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

Chelsea, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

For photographers, one of the biggest questions I get is, “How did you turn taking photos into a full-time job?” And while it just me as the only full-time employee right now (I occasionally have a freelance assistant for shoots or to hand off certain tasks), my business has truly scaled up from being a fun side gig to supplement my 9-to-5 job into a full-fledged career where I now make 4x what I was making at any of my previous jobs.

When I was structuring to go full-time and figuring out if it was feasible, I laid out a few things:
What did I need to bring in to make ends meet? And what would a dream month for me look like?
What did I want my schedule to look like? This includes everything from working out to time off and when do I “clock in” and “clock out”? (Side note: it can be challenging for entrepreneurs to truly clock out, so it’s important to think about what that looks like for yourself.)
What was my why? Was it to pursue something I love? Replace my income? Allow more flexibility in my schedule? Or a combo of all the above.

Taking all those things into account, I drafted up what I would like my business to look like and what I thought it would take to get there. This was all in conjunction to growing a robust portfolio in the industry and fields I wanted to be working in.

Once I had outlined what my “dream business” looked like, I broke it down into parts to make it more tangible. I looked into Client Management Systems, established my branding, figured out where I could automate and optimize, and treated it like a real business. I invested in proper contracts, upgraded my website, got the proper business licenses and insurance.

I think in order to scale up and book the professional jobs, you have to treat it like a professional job. So I did just that.

This was all while sticking true to the things I outlined from the beginning — I wanted to build a business I loved to check into, but one that I could easily check out of for when I needed time off.

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’m in business to help small businesses flourish, and I do that with meaningful photography. For a more official title, I’m a Commercial Brand Photographer and create lifestyle imagery featuring brands, products, and people.

Showcasing experiences — whether that’s products in lifestyle settings, highlighting hotel amenities, or a business owner’s services — is my favorite thing. Illustrating what a prospective customer can expect in terms of quality, feeling, and the value is actually what catapulted me into photography.

Here’s the story: I began my photography career assisting my mom, who is an award-winning Family Photographer. When it came time to embark on my own, I followed my love of Art History and Fashion…and moved to Paris.

While in Paris, I worked as a Travel Journalist, capturing the city’s many delights while trying to discover the world’s best croissant. I was sharing this all on my blog — hotels, foods, travel experiences — and that’s how it all began.

I figured out how to make that a “real” job, and I’ve been in photography for over 10 years now — previously running the photo department for an e-commerce boutique, working for a leading wedding website curating editorials, and then directing all content for a Forbes-listed Top 10 Travel Influencer.

Having traveled far and wide, I chose to base myself in San Diego because I adore the many mom-and-pop shops and the historic communities. And I want to be able to support those small businesses — the ones with big dreams and goals of creating a career that not only is something they love but also allows them to live a life they love.

One of my biggest takeaways from living in France is the idea of working to live and not living to work. As a culture, the French are passionate about taking holidays, allowing time to cook and eat slowly, savoring little moments each and every day, and only working between certain hours. They are never “too busy” for things. That, to me, is so important, and it’s my goal to help other small businesses to achieve that reality by helping them grow with meaningful imagery.

I wholeheartedly believe that when you can empower others doing something you love, that’s where the magic happens.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Understanding how to operate with a nightmare client, what red flags to look out for, and also realizing that you are not the right photographer for everyone.

At the time, I was still doing this as a side-gig and hadn’t made everything as professional as possible — meaning I didn’t require deposits and had not yet implemented contracts. I sent the client my ideas, the inspiration, prop list, etc. and she approved. I provided her 3 sample photos, which she loved, so I photographed the rest of the product gallery in the same manner.

She came back saying she didn’t like the rest of the gallery, hated the props, and that I had missed the mark. I was super torn up about this as I had already spent close to $300 on props, done all the work, and she didn’t like it.

What I learned from this:
1. Learning to ask better questions to truly figure out what a client wants. Sometimes (oftentimes) they don’t fully know, so I have to put my detective hat on and ask specific questions pertaining to their business to figure out what would work best for their unique brand.
2. Creative Directives from here on out! Detailing shot lists, lighting/props, and all the details.
3. Contracts and requiring deposits.
4. Not all clients are your client, and that’s okay!
5. Know when to bend for a client and when to stand up for yourself.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

Doing photography was a side-hustle for many years and I really enjoyed it supplementing my 9-to-5 working in Editorial and for a Travel Influencer. During this time, I was working on campaigns, taking photos for brands we were contracted to work with, and ultimately building my portfolio. I wasn’t sure when I wanted to go full-time with my business but I was getting really good experience working with creative briefs, different brands, deadlines, and seeing the analytics of work I was producing. So it was all really valuable experience that shaped how my business operates today.

When I structured to leave my 9-to-5 job and go full-time with photography, my initial goal was just to replace my monthly income…with the goal of doubling it (that in my mind would be the dream). This actually happened much quicker than I anticipated and about 2 months after going full-time I landed a huge photoshoot that was 3x my previous monthly salary. That was a huge step and really made me realize this was going to work.

I’m now a little over two years into going full-time with my business and I’m so happy to say I’ve made 4x the amount of my previous job, while truly enjoying all of the work that I do, and I was able to take off 5 weeks to travel to Europe for my honeymoon. Those are definitely key milestones and happy pinch me moments.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.chelsealoren.co
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/chelsealoren.co

Image Credits

Chelsea Loren / www.chelsealoren.co