Christina Stowinsky had been working as a hair and makeup artist for 20 years and she realized it wasn't sustainable for the next 25.

So photography became her new goal. She hasn't even been in business a whole year yet yet she got her first $1,500 order before our program boutique breakthrough was even over.

So the real question is how are portrait photographers like us able to run a profitable business and still put our families first without selling digital files for cheap and working all the time.

I'm Sarah Petty your host of the Worth Every Penny Joy Cast and I went from a stressed out overworked mama with three babies to being named one of America's most profitable photographers without working my kids lives away.

Each week I'll show you how to find and serve boutique portrait photography clients in a world where we compete with three thanks to everyone having a digital camera in their pocket.

Take the first step to adding more joy and profit to your life by downloading your free photography business tools at joy of marketing dot com forward slash podcast.

Christina welcome hey oh my gosh I'm seriously I'm so stoked that you are here to share your story.

So let's start with what photography has looked like in your business what's kind of your backstory because you do have amazing hair let's just start with that.

You just do let me tell you I bought my first camera last year in July so you're right it hasn't even been a year I haven't really even been in business for six months yet I just have owned a camera for for a little less than a year.

So my photography business I knew I didn't want to do anything for free so I wasn't really doing that I wasn't doing many sessions I can just tell you that what happened is my husband and I we started talking about what my future looks looks like and we were like you know I just can't handle hair make up my hands my feet my back like I can't do that forever.

So I wanted to make a change and so we started doing research and the truth of the matter is that the average photographer makes what is it like $30,000 a year and I was like I'm not going to leave my job and make less money with a new career so how can I make this work for me.

So I started doing lots of research and then eventually came up with you and found boutique breakthrough.

So hair and makeup let me jump back for a second that's a great career you can make really good money doing that and you have the flexibility so you can kind of create your own hours and if you want to make more you add some more clients in but it is physically demanding you're on your feet all day long.

It's it's non-stop I mean there's no other way around it you can't do hair make it without standing up.

Yeah hey guys we're going to sit on the floor together and I moved around you so so you were I love that you had a business background were you were you working for someone else in the salon or was it your own business.

So no I kind of both I work in the salon and I've read my booth so even currently I still work Monday through Wednesday in the salon Thursday and Friday are completely dedicated to my photography business right now.

And then Saturday's I'm doing my brides for bridal hair and makeup so yes moment I'm in the hustle but it's with the future of being full time photography by next year.

But you also understand from having done this that if you don't keep clients coming back you're not going to be booked so I love that you kind of have that background of seeing that you're a hunter like I eat what I hunt like no one's putting the meal on my table.

Yeah and like to your point about running a business like I had I built my bridal hair make a business.

So I am so well I understand how hard it is to build a business it took me.

Five years to build that business I made a ton of mistakes it cost me a lot of money so you know kind of going back to that point like how can I avoid that was really kind of my point of view.

Gotcha because you knew what the struggle looked like and while you had success at it you were like so when you were thinking about photography you weren't even like I'm just going to start out being cheap and spend years working working my way up.

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