Whew! Well, it has taken awhile for me to get here, but I am happy to share a glimpse into my growing business. The arrival of more of my marketing materials and boutique style packaging has me super excited and ready to tackle the rest of the year. I still have a few more documents to get printed, but I know what I have is a great start. In the beginning you expect to have everything fall into place but you quickly find out there is a lot to branding. To tell you the truth, making decisions for me, always seems to be the hardest. With so many options and styles available these days, it is hard to stick to just one thing. It is very important to understand that even though the latest and greatest will be coming out next month, you need to know when to settle on something and stick with it.
Now to the packaging. It's no secret there are a wealth of companies offering great products to photographers. I weighed price and quality and decided to go with www.h-bphoto.com for my print boxes and found that a combination of the "pebblestone white" and "lemon drop" yellow went with my branding materials best. I ordered the "skinny" style and purchased the bulk package in multiple sizes. After deciding on boxes, I searched for tote bags next. I finally settled on the Eurostyle bag, size large, from www.h-bphoto.com. I considered many other distributors for bags, however, I loved the "robins egg blue" they offered and felt it was an affordable price.
My templates for printing materials for my business came from an www.etsy.com designer. I could have done them myself, but felt I was crunched for time and energy during a hectic school schedule last semester. I knew they were cute and something I could live with for a long time without changing. My ribbon and tissue paper came from Hobby Lobby and I plan to continue buying these types of decorative items from craft stores and will even stock up on more decorative and smaller bags to add to my collection. Finally, my templates for items such as my 3x3 round sticker, business card, and thank you card printed on luxe card design were purchased through www.millerslab.com. The quality of this lab speaks for itself and I am always in love with everything I receive through them. Their turnaround time is amazing, customer service is top notch, and although they can be pricey, I think it is worth it.
For fellow photogs, I hope this helps in your own business endeavors and for the present and future clients, I hope you have a better understanding of the care and attention to detail that goes into my services.
