Divorce Leads Banker To Boudoir Photography Empire

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Today begins a new month. It is the 1st of November. At least this episode's going out on the 1st of November as we approach the final two months of 2019. What a joy it has been to work on this program for you all throughout this year. And I'm really excited about everything coming up in this next two months.

Now let's talk today about Boudoir photography. Great example of a niche project that ends up doing really well. And it came about after a divorce. After a divorce when a corporate banker wants to make a change. This banker had always wanted to work for herself.

She was also a single mom now and didn't want to continue in the nine to five world. Driving in traffic to get home late and hardly see her kids, especially because they were still young at that time and having difficulty adjusting to the separation. Her family told her she couldn't make money as a photographer and her own divorce lawyer said she needs to go and get a real job. Fortunately she didn't listen to that lawyer or to her family because now this side hustle earns mid six figures. It's a full-time business now and she's starting her next endeavor.

So we'll look at how she does it including how she uses her banking skills to reconfigure a pricing strategy to where she now earns an average of $5,000 per photo shoot. Like I said, strong story, lots of lessons here. We're gonna call it divorce leads banker to Boudoir photography empire. That story is coming up after this message from our sponsor. [Music]

Tanya Smith found her side hustle as a Boudoir photographer in the midst of a divorce.

Prior to having children, she worked in the corporate banking world. Now that gave her stability but also stripped her of the freedom she wanted when it came to being there for her kids. When she quit her job to raise her kids, she pursued art in a few different mediums. As a mixed media artist selling paintings and art shows, she also began playing around with a DSLR camera she had bought after the birth of her first child. She would take photos of anything she could and sell prints alongside her paintings.

For years, she combined those two passions as both a hobby and a way to make extra money. But then finding herself newly separated after 20 years of marriage and two kids, Tanya felt lost. She struggled being able to view herself as anything other than a mom. With her pending divorce, she was pushed into a new life chapter that required her to find a way to support herself. And she didn't want to go back to banking.

The first inspiration was personal. Stumbling upon an ad for Boudoir Photos, she was intrigued. She said yes, because she thought it was something that could be good for her while she transitioned to a new time of life. She walked away from that session with a renewed sense of confidence. Tanya then saw the opportunities waiting in Boudoir photography as a business.

She already had the characteristics that would make someone want to hire her. She was trustworthy, she knew her way around a camera and was able to put herself in the shoes of her ideal clients. Since she already had a camera and would only shoot on location, usually meaning in her clients' homes or sometimes her own home, it didn't take much to begin. She committed to keeping her initial investment to a bare minimum, only spending money on things she absolutely needed. Her marketing plan was low maintenance, including a Facebook business page and a free website.

Tanya did her first three shoots for free before deciding on a price, although one chosen arbitrarily. Her first real client paid her $382, a price she was over the moon about. In fact, she went home and cried out of happiness. And then she went back to work. Since she was living off child support, she had to get creative when it came to sourcing props.

She attended garage sales and looked on Craigslist, scavenging for pieces to add to her collection. She bought Ikea stools instead of posing boxes, fabric from the wholesale fabric store instead of pre-made throws, and foam core boards to use as reflectors. As much as she was saving with her creativity though, she still found herself not making much in her growing stage. Once she hired a hair and makeup artist, which is an important part of Boudoir photography, her fees barely covered the service and albums for her clients. Though she had been gradually raising prices, she needed more net income.

So she went back to her experience in corporate banking, using those skills and began crunching numbers to figure out how much she would need to make this side hustle her full-time work. She decided how much she wanted to work each week and how many weeks she wanted to work each year. Then she came up with how much money she needed to net at the end of the year, giving her the average sale per client that she would need. With those numbers, she knew how many photo shoots she would need to book, helping her create packages at various tiers. She made her target average sale her middle and most attractive package.

This is important by the way, so we'll come back to it at the end of the episode. With these packages in place, her three-year side hustle became her full-time job. As Tanya grew in business, she also had to get creative with where she could fit in the shoots. As a single mom, she would work after her kids went to bed or when they were with her dad. This was tough when it came to sessions in her own home, since she could only host when her kids were away.

A year later, she found herself dealing with the repetitive challenges of not having a studio and hit a breaking point. Having a studio of her own would help her avoid the surprises of working in others' homes, like unknown colors, furniture, and lighting. She found the perfect place to rent in an old historic building, began working there now fully in control of her surroundings. Today, Tanya's business is bringing in a profit in the mid six figures. With her average sale being $5,000, she's able to work less than ever while making more than ever.

Her pricing reflects the luxury experience she gives women, including a styling consultation, use of her studio and wardrobe, in-house hair and makeup, and an in-person sales session. Though none of this happened overnight, she's proud to look back on how far she has come. So what is next while helping photographers like her who are dreaming big on their side hustles? With an educational course and podcast, she'll be teaching students the exact way she built this business for herself. Her journey taught her a lot at a slow and steady pace.

And now with her own course, she's hoping to help others take a quicker route. [Music]

Awesome, congratulations to Tanya. Wonderful example, as I said, of a niche business, finding a way to merge creativity with business smarts and also with providing a service that can be empowering and affirming to women. Now let's talk a bit about the pricing because as I said, there's some good lessons here. So once Tanya's up and running, she's making a little bit of money, then she realizes, okay, I need more net income.

So she goes back to her experience in corporate banking and starts thinking, okay, what do I really need to make? Like how much money do I need to make per year? And then how does that divide into the number of weeks that I want to work? How does that then divide into the number of photo shoots that I can do? And then from there, she did something that I think is so critical for service businesses.

She divided her offerings into packages or tiers. Essentially, I don't know exactly what she did in her case, but normally you have like, here's a basic tier. Here's an average tier. And then here is the super deluxe luxury, whatever you wanna call it tier. And then there was a sentence here in the story I wanted to highlight.

She made her target average sale her middle and most attractive package. What that means is essentially, as I said, you've got a basic budget option, you've got the high end luxury option. What she's really hoping to steer people toward is that middle option. But both the low end option and the high end option essentially steers people toward making that middle choice, which therefore increases her average income. Okay, there's a lot we could say about this.

I think I wrote about it more in the side of the book. But short version is if you have a service business, make sure you have some pricing packages. All right, that's my encouragement for you today. I hope you enjoyed the story. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better.

Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/boudoirphotography. I'm just kidding. They're at sidehustleschool.com/1035, 1035. Thanks so much for listening. I'll be back again tomorrow.

My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]

From the Onward Project.