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

Randall, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Any thoughts about whether to ask friends and family to support your business. What’s okay in your view?

Asking friends and family to support my business has always been conflicting to me. I have this idea that in a perfect world, everyone supports everyone by purchasing their items and services from small businesses. I have come to realize that not every person in your life will share or use your services. This is not because they don’t support you at all, but because your services may not be in their interests at the time. I never will be mad at someone for not supporting my business the way that I want them to support it. Word of mouth, social media shares, and using my services are the ways that speak to me the most, but I may not see everything that my friends and family are doing. I will not let business come between me and family. I’ve actually had one family member that abused my services when I first started. I learned from that situation and continued to make my foundation stronger. My aunt didn’t pay me for my services. I was observant enough to not send her the photos before the payment. A few years later she sent me money and asked if “we were good”. From that initial moment, I knew that I had to secure deposits before starting business with anybody. I appreciated the support from a family member, but at the end of the day, she was a client too.

I would say that having expectations for your friends and family to support you, will eventually set you up for your feelings to get hurt and potential tension between you and your family. There is a demographic for you. You just have to find it. Friends and Family are important when starting your business to test things out. But not to keep your business going.

Randall, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Randall Collins. I’ve had an interest in film and videography since I was bout 12 years old. I attended the University of Central Florida and receive two different Bachelors degrees; one in film and another in web design. Towards the end of 2015, I purchased my first DSLR for film purposes. During the middle of 2016, a friend of mine had asked me to use my camera to photograph her. I was completely caught off guard because I knew nothing about photography. When I took photos of her, we were both shocked at how well they came out. She then asked me to take her graduation photos. This started my journey through photography. In 2017, I took photos during a dance event just to practice and received an overwhelming amount of love and support. I knew had to keep taking photos. I wanted to originally be a multimedia company but ended up narrowing my services down to photography, videography, and marketing. I focus mostly on photography (Weddings, Headshots, Boudoir, Portraits, Engagements, Graduation, Real Estate, etc.). Videography allows me to tells stories and I love being able to help other’s tell their stories. I’m most proud of how I have combined my knowledge of photography and videography to tell stories and also help people feel good about themselves. Boudoir photography does wonders for people’s self esteem and my goal is always to help people overcome their insecurities.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I was once under the impression that collaborating with people will get me noticed by tons of people. I went almost 6 months of shooting with people who I thought would be great for gaining a bigger audience. As I exhausted myself, I learned that I am not meant to work with everyone. I used to not have any boundaries for myself and people who were having sessions with me for free were the most disrespectful. It damaged my mental health for a while. Once I took a step back, I saw that shooting for free was not the route to go. If I want to create with people, I need to have real ideas and not just shoot any and everything just because. I need to be able to focus on specific genres and ideas so that I can reach an audience that is interested in those types of shoots. Then people will start hiring me for those type of shoots. So a few years ago, I started honing in and putting my all into everything that I release to the public. My art will not do better in quantity. It will succeed with quality. Everything that I have put my heart into, has received excellent feedback.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I originally purchased a few things like my camera and a few speedlites. I did not have much equipment for multiple years. I am now about 7 years into my craft and business and only recently (the last two years) did I start investing into my craft. I got a full time job at a call center and brought my debt down to a manageable amount. From there, I invested in a much better camera and equipment (gimbals, strobe lights, backdrops, etc.). I thrive off consistency and stability. So until I feel stable, I don’t do this business full time (though the hours are definitely full time). I started learning about write offs and how I can use my business to propel my business forward. I view my business in the same light that large corporations are in. I can’t keep thinking small and expecting big. The successful business owners are risk takers and know how to work the system. I just need to learn from them.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.collinscollectives.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/collinscollectives
• Facebook: facebook.com/collinscollectives
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/collinscollectives/
• Twitter: twitter.com/collinscollects