We recently connected with Stephanie Selby and have shared our conversation below.

Stephanie, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the best or worst investment you’ve made?

The best and scariest investments I have made are in education, mentorships, and hiring help. Some mentors (usually the best ones) have a high price tag. When I was starting out anything above a couple hundred dollars was huge to me and the mentor I chose was significantly more. However, I trusted and believed that she could help me, so I did it. It was 100% worth it! She helped me with everything from lighting to posing to business strategy. Another huge investment has been hiring a studio manager, but it has been so worth it! I didn’t realize how bogged down I was by all of the smaller tasks until I began delegating. Thank you, Caroline!!

Stephanie, 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?

We are a portrait and headshot studio located in the heart of downtown Charleston. We specialize in personal branding, professional headshots, family portraits, and senior portraits. My background is in counseling, but once I started having children, I became obsessed with capturing as many memories as possible, and I fell in love with photography. My background in counseling has helped me tremendously in my photography career. It’s very important to me to build a relationship with each of my clients, and to make them feel as comfortable as possible in front of the camera!

There are a couple things that set me apart from other photographers. First, I offer a full service. Before the photoshoot even occurs, I meet with my clients for a Style & Concept consultation to go over their vision for their photoshoot, define their brand or style, and help them pick out their outfits. We also offer professional hair and makeup services, multiple locations, wardrobe changes, and master retouching of our images. In addition, we offer a wide variety of luxury products for clients to choose from to display their images. We offer custom wall art, photo albums, and heirloom keepsake boxes. We want to create tangible products for our clients so that they can treasure their images for generations to come!

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Networking, networking, networking! I have truly learned the importance of networking in the past year or so. I highly recommend any business owner to get involved in a networking group. It not only helps you to grow your clientele, but you can make amazing new friends and experience new opportunities.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

Keeping in touch with my clients and fostering brand loyalty is something very important to me! Not only for business, but because I truly love all of my clients and feel so connected to them after our experience together. Because of this, we have an exclusive Facebook group of all current and past clients so that we can keep in touch, network, and just share what’s been going on in life!

Contact Info:

• Website: stephanieselbyphotography.com
• Instagram: @stephanieselbyphotography and @stephanieselbyheadshots
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/stephanieselbyphotography and www.facebook.com/stephanieselbyheadshots

Image Credits
Stephanie Selby Photography