Be Completely Transported Back in Time

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in photography but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Christy Francis, Founder of The Francis Frames, located in Keene, NH, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

My business, The Francis Frames, offers couples wedding photography that is anything but ordinary. I specialize in documenting Elopements and Intimate Weddings, generally capping the guest count at 70 people. I love working with couples who want their wedding day to be focused on them and their love, intentionally choosing traditions that excite them to include on their big day, and, most importantly, prioritizing having a BLAST on their wedding day!

Tell us about yourself

I've been drawn to photography for as long as I can remember. I grew up watching my dad take old-school Polaroid pictures on special occasions, and I was fascinated by watching the film develop in front of my eyes, freezing a moment in time. My Grammy also always gifted my brothers and me a disposable camera pretty much every Christmas, which is where my love for documenting the big moments in life - and the mundane - truly started to develop. As I grew older, I was always saving my pennies to buy a crappy digital camera, and eventually, after a summer of washing dishes at a local summer camp, I had saved up enough money to buy my first "big" camera, aka a Nikon D3100, which was fresh on the market at the time. That really propelled my love forward, as I was in high school at that point and would carry that baby around with me everywhere I went. I took my friends' Senior Photos, and I remember feeling like I was so successful! Soon, I went to college and decided not to pursue photography after everyone I spoke with said it was too hard to make a living and the field was saturated - I didn't know any successful, full-time photographers, so I believed the nay-sayers and decided to pursue a different passion for a while. Still, I always had my camera with me and would take photos at any chance I got. In 2019 I started to feel lost in what I was doing, and a friend told me to chase after my passion - to give it a shot - and see where it would take me. So at the start of 2020, I did just that! I finally made a website and an Instagram page for my photography and labeled myself as a Wedding Photographer because I knew that's what I wanted to do...even though I had only ever shot my brother-in-law's elopement before. Of course, 2020 is when the world shut down, leaving me on furlough from my full-time job at the time and a lot of time to myself. I took advantage of that time and learned everything I could about wedding photography, how to run a business, and getting all my systems and processes in place so that, when I eventually could leave my house to photograph people in love, I would be ready for success. That moment didn't come until the very end of December 2020, but when it did, I ran with it! I put everything I had into starting this business for real and treated it like my full-time job even when I only had that one session to work off of, but eventually, some recently-engaged friends started reaching out to me to photograph their engagement session, and it honestly took off from there!

I feel so grateful and so lucky that the stars aligned for my business to take off relatively quickly, and it's still something that requires loads of dedication and work. My drive to keep going is honestly my Grammy, the same one that gifted me disposable cameras for Christmas. She developed Alzheimer's, and it progressed rapidly due to an unexpected accident. One day, she knew exactly who I was. The next day, she was in an accident, and when I went to visit her, she had no clue who I was. I honestly didn't know how to feel and felt incredibly helpless. I went home to try and find photos of us together to show her, hoping it would jog her memory somehow and she would remember who I was, but I discovered that we didn't have any photos together since I was a kid. I was devastated and disappointed in myself - how could I have taken SO many photos throughout the year and not have any with my Grammy? The devastation made me grateful for the memories I had captured with my friends growing up, even if we all want to cringe at the teenage versions of ourselves. When I'm documenting a wedding, I'm always looking out for the little in-between moments where the grandparents of the couple are wiping away a tear from their eye or busting a move on the dance floor. I look for the youngest person at the wedding and get photos of them twirling to the music or hiding behind their parent's leg out of shyness. I focus on the people who mean the most to the couple because they might be gone one day. One day, they might grow up. One day, our memories may fail us, and it's my responsibility to provide the couple with fail-safe photos so that even when they're 80-years-old some day, flipping through their wedding album with wrinkled hands, they can be transported back in time and feel the butterflies in their stomach again, or the chills of seeing their partner all dolled up for the first time again. I want to freeze these precious moments in time so that they can be remembered for a lifetime.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

My biggest accomplishment as a business owner so far comes in two parts:

The fact that I believed in myself when nobody else did. Starting a business is YOUR dream, and it's very difficult for someone else to hype you up about your dream as much as you can. You really discover how capable you are when you work hard and never give up.
I love showing people how beautiful they are through my lens. One of my favorite things to do at a wedding is to take an epic shot that may have seemed weird at the moment (I often hold random objects up to my lens to get unique photos of my couples). After I take the photo, I'll show them the screen on the back of my camera, and they're always blown away and will say, "wait, that's me?? That's so cool!" Being able to have that honor, to be an honorary BFF on someone's wedding day, and blow them away with how incredible they look, is truly something I don't think I'll ever get over.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

The hardest part about being a business owner is starting, honestly! Sure, there's a lot of business jargon you have to learn and lots of aspects you need to make sure you have in place to be legal and legitimate, but I feel like starting is the hardest part. Once you believe in yourself and work hard, you're capable of anything! The hardest thing after that is to keep showing up and to never give up - you are EXACTLY what someone is looking for; they just need to find you. So keep going, keep working hard, look after yourself, and stay true to YOU! Will there be hard things that happen and mistakes that are made? 100%, but those are the best problems to face because they make you better, and they're problems you only face when you're going after your dreams in full force.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

If I could give three pieces of advice to anyone looking to start, run, or grow a business, it would be these:

Dream really fricken big. Dream so big it feels weird to say out loud, but say it anyway. Keep your eyes soooo far ahead on the horizon that when little things happen, or problems occur, you handle them with ease and don't overthink them because you're so focused on the future to sweat it too much.
Write out what your dream day looks like. What do you eat for breakfast? What does your work schedule look like? Do you walk your dogs or take your kids to school? What do you do after work? What's for dinner? Be as thorough as you can as you're writing this list. When you're done, look over the list and figure out what you can implement the next day. Did you want to wake up at 5 am to work out? Perfect, do it! Did you want to have a meal prepped after work so you could spend more time playing outside with your dogs? Perfect, get prepping! As you go through the list, you'll realize how easy it is to implement so many aspects of your dream day into your current life. Yes, some things will take more time, but when you start implementing the easy things, the rest will follow.
Don't forget to rest and stay inspired. Taking time off when you're a business owner might actually be one of the hardest things about it all. Rest, however, is sometimes the most productive thing you can do. You'll come back feeling refreshed and genuinely excited to get to work! There may be times where you can't take a full day off, and that's honestly the most crucial time to intentionally schedule time for just you. Take a break. Go for a walk. Tap into something creative. Go to trivia night with your friends. If you ever doubt if it's the right thing to do, just look at the dream day you wrote down in tip #2 - did you write down that you'd be working all day long with no breaks? I highly doubt it.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.thefrancisframes.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thefrancisframes
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefrancisframes/

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.

Turn your craft into recurring revenue with Subkit. Start your subscription offering in minutes and supercharge it with growth levers. Get early access here.