Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ann Coen. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Ann thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

I truly believe the secret to becoming successful is being able to adapt to any situation and find solutions to problems especially when you are starting out. When I started my business I said yes to everything and learned so much from trying every avenue. Through success and failures I learned that going forward it was ok to say no to some things but only after I tried everything. How can you know if you can do it until you try it? You need grit and a discipline to be confident to try anything in order for your business to succeed.

Ann, 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?

I have been a business owner and photographer for 20 years this year. After majoring in Economics in college I was pretty sure I didnt want to take that traditional business route and being an entrepreneur was always in my blood. I think my biggest passion is actually running the business and helping other business owners be successful. I started taking photos as a hobby but was offered a full time staff photographer job at a local paper and took it. I was thrown in to every type of scenario ( it was also the year newspapers switched from film to digital) and to say I learned more in those two years than four years of college would not be an exaggeration. After almost three years of working for the paper I realized that this could be my business and I took a chance and quit to start Ann Coen Photography…specialzing in portraits, weddings, and whatever else people would pay me to shoot! After two years in my own business I had other aspiring photogs ask if I needed help… this was the turning point really. When I took a chance on employees I really saw the change. I am most proud of the team I have built as I consider them a family. They are a young team but everyone owns a home, has their personal projects on the side and we help each other become better and better every year.

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

I think there were many moments  that my resilience was tested. Training new photographers and having them go out on their own created some uncomfortable moments. Equipment failures where full weddings got lost and dealing with having to tell my clients that I couldn’t deliver. Covid in itself was a huge hurdle for a wedding photographer. We lost over 350k of business revenue and I had to sell my gallery in order to feel like I would come out somewhat even. I had also just opened up a second studio two months before covid hit so that really stopped the momentum. After Covid one of the worst things to ever happen financially was my payroll company made a mistake and stopped taking out payroll taxes. In 2022 at the end of the year my accountant informed me I owed a massive amount to the government. It was quite a life changer….but again, you have to keep moving forward. I do think alot of people quit too early. You cant quit when things start getting hard, thats really when the growth happens. You really have to be built to own your own business, Its not for people that cant self motivate that is for sure.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

One of the craziest moments was when I was shooting a large wedding at a higher end venue and I fell backwards off the dock into the bay. The camera flew off my neck and I had to keep diving down to the bottom to find it. Amazingly I didn’t get hurt AND all the images were in tact but to say it was one of the craziest most embarrassing moments would be an understatement.  Most people would have quit after that experience.

Contact Info:

• Website: anncoen.com
• Instagram: anncoenphotography
• Facebook: Ann Coen Photography