Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in photography but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Erin Youngren, Co-Owner of Bauman Photographers, located in San Diego, CA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
We are a photography studio in San Diego, CA, with two different brands - Clove & Kin (CloveandKin.com), which photographs classic, elegant and romantic weddings, and Bauman Photographers, which photographs commercial work such as headshots, corporate events, products, and editorial. Our weddings are for couples who value tradition, emotion, family, and legacy, while our commercial work is for companies looking to elevate their brands and events with vibrant and expressive photography.
Tell us about yourself
My husband, Jeff, and I first started shooting weddings together as The Youngrens (TheYoungrens.com) when we got married in 2006. Over the next decade, we built our business into a well-known, high-end luxury brand that took us all over the world photographing weddings and educating other photographers on how to run life-giving sustainable businesses they love. For the past 17 years, we've shot weddings for the loveliest couples with the most beautiful weddings - people that deeply value tradition, legacy, and romance - until we set down our cameras just this year (2022) to raise our two young boys, currently ages 2 and 4, and to run our studio.
In 2012, we expanded with our commercial brand Bauman Photographers and launched our separate wedding brand, Clove & Kin. We have been running our studio with a staff of employees and a team of photographers ever since. Currently, our brands operate out of a 4,000-square-foot shooting space and photograph high-end weddings and exciting events all over San Diego, which we call our home base.
The most motivating thing to me about running this business is that I truly get to shape the life I most want to live and serve people while doing it. I am deeply motivated by leading my staff and team, shaping them into wise, dedicated, strong individuals. I also get to impact and care for our clients, treating them with a different kind of service than they usually expect from most photographers. Our mission is to serve people well - whether it's each other, our photography team, or our clients - and this is a deeply motivating mission for me.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Building a photography studio that's a million-dollar business! It's incredibly rare and difficult to create a photography business with an annual revenue beyond $100k that can support just one person (maybe), much less create a healthy (and profitable) photography studio that's worth over a million dollars and supports 5 full-time staff. I'm also incredibly proud of creating a business that serves my life, not a business that has taken over my life. As most entrepreneurs can attest, this is also such a rare and difficult thing to achieve!
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
Ultimate control. When you are the business owner, you are in charge - this is the best and the worst part of being an entrepreneur. No one does anything for you or writes your paycheck every other week. You make every decision. You structure your own time. You generate your sales. You fix the problems (and if you have an office space, you change the lightbulbs, fix the leak in the roof, and repair the toilet - ha!). You shoulder the risk and carry the responsibility.
You earn every. single. dollar. For me (and for most photographers that I've mentored over the years), the most challenging part of running a business is creating a business that actually serves your life and becomes your greatest joy. Instead, what happens the vast majority of the time is that we create a business that takes over our lives, and it becomes our greatest source of stress, anxiety, depression, and overwhelm. It takes great discipline, planning, and perspective to shape a business that works for you and not to let a business get out of control or out of hand. This is the most difficult but worthwhile part of the journey.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Get really skilled at time management. Since you are in ultimate control of your time with your business (even if it's a side thing at first), you need to learn how to set limits and boundaries on your time. Learn to be disciplined with your time. It will become your greatest and most life-giving skill!
- Put your quality of life FIRST and decide how you want your business to serve the life you want to live instead of your life serving your business. If you don't know what you want from your life (what kind of income you want/need to make, what free time or hobbies or family time you want or need), then you won't be able to set proper expectations for your business, and you could quickly find yourself overwhelmed or drowning.
- Always hold your business with an open hand. As we've learned from COVID, anything could happen at any time, and your business could be totally disrupted with no fault of your own. Be flexible, open, and willing to change - always. The more inflexible, scared, or closed you are to change, the more difficult the journey will be.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://baumanphotographers.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baumancommercial/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-youngren-a595965/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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