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

Bonnie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I’m a photographer, and I was at a networking event when a woman approached me and asked if I could help her with something. She and her fiancé had found the perfect wedding photographer, but for some reason, the photographer could no longer shoot their wedding. She was in love with this photographer’s editing style and wanted to know if I knew of any other local photographer who shot like that.

I eventually was able to refer her to a few possible substitutes after reaching out to my community, but it dawned on me that for people like her (and myself) who had some “must-have” attributes of their photographer that were largely impossible to just Google, it was often a really frustrating process to find that “perfect” photographer. From there, I set out to create a photographer directory that had filters for editing style, years of experience, studio space, etc.

As a working photographer myself, I also wanted to make sure that the directory didn’t cater to the cheap photographers who operated at unsustainable prices. So I added that into the criteria for the photographers on the directory.

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 Tell us what’s unique about your company and what you’re most proud of?

I originally got into photography in a high school film photography class but didn’t officially opened my own business until 2015 (13 years later).

When I came up with Happily Ever Photo, (a US photographer directory with various filters to help people find their perfect photographer), I wanted to make sure the directory didn’t’ list anyone who called themselves a “photographer”. So many of the directory-like websites for photographers have resulted in a race to the bottom for prices and a devaluing of the industry as a whole. Seeing first hand the struggles of trying to be a profitable photographer, I decided to set minimum pricing requirements for the photographers who joined our directory. This way, no matter which photographer the user chooses, they’ll be supporting someone with prices that can sustain a livable wage.

Happily Ever Photo is a unique directory in a couple ways:
1. We have many filters like location, experience, editing style, and genre to help you narrow down your search for that perfect photographer.
2. We only allow profitably-priced photographers to be listed on our site so we can support the professional photography industry.

I’m most proud of the photographer community that’s joined the mission of this site and has helped me expand and improve it from day 1.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

In order to get photographers to join this brand new directory, I had to initially make it free. Finding those photographers and convincing them that the site wasn’t a scam was a very tedious process. :) I first had to find and collect the email addresses of thousands and thousands of US photographers. I then had to send out those introductory emails one by one. All of this took way more time than I’d like to calculate or admit.

I still can’t believe I convinced as many people as I did to even read that email, much less take the time and join the site. :)

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

So far, all the funding has come from me. That’s been possible because I’ve created and grown this business on a VERY tight budget. I created the website by myself and have spent very little money on marketing. The biggest cost so far has been my time. I do plan to put more money into marketing this year, and that will be a combination of using the website’s profits and my own money.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.happilyeverphoto.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/happilyeverphotocompany
• Facebook: facebook.com/happilyeverphoto

Image Credits
Headshot: Cleo Creative Photography