We recently connected with Michelle Kaffko and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Michelle thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?
There aren’t many photo studios that do what we do. Most studios have one photographer: one person to handle all of the marketing, bookkeeping, client relations, and the creative process itself. But we are a team of five photographers, an Operations Manager, a videographer, eight makeup artists, a bookkeeper, and a post production artist. As the owner and founder of the studio, I’ve learned that to be successful as a large, multi-photographer studio, you have to treat everyone as a fellow owner and investor in the studio. We all make the same amount of money, and we all work equally as hard to make our clients happy and create great work for them.
Michelle, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I founded my Chicago photo studio, Organic Headshots, in 2005, and have grown it to employ several photographers and photographing thousands of Chicagoans each year. We specialize in professional headshots and commercial photography for clients ranging from individuals to Fortune 500 global companies. Our clients continue to return to us for their professional portraits because we take the extra time to make sure they look confident in their photos and they can be proud to share them. Most of us hate having their photo taken, so we recognize that, and have great methods and tips for making the experience as smooth and easy as possible.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
In early 2020 during the beginning of the pandemic, we were under contract to purchase a building that would increase our studio space and about to build it out as a custom space for our studio. But the deal fell through when we were ordered by the State of Illinois to close for over 70 days as a “non-essential” business. After reopening, the business was slow to return to our former sales numbers of 2019, since the pandemic was still raging and most of our clients were not returning to work and limiting their exposure to anything outside the home. We are still here today, with higher sales numbers than before the pandemic, and in a better, larger studio space because of two strategies we took: reorganize the finances, and listening to our clients. Financially, I stopped taking a salary as the owner because it was easier for me to get on unemployment than our 1099 contractors, who all of our photo gigs were funneled to, so they can continue to work and earn a living. We cut costs to the bare essentials. And then we opened very transparent communication with our clients. We talked to them about what they needed to feel safe before coming back to our studio, and we told them exactly what we were doing to keep them safe. We knew we would bounce back even stronger than before and we sure did.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Consistency. We consistently create great work and let the work speak for itself. We’re only successful if our clients actually like the photos we take of them, so we make sure they’re happy with their photos before closing a project out.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.organicheadshots.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/organicheadshots/
- Facebook: facebook.com/organicheadshots
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/organic-headshots
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@michellekaffko5863
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/organic-headshots-chicago-2
Image Credits
Organic Headshots