**All images in this post are copyright Alicia Caine.***

{To nominate women you'd like to see in this series please list them in the comments-or if you have a question you'd like to see in the interviews--make sure to include your info in the comment fields so that I can get in touch with you- or write to me at: davina at davinafear.com }

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You can check out the rest of the series by clicking here. Tell a friend!
 

Alicia,  You are an very busy mom and business woman.  Over the last several years you've gone from being an extremely busy photographer to writing ebooks for other photographers online.  You have the wildly successful Easy as Pie pricing guide and 5 children.  Your journey, humor, and out look on life are inspiring.  Thank you so much for being on Women and Business today!

How long have you been a professional photographer? 
I started my business in the spring of 2006. I had only touched a DSLR 6 months prior to starting

What drew you to photography?
I had always appreciated & valued it and took my firstborn to studios constantly- but it wasn't something that I ever really thought " hey! I could totally do that!" until my 3rd child, and at that point,  hiring photographers was just out of my budget for the kind that i really wanted. What can I say- I wanted to selective color my pictures and no one would do it for me! ;-)

 

You made $100k in you first year of business.  What contributed to 4 figures in your first year?

(six figures? lol felt like 4 with how much debt we had to pay off during that year)  Working my butt off to an extreme that I would never recommend. Although that was sales- we didn't live the life of someone who was making that kind of money. We used the money to pay off $42K in credit card debt while living as college students.

Making $100k in your first year doesn't necessarily mean financial success.  What steps did you take in that first year to make sure you were actually profitable?
You are so right! There is a huge difference of someone who is grossing $100K but netting only $20K and someone who is selling $40K and netting $20K. I went through a series of price changes- almost monthly that first year. Not making what I needed to make- price increase. Clients not spending what i needed them to spend- price increase. Not meeting my sales goals- price increase. Didn't have insurance and had to pay for the birth of a baby- price increase. That's pretty much how it went that first year. It made my stomach sick every time- but it came out of a necessity to put food on the table as I was bringing in 100% of our household income while my hubby was taking 19 credit in bible college.

Did you start with the suggested seed money of at least $10k?
Actually, I started out bare bones. I bought my 20D camera used off of wedding photographer who was upgrading to her 5D, only had the 50mm f/1.8 lens, and I edited on my laptop. I only purchased for my business as I could afford it from my sales after bills were paid. Marketing was done all by word of mouth as I couldn't afford marketing materials beyond the cost of my web-site. I would never recommend going this route as it is very stressful working with sub-par quality equipment (my laptop would take an hour to batch process a folder of images just to save copies of them- torture!) but at the same time, I was proof that you don't have to have the best of the best of what the industry is selling to making money. The only people that noticed that I upgraded my camera and lenses when I did were other photographers- not my clients. And other photographers weren't the ones hiring me. My sales didn't change because I got the 5D.

Most people don't have a big marketing budget their first year, what were your marketing strategies?
I worked very hard to build relationships with local businesses any way I could. Referring my clients to the children's boutique in town to buy their outfits for their sessions, blogging about different stores, and simply just making friends with them when I shopped in their stores. They were the ones that ended up sending most of my clients my way because I was helping them build their businesses and wasn't just trying to rub shoulders with them for self-promotion.

Are you in a retail space or home studio?  What made you choose the space you have?
I started out working out of my home- I only did on-location sessions and then a year and half later, I got a natural light studio which I had for just a year. I ended up going back to working out of my home as I enjoyed shooting children out doors more than I did in the studio and I found that I had to work more to pay for the overhead that came with the territory of having a studio. I loved the experience, but it just didn't line up with the most important things in my life. 

What do you do for fun...that has nothing to do with photography?
oh my- I've become an Amanda Soule/Pioneer Woman wannabe- I've been posting pictures on my personal facebook page just showing the madness of this person I've become since I've moved to the sticks of Pennsylvania. If it's hippy granola, crafty, foodie- I'm all over it. 

What are you most proud of as a business woman?
I have to say that I am proud that I actually survived my first year of business despite the fact that the odds were stacked against me and the outlook was pretty bleak. I have to give all the credit to God though as somedays I look at the whole experience and think "how the heck did that all just happen!?" All the highs and all the lows were something that I was able to pull together from the  experience and create a product for other photographers that I am blessed to share.

What do you do to keep your marriage fun?
we make babies!!! hahah!

You are a mom, business woman, wife, photographer, and teacher (just to name a few).  You homeschool your children. How do you fit this into an already busy schedule?
It's a jam packed schedule- and I'm finding that to make it work, it requires just ditching the schedule sometimes. That has been one of the many blessings that we have with having a business at home and homeschooling. If we're having a rough day- we ditch the schedule. We watch movies together- or take the kids shopping in town- or go for a hike. We try to maintain the schedule the best that we can- but it doesn't rule our life if it isn't working and we just need to have a day that just goes with the flow.

You have so much going on and wear so many different hats, what does a day in your life look like?
It's controlled chaos. Let's just leave it at that. lol. okay-well, in a nutshell- I get up before the kids, work out, shower, eat, answer e-mails, and then I spend most of the morning and afternoon between homeschooling, cooking, laundry, housework, cleaning up poop (potty training right now a 2 year old and a puppy. lots of poop) and kissing boo-boos. Evenings I work on the computer or phone calls to the people I am consulting. It's a jam packed day that ends in me collapsing in bed. But I love it. :) 

How do you keep your marriage safe from the stresses of your business?
The same way I would if I wasn't in business, I guess. We have a unique relationship with being around each other ALL THE TIME- we have our days that we make a rockin team and other days that we clash. But we have the same goals for our family and it's a matter of just working together, serving one another, encouraging each other... those are the times that we really shine. 

What is the best thing you've done to make your business successful?
Watching myself to not be driven by pleasing people just for the sake of the applause that I receive for my success, but because I was given a task to perform and I want to do it to the very best of my ability.

You talk about being in your happy place.  What does that mean?
Everyone's happy place is different- basically, it is the sum of all the things you value in your life and it's maintaining those things and identifying the motives that are taking you there. Clear as mud, right?  For instance, my happy place is being able to homeschool my children, to allow my husband to be a large part of their raising by allowing him to be a stay at home dad and living debt free. All the decisions that I make for my business, I try to keep my motives in check with my happy place.

You have an "Easy as Pie" pricing guide that has gotten great reviews.  Please, tell us about it.
wow- how to sum it up in a few short sentences? well, I wrote it almost 2 years ago after I was doing a ton (or more like 42) pricing consults for photographer friends for peanuts and baked goods, and I realized that I just didn't have enough of me to help all the people that I really was wanting to see be successful in their business. I literally didn't think my book would go very far- my goal was to sell just 100 copies the first year. I just needed to have something to point people in a direction for their business instead of saying, "sorry hun, I'm so busy running my own business that I simply have no time to help you with yours." It ended up becoming so successful (I think it's one of the only pricing guides in the industry?)- that I ended up having to give up doing photography just to maintain the customer service side of Easy As Pie. It also freed me up to also work with photographers one on one again doing pricing consults which is now a large portion of what I do.  Working with these women has been my heart- I am so blessed to be able to do this...although I do have days that I miss being a photographer and the relational side I had with my clients.

My books are written to help the photographer who is needing to take their business to the next level and be more profitable- it's for the photog just starting out who needs to create their first price list and understand the hows and whys and for the established photographer that needs to get their price list and collections more consistent so that they can meet their sales goals. It covers session fees to baby plans- pretty much everything you need in regards to pricing your work and understanding it and simplifying the process.

You are a mom, how old are your children?  What do you do to help them feel part of your business life?  
They are 8, 6, 4, 2 and 3 months (yep, 5 of em!). Since I have transitioned from being a full time photographer to a full time business consultant and e-mail answerer- most of my business is done online. I try to do most of my work early in the morning when they are asleep, during their quiet time in the afternoon and at night when they are in bed. I'm blessed to have my hubby home with me full time and he often takes them out of the house at times that I have to spend several hours doing work related stuff. They think money grows on trees- so I recently started thinking of ways that I might need to teach them about what I do so they don't get a false perspective to how a livelihood is made. 

What do you do to keep your family strong?
God alone. Without Him, we'd be a huge mess. And really, we probably have more days of struggling than we do being solid- but it's a growing process which we seem to get better with every year. Highs and lows, just like everyone else. 

You travel quite a bit.  How do you make this easier on your children?  How do they feel about how often you travel? 
Most of the traveling I have done has been taking my my baby along. I have had to do it a lot the last year where I left them at home with my hubby- I don't think I could ever make it easy on them. I am blessed to have a supportive husband that fills my shoes and wears my hat (metaphorically speaking- don't want you all to get the wrong idea!) when I am away. It doesn't make it easy on my children- but it does make it easier. 

What do you do to keep from feeling overwhelmed?
well, hahah, good question! Wish I knew! I think it's pretty much next to impossible to NOT get overwhelmed. I use to sit in a puddle of tears everytime I got overwhelmed and I don't seem to do that (as much) anymore- so maybe I'm doing something? Or maybe it's a matter of just sucking it up and going "okay God, it's just you and me- let's do this thing!"

What three products or things help you stay organized?
Flylady  (keeping my house tidy- which right now, it isn't)

Steady Days for creating a schedule for my home and a whole lot of flexibility (wish there was a link for that!).

As a mother of 5 little ones, I have had to resolve that I will never be perfect, I will always fall short of my expectations of myself.

I'm learning that even though I may be successful in business- if my family is falling apart- it really isn't success at all.




Facebook- www.facebook.com/AliciaCaine
Easy As Pie