We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sheryl Sammarco a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Sheryl thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
When my son was born, I hired a photographer to take newborn photos. During the session, I really enjoyed watching her take photos and pose my son. I always wanted to do something on the side, besides teaching, but wasn’t sure what. Well, after the session, I was intrigued. My husband bought me my first camera. From there, I took photography classes and worked with a mentor. I did many sessions for family and friends to practice. During my journey, I have bought new equipment and have grown a great deal from my beginning years.
In the beginning, I never had social media and was not on Facebook or Instagram. However, I learned if I wanted to reach more clients, I had to connect to people by being active on social media. Social media has helped a lot.
One challenge I face is having time. I am a teacher and I have two very active children in sports. I do not like to miss any of their games. Ofcourse, there are times when I may, but I do try very hard to work around their sport schedule. I truly love having this side business. I am not crazy busy, but busy enough having a full time job as a teacher. I enjoy capturing special moments for families and I really enjoy editing the work I did!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am a mom of two, which is the inspiration behind my photography name, 2BeansPhotography! My daughter is 10 and my son is 8. They both love to play soccer! My daughter also enjoyed basketball and volleyball. My son loves all sports, but his favorites are soccer & lacrosse. I am married to my husband, Joe. It will be 14 years on September 4th! We met down the shore! He is my biggest supporter, always pushing me to try new things with photography.
I do many mini sessions throughout the year. My favorite sessions are NEWBORN!! However, I really love all sessions. I have many clients reach out asking what sessions I photograph and my answer is always, whatever you need! I am proud of this small business I have started from scratch and I look forward to working with new and past clients.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
What I feel helps build my reputation are happy clients! I believe word of mouth is so important.
I also believe social media helps out a great deal. There are so many groups to join and post on.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
As I stated above, social media and word of mouth. My friends and clients recommending me to co-workers, family, or friends have helped out a great deal. Also, town facebook pages. There are so many families who post looking for photographers. When others recommend me, some of those families will reach out. This is also a great way to meet new families and grow my clientele.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
#2BeansPhotography