***All images in this post are copyright Melanie McClellan.***

NEXT WEEK: Laura Cottril

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Melanie, You've had a busy last few months!  You had a sweet, healthy little boy, your business hasn't skipped a beat, and your work just keeps getting more incredible.  You and your husband work so well together and have such so much fun together.  It seems like your life and business flow seamlessly together.  Thanks so much for being here on Women and Business!

How long have you been in business? 

6 years this month.   

Do you have a studio outside your home?  Why did you make that choice?

No, as of right now, we meet clients in our home.  A studio sounds really great but I think you have to take your lifestyle and actual needs into consideration.  We shoot everything on location and get bored working in the same space over and over.  We enjoy flexibility.  We feel like the whole point of being self employed is not having to go into the office at a certain time or generally be expected to be in a particular spot every day.  We also knew that when we got ready to have children, we would want a working environment that was conducive to spending time with them throughout the day.  A home office/meeting space makes so much more sense for us for all of those reasons so we chose a home and a neighborhood that would be attractive to the clientele we wanted to attract and operate from there.  

You and your husband work together.  How did that come about?

Sean and I have almost always worked together.  We started with the idea in mind that I would be the photographer and he would be my office/web guy.  I shot my first 2 weddings without him and then he picked up a camera and started shooting with me.  We learned quickly that we work much better in tandem and 0enjoy doing it all together so that's how we've worked ever since. 

How do you and your husband divide the work?  Do you both photograph at sessions?

We try to consider two things when dividing tasks:  1) What are our strengths? and 2) Who can complete the task well and more efficiently.  We delegate from there.  Sean is better with things that require a lot of tech or involve numbers, like putting together our client presentations or bookkeeping.  I'm better with organization and planning, like scheduling things with clients and prepping for their weddings and sessions.  We're both good at retouching, raw processing, and album design so we split that pretty evenly with one of us taking on more if the other gets piled up with something else.  If we're both busy, we shuffle album design to me because Sean is more innovative, but that also makes it so that he takes longer at it, while I'm still skilled at album design and am much more efficient.  

We both photograph all our sessions and weddings.  

You lost a sweet baby and you just had a little baby boy, Seven.   How has all of this affected your business?  What changes have you had to make and what has stayed the same?

Yes!  We feel so blessed to have our sweet baby boy with us and life has certainly changed, but as he's just 7 weeks old today, I don't think we know how much yet! :)  We worked really hard with extremely long hours for the first 4 years of our business so that we could build things up enough to support our family well.  We then spent the next 2 years gearing things toward a business model that would allow us more time with our family.  For us, that meant going high-end/low-volume, and hiring a full time employee (Bekah) to help with the workflow.  I feel like we got things well under control before Seven arrived because we planned so far in advance and really worked at it every day.  

As far as how things have changed since he came, we all do a lot more shuffling! :)  Where as we all used to be able to be in the office for full work days, now the three of us take turns with Seven while the others work in spurts and we make marathon working sprees out of naps!  A moment ago I was typing this up with a happy baby on my lap.  When he decided he'd had enough, Bekah took him off to play and when I'm finished, I'll go get him again, or Sean will, and so it goes.  

I think the most important change we made was just managing our expectations for how much we'd be able to accomplish while adjusting to parenthood with a newborn and not taking on too much work for these first several months.       

Now that Seven is here, what did you prepare for that you knew would be helpful and what do you wish you would have prepared for that you didn’t anticipate?

Well, the biggest thing we did to prepare was planning his birth in the wedding off-season! :) I know that sounds silly but we did and we'll do that with all of our other kids as well if possible.  It made it so that we didn't have to worry with shooting tons of weddings and fulfilling orders, etc. right away and that was such a relief!  I also stocked the freezer with several meals, got the house in order as much as possible, and accepted help for everything else.  That last part is huge and because we have such a great support system of friends and family, I'm honestly drawing a blank on anything I'm really hurting for that I wish I had anticipated.  We are very fortunate to be so loved.  If I had to list one thing I wish I would have prepared it would have to be more time off.  Never underestimate how much time you're going to want to spend doing nothing more than spending time with your beautiful baby!

How long did you take off of your business for maternity/paternity leave?

Officially we took off for the month of March, but we've geared April to be a very slow transition back to work with very little demands on us. 

You are married; how has your business affected your marriage?

Sean and I had only been married for about 8-10 months when we launched our business so I'm not sure I even know what marriage looks like without the business partnership attached!  I can tell you though that I think it has enhanced our marriage in so many ways.  It affords us the opportunity to work together, dream together, and achieve together which is all just so awesome!  We are both very easy going individuals who don't let much upset us and we enjoy being together 24/7.  I will say though that it takes work to maintain our life as just a couple and it's something we're always working at.  It's easy to think that being together all day is synonymous with spending time together and it's not.  We're working and divided by our individual tasks.  Personal time together, outside of work, and talking about other things than work, is something we have to discipline ourselves to do.    

What do you do to keep your marriage strong and safe when business and photography can be such a time warp?

First and foremost, we recognize what is important and what isn't.  We don't waste time arguing about things that are insignificant and petty - most of the time. :)  We also make time at some point during the day to just be together whether that's grabbing dinner, watching a favorite show, driving to the store together, or going for a walk - and again, that's most days but not all of them.  It's something we try to make a point to do, day in and day out.   

How do you keep from obsessing about your business at the expense of your family?

