We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Angela Shipps a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Angela, appreciate you joining us today. Taking care of customers isn’t just good business – it is often one of the main reasons folks went into business in the first place. So, we’d love to get a conversation going around how to best help clients feel appreciated – maybe you can share something you’ve done or seen someone do that’s been really effective at helping a customer feel valued?

I am so blessed to have the best people I know on my client list. I have been a wedding photographer for 20 years. The photography industry has an ever changing life of it’s own. I studied photography in college more than 2 decades ago before the digital camera era began. Once I graduated from Central Missouri State University, I immediately started my photography business. Photography was a different industry at that time. It was a “Boys Club.” There were few female photographers in the KC area, and it was definitely a challenge to be take serious as a fresh-out-of-college, single Mom, with NO capital to invest in myself, and few women I could find to mentor me. Fortunately for me, I was able to slide into a local Bridal Show at a Mall. I had very little real world experience and even fewer Wedding Photos in my Portfolio, but what I did have was what still makes me successful today, Spirit.

I booked 7 weddings at that show. Couples and their parents enjoyed my company, loved my enthusiasm, saw my photography talent, and trusted that I had what it took to confidently capture the memories from their most special day. I booked 10 more weddings that first year directly from referrals from those 7 families.

The following year, that small group of clients really took my small business to the next level, booking more than 40 weddings the following year, and over 50 in my 3rd year. By this time, I was participating in any bridal show I could. At this point I was attracting the attention of some of the BEST wedding photographers in KC. Several job offers came my way, but by this point, the couples from my first few weddings where starting their families, and having babies. I didn’t need to work for anyone else, I didn’t need to work in someone else’s photography studio, mine was making me more money than I could have ever hoped to make.

By my 4th year in business I had hired a few photographers myself. I have a team, and we were killing it! In 2005 Digital Cameras were outselling film cameras and the entire photography industry was in trouble. Every Tom, Dick and Harry, as well as their Uncles and neighbors, had a high quality, DSLR digital camera. Many couples were deciding to save some of their wedding budget by letting some eager, middle aged, man with a fancy camera take their wedding photos for free or as a wedding gift. Many photographers jumped on the digital photography bandwagon, but I had just finished 4 years of college to learn how properly exposed film to create beautiful portraits. I didn’t have ANY desire to learn a whole new skill. Many more women were entering the photography industry. Teaching themselves how to take pretty photos with their digital cameras. You no longer had to “Study” photography. You could put your digital camera on Auto and click away. You could see the image immediately after taking your photo so you didn’t really have to know or understand how your camera was working. You just had to be “good enough”.

Thankfully my clients continued to sing my praises. They encouraged their friends’ and family’s newly engaged couples that I was WORTH paying for. The helped convince Brides that an amazing wedding photograph needs more than a fancy camera. They all encouraged me to stay in the game as I started my 2 year journey to learn all I could about digital photography. Somehow, many couples that valued good photography and had great wedding photos as their top priority were keeping me almost as busy as usual.

Once I had transitioned to a strong digital photographer, I also had to became more comfortable charging the same amount for a service that practically cost me nothing… well, nothing but a TON OF TIME, ( but that is another story or another time. ) I had only one year of huge profits before the bottom dropped out in the 2008 and our country was in a severe recession. A photography business relies on revenue from it’s clients disposable income. With everyone suffering economic hardships, my business slowly started to slide in the wrong direction. However, once again, my clients would came to my rescue. At this point I had photographed a few hundred weddings and many of the married couples were finding room in their budget to still have professional portraits taken of their children. Child portraits and weddings were fortunately a priority to many of my clients. Even tho there were many people with good quality digital cameras still offering to take photos for their friends and family for free, MY clients would have none of it. They were loyal thru and thru. They would tell me that my talent behind the lens was priceless and they could see that there was more to creating a timeless portrait than just a fancy camera and they made sure to continue to encourage others to hire me.

I ate thru my savings, but I made it thru the Great Recession. Many other professional photographers were not so fortunate. A new breed of photographers were starting to set up roots my ever changing industry, and the phrase “Mommatographer” became my newest obstacle. Ladies were taking over! The photography industry was no longer a boys club. Mom’s were starting wedding photography businesses because they could stay at home with their children during the week and photograph weddings on the weekends when their hubby could be at home with their kids. This was the hardest challenge I had ever faced. The is no licence required to be a photographer. Infact, you didn’t even have to have a photography business to purchase a booth at Bridal Shows. Many of my biggest competitors were now stay-a-home Moms that could charge far less because they had no overhead. Many of these Mommatographers were also really GOOD. They had time to watch endless hours of YouTube to learn new techniques and trends. They could spend all their time focussing on their one photography job a week, while I was now booking multiple photo sessions throughout the week in addition to my sometimes multiple weddings on the weekends.

