We recently connected with Ronnie Sunker and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Ronnie, thanks for joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
The easy answer is hard work and determination, but that simply gets you started. And being successful means something different to everyone. For me, it’s knowing that my clients are always happy, even when things don’t go as they should. But also that my clients are comfortable with me and feel like a friend or even family. I work with a lot of families and kids, and one of the best feelings I get is when a little one runs up to hug me at the start of a session. That is a success in my book, because getting people of all ages excited to do photos can be half the battle. And when it comes to my clients’ happiness with my work, it takes that hard work and determination to get there, for sure. Earlier on in my business the hours were very long in trying to give the results to my clients that I was after. As I’ve grown over the years I’ve been determined to always improve, which has in-turn eased my late night hours trying to get things right. That doesn’t mean the hard work is over, it just means that some of the stresses of improvement have been eased as I learn, grow and experiment with my work. And again, that’s a success in my book, to be able to deliver higher and higher quality work to my clients while also maintaining my own quality of life for me and my family.
Ronnie, 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?
I eased into the photography industry as a side-business, because it has always been a passion of mine. I studied Photography and Graphic Design in college, but unfortunately life got in the way and I did nothing with either of those things for a number of years. I slowly started taking small photo jobs for friends and family, and then that grew into friends of friends, and eventually into reaching new clients simply by my work and presence in the industry. My personal interests in photography have definitely changed over the years, earlier on I preferred shooting landscapes and nature. And although I still do this type of work, my focus turned to people many years ago. These days, most of my time is spent capturing couples, families, children and all of the life events that go along with that from weddings to maternity and simply annual family portraits. A lot of that has to do with my surroundings, our family lives in the heart of the suburbs and are surrounded by families just like ours with couples building lives together and kids of all ages surrounding us.
As a male photographer in an area where females are by far the majority for the type of work I do, I deal with unique challenges as a business, but I also have certain advantages over my colleagues. I don’t have access to the “Moms Pages” where many people seek out services such as mine, which removes me from consideration for many potential clients. But as an artist with a different perspective from my competition, I offer a different style than most surrounding me. I offer versatility beyond what most can bring to the table. I don’t follow the current filter trends or use blanket editing presets on all of my work. I try to work with my clients through the process to determine what they want to achieve in their photos, whether it’s a certain look or style or just a color combination. Which then guides us through how we take the actual photos, and in the end how I edit them. Versatility is key to having an advantage in this business, if someone wants anything, we can provide it to them. Even something simple like props and furniture, we have several sofas for example that I can carry out into whatever location someone wants and offer a unique look that you won’t get out of most other photographers.
One of the biggest things I try to stress to my new and existing clients is to truly think about whatever they would want from a photo session, and communicate it. Because we can make it happen. Just because our social feeds only show family portraits in the Fall leaves outside doesn’t mean we don’t do anything else! We have been in business for 10 years now, and have shot just about every genre of work you can imagine. Just because you don’t see a sample of something right in front of your face online, doesn’t mean we haven’t done it or can’t do it! We have access to so many possibilities for locations, props, vehicles, wardrobes, you name it, from the years of working with people and building relationships with them. If you want something special and unique, we can make it happen for you!
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
As a side business that was already a personal passion for me, there was minimal initial investment needed to get things started very early. But, in a field that has technology driving a portion of your results, I learned early on that major investments would be necessary to get where I wanted to go. I remember very early on sitting down and making a list of everything I would need to make my photography business “legit” and the equipment I would need to truly produce professional results and handle a more dedicated workflow. Back then, it was $10,000 I would need to go out right away and buy everything I needed or wanted to achieve that. Well, starting out small you can’t just drop that much money into an unknown business venture. So I took baby steps. Small upgrades to cameras every couple years, purchasing less-expensive lenses and accessories to get the job done, outsourcing printing to wherever I could find that could do it. Then as I started to make some money, it went straight back into the business. Within the last year I have finally reached a point where the major investments (which have far exceeded that initial $10,000…) are done. Sure, every few years a new camera body might be purchased, or packaging supplies for our final products have to be custom ordered. But it’s just maintenance at this point, and our business produces enough to easily cover those expenses. We may have reached a higher level of success earlier in our days if we could have come up with a larger initial investment, but at the same time it feels good to know it’s been built from the ground up purely by the success of our work.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
Having many sales-related jobs in life, you’re taught to go after every potential sale. So for many years I wore myself thin going after every potential opportunity. Stressing about having the perfect proposal for every potential sale and although I pride myself on the individual attention I put into every client and their experience working with me, I had to learn to let go of some of that because you simply won’t win them all. And when you don’t win them all after that much effort you just start to wear yourself out over it. So I had to learn to not go after every potential opportunity, and let them come to me. So that meant I was pursuing leads a little less frequently, but the ones that I did now got my full attention and effort. Once I realized that pushing too hard can actually hold you back on your quality, I pulled back a little and started to see the improvements to my own morale, and the business still keeps growing on its own.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sunkercreativestudio.com
- Instagram: @sunkercreativestudio
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/sunkercreativestudio
Image Credits
Ronnie Sunker – Sunker Creative Studio