build your foundation for success. I can’t stress enough how crucial this was for me, in morphing from a passion to a successful business. Having a platform dedicated to compartmentalizing everything from: inquiry-follow ups, to creating online portals, having a signature space for correspondence, fully customizing my brand’s appearance, and an entire bookkeeping/accounting arsenal available all-in-one, has been pivotal to this day. This toolkit allowed my business to have the instruments needed to showcase professionalism, paired with my brand’s tone of voice, even while the building blocks of my business were coming together. There are many different CRM technology out there today, but since beginning my journey in the wedding photography industry, I’ve yet to stray from this platform. 

Method 6: Make your brand official as an LLC. or sole-proprietorship. 

This is what helped put everything in perspective. Seeing your brand name come to life, as “ready-for-business”, instead of the business plan you began with, is fleeting. And not just physically, to see the words (LLC.), but mentally to envision the growth you foresee, laid out before you in black and white. 

When it came to this part of transitioning from a mental business plan to a grounded structure, it was tough to choose beginning with either a sole-proprietorship or an LLC., for these reasons specifically: 

• Sole proprietorships are embedded to one sole owner and all liabilities in their entirety—whereas an LLC. allows for multiple ownership/members if desired and you are not viewed as legal separate entities.
• A Limited Liability Corporation while more complex of a business structure, offers better opportunity for growth for your brand overall in terms of desired expansion.

After diving into the pros and cons of each, the infrastructure I potentially yearned to build, involved wanting to have the possibility of expanding in the years ahead. For this reason and knowing that an LLC. offered liability protection in more ways than one, I chose the path of a Limited Liability Corporation for my business. 

Choosing the legal ground structure for your business, will be one of the most important foundations you build upon. Both a sole proprietor and an LLC. offer their own set of characteristics perfect for the start of any business, while also offering flexibility and peace of mind with either direction. If you’re just starting out (like I was in this very moment) you could always begin as a sole proprietor and then convert to an LLC. should there ever be the want or need. The beauty of starting a business and seeing it take form, is you get to call the shots and create the blueprint in the process. 

Remember you are HUMAN and good things come with time.

Going to wrap this up by singing out loud that I am just an ordinary human and mother going through the trenches of life, hoping to help others dodge some of the obstacles I’ve encountered along the ride that is entrepreneurship. Through this experience specifically, putting the brakes on my 9-5 ended up being the toughest part. To make a decision of going from stability to the uncertain is no easy feat, but when you invest the time/energy to craft something out of nothing, you watch it flourish before your eyes and in my case—I didn’t miss any of the little moments with my daughter. 

When all is said and done, you’ve designed a brand that is deeply rooted in who you are as a business owner, your belief systems, and your identity as a whole, while regaining stability and happiness in the process.