I was starting to loose my edge. I was aging, and I now had a husband and small children all counting on the income from my business. I was under an immense level of stress daily. I was being hired for less weddings than my 2nd year in business and I was still in my 30s. I could feel my dream turning into a nightmare, but once again, my clients came to my rescue. Many of my clients were encouraging me to join Social Media. I even had a client offer to set up my account and help be navigate thru yet another major change to the Photography Industry. I believe this was a pivotal moment for myself as a photographer, as well as for my photography studio. Quickly I was able to connect with many of the couples’ whose weddings I had photographed. My phone ( and email ) was blowing up! I had more than enough business to keep me busy.

In a short time, my facebook page grew to over a thousand likes. I had actual followers. More and more of clients were referring me to more and more families. My business was beginning to have a life of it’s own. I was forced to work day and night to keep up with the demand. I knew my photography skills were slipping due to the constant rush to satisfy all my new and old clients. I had to make some very hard choices, but I decided to no longer take any new clients. I began to exclusively work for existing clients. If you wanted to be on my client list, you had to hire me to photograph your wedding. It was hard to turn down potential new clients, but I knew my existing clients deserved me at my best. I purchased a larger home, remodeled the basement, and moved my 3000 square foot studio into it. It was the hardest decision of my life, but I had two little boys that were growing up with a mother too busy to raise them and a husband who needed me.

I had an enormous client list of the absolute BEST families in the Kansas City area. They were all so supportive and enjoyed seeing my new lifestyle of balancing home life and a career. It still amazes me that many of the couples who blindly believed in me so many years ago, still happily pay me to spend time with them during the most important moments of their lives. I take High School Senior Portraits of many of their children. I have even photographed a daughter’s wedding!

I know there are many more changes in the photography industry… that’s never going to change. BUT I know I can manage anything that is throw at me because I have the respect, loyalty and APPRECIATION of my customers. To be honest, I don’t see them as customers, I don’t see them as fans… I see them as my support team and my friends.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I should have saved some of the last response!

Something I haven’t mentioned that is especially important is how I shaped my business around the needs of my clients. When couples hire me to photograph their weddings they might have parents helping them financially. They often have two incomes and no children, so they have lots of disposable income. As they buy a home and start a family they often don’t have much of a disposable income. Instead of establishing fees for my service that make me such large amounts that I might only have had to take on a few jobs a week, I created a pricelist that I myself could afford. I made decisions for my business as if I was my own clients. I asked for honest feedback from my clients not only about pricing but about what types of photos they were most interested in and how they “felt” when they worked with me. I do not see my photography studio as a huge, profitable business. I see it more as a collective. I offer special pricing to clients that are going thru hard times. I allow payment plans for couples paying for their weddings themselves. I create adorable mini-sessions at the holidays so my clients can afford to visit me for photos multiple times a year.

There are so many things to be proud of, but if I had to pick one it would be: I helped pave the way for Mothers who want to be home raising their children, but also want to contribute to their family financially. Women now dominate the photography industry. I like to think I had a part in that. And I did it all started when I became pregnant in college and had to find a new major. I made my way to the top of an industry where leaders didn’t look like me. I managed to survive the Digital Camera era as well as the Great Recession. Yes, I am proud of too many things to pick out just one.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I grew up with a very young mother. I am the oldest of 4 children and I was never taught anything about boundaries. When it came time to make set my prices, I often felt bad. I hated raising my prices. I knew ( or thought I knew ) that many of my clients might not be able to afford to have professional portraits if I didn’t keep my prices as low as possible. My friends and family would watch me burn out, trying so hard to keep up with all the many clients I felt I had to keep, and keep happy. They would literally yell at me to raise my prices so I would have fewer obligations but still make the same income. I continued to resist ever charging what I knew I was worth. I felt I owed it to my many couples who had supported me and helped me become so successful.

I have always felt I was compensated thru my photography by more than just money. I received so much praise, appreciation, and admiration. When I had a client “need” a session on a date I had plans, I had no ability to say no. I worked Sundays even when I had worked Saturday at a wedding so my clients wouldn’t have to take time off of work to have their portraits done. I would miss my son’s football games on Saturdays to photograph weddings. I took my days off during the week when my kids were in school, and my husband was at work. I had little to no friends, but I didn’t mind because I saw so many of my clients as friends, even if we never spent time together outside of a photoshoot.

I was so consumed with pleasing my clients that I had created a vertex around myself and my family that revolved around my clients’ needs at the expense of my own. When I moved my studio into my home, I found that my clients would actually set boundaries on their own. They could now see my family in person, and many of them encouraged me to limit my availability to dates and times that worked for me. I heard more than once, “Angela, you are worth taking a day off of work.” or “I would wait a month to get on your schedule if I had to.”

I have spent the past year and a half in therapy to work on the many maladaptive coping skills I developed. I sometimes still struggle, but I keep whittling away at them and my clients still keep coming back. I feel immeasurable blessings from the many people I have worked with over my 20 year career. But I am now realizing it is my career, not my everything.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.AngelaNeedsShipps.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/angelaneedsshipps/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PTStudios