Leaping into the Future
“The best way to predict the future is to create it” – Peter Drucker
Stella Crase of MiniPros Sports Photos and Onsite Photography happened to be in Nashville in January 2018, where she attended PhotoDay’s official announcement to the professional photography industry.
“When I first learned of PhotoDay, I thought it was a great tool for photographers new to volume photography, but I felt it was too risky to take my business online hoping they would order later.”
Stella initially earned her degree in business, and ended up working in catering sales. After having two small children, she switched gears to teach seventh grade science, due to the more family-friendly work hours. Still though, her career path didn’t feel right. In search of an opportunity that would accommodate all of her needs as a wife, mother, and businesswoman, Stella parted ways with teaching. During this time, she began working with a friend in need of help with her photography business. Within a couple of months, this friend offered to sell the business to Stella. After reviewing the numbers from one of the large fall leagues that were shot, her answer was a resounding YES!
“The previous owner was still film-based in 2005. I bought an entire company in a box - backdrops, cameras, supplies and all. I knew nothing about photography, but I knew business. I did a Google search looking for photo templates and stumbled upon Group Photographer’s Association. We had a great call, and I ended up at GPA’s annual conference. The education and networking that happened were the finishing touches I needed to really take off. The rest is history!
”Today, Stella captures milestone memories of over twelve-thousand athletes, dancers, and students per year.
“Now that my kids are grown and college has been paid for - I’m looking into the future. I want to make my business more efficient and free up even more of my time so I can enjoy more of life outside of work.”
In the Spring of 2019, Stella’s office manager left the company. After gazing at the stacks of paper forms that were piling up due to the increased workload, she hoped for a better solution.
“I went to Lake Tahoe for a few weeks over the summer. I took some time to think about how I was going to leap into fall without falling on my face. My revelation was PhotoDay! PhotoDay was how I would conquer this fall.”
Stella first tried PhotoDay that spring when AdvancePay was introduced. She admits she didn’t market it as well as she could have initially, but the experience gave her more ideas on how PhotoDay could eventually fit into her business. As fall quickly approached, Stella made the decision to move all of her smaller and medium-sized leagues over, utilizing PhotoDay’s AdvancePay feature to prevent any potential loss of sales. All in all, she's pleased with the results!
*PhotoDay orders can contain multiple siblings per order.
By offering multiple poses, she was able to give parents more options from which to choose - which resulted in higher sales! With both the football and soccer leagues, Stella offered three poses per athlete, as opposed to only one pose in 2018.
“PhotoDay has been an incredible asset to my business. Workflow wise, I no longer have to pick the best image, jot it down on a form, scan, and submit to the lab. I already feel like I am ahead in sales this fall, and I cannot wait to tally it up and dive into my full results. I don’t feel like I need to replace my office assistant position. I’m now looking into streamlining my editing process so I can continue to create and expand my image inventory. I cannot wait to try it with my dance schools this spring!”
Advice from Stella:
The ability to capture and sell multiple poses is a huge benefit. PhotoDay’s FaceFind and tagging allow parents to easily find their own images. Be sure to take full advantage of this!
If you are new to volume photography, just go all in. Start with PhotoDay and skip the forms altogether.
Communicate AdvancePay. It guarantees participation and sales.
Innovators, game-changers, movers, shakers… trailblazers. Meet more trailblazing photographers who have tried PhotoDay and are seeing results.
