We were lucky to catch up with Candace Weir recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Candace, thanks for joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later?

I wish I would have had the guts to start sooner sometimes.

It wasn’t until 2020 when the world shut down that I realized my “safe” job choice, didn’t feel as “safe” as I thought, as all of a sudden my job completely stopped. I had a job traveling and managing sports photographer for youth sporting events and due to COVID-19, our worked came to a screeching halt.

My husband has been a business owner most of our marriage. And I always saw working for someone “safer”. As a business owner, you don’t always get that weekly paycheck, and you sometimes don’t know how much is coming when you do. It’s based on the volume of business. And that’s something that as an employee working for someone else, you never really have to count on. So I always saw being a business owner as a quite risky business. And me taking a risk, that wasn’t ever me, although my husband had encouraged me a number of times.

However, when 2020 happened, I had no choice but to take charge and take that risk. Who would have thought that in the middle of a pandemic, I was able to form a successful business?! That is the thing that encourages me today, even at high inflation rates happening. Plenty of people lost their jobs in 2020 or their job was put on hold and I started thriving at building my own successful photography business.

But going back to if I do wish I would have started sooner, I think the answer would have been yes for sure. Maybe not at the scale I am now. Being a mom was always my first priority. My kids are adults now. So I think I wouldn’t have wanted Memories by Candace to be full time when they were younger, but I think if I could have started off sooner by spending the time marketing my own business instead of working for someone else, I could have the freedom and flexibility of doing what I do now. I could have made my business successful earlier, working my own hours earlier.

Don’t get me wrong, running a successful photography business, there are weeks I definitely put in more than 40 hours a week. So that freedom and flexibility sometimes is challenged, but I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.

Candace, 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?

My love affair with the camera began when my second child was born and I was looking for a part time seasonal holiday job. I got a job working for a retail photography company in a mall, it was the first time picking up the camera and within 3 months I became full- time managing my own studio. That came to an end though as my husband joined the military after his brother had been KIA in Iraq. But I didn’t stop being behind the lens.

My husband was stationed at Fort Campbell, KY and that is where my outdoor photography adventure began. Soldiers were getting deployed constantly and families wanted family photos. So that’s when I first went outdoors and taught myself. Although, I will say, my skills then were definitely not what they are now. But being a soldier’s wife, and also a gold star family member, photographing soldiers before they deployed with their families was definitely a passion for me. I knew how important family photos were, as I took my own brother-in-law’s last family photos before he deployed and then was later killed in Iraq in 2006. So it definitely fueled the fire to say the least.

I moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 2015 and have been in love with the state and people ever since!

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

When it came time for me to bring in a second photographer to help and assist, I couldn’t think of anyone better than Joceline, my associate photographer and team member.

Joceline and I had previously worked together photographing. I had the pleasure of working alongside and sometimes training Joceline when it came to outdoor family photography years ago for another company. It’s probably why some of our clients can see we have a similar style. Joceline and I have always worked so well together as a team.

When working together, we can literally look at each other and know what needs to happen or be fixed, it is like finishing each other’s sentences.

Hiring an associate photographer can be intimidating as you are sharing your art. So that also means there has to be a level of trust there. I’m so lucky to have Joceline, because she believes in me and my work. When you have someone like that working alongside you, it makes you always strive to be better at what you do.

When it comes to wedding photography, I work confidently because she is beside me and when it comes to families, I know I can trust her with my clients. I know she will take good care of them.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

One of my biggest resources of getting new clients has been because I have the best clients. Truly, it has been word of mouth I would say at least 80% of the time.

And I think that it just comes down to their experience with Memories by Candace. I’ve been told that I have a bubbly personality and am very patient. And the thing is, I just truly want to make people feel beautiful and loving people is my life motto.

I think that as creatives sometimes, we focus on our work so much that we forget about the subjects in front of the camera. I think to be successful in the the photography industry, especially when working with people, you have to love them first. If you don’t love people, you aren’t photographing the right thing. I love getting to know my subjects, learning about them, listening to them. It’s not about me, I’m just creating how I see them behind the lens. And hopefully, the end product makes them happy in how I see them whether that’s capturing their love story or the happiness of their families.

So ultimately, I think it’s ultimately the experience. I can offer specials, deals, marketing, and even provide great work. But if the people who come to me don’t have a good experience, that’s not going to make it long.

Contact Info:

• Website: candaceweir.com
• Instagram: @memoriesbycandace
• Facebook: @candaceweirphotography

Image Credits
Candace Weir – Memories by Candace