I think that goes back to realizing what's important and what isn't.  Practically speaking, I plot out everything we have to do on the calendar so that all of the tasks don't overwhelm me.  We don't have 15 major sessions and weddings to complete, we have steps 1, 2, and 3 to complete today and 4, 5, and 6 that we don't even have to look at until tomorrow.  By breaking it all down into manageable chunks, and knowing that it's spread out over enough days that it will all get done in more than enough time, I don't really worry about.  We keep our overhead low because our only debt is our mortgage and we think ahead and save so finances aren't a worry.  However, the main thing I try to remind myself is that in the grand scheme of things, business just isn't worth stressing over.  What if it all falls apart tomorrow?  That wouldn't be fun, but we would find something else and go do that.  We would make it work, so why stress at the expense of your family?  They are so much more important than the business!   

What are the best mom things you do?

Spending time with my baby boy and watching him smile!  Looking into his eyes is something I've waited so long for and that time is so precious! 

What do you recommend women do who are just getting started in the industry?
 

Assess what you want your life to look like and plan your business from there rather than getting caught up in what others are doing, what you're "supposed" to do, or what sounds really glamorous.  Also, respect the other photographers in your area, their work, and their marketing efforts.  It's easy to emulate when you're first getting started but if you copy someone else's work, especially in your local market, you lessen the impact of their hard work and it does nothing for you either.  Just be yourself and infuse your business with that.  Be genuine and others will come to trust and respect you for it.  It's then that you can start to build a network of fellow wedding professionals from which everyone can benefit.  

What do you do for fun…that has nothing to do with photography?

I like to take walks with my family around our neighborhood.  I love grilling out if for nothing more than just that wonderful smell!   We entertain a lot and loving having a house full of friends.  I can think of nothing better than a picnic blanket in the shade on a warm spring day!  I like to dig in my garden and aspire to have a beautifully landscaped backyard with a gorgeous vegetable garden along the side -

this has yet to really happen, but I aspire just the same. :)     

What are you most proud of as a business woman?

Just of how far we've come compared to where we came from.  We've made something from absolutely nothing (trust me, we slept on the floor when we were first married!) and accomplished success together.    

 
What is the best thing you’ve done to make your business successful?

We've "jumped off cliffs" as we call it.  We've taken risks rather than playing it safe.  Another thing that I think goes hand in hand with that is that we got out of debt right away in our marriage and that's helped us feel like we could take those risks because we didn't have so much hanging over us.  Lastly, we've always done what others said you couldn't do in our market and that has really put us ahead in the game and set us apart. 

 
What have you done to get clients that you really love that want what YOU do?

We make it a point to only show what we love and that attracts clients who love the same things.  If your portfolio showcases a bunch of work that you think you're supposed to show but doesn't excite you, you're showing the wrong stuff!  If you don't have the work that excites you, find a way to make it.  That's what we did and by putting it out there, the right clients naturally came.   

 
Your work is just fantastic!  What do you do to keep things fresh and to push your own limits?

Well first, thank you! :)  We try to not let ourselves do the same things over and over - even if we find ourselves in the same locations over and over.  We push ourselves to do something new with the space every time.  We also dream up ideas for things we want to shoot or places we want to shoot in and propose them to our clients.  You'd be surprised how many times they go for it!   

What do you think it key to a great client relationship?

Trust.  We exhibit the ability to deliver the work they are expecting day in and day out regardless of the conditions, we're confident, and we're attracting people who want what we do.  Those things come together to create trust in us and free us up to create amazing things for them. 

What do you do to stay inspired?

I think our low-volume business model has a lot to do with that for me.  When we were shooting a lot more and working long hours, I found myself starting to feel burned out and I didn't like where we were headed.  With time in between shoots to breathe, I don't feel like I have to constantly be "on" creatively and that gives me time to think and dream.  

What three products or things help you stay organized?

 My iphone, my iphone, my iphone! :)  I have everything on that thing!  It holds my calendar (which syncs with all of our computers and Sean's cell – via mobile me), my email, my contacts, my twitter (tweetie app), my baby feeding schedule (baby brain app), my grocery list (zenbe lists app), my idea notes (Record app and Notes), my portfolio, our financial records (mint.com app) and just about anything else you can possibly think of.  I would be lost without it!  Other apps I love: Shazam, White Noise (for baby naps), and Evernote.

  
 
What is something that you think women in the industry should not do?

Don't get too caught up looking at other people's work.  It's a creative blocker and will cause their work to seep into your own, even if you don't mean for it to.  

 
What is something that you think women in the industry should do?

Experiment.  Try new things and lots of them - new lighting, new styles, new processing, new compositions, new lenses...  Your style and what you love will emerge. 

 
What is the best thing you did when you were getting started?

We figured out where we wanted to go and we went for it with everything we had. 

What five suggestions do you have for women who are trying to have a more balanced life?

1. Recognize what's important to you.
2. Create steps to get to what's important and put them on your calendar.
3. Finding yourself still in your pjs at 5pm is an easy thing to do! 
4. time to get completely ready before you get into the office. 
5. If you're married, look your husband in the eyes and tell him you love him. :)

Workshops, etc.:  Sean and I offer 1 and 2-day private consultations for photographers where we tailor the entire experience to working on your individual weaknesses and help you come up with an action plan for success.  We will also be launching our first set of workshops over the coming year.  Email sean@mclellanstyle.com for details. 

 To see more of Melanie's work:

Website

Blog

***All images in this post are copyright Melanie McClellan.***