We recently connected with Danielle Miranda and have shared our conversation below.
Danielle, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so we’d love to hear about how you got your first client or customer. What’s the story?
I actually have my master’s degree in elementary education! I graduated college in 2008 during the recession where teachers who had decades of experience were being pink slipped. I decided to pivot and start a family and try for a teaching job in a few years. In 2015 I was a stay at home mom with two babies. I was a little frazzled, a little bored, a little wanting for a hobby. I decided to buy a camera at Costco to take photos of my kiddos since I had always loved photography. I posted a couple photos, got a couple positive comments. I posted a few more, got a couple “Hey can you bring your camera to a playdate sometime and take pictures of my kids?” This went well so I took photos of a family I knew for free. Just for practice. Just for fun. It went really well so I got a business license and charged my first paid family $40. 11 years later, thousands of clients later, here I am!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am a mother of 3 boys, married for 18 years to someone I met in a Yahoo chat room when we were young teens. I have been photographing families/maternity/seniors/branding for 11 years now. I have a background in elementary education so I especially click with kiddos. It all boils down to the fact that I love people. I absolutely love life and capturing all of the things that make people who they are. I don’t just capture smiling photos. I capture that nervous excitement of bringing a new life into this world. I capture a snapshot of your messy, loving family in this specific period of life. I capture the woman behind a business she pours herself into. I make people feel comfortable with who they are so they don’t have to worry about how they look.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
SO many businesses failed during the pandemic. Photographers work directly with people so we were hit hard. Many folded their businesses up or went into different fields of work. I missed connection and work and was determined to keep this going. I ended up doing grad minis in a safe way. I would drive all over San Diego to clients’ homes and take photos of their grad on the porch, in the backyard, on the street (all from a safe, masked distance.) It was a way to keep my name on people’s minds, keep the connection with my clients, and celebrate all the grads who deserved recognition during that hard time!
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
I started my business by telling myself I would take one paying client per month. I was still a stay at home mom and wanted to put that first. Then it turned into ok, I’ll take one a week. I was charging next to nothing but I was ecstatic to have some fun money for myself. It blew up pretty quickly and before I knew it I was working multiple times a week (still charging an absurdly low amount of money). Today I am a six figure business, an s-corp, I have my own 401k and Roth’s for my kiddos. I am still a one woman show but I am happy to have a balance where I am with my family for every birthday, soccer game, and class play but I can help provide a life of comfort and adventure as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.daniellemirandaphotography.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daniellemirandaphotography/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/daniellemirandaphoto
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/danielle-miranda-photography-chula-vista
Image Credits
Meg Mosher Photography (for headshot)