We recently connected with Tori Buck and have shared our conversation below.
Tori, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Your ability to build a team is often a key determinant of your success as a business owner and so we’d love to get a conversation going with successful entrepreneurs like yourself around what your recruiting process was like -especially early on. How did you build your team?
Our business did not have employees from day one. It was just me and my husband Jason. We had a dream. Our dream was to build a company clients could rely on, a company that provided a service of quality and most importantly, artistry. A creative outlet if you will. It wasn’t until a few years ago that we had to come to a decision, a decision to hire a team of creative and professional photographers for our business. It was completely scary thinking of hiring someone who I trusted with “our baby”. I was very adamant that the individual had to be creative, professional, and really in it to win it. The perfect candidate would have to be a hard worker, someone who would match our brand, expectations and expertise-all was a huge factor. I worked so hard in getting our business started, we worked hard. For over 20 years now. Recruiting our staff was a huge challenge and process for us. I personally have been a manager, so becoming a boss wasn’t an issue, I’ve always been a leader, even without being a boss. I have had so much drive with creating the best business model. Working so hard to build our business and brand, it was terrifying thinking of hiring, I literally sat with the idea for several months. Asking myself, can I allow myself to trust? The stakes were incredibly high. If we failed in hiring the best team it could have ultimately resulted in failure, it could literally make us or break us. When you have so much passion for something and have worked so hard to create something that really matters to you, it can be quite terrifying. After several months passed it was clear to me that it wasn’t a choice. We built something so amazing that we both couldn’t keep up with the demand. I nervously created an ad on social media to recruit what would be the new faces of our business. It ended up being easier than I could have ever imagined. We come from generations of photographers, Jason and I both had family with photography backgrounds, so I started with hiring a family member. I went to my niece Brittany, she has always had such a great interest and passion for photography. I told myself that no one could report to an event without intensive training with me. I put Brittany on an event with me and started training her. I taught her the ins, outs and in betweens. She was a wonderful choice because of her personality and passion. I went on to hire more likeminded individuals. We then hired Brooke. Brooke is absolutely amazing and has a different eye that would really expand our creative vibe. Last but not least, we recently hired yet another talented photographer, which is just starting her training with us, named Courtney. I truly believe that we really created an amazing team! The creativity and professionalism has really expanded us into something amazingly unique and extraordinarily beautiful and just larger than life. After creating an amazing team of artists, it has become a game changer, and all of my thoughts and fears are at ease. I’m one who really challenges myself and my team, and it’s been so rewarding. I get to watch them grow in their craft, and I wouldn’t change a thing, it’s so beautiful to watch them evolve. So for me it’s really improved my individual drive….after 20 years in the biz, you can get consumed and it can lead to being burned out- which I never want to explore, so its been so amazing for us to get to experience a new flow, it has really helped us with the stress of demand and I feel it’s really allowed us to start a new exciting chapter and I wouldn’t have changed anything. We are incredibly blessed.
Tori, 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 started my photography journey at the tender age of 5, when I received my first viewfinder. I have always had a camera in my hand for as long as I can recall. It was a great creative outlet for me. I started with film, I learned how to develop film, and learned film processes. I had got into a horrific car accident, which changed my life forever. While recovering I choose to expand my knowledge of running a business, Needless to say, I had a lot of time on my hands. I enrolled in college to continue my education. It’s so funny looking back because for whatever reasons, I never thought of becoming a professional photographer, I believe it was because my view was basically that it was just a hobby, so honestly I never really thought about it being a profession. I’m so overwhelmingly wow’d by this, like what was I thinking? LOL Who doesn’t want to do what they love? For many, that’s a dream. After graduating from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh as a graphic design major I went into B-School (business school) where I studied business administration and marketing. I graduated Magna Cum Laude and with honors and was also a key speaker at graduation, which landed me on the local news. I have individuals ask me all the time, did you take photography classes? The answer is-I did not. I was a self taught photographer and after so many years of studying photography I wanted to learn how to manage my own business, how to create, maintain and manage a photography website, to run a successful business, and how to market. I wrote my first business plan after graduating and started exploring the photography industry. It is honestly the best decision I’ve ever made. I was so excited to be my own boss while keeping that creative outlet I’ve always craved. I started working on the craft of photographing and capturing emotions of people rather than places and things. How to pose and how to capture true raw emotion. I’ve worked effortlessly on every genre of photography.. Which has been so incredibly helpful technically. I eventually landed my first wedding, and did I ever underestimate the task at hand, it was so much more difficult than I ever expected. But I became addicted instantly! I developed an obsession for the craft. I believe what sets me apart from the rest is the long history of photography in my background and it wasn’t about the financial for me. I have put my heart, mind and soul into creating a beautiful and authentically meaningful experience for my clientele, while providing them with magazine worthy content from the biggest day of their lives. Creating beautiful images for many generations to enjoy- memories for a lifetime: Its a BIG deal. It’s a process to get to know your client, to learn their love story, to feel their vibe and to take all of these factors and bringing them together while documenting their love story. I want them to be able to look back on their imagery and experience all over again what it looked and felt like.. I want my clients to be able to look at their images and for those images to take them back to where it all began. I want my clients to “feel” it all over again. That’s what makes me the proud, is to take a skill and turn it into a meaningful experience and memory. I also really enjoy getting to know my clients, about their journey and how they got to meet, I am really involved with each and every client whether or not I am the one personally photographing their event. I love listening to their stories, I love having that conversation and experience with them. You meet such amazing colorful personalities in this profession. I truly love everything about my job! I’m a lucky gal!
We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.
I met my business partner on social media and being new to the dating scene. We married after a 7 year relationship. We both had extensive photography backgrounds. After raising our children, and after many challenges in life we ventured into this business relationship together, as one after our last two children graduated and left the nest. We went head first into building a portfolio together and then a business. It’s been quite the adventure! We have both been super supportive of each other and our goals. Working with a significant other isn’t easy but it’s so rewarding. I feel we have grown so much together in this journey, it’s truly been amazing.
Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?
The pandemic was a huge impact on our business and our livelihood. I truly thought we could loose our business. Covid was so hard on ourselves and our peers in the industry. Gut wrenching to think that everything you built could be taken away in an instance. We took it all in with grace and really worked with our clients. We all came together and made it work for everyone involved. It really made us realize that if we could make it through the pandemic we could make it through anything! We nearly lost everything, but being open minded with our clients and coming up with a plan for none of us to take a loss, really showed how resilient we had become. So, in the end, it really showed us that were stronger than we ever could have imagined. It’s so rewarding to know that you have the ability and courage to keep on trucking. That’s what’s so important about building a strong business foundation, it’s also important to build trust and community. It’s each of those factors that really made the difference and it saved our business and helped our clients.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dandelionweddings.com
- Instagram: @dandelionweddings
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/dandelionweddings
Image Credits
Tori Buck (Vickers)