Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jadan Willis. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jadan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. Take a moment to introduce yourself, how you got here, and what sets you apart.

I’m Jadan Willis, a photographer & marketer based in Lancaster, PA! I’m still not 100% sure what led me to photography, but it was probably influenced by many, many JC Penney photoshoots! My mom would take my brother and I for holiday & birthday sessions. One year I was gifted a simple, point and shoot camera for Christmas. I began using that, and my iPad, to take photos. I printed some out for greeting cards to sell at a local vendor show, which led to my neighbor asking if I could take family photos for her. 10 years later and I’m still doing photography!

I specialize in senior, couple, maternity & branding photography. I’ve tried just about every category of photography, which has helped me determine what I enjoy the most & where my skills lie.

I’m a social butterfly, helping clients feel comfortable in front of the camera! I casually chat with my clients during their session, talking about anything & everything, which helps take some pressure off. Of course I use plenty of praise as well! It’s daunting to be photographed!

As I touched on earlier, I also love to provide that personal touch with handwritten notecards & often customized gifts.

Jadan, love having you share your insights with us. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Innovation, organization, dedication & a personal touch are crucial to running a successful business. Groundbreaking answer? Nope, but let me elaborate.

I’ve come to realize, after 5+ years in business, that a lot of what I do (personally) is problem solve. I try to make things easier & and more efficient for my clients & myself.

For example, I have a retail client that’s been hosting vendor shows at her store for years. She has always sold vendor spots manually- vendors sign up in store & pay with cash, or print out the form & mail in a check. This method is more work for everyone involved- checking the mailbox for checks, hounding people to pay, keeping track of who hasn’t paid yet, depositing checks, inconvenient for vendors, etc.

I made the shift to Eventbrite. This allows vendors to sign up and pay at the exact same time. They have to pay to secure their spot. I just export the orders into a Google Sheet and can see all the vendor info in one spot. A bonus is it’s neatly typed, VS reading handwriting, which could be a problem for communicating with vendors. I then copy all the emails in the email column and paste them into the bcc line for mass vendor communication. Using Eventbrite & a Google Sheet also ties into organization- everything is in one place, easily accessible for me and my client. When it’s time for a new vendor show, I just duplicate a past event in Eventbrite, tweak the date, time & a few small things, and it’s done. No need to start from scratch each time.

On the topic of organization, I keep notes for my clients in Google Docs (usually a new doc for each meeting, in their own folder), keep my computer downloads neatly named, categorized, and purged (as necessary) & keep track of my finances in a Google Sheet. This Google sheet has several tabs- mileage, expenses (& color coded expense categories), monthly expenses for my business, sales tax calculator, and more. Yes, my expense receipts are neatly organized by year & category in my downloads. I also keep track of when I paid my sales tax, sales tax due dates, and even a link in that sheet to pay it each time. While I only pay sales tax twice a year, it’s reassuring to have everything all in one place. Similarly, I have a doc to keep track of quarterly estimated payments. I also have phone reminders for said sales tax & quarterly deadlines.

Innovation also comes into play when you have to think outside the box- not every business, or business owner, is the same. Or sometimes tech isn’t cooperating. Or maybe you’re not familiar with a program. A lot of what I do is just screwing around until I figure something out, which ties into dedication. You figure out a solution, one way or another. Also along the lines of dedication, I don’t let tasks fall through the cracks for my clients. I’ll put tasks on my agenda, set reminders as necessary, and as mentioned earlier, keep notes from meetings.

Lastly, personal touch! I’m a thoughtful person, in all aspects of my life. There’s a reason (or multiple) why I do everything the way I do. I’m always thinking of the most efficient way to accomplish tasks, taking into consideration the context of each task. I’m a huge fan of having a personal brand, hand written notecards, and unique gifts. For instance, I don’t give all my clients the same thank you gift. I have one client that visits the same local coffee shop everyday & goes to concerts, so his end of year gift was 2 gift cards- one for the coffee shop & one for Live Nation. My other client likes purses, so I got her a gift card for a local consignment shop with a ton of purses to choose from. Each year, my Christmas cards to my clients have been a(n updated) photo of me on the front, with a handwritten note on the back! You can put together that I take an interest in my clients’ lives, hobbies, preferences, etc. so that I can choose intentional gifts & have something more than a sterile, “business only” relationship with them.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

This will come as no surprise- word of mouth! It’s free, and I would imagine has the highest success rate when it comes to booking a client. You let your business speak for itself, rather than creating an ad, trying to reel people in. Of course there is a time and place for advertising and it definitely depends on the business, but overall, word of mouth is king. I’ve been a member of my local chamber of commerce for 4+ years and that’s been my largest source of clients!

Obviously the other side of this is providing an amazing client experience so that your clients can’t help but refer you.

If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?

I have 2 businesses- photography & marketing. The marketing one is more stable, as I have 2 recurring clients, with project based work on the side. Photography ebbs and flows, as you never know when someone will reach out for a session! Photography is also pretty seasonal, with the last 2 quarters usually being my busiest time of year.

Within my photography business, I also sell prints! Clients can conveniently purchase prints straight from their galleries! It was simple to set up and is completely hands off for me. Ordering prints is optional for my clients!

Contact Info:

• Website: jadantannerphoto.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/jadantannerphoto
• Facebook: facebook.com/jadantannerphoto