We were lucky to catch up with Haley Biggins recently and have shared our conversation below.
Haley, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?
I think I was born a natural story teller. When I was a kid, I would hangout with my friends and ask them to write songs with me or make a silly film on our crappy 2002 digital cameras. I took some classes in high school and college where my knowledge and passion for photography grew a lot. I forget how I even ended up with my first camera, a Canon Rebel, but I had no intentions on creating a business from it. I briefly worked in the film industry for about 2 years after graduating college and unfortunately, student loans were coming and I needed more steady work, so I got your regular 9-5 in marketing. I like my full time job, but I refused to let that fire inside of me die – I needed to do something for me, something creative. So I started offering to take photos of my friends and their family. As it turned out, I was pretty good! So over the next 5 years I would create prices, packages, a business page, logo, purchase editing software, more camera equipment. The more clients I got, the better my equipment got! I organically grew my Facebook business page to have over 1.2k followers. I would say after the first year, things really took off for Haley Rose Photography. You need that first year to find yourself as a business owner, make mistakes and set goals that help you ultimately grow and create a successful business.
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 graduated college with a Bachelors degree in Communications and Digital Media. I always geared my schooling, internships and jobs towards filmmaking. I lived in LA my last semester of college where I started my professional journey in the film industry working with some incredible people, and when I came back home to Philadelphia I continued that and worked for a production company here as well. I worked on set as a Production Assistant. I learned a lot about what I wanted to do, and what I didn’t want to do by all of these experiences. I wanted to write, so I did. I just finished my first feature length script and have been submitting it into festivals and some producers I know. I have ideas for other scripts ready to go! As for photography, I will always be an active photographer. I will continue to grow my business and equipment. I think one of the biggest things that sets me apart are my pop-up shoots. I created these fun shoots that are affordable so all families can have a chance to get professional photos. I do Halloween, Christmas, and Easter with mascots for each holiday. They have been a HUGE hit and they helped me grow so much as a photographer. I also send my client EVERY edited photo. I only send and edit the ones I am proud of, which can be well over 100 from a 2 hour shoot. A lot of photographers only offer 10-15 images with the option to purchase more. I believe in sending all photos from the shoot because the client is going to value those extra images more than I will, sitting in a folder on my computer.
Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?
After the initial leap of faith to start my photography business, my next leap was when I started the pop-up shoots. I got the idea to set up a set somewhere around my town, public but private – I scouted the perfect spot. It was a month before Christmas, I purchased a popular Christmas character costume and announced that I was going to be at this spot, from this time period, for this day only. I believe my initial pricing was $25 for 5 images. My boyfriend helps me set up and plays the mascot every year, which I am so thankful for. So our first year, we were out $200 from buying materials. We had no idea how successful it would be or wouldn’t be. We pull into the parking lot next to our set and we see so many cars. My boyfriend was like “there is no way those cars are here for us” and I was like “yeah definitely not”. We get out of his truck to start setting up and like a Walmart opening its doors on Black Friday everyone swarmed to form a line. Both of our mouths just dropped, we were stunned. The line formed from one end of the parking lot to the other, and we made $4,000 in one day. Since then, it has been an annual tradition. I’ve gotten better sets, props, and locations – so naturally the price went up to $50 for 10 images. People e-mail me all the time about how much fun they had, how thankful they are that I do this, and they come back every year so I have to be doing something right. I am so thankful for the continued support every year!
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I created my Facebook business page so I could share photos I was proud of. I asked friends and family to follow the page, which got me up to a couple hundred in the first month. After I had my first photoshoot, I posted the photos on there. My client, who was my good friend, posted the images on her own Facebook and tagged my business profile. I gained more followers, and booked more clients from this ever-going successful cycle. My page currently sits with over 1.2k followers and continuing to grow. After a pop-up shoot, I notice I gain a lot of new followers and clients from them, so they are a great marketing opportunity as well. I make it a point to post at least once a week, even if I don’t have images to post – I’ll share something photography related. People enjoy seeing photos from a shoot, they get inspired and think “wow, I want my maternity pictures to look like that” and then they book with me. The best kind of advertising is word of mouth, and social media has made that easier than ever.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.facebook.com/haleyrosephoto/
- Instagram: @haleyrosephoto
Image Credits
Haley Biggins