s2e1: my business journey so far
The next series of Let's Shoot Together is here! In this week’s solo episode, I chat to you all about my business journey so far. It’s a story of getting into and out of a lifechanging mental health crisis, navigating the pandemic, and escaping trauma to rebuild my life in a new country. I hope you enjoy!
transcript
Hello and welcome to Let’s Shoot Together, a photography podcast by me, Anna Considine from Studio Gently. I’m a newly Edinburgh-based branding photographer working with kind and creative kin across the UK. If you’re looking to jump into brand photography or a fellow brand photographer looking for tips, this podcast is for you! Welcome, welcome, welcome!
INTRODUCTION
Oh my goodness, we are back! What started as just an experiment is now a fully-fledged podcast with a series two, introducing some talented voices I cannot wait to share with you. This season will alternate between solo episodes like this one, alongside interviews with photographers and creative business owners to cover all areas of photography and running a slow and gentle business.
When I first started Let's Shoot Together, I focused on helping beginner photographers through my 1:1 mentoring and podcast episodes. I’ve had a recent epiphany that means the direction for the podcast and my business have changed just a little bit, and we’ll be covering that in the theme of today’s episode!
I’m so proud of this series and so in love with the interviews we recorded, gaining inspiration from some of my all-time favourite folk to follow online! I can’t wait to kick off the interviews next episode, but I’m just as excited to be sitting down for a solo chat today because this one is a good un.
Today, we’re walking through each season of my business so far – from unlikely beginnings to financial success that left me empty, to shooting just four sessions in all of 2021, to getting so booked out in 2022 that I had to hire an editor to manage my workload, and what I’d love to welcome in for the last quarter of this year.
I hope you enjoy tuning in; let’s get started…
2016: THE UNLIKELY BEGINNING
So we’ll be breaking the journey of my business down year by year, and we’re starting way back in 2016, September to be precise. I’d just returned from doing Camp America, and I’d spent the whole summer feeling an itch that I knew wouldn’t go away. That itch was giving freelancing ago, which felt like a wild and reckless idea at that time, let me tell you!
None of my family own businesses, none of my friends at that time were freelancers. From what I remember, it felt like those first few months were marked by my dad constantly saying “Well if you’re finding it that hard, you might as well just quit.”
Three clients had approached me before my summer in the States because they loved my Instagram and wanted help with their social media, both for their photography and their written content. My last ever job involved shooting brand photography, and I’d written copy for that company’s website, but that was where my experience began and ended. All three of my clients were firm, though. They believed in me, and they were super eager to work together.
Naturally, I started out by charging next to nothing – I almost want to cry when I think about that first £10 an hour rate. In my naive head, I thought it was a lot more than minimum wage and I’d only ever worked minimum wage jobs before then! At least, though, the tiny rate made me feel quite free and able to experiment, which was still a positive.
We can chat in another episode about what I’d do if I were starting out again now, but suffice to say, I wouldn’t dream of charging £10 an hour, and I’ll never let any of my mentees consider that as a rate either!
2016 was exciting but not hugely eventful, but sadly, some pretty dark things lay just around the corner.
2017: BURNOUT AND BREAKDOWN
Some of you will be already aware of this fact, but in 2017, I had a psychotic breakdown. I didn’t have a family history of psychosis, and I wasn’t a recreational drug user, so to many, I wasn’t an obvious candidate for getting as unwell as I did.
One of the many things I feel sad about with 2017 is how little I remember of it. What I do know is that I was overdoing it, and I was overdoing it a lot. My mum grew gradually more concerned after I locked myself into work, forgoing sleep, social times, and even chats during the day because I felt so committed to being at my desk and being productive. My days were long, my evenings were often disrupted, and my weekends slowly involved more work too.
It all came to a head in April 2017, and that's when the fog really sets in. My insomnia had gone from four hours of sleep to most nights being two hours or less, and, unsurprisingly, it broke me. I may record you a podcast episode about this (let me know if you would like to listen), but the gist is that losing my mind changed me forever… thankfully though, it was mostly for the better.
I had three months off work entirely because, putting it bluntly, at one stage, I couldn't even brush my own teeth… I'm glad I don't remember that part! In September 2017, I started working weekly for my main retainer client again, then started full-time for all clients again at the start of 2018.
If you’re looking to uplevel your client experience, the number one tool I recommend is Dubsado. It’s a beautiful and intuitive CRM platform that I use to host my client portals, easily send invoices, create welcome questionnaires, and do so much more. Dubsado makes automation accessible, with powerful workflows that help tackle your tasks and an in-built scheduler to make meetings manageable. If you’d like to join Dubsado with 20% off your first month or year, you can join with code “studiogently” (lower case) today – head to my affiliate link here.
2018: Finding My Work Family
I remember 2018 as being one of the best years of my life, and there was one key reason: I met my work family. I’d worked solely from home since my business began, but on 13th June 2018, I walked through the doors of Co-work Engine, the shared office space I fell in love with in Northampton.
I could do a whole episode telling you why I loved Engine, but suffice it to say, finding your unofficial colleagues MATTERS. I not only met some of my very best friends through coworking, but also clients, and trusted confidantes with whom I could offload in a way I’d never been able to while working from home.
Because of Engine, this was the first year that my business started making what I’ll lovingly call “serious money”. I was able to chat about ideas with people who helped me finesse them and realised, finally, how badly I was undercharging my clients. In September of that year, I was finally able to move into my first non-uni flat, which was exciting beyond words. Sadly, Engine closed its doors during the pandemic, but I’d love to explore coworking options here in Edinburgh because it led to so much business and I love my old Engine friends.
2019: Learning That Some Things Are Too Good To Be True
Anyone who knows me well can vouch for the fact that I am a super trusting person. This hadn’t really been a negative until mid-2019, when I started working for a startup part-time. My photography work had grown heaps but I loved the vision of the business and wanted to put my content writing skills to use. This story essentially boils down to one thing: make sure you get a contract. If a company won’t give you one, then it’s on you to make one yourself. I took some bad advice that the company should have provided a contract, but I now wish that I’d made one myself and just hounded the company to sign it.
Instead, what followed was six months of being massively overworked but also guilt-tripped for not working, then six months of chasing my final £1000 invoice. I thought I was helping a company that was trying to do good and was happy to do so alongside my photography work, but the halcyon vision we were all sold was just untrue. I regret joining that company, and almost everybody who worked alongside me quit just months after I did.
2020: The Pandemic Year
Oh boy, 2020. I don’t think any of you need a reminder that this was the year COVID-19 hit hard! Things got extremely dire, to the point where I earned just £90 in the June of 2020. I count myself lucky that I made even that. I decided that I was going to quietly put down my camera for the majority of the pandemic and instead focused on my copywriting skills. I also decided I wanted to chase more retainer work, so I said yes when a handful of opportunities came my way. I began writing social content for a local marketing agency, I ran a website for a children’s organisation in Birmingham, I eventually got more hours at a boutique I’d been on retainer with since the start of my business, and I wrote some pretty dry blog content for a productivity app.
It wasn’t fun, but I was able to keep my lights on, and for that I am grateful.
2021: A Rebrand + The Year Of Four Photoshoots
When 2021 rolled around, I genuinely thought I’d be looking ahead towards brighter, better days. I decided to formally separate the content writing and photography sides of my business, and on my writing website, I stated I was no longer looking for new work. I approached a fantastic designer, Sarah from These Are The Days, to create a new visual identity for my photography work: Studio Gently. The rebrand went smoothly, I was in love with my visuals, but I still wasn’t getting any shoot enquiries.
Writing-wise, I was thriving. Late summer 2021 was my highest turnover ever, a figure that would have been unthinkable to my earlier self, but it came with a catch. I was miserable, uninspired, and fed up with my writing work. I just wanted a camera in my hands and the chance to dig much deeper into my photoshoot experiences.
The name of this chapter is true: I did shoot just four sessions in all of 2021. I realised, though, that I would never have the energy to throw myself into getting more photography work if I didn’t let go of some of my retainers. I quit my role running the website for the children’s organisation, a decision that was saddening but empowering in equal measure. I used that time to pitch to a handful of dream clients and worked with three Scottish businesses that I am sure just wouldn’t have spotted me otherwise.
In December, my longest-standing retainer dropped me with a week’s notice, and I was crushed. Again, the lesson here really is to get a contract, because it doesn’t matter how friendly you are with a client if said client is financially panicking. I got very scared but eventually came to see the loss as a good turn of events because I loved having that time back in my weekly schedule. I was feeling super inspired going into 2022.
2022: And Just Like Buses
I can safely say that 2022 was the year my business bounced back! I reduced my writing hours to the bare minimum and set my eyes on photography work, and so far I’ve been lucky enough to work with:
A vegan cake baker
A shopkeeper
Five coaches
A beautiful self-care company
My favourite ever magazine, and my work will be in print this October
My first-ever music festival where I got to stand on stage with Sophie Ellis Bextor
An artist
A marketing agency owner
A painter
A design agency
A health + nutrition guide
…for a grand total of 16 days shooting at the time of writing; a little better than four!
At one point, I got so busy this summer that I was able to hire the most fantastic editor to support me with all the shoots I took on in June and it still feels surreal to compare my calendar this year and last year, let me tell you.
I’ve also been able to finally realise a huge personal dream and move to a new city, as I’ve just made a home in my own flat in the beautiful city of Edinburgh.
I do think I need to say that this has happened against the backdrop of some pretty harrowing personal experiences. I’m still in therapy to process some trauma that went on from last year into early this year, and the trauma triggered mild but still distressing psychosis symptoms. The move was as stressful as you’d expect a 300-mile move to be, which also didn’t help said psychosis symptoms. I also underwent investigations for my painful periods and learned I might have endometriosis. Swings and roundabouts everybody.
But what am I hoping to welcome in for the end of this year?
Are you ready to bring your brand photography to life this year? Whether you’re a seasoned brand photographer looking to grow or just starting out in the field, I'd love to help. We can cover systems and strategies, getting featured in magazines, kit and gear, and so much more! I offer just three 1:1 mentoring sessions monthly, so head to studiogently.com/mentoring to learn more.
What I’d Love For The Rest Of 2022
I think there’s just one key thing that I’d love for the end of 2022: I’d love to have a little more calm! To help that happen, I’m capping the number of shoots I want to take on for the rest of the year, and I’m raising my prices to recognise the huge amount of hours that goes into planning each shoot.
I’d love to work with more creative businesses, especially Scottish ones, and I’m so chuffed to be mentoring fellow brand photographers. I mentioned this in the intro, but I realised that I just wasn’t enjoying helping beginner photographers get to know their camera, and I am instead soo much more excited about using my marketing background and photography experience to help others wanting to make their way in what I think is such an incredible field.
And there you have it! I hope you’re ready for a fantastic interview episode next week and I hope you have good things ahead of you, wherever and whenever you are! Take care and let’s go shoot together.
