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

Kim, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

First of all, you have to find your passion and nurture it. Master your craft – become an expert. This often takes years. Next you find your customers, find out what problems they have that you can solve with your product or service, and serve them with empathy. One of the reasons I have been successful is that I care deeply for my clients. I want to know what’s going on in their lives, what they love and what they value. It’s a perfect match when I find clients who value their family and friends, and the experiences they share together and remember forever. That’s where I come in. I capture their memories at events, make portraits of the ones they love, and encourage and enable them to put pictures on the wall that they will cherish every day when they look at them. I started in weddings, and as my couples grew their families, and friends got married, and beloved family passed on, I was honored and grateful to be a steward of their memories. I have been a photographer for over 20 years now, and still photograph families from my early career!

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?

My husband and I were married in July 2001, and we went to see our wedding proofs (back in the film days of yore) in October of that year, still reeling from the events of 9/11. Our photographer was lamenting the fact that she was looking for another studio manager as hers had gone back to teaching. She was sad because she couldn’t pay much. I was a recruiter for software engineers in Silicon Valley, but loved the feeling of going through pictures of happy times from our wedding, and wanted more feel good stuff. I said maybe she should look for someone who isn’t doing it for the money. She said, “what are you saying?” I answered, “when do I start?” And so it began. I spend days fighting the economic decline in the industry, and evenings with wedding stories of strangers. It became more apparent that my longing for the happy work outpaced my six figure job, so after a few months I quit the recruiting job, and settled in at the photography studio. I had taken photography in college, and grew up in Rochester, New York (home of Kodak,) so I already had a passion. It wasn’t long until I opened my own wedding photography business in 2002, and have been an entrepreneur ever since.

I am still, over 20 years later, constantly hungry for improving my craft. I have an education budget I use every year, as well as having been an instructor for various areas of photography. But that isn’t what sets me apart. My clients have always said how truly “seen” they feel after a session with me. I see people through many times in their lives, the ups and the downs, and I make images of them to reflect on these life experiences. I truly connect with them, and care about what happens to them. I have had some of my clients since the beginning of my business, from their engagement, to their wedding, and as they built their own families, and lost parents and grandparents along the way. This empathy and being the preserver of memories is what makes me a good photographer. I listen, I connect, and I serve with gratitude. I offer solutions that enable them to come back to me whenever they need photography, personally or professionally.

My family and I moved to a small California gold mining town from San Francisco in 2011, and my business moved here as well. I now have a portrait studio in the basement of a historic building in downtown Grass Valley. My specialty has moved away from weddings and events, and I am now focused on portraits, headshots, and branding images for entertainers and small businesses in my town. I support the arts and non-profit organizations whose missions resonate with me, and I am still connecting with people in front of my camera. My core brand statement is I see beauty through my camera’s lens and through the lens of my heart. The resulting images are that instant where my journey in this life – struggles, joy, pain and rejoicing – intersects with yours. We create these images together. For all time, and I am honored to be a part of the process. Since my work thrives on relationships, I market my services to the people I meet every day. The key, for me at least, is to provide services my clients need, and solve problems for them. My professional fees reflect an equal exchange of value, and I don’t really have a hard time communicating that to my ideal clients. There are many photographers here in my market, and there is always enough business for all of us. I believe in community over competition, and network a lot with my peers. I give back to that community, and am happy to be here at this point in my career.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I surely wish I knew more about business when I started mine. My revenue grew fairly quickly, and I was not an expert in how to manage my finances in a way that would always ensure profitability. I am a bit of a control freak as well, and not very good at delegating things I don’t enjoy doing, so my advice to new entrepreneurs and creatives is to find a system where you can manage your books, your lead follow-up processes, and your workflow so you are not spending endless time working on your business vs. in your business. I know start up systems for book keeping and CRM’s can be expensive, but I would have had a better shot at keeping more of the revenue my business generated if I had these systems in place earlier! Running a business that generates over six figures is practically impossible without these systems, and the investments made in that part of my business have proven to be more important than my camera or my computer, which I use every single day!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I, like many small business owners, had struggles through the pandemic, and coming back stronger and more resilient is a happy ending to a story that could have had a much more difficult outcome. My studio in 2020 was in a small room in the back of a hair salon, less than 200 square feet, and I had been there for about 5 years. In California, salons were one of the categories that remained on lockdown with many changes in client interaction and even being able to be open for business. This was not easy for any industry, but we all managed to stay in business, and stay healthy, as well as serve the clients we could, giving them our best. I had more time to think about where I wanted my business to go when the pandemic was less threatening. Even though I could do my work once some of the restrictions lifted, I felt uncomfortable bringing clients into such a small shared space, so I knew it was time to pivot. I have never had my own space, always a shared space, and I happened upon the rental of a studio in our historic downtown that has parking AND more than double the space I had at the salon, and the rent was barely $500 more a year than what I was paying. The terms were fantastic, and I jumped on it right away. Now, 2 years later, I have even more space, growing to take over the whole floor, and a fantastic building with so much character for photo sessions of all kinds. My revenue has more than doubled since I have been in this new space, and I look more forward to serving even more clients in the coming year. Having a strong support system in the community and personally, and access to business grants and loans pushed me through to the next level.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kimsayrephotography.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/kimsayre_photo
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KimSayrePhoto
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimsayrephoto/
• Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/KimSayrePhoto/

Image Credits
image of me is credited to Christa Cobb Photography, all other images are credit to Kim Sayre Photography