We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Allison Craig. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Allison below.

Allison, appreciate you joining us today. One of our favorite things to brainstorm about with friends who’ve built something entrepreneurial is what they would do differently if they were to start over today. Surely, there are things you’ve learned that would allow you to do it over faster, more efficiently. We’d love to hear how you would go about setting things up if you were starting over today, knowing everything that you already know.

When I first opened my business, I was doing everything through Google and YouTube and knew nothing about running a small business. I didn’t have any prior business experience and no one to really turn to, so it was difficult to even know I was making mistakes. The saying “you don’t know what you don’t know” absolutely applied to myself and the business I was trying to create from scratch.

If I could start over, I would have loved to know how to calculate my business costs (Cost of Doing Business or CODB) from the very beginning. You simply cannot argue with these numbers and must charge what your minimum is in order to be profitable. Instead of looking around at what others are charging and basing prices off of that, I should have looked at my own expenses and costs and those numbers to calculate what I was charging clients.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hey there, my name is Allison and I’m the owner of Lentille Photography. After a couple of years in the photography business, I knew there was more to it than a stressed mom showing up to a session and then handing her the digitals. Since then, I’ve created a luxury experience to better serve our families.
You’ll find our natural light studio just outside of Houston, along with recently opening in Asheville, NC. Our team is made up of four talented women and mothers who create the beautiful images, family films, framed artwork, and heirloom albums that we are known for. With nine children between us, one of us has likely walked the road you are on at this moment. Motherhood is so incredibly important to us, which is why we specialize in documenting the early years: maternity, newborns, motherhood, and young families.

We’ve created a beautiful, calm space for families to relax and enjoy themselves. While we know pictures have been portrayed as stressful, it’s anything but that when our clients choose us as their photography team. We’ve partnered with the best hair and makeup artist in Houston (all of our mamas love her!), we have a florist to make your dreams of incorporating blooms come true, and our baker creates the best smash cakes to celebrate your little one’s first birthday. Our studio also carries a size-inclusive Studio Wardrobe for the whole family: over 150 dresses for mom, clothing for kiddos, and shirts for dad. Come as you are and we do the rest.

You won’t find elaborate props or poses in any of our sessions, and many photographs are candid, authentic, and a moment held between family. This is all done with intention, so your portraits withstand the test of time. Our studio believes wholeheartedly that your moments should live in print. From the moment you decide to work with us, we will help plan wall art or an album, so your images can be enjoyed by your family every day. Our Studio Manager, Hope, will be there throughout the entire process to answer questions, plan your artwork, schedule the details, and then walk you through your Design and Ordering Appointment once your images are ready.

We’ve been able to serve over one thousand Houston families and have been in business almost ten years.
We love what we do and hope that is reflected in the experience we’ve created and images that we are known for.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I use and love 17hats, and wish I had found it early-on in opening my business. It allows me to create workflows, organize my clients and calendar, send invoices, and do our bookkeeping; something every small business needs. It (literally) gave me hours back so that I could focus on the million other important things. If you aren’t utilizing a system like this, I highly recommend working it into your business!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Our clients, both new and established, know that we’ve been in business almost ten years and have been able to curate and transform our experience over that time. Being in business for that long, along with word-of-mouth, helps tremendously with establishing a reputation for high-end service and the best customer service.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lentillephotography.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lentillephotography
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lentillephotography

Image Credits
main headshot is by Kate Elizabeth Photography