We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nikayla Bautista. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nikayla below.

Alright, Nikayla thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about growing your team – how did you recruit the first few people, what was the process like, how’d you go about training and if you were to start over today would you have done anything differently?

My business started with just me and a dream. When I first was deciding on my business name and registering it I landed on Nikayla & Co. My husband asked if the “& Co.” was him because I didn’t have any employees haha. I just knew that I wanted to build my business to include many different aspects of wedding days even if I didn’t know fully where God would lead me (and continue to lead my business). When I first starting find associates, it was primarily by word-of-mouth of people I had shot weddings with before. I wanted to know I could trust the people I was entrusting with upholding my business name and from there it has just grown!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a photographer primarily based out of Sioux Falls, SD, though I love traveling for weddings and shooting regularly all over the country. With 13+ years of experience in portrait photography, it’s safe to say that I love what I do. I want to make sure you feel like my clients really are at peace and understand why I’m in love with my job when they book with me. I also have a team of about 30 photographers who work with me and shoot weddings as my associates. These weddings are still planned with me and the clients get to meet everyone on their team prior to the day, so it’s all wrapped up in a similar experience. It’s been incredible to witness the growth of my team and really grow out the “& Co” part of my business.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I have very slowly built up my equipment since I started taking photos. I was gifted my first ever camera in high school and since then, have saved what I earned and reinvested it into more lenses, a computer, programs, etc. When I first officially started my business I worked as a real estate photographer so I could do photography full-time. Once I gained enough of my own work and clientele, I was able to go full-time for myself. I am very fortunate to have had a working husband before 26 so I never had to worry about a job providing health insurance or finding a way to provide that for myself.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Like many business owners, I struggled during 2020 because of the global pandemic. A bunch of my weddings were being postponed and I was barely booking for the future. So I decided to niche down to a Catholic Wedding Photographer (like I had always wanted to do). I don’t ONLY shoot Catholic weddings, but what you share is what you attract, so I really rarely get inquiries outside of that anymore. My husband encouraged me to use all of my free time to invest back in myself and my company. I grew the back end and client experience a bunch so that I would give my clients high value. I also prayed the St. Joseph novena and by the end of 2021 busy season, my bookings had gone through the roof.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nikayla.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikaylaandco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikaylaandco
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nikaylaandco
• Other: pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/nikaylaandco/

Image Credits

Nikayla & Co.