Business Story: Love in the Work Place
(David and I at Stephenson family Thanksgiving)
In light of Valentine's Day (which David and I do not even celebrate), I thought this was an appropriate time to answer a few "frequently asked questions" that David and I receive on the job, over Facebook, in emails. These questions all have to do with David and I, husband and wife, doing this Story Photographers thing together...Question: "Are you and David full time with Story Photographers? How long have you been full time?"Our photography business started before we had branded ourselves as "Story Photographers". I went full time, as the owner of a photography business mid 2007. 2008 was my first full year as a full time photographer- this is also when we became Story Photographers. David shot weddings with me on the weekends but still had a different job. In the fall of 2009 David came on with me full time. This was much needed as we were experiencing a lot of growth, but at the same time very scary. While the fall is our busiest time of year, it is followed by our slowest-winter. I was not sure we would make it but we did! Ever since then we have both been full time photographers. This is our sole income. This is why we have to charge for our services, friends. Honestly I WISH that I was a millionaire and could just shoot everything for free. Instead we have to come up with a price list based on our experience, our equipment, taxes, insurance, the time it takes us to shoot the job and then edit it, etc and so on. We have rent and bills to pay, groceries to buy, equipment to keep maintained, taxes to cover.
(David and I in front of our tree at Christmas)
Question: "How in the world do you work with your spouse!?"If I had a dollar for every time I got this question... especially when its followed with "I know I couldn't work with mine every day!" Whew! Before David and I were even dating we were already working together. We led music at youth camps and in working on that together formed a relationship. Both of us were religion majors so most of our classes were together. We continued to lead music together for a ministry on campus and were leaders on the same councils. We were ALWAYS together. I don't think we did this on purpose. It just so happened that David and I had similar interests and talents so we both wanted to be in the same places at the same time.When it comes to owning Story Photographers together, honestly, I would not want to do it any other way. David was trained in videography and I knew we had similar styles, he just needed to learn how to manually shoot a still camera. In the last three years working together in the photography business we have had to observe what our own strengths and weaknesses are and assign tasks accordingly. Yes, there are times that we fall asleep talking about the business or an urgent email interrupts dinner. We have to make sure we do things for fun that do not involve the business-- this includes going on normal dates together along with doing creative things together that do not relate to photography. There are also times when we really get on each other's nerves- in the office and out on a job. But we know how to keep it together, clearly communicate and move on. I love the fact that when I have to travel to shoot a wedding I am getting to spend that time with my husband. We've shot so many weddings together that how each of us functions shooting the wedding is understood. It doesn't hurt that I get to see my hot hubs all dressed up to shoot the weddings :)
(Us on the beach New Years Day)
Question: "During the week do you two get to sleep in and hang out? What do you actually do on week days?"
To be successful at owning your own business you have got to be motivated. This includes the will to pull your butt out of bed and get your butt to the office. If we aren't awake and running the business, no one else is. During the week we do all kinds of administrative tasks in order to keep our business running smoothly and efficiently. We pride ourselves in quick email returning, which means we are answering lots of emails concerning wedding schedules, smaller shoot details, client questions, inquiries, etc. Quarterly we pay sales taxes and then on a different quarterly schedule we pay money towards our regular taxes. Speaking of taxes, we do our best to keep detailed, clean records through out the year in order to make filing our taxes in April much less painful. When we have had a shoot, once we get back to the office we immediately back up the files three different ways. We blog highlights which includes editing, writing, posting on facebook and linking through social media outlets. We then delete through a shoot, edit it and back up the final product several different ways. There are lots of runs to the post office to send off finished shoots and wedding day agreements, picking up bills and such. When album/print/canvas orders are place we are designing those elements and consulting with clients about what is best for them. This is the general run down of what goes on when we aren't behind the lens. I will admit that during the busy season we work some crazy hours so in the winter we do choose to sleep in a bit later than most to balance that out :)