We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nikki Caviness a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Nikki, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How do you feel about asking friends and family to support your business? What’s appropriate, what’s not? Where do you draw the line?

Asking friends and family to support my business has been a huge part of my success. I know that my work isn’t for everybody and that my prices aren’t in everyone’s budget, and that’s okay! There are so many ways to support small businesses that don’t cost anything! I have several friends that will consistently like and and comment on my social media posts – this drives up engagement and therefore tells the algorithm to share my posts with more people. They will recommend me to their friends and family, even if they haven’t used me from a professional standpoint before. I’ve had friends tag their friends on my Instagram posts when something I share may resonate with them. When I create blog posts or other content, they will read them and share them with others. When my friends and family do use me for my photography services, they respect the time and work I have put into my business and do not ask for discounts. They pay my full rates, just like any of my other clients. If one of my full sessions is not something they need or is not in their budget, they will hire me for one of my smaller session offerings.

Friends and family have been a huge support for my business, and I am so thankful for them!

Nikki, 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 newborn and family in-home lifestyle photographer in Fort Worth, although my background is in advertising and marketing. I worked in the advertising world for over 10 years, but it wasn’t the fun side of advertising. My job was very numbers driven and filled with budgets and Excel spreadsheets, so my parents gifted me a DLSR for Christmas to fulfill my need for a creative outlet. I dove head-first into learning everything I could about photography, while still working a full-time 50+ hour a week job.

Fast-forward 10 years and several life events like getting married, having two kids, quitting my marketing job and becoming a part-time stylist, I finally decided I had enough time to make photography a real paying gig. I started putting things into motion to make my business official in January 2020 when that all came to a halt in mid-March 2020. The pandemic hit, and I wasn’t sure what was going to be next for my little dream of starting a photography business.

During those first few weeks of the lockdown, my neighbor asked me to photograph her family on their porch (at a safe distance of 6 feet away.) I was happy to pull out my camera for a quick snapshot, which I edited and emailed to her. She used the photo as her Facebook profile, which one of her friends saw. That friend (who I did not know at the time) reached out to me asking if I would take her family’s photos on their porch. We had all been stuck in our homes for weeks now, so I was happy to walk around the corner to photograph her family. And when she asked me how much she owed, I was shocked and told her, “Oh, nothing!” That friend of a friend then kindly and unexpectedly Venmoed me $50 and that was my first “paid” photography job.

From that first paid photography gig in April 2020 to now, my business has grown, my calendar has filled, and my rates have increased 20x that original $50. I’ve niched my work down from what everyone else was doing and have set myself apart from others in my field with my offerings, my style, and the value I provide to my clients. I pull from my experience in client service from my decade in advertising as well as my training as a stylist to provide an experience that my clients cannot get from other photographers. I’ve learned that clear communication and setting expectations is also key to running a successful business. An unhappy client is typically one that is surprised or not prepared, so by over-communicating and being forthcoming with my process, prices, and deliverables, there are no surprises!

Lastly, I have a tried and true process in place for each and every session I photograph. Instead of recycling poses that are used for every family in every photo session, I want to tell a story of family in the way I view it. How that translates visually for each family is different! In my view, mom is always going to be multifaceted – she’s so much more than just mom! She’s beautiful and strong and is the center of the household. Dad is going to love her so much and feel so lucky that he’s married to her! The children are going to be curious and innocent and playful in just the way children should be. And newborns – they change and grow so fast and it’s those little details you don’t want to ever forget. This is the story I try to tell every time and the beauty of it is that it looks different for every single family.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

My number one source of new clients is from referrals. I prioritize creating a seamless and easy client experience as well as making sure the images I deliver to my clients are consistent with the work they’ve seen on my website. My clients know what to expect at every point in the process – no surprises from me!

After I deliver the images, I also ask my clients for referrals and reviews. As a small business, word of mouth and referrals are so important, and I remind them of that! I also ask that when they post their images on social media, that they tag my business account. This gives my business visibility to their circle of friends which in turn increases my brand awareness and audience of potential clients.

The combination of the experience my clients get when working with me, the final product they receive, and my intentional asking for referrals and sharing on social media has made word-of-mouth referrals my best source of new clients.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

As a creative, specifically a photographer, it is so easy to become emotionally invested in the products I provide my clients. I am documenting and creating images that will last a lifetime for my families, and there is a big emotional attachment to those images. Going into someone’s home and photographing their newborn baby or their family in itself is an intimate experience – I am spending time getting to know a family after a big life event, in their home, in their bedrooms, often standing on furniture or standing physically close to them to get the perfect shot. There is a comfort level for both me and my clients that is so important to have.

It can be so hard to separate myself from my business, because essentially I am my business! My husband is in medical sales and he has no emotionally attachment to the products he sells. He didn’t create them. He didn’t design them. He has no direct tie to the products. As a creative, we are the ones dreaming up and designing what we sell and creating our business, so if someone doesn’t hire us or buy our product, it can be a blow to our self esteem. A simple note from a client letting their photographer know they loved their photos goes a LONG way!

The creative journey can be tough – there is imposter syndrome and feeling like you don’t belong. The comparison game can stifle your growth. There can be the feeling that your best work is behind you and you feel intense pressure to create something even better the next time. It has helped me to realize that I can only do my very best at any given moment in time. As long as I know I am consistently giving my very best to every client every single time, that’s what will continue the success of my business.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.nikkicavinessphotography.com
• Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/nikkicavinessphotography
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/nikkicavinessphotography
• Other: Print shop: http://www.thecavinesscollective.com

Image Credits
Personal photo: Caitlin McNeil Photography All other photos: Nikki Caviness Photography