We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Meraj Sirajuddin a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Meraj thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
I use to take pictures as a hobby and somebody ask me one day, if I would take pictures for the event for pay. So it started from there.
Meraj, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My parents are immigrants from India and Pakistan, they came to Chicago, IL in 70’s and I was born in Chicago, but I grew up in 2 different countries, I went to High school in Hyderabad, India, and move back to US in 2003 and went to Webster university in Saint louis, MO got MBA, I’m well traveled Nationally and Internationally.
Within the US I have been to 32 states in the union and Internationally I have been to Canada, Malaysia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and my Parents home countries India and Pakistan. I started taking pictures of landscapes around the country, family events, and cousin’s weddings, and then I was approached by people to take their pictures for pay. I have been doing Photography for about 15 years now.
I work full-time as a software quality analyst, photographer, and videographer on weekends and evenings on weekdays.
How did you build your audience on social media?
Yes, I post some snapshots from my shoot on my social Media pages. I use to advertise in early days to expand my audience reach, but now I don’t.
As in Photography, Video business, once you establish and have work to show, you don’t need to waste money on advertisements.
Now Technology have advance enough that people look for Video on Photographer for special occasions, and they search for the options, so if you advertise, people will see you are out there, but you don’t get many clients and lot of time you loose money and big corporations make money out of small businesses just because they have platform.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
Word of mouth and work to show.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.laddernlantern.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chocolayer/
- Facebook: https://www.yelp.com/biz/ladder-n-lantern-saint-louis
- Twitter: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100085451406527
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ladderlantern/videos