Changes are ahead my dear friends in our little home and in my small business.
Our life is about to be turned around with our new little arrival and with this big change comes many little changes in Carissa Christine Photography.
Our little babe is predicted to arrive on Christmas Eve, I will be taking the first month of the year off from sessions and events to love on her and adjust to this new role. Late January into February I will be taking very few newborn, and milestone sessions, so inquire early if you are interested in one of these spots. March will begin the slow decent back into full swing with a birth, followed by the first wedding of our season, and then diving into a Spring full of weddings.
I have been done with sessions since the end of November and the past few weeks have been spent finishing up paperwork for 2013 and getting my beautiful clients/friends photos and products their way! I also have had the opportunity to prep and prepare for this upcoming year. There have been several tools that have helped get my thoughts together and make some big decisions.
One of my favorite purchases this year has been the Simplified Life Binder from Emily Ley. It has helped me immensely get things organized and by taking the time to organize things I have more time for the things that I love. After several months of using her printables and calender sheets I have created a lot of my own. My system is still being perfected but I wouldn't have known where to even start without her help and hope to blog a little more about my system one day soon. She has so many helpful products and everything is designed so beautifully.
The second tool were the Making Things Happen Power Sheets by Lara Casey. They do yearly conferences, Lara has a fantastic series of blog posts, and then the power sheets, which I have done on my own, along with reading the blog series. It was so overwhelming when I started them last Spring, but they helped me work through and figure out the things should not matter, the things that fire me up and what matters most in my life.
This past year has been my first full year of being a full time small business owner : a lifestyle, portrait and wedding photographer. It has been a year full of lessons, challenges and I feel as if I have grown leaps and bounds. Through all the insecurities and times of trial God never ceased to amaze me. Time and time again showing me that this is where we are supposed to be and what I am supposed to be doing. Reminding me through encouraging words from clients, blog features and continuous inquiries for portraits, births and weddings.
As a photographer I spend about 1/4 of my time shooting, 1/4 of my time editing and 1/2 of my time answering emails, office work, backing up files, packaging up discs, going to the post office and all that very thrilling, behind the scenes mumbo jumbo. So when I sat down to figure out how this next year with a little lovie in my arms is going to work. I brainstormed several different ways to make sure that our faith, little E and our family is my main priority.
So here is what you can expect as returning clients and new clients to Carissa Christine Photography!
• Pricing changes : We have to start out with this one because the two below spring right from it. Pricing will actually be going down, just a bit, and has now become simpler. There is one portrait package option, the only other time to get a "discounted" session will be when mini sessions are offered. The main reason for this is the next point...
• No disc, digital downloads : Packages will no longer include a disc, this means after your session when you get your gallery link you will download all your images to your computer and back them up yourself (on a disc and in an online gallery found on your printing site of choice). If your heart is set on a disc it is offered as an A La Cart option as well as a keepsake USB. This will save so much of my own time that it is worth being able to push that savings to you as my wonderful clients!
• Return client discount : In the years past I have offered a 10-15% discount to return clients. This will no longer be an option. You see I sat down and calculated the time, and manual labor that each session takes and came up with a solid price. Any discount would be cutting into the value of my work, but the good news is the now lower price is less then the last year full session price. So in the end your are still saving as a return client!
• A little something extra : I hope to continue to include my little something extra with each session. It is being sent out as a complimentary gift and a big thank you, it just brings me so much joy to see my work and your beautiful faces in print!
I feel like my blog/website is always changing and being modified. I do hope in the year ahead to do more frequent posts about our personal life, posts about being a work at home momma, how I run my business and a bit more of my heart and the real stuff that goes on in our lives. So you may see a few of these changes slowly take place around here.
There are a couple of new pages that I have just finished up, feel free to take a look above under information for updated slideshows and info about the sessions that I offer. I also have created a FAQ page that I will be adding to as I think of more of the frequently asked questions people always ask. You can click archives (above) to see a list of all the blog posts ever made (this probably excited me more then anyone else), or use the menu to just find specific sessions/my work from a certain type of session or event.
Lastly, I wanted to share that I am extremely excited for mini sessions this coming year. I have plans to do a Spring Mini that will be in studio with a bunch of beautifully made tissue flowers (from Baby E's shower a few months ago) and can't wait to see it all come together, as well as a set of fall outdoor/leaf Mini's and winter/Christmas Mini's in November. If you would like to be notified as soon as these are ready to book please sign up for the newsletter : http://www.carissachristine.com/p/newsletter.html
So here is my big thank you and my farewell to 2013! I have been so blessed to work with so many wonderful people, capture so many smiles and unforgettable moments. When I look back at the sessions from this past year my heart sings with joy and a piece of me is in every single one of them.
I can't even begin to express how grateful I am to everyone who supports this little business and now our growing family. "Thank you" just doesn't seem to express how grateful and blessed we feel, so know I am thankful times a million to each of you.
Have a wonderful holiday friends and a very merry Christmas!
xo, Carissa
So here is what you can expect as returning clients and new clients to Carissa Christine Photography!
• Pricing changes : We have to start out with this one because the two below spring right from it. Pricing will actually be going down, just a bit, and has now become simpler. There is one portrait package option, the only other time to get a "discounted" session will be when mini sessions are offered. The main reason for this is the next point...
• No disc, digital downloads : Packages will no longer include a disc, this means after your session when you get your gallery link you will download all your images to your computer and back them up yourself (on a disc and in an online gallery found on your printing site of choice). If your heart is set on a disc it is offered as an A La Cart option as well as a keepsake USB. This will