We were lucky to catch up with Erica Harrison recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Erica, thanks for joining us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

My Business Name: Silverbridge & Co.

I have been in business for over 10 years, an back in 2017 I rebranded my business with a new name and look. The reason for the rebrand came as two fold, first I relocated my market from Richmond, VA to Charlottesville, VA and Washington D.C. so a new look and name I felt was right for the change, but I also got married in May of 2017 and wanted my business to reflect me name change. After months of work and debating within I decided the name of my photography business should not be my name. My business is so much more than just photography, I offer book keeping services (added in 2023) and virtual assistant (added in 2021) services to other busy creatives as well so just ‘Erica Harrison Photography’ was not right. I knew back in 2017 I would not always be offering just photography services, so my name had to reflect that as well.

I needed a name that would be unforgettable, elevated, and that could serve more than just photography clients, but I also wanted a name that would evoke my passion for my work. Working along side a professional that had helped many professionals rebrand their business it was suggested that I look deeper into my personal story and why I wanted the name change, which ultimately was ‘MY NAME CHANGE’. I got married, I was no longer Erica Hildebrandt there for Hildebrandt Photography was not longer working. But I have a new love story, one that I am deeply invested in. One like all my couples have, and that they trust me to document for them.

So I grabbed a notebook and brainstormed all the words that evoked a feeling of passion that revolved around my own love story. Then I started weeding them down, by asking myself ‘could I make this work in a business name?, ‘How would I feel about this work choice in 5, 10, 15 years?’, ‘Does this word choice prompt an opportunity for conversation or connection?’. That made it even easier to clear out a lot of the word bank. Leaving me with possibly 7 to 10 words to work with, I called these my ‘Hot Words’

Next I explored each word choice deeper making another list of companion words, synonyms, more detailed expressions, everything I could think of that surrounded that word. One of my hot words was Ireland. My husband to be and I were actively planning a honeymoon in Ireland for that Summer and it just felt right. But lets be real Ireland photography mad ZERO since for me and my market, but maybe I could find a connection to Ireland that would work along side my services and market.

I knew I was on to something when a few days later I couldn’t get the feeling of a connect out of my head, so I did what any Type One on the enneagram would do and I took to Google Maps and found the most adorable little village in Northern Ireland named Silverbridge. It was right, it was just right, I knew it from the moment I saw it on the map.

We choose to add & Co. to the end so we had the option for expansion in the future to new avenues of business. Now 5 years later after choosing the name Silverbridge & Co. it still brings me so much joy! It connects me to my own love story, I have the way to connect others to my story with explaining it’s meaning, and I have a dream to work towards with finally getting to visit Silverbridge, UK with my Husband. Not to forget I have expanded my offerings and not had to manage multiple brands I was able to keep them all together making this one woman show a tad easier to manage.

Erica, 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 am a self taught wedding and portrait photographer. with over 10 years of photographing beautiful families and wedding days. I started in photography in 2011 when I was just the local ‘mom with a nice camera’ taking photos of my son’s football game, then the neighbor’s family Christmas card photo, and now 30+ weddings a year and countless families.

I take price in my ability to grow my business from nothing into what a success it is today. Over the years and after mistakes are made I learn from the problem, and find the best solution. I’ve hired a business coach, financial coach, blogger, SEO expert, and social media manager. Some have stuck around for years and others we just needed to cover a learning gap or busy time. But being able to step back and see what my business needs is something I am very proud of.

My clients leave rave reviews after working with me regularly talking of my connective personality, attention to details, and even my no joke attitude when it comes to efficiently completing family formal images in less than 20 minutes on a wedding day. These reviews can be found on Google.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Coaches! When I first started growing my then side hustle into my now small business I had a million questions that I spent hundred of hours googling answers for. Many with no result or bad information collected I wish I had known business coaches were a thing! I wish I had seen the value in having a professional in my own field that could mentor me, answer questions, and just be someone in my corner from the early years.

I’ll admit I was late in the game of seeing the value of a business coach. I didn’t start seeing this as a resource until I was in the 9th year of my hustle/business. I knew I needed help I knew I had reached my limit with growth on my own and I wanted someone to just understand the struggle. So I again took to google I looked for Business Coaches that were also wedding photographers. I knew my business had problems I knew those problems were not foundational but niche specific. So I wanted a coach that had been through it, built strong wedding business, and could lend support to me as I find and fix my own business issues.

Since hiring my own Business Coach I have also found the need for a Business Financial Coach that in just 8 weeks turned my business completely upside down and month over month profitable.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

I have spent many years on my own business workflows that don’t end with the delivery of my clients images. Let’s take a wedding clients for example. If I was to start and end my workflow with just the wedding, I would probably never have that couple in front of my camera again or referred to their friends and family members.

Here’s an overview of how my workflows look:

Inquiry
Booking
Education
Post Shoot
Anniversary
Repeated Milestone (having kids, big anniversaries, moving, dream job, referred a friend, Hows life)

Each of these stages has its own set of actions and messages I send out to keep the connection with my clients on a more personal level then a mass newsletter campaign.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://silverbridgeco.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/silverbridgeandco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SilverbridgeCo
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/silverbridgeandco/