April Income Report $36,205

Vendors: $1532

Paypal Fees: $898

Website Payment Fees: $170

Facebook: $8,754

Pathwright: $99

RetargetingApp: $2180

Post Planner*: $19

GoDaddy: $2

Rare.io: $39

Pixieset: $50

Social Login: $2

Privy: $24 

Adobe: $10

Quickbooks Bookkeeping: $29

Accountant: $290 

 (Anything with an * next to it is an affiliate link)

 

GROSS INCOME TO DATE $1,007,325 

(income in graph below is only for January 2015 - now) 

FACEBOOK, E-MAIL SUBSCRIPTION, INSTAGRAM, PINTEREST GROWTH

• Facebook: 98,093 +1085
• E-mails: 51,708 +95
• Instagram: 8195 +512
• Pinterest: 5567 +93

TOTAL GROWTH: +1785

It was important for me to add this information into my income report because I do use social media to grow my business. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and e-mail subscription is what really made it possible for me to build my business so quickly. If you compare starting a business to the time before social media was in our life, it was hard. Someone had to open up an actual store business to be found and then count on foot traffic and phone books to be found by potential customers. We live in an incredible time where we have tools such as social media to make it easier than ever to connect to the right people. For me, using these social platforms has helped me grow my businesses and reach hundreds of amazing clients & customers. Below I'll go over how I personally love to use each platform. They each unique, and I have different things I love using about each of them. 

MY STRATEGY BREAKDOWN: 

FACEBOOK STRATEGY

I have facebook listed first, aside from my own websites, this is what I love spending most of my time. I love it over other platforms because I feel like it allows me to engage with people on a deeper level. The people that follow me on there. (photographers, creatives, and my amazing clients) are extremely involved and I love that it feels more like a community than a fan page. My strategy on facebook has always been to be as authentic, helpful and encouraging. I love inspiring others to pursue their dreams and share my own work with people who truly care and have that same positive mindset as me. 

I try my best to put out as much good content as possible and give people a place to learn and connect. I love giving people direct answers and advice on their own path and love how easy facebook makes this. I get a ton of messages and comments every day and do my best to respond to each of them. I love it when I get personal messages from other dreamers, and love chatting with them. It's really time-consuming to stay on top of all of it but it makes me happy knowing that people can come to a place to get more encouragement. 

A really great way that has allowed me to grow my client base is uploading client photos and tagging them directly. I'm friends with all my clients and love seeing comments on their page. (you can only see them if you're actually friends with them). I might get 10+ comments on my fan page, but there's usually another 50+ on my clients page. There's usually a few people asking for more information and I'm glad to always see my clients tag my page or me personally under the comment which allows me to connect instantly with another potential client. 

If I was to draw out my client base and add a line between the ones who know each other it would be a huge spiderweb of lines. They all know each other in some way and I love that about it.

I spend money on facebook boosted posts and feel like it's a great way to reach more people who are looking for a photographer, or love to connect with another photographer. 

Other social sites are great but facebook works really great for me since I do have so many aspects of my business. My portrait photography business, wedding photography business, store & business coaching. Facebook makes it really easy for me to have all those on the same page. 

E-MAIL STRATEGY

Growing an email list has been something that I've been working on over the last few years. I find creating newsletters extremely time-consuming, but know what an awesome way it is to reach all clients or customers at once. So although I don't enjoy it as much as Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest I do my best to still stay on top of it.

The way I collect email address is by giving away free content, or some sort of giveaway. For my portrait business, I have done monthly giveaways for people to enter and have collected email addresses that way. For weddings, I have done a wedding package giveaway. For those I will usually only do one giveaway a year, and only if I want to book more weddings. For my store side and business mentoring I giveaway one business class seat each month.  

Giving away free content, advice, products, sessions etc is a great way to get a long list of potential clients or customers. Once I have those collected I reach out on a later date to see if they are still interested in the service or product. Collecting email addresses is a great way to open communication with hundreds of potential clients. 

One of the reasons I collect email addresses for newsletters is because I have no idea where social media will be in 5-10-20 years. I might not use newsletters a ton, but I know that those contacts will be on my list forever, regardless of where social media goes. So growing that list long term is a great way for me to ensure I have a direct contact with the right people. 

INSTAGRAM STRATEGY

I use Instagram for my portrait and photography business. Instagram strives on visuals and using my photography on there has been a great way to reach more potential clients. Connecting with other businesses has also been a wonderful way to rasise more awareness on my own brand. I don't most a ton of content to Instagram but use it to showcase more of my work. 

In 2016 I split up my personal and business page to help create a 'prettier' Instagram. I love sharing my little personal life moments on Instagram but hated how it just didn't fit into my photography style. For those who follow my work know my work is very bright and airy with lots of white. My personal life is a little messier and has a lot more color. I share lots of pictures of my two kiddos and our little adventures. Splitting the two apart has helped me share more personal moments while keeping my business side nice and pretty. 

Here's a quick look at my business Instagram. @modernbabyphotography

And here's my personal Instagram. @Mrs_Ringo

PINTEREST STRATEGY

I use Pinterest for gathering ideas and inspiration. I showcase my own photography work on there, as well as link my blog post content and products. I often use it to create vision boards for upcoming sessions and love the amount of knowledge that is available on there. I also use Pinterest to find other vendors to work with. One thing I do like to do is keep my Pinterest page really organized and pin only things I personally really love. Overall I keep Pinterest pretty simple. I love using it, who wouldn't. 

.

The next few things are tasks I started in the month. Some are on going and some have been completed. 

.

 

BOOKED OUR FLIGHTS TO MAUI
We finally booked out flights to Maui, and it made everything so real. We decided that since we are only booking one-way flights to upgrade to first class which I think will be a ton of fun for us. It's three flights total, and each flight is between 4-5 hours long, so I'm REALLY looking forward to the extra leg space and free snacks! 

DESIGNED MAUI OFFICE SPACE
Living in an empty house makes you realize what you really need, and what you end up missing. I've been daydreaming of my new office space. I wrote up a whole article on what I plan to do with my new office space. Imagine beautiful white planked walls, huge white tables & summer hats. I'm all about keeping my space, bright airy and neat! If you'd like to see some picture inspiration you can do that HERE.

FOUND OUR MAUI HOME
We also finalized our Maui home which I'm really excited about. It's the prettiest hillside home with lots of natural light and a quick drive to the beach. It checked off all the things on our home wish list. If you want to get a quick little sneak peak, you can do so HERE. Can not wait to make this feel like home. And I'm really looking forward to sleeping in a regular bed. (We have been "glamping" on air mattresses in our very empty house for weeks!)

LAUNCHED A NEW PRESET COLLECTION
I shot the most beautiful sunset maternity session. My client has a horse, so I figured it was a no-brainer to incorporate Arthur into the session. It turned out so dreamy and inspired me to create a new preset collection, inspired by beautiful lush greenery. If you're looking for some beautiful presets, take a look at the LUSH collection. Bonus - My Lightroom preset collections are also available for Photoshop now!

FULLY EMBRACED LIFE AS A WORKING STAY AT HOME MAMA
As a mother and business owner, I am guilty of not always feeling like the most professional business woman out there. I've spent years balancing a business while raising two children and all too often in these past years have I felt that being a mom has made it harder to feel like one of those polished business women that are at the top of their game all the time. I'm saying goodbye to feeling less than because I'm a mom who's also a business owner and saying hello to real life as a mama who's raising her kids while also chasing her dreams. It's hard, incredibly rewarding, and messy. I want to step into a new direction, one that shows other moms out there that it IS possible. It's not something they should feel they need to hide; it's something they should be proud of. I wrote more about this in depth over HERE.

OVER 600 PHOTOGRAPHERS SIGNED UP ON THE ESSENTIAL STUDIO MANAGER
We had over 600 amazing photographers sign up on the ESSENTIAL STUDIO MANAGER during it's first initial month of being live. The basic plan is 100% free for photographers to use and the pro plan is $5 a month. Our goal was to make a site that is functional and affordable. Seeing so many photographers sign up and put it to use seriously made our month.

PRETTIED UP MY BLOG
I'm going to add this here, because I know it doesn't sound like much, for anyone who wants to tweak something minor on their site knows how time-consuming this can be. I changed up my sidebar, made it more organized and although it might not look like much, it took me a solid few days to create.

CELEBRATED MORE!
Between selling the biggest collection, crushing yearly income goals, opening a studio space, dealing with mistakes, and going full force in the direction of your dreams we are celebrating some BIG things together! I'm so INCREDIBLY proud of the ladies in my PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS SUCCESS CLASS. Every month I write a blog post to celebrate together, and it's been a fun way to take the time to celebrate each month. This isn't just for those in my class; it's for anyone who is crazy enough to pursue their dreams. That includes you! :) Make sure to always take the time to celebrate not just the goals you reach, but every step you take that gets you closer.

I DECIDED IT'S TIME TO START HOMESCHOOLING
Now I totally get how you might read this and think that this has nothing to do with my business. But if you know me, you know that I do everything for my business singlehandedly and that although I try my best to balance between family life and work life, the two have found a way to co-exist with one another. Anything that happens in my personal life can affect my business life, and that's why I'm adding this to the list. You can read all about WHY I decided to call it quits with public school HERE. I'm so excited to start this but so scared at the same time. It means I not only have to manage 100% of my business but also need to learn how to homeschool my daughter and do that at the same time. I sort of have a vision in my head on those two things working together. I'll write more on that when we get started, but the decision took a ton of thought, and I'm excited about getting that started. I'm also excited for my daughter to get a front row seat to watching her mama and dad work for themselves on something they are passionate about. I love that she gets to see this in real life and hope that whatever path she chooses for her life, that she knows the importance of chasing her dreams.

WROTE MY HEART OUT
It always feels like a productive month when I take the time to write out my thoughts. Anyone who has a blog knows how hard it is to stick with a blogging schedule. Since I started writing about my own personal thoughts, the process has become second nature.

Blogging used to always be about using the right keywords, SEO, optimization, ranking on page 1 on Google and although I completely understand why all those things are important, it sucked the life out of blogging for me. It felt so forced, and I didn't enjoy it. And like most things I don't enjoy doing, they usually get pushed aside.

Instead of focusing so much on SEO and keywords, I started writing from the heart. I have no idea how well those blog posts rank, but it's much more important to me to get my message out there. The fact that people take the time to read my words means a ton to me, and I try to deliver as much helpful content and advice as possible.

I've connected with so many incredible people through sharing my thoughts, and it's made me fall in love with writing. Seeing that others out there struggle with the same things, seeing that people can relate to my stories is amazing. The people who I've gotten the pleasure of reaching me inspire me to do more, give more and continue encouraging. Big thanks to anyone who's ever read something on my blog. It really means a lot to me!

Here are Aprils articles:

MAUI OFFICE INSPIRATION
SNOOPING ON THE COMPETITION?
CHEERS; HERE'S WHAT WE'RE CELEBRATING IN APRIL
THE SECRET TO SUCCESS IS...
LIFE IS NOT A JOURNEY - REMEBER TO DANCE AND SING
SHOUTOUT TO THE WOMEN WHO RAISE BUSINESSES AND BABIES!
PROFESSIONAL PRINTING LABS THAT PHOTOGRAPHERS LOVE TO USE!
DECIDING NOT TO DECIDE IS A DECISION IN ITSELF
KISSING BALANCE GOODBYE

WE BOOKED OUR FLIGHTS!
WHY WE'RE SWITCHING FROM PUBLIC SCHOOL TO HOMESCHOOL
MAUI HOME SNEAK PEAK! 

BONUS: CLICK HERE TO READ THE QUESTION & ANSWER SECTION

That sums it up for this months income report and Q&A. I had a lot of fun answering all those questions so if you have any at all, feel free to leave a comment below, or in a comment on facebook, or message me personally on facebook, so I can be sure to answer it in the Question & Answer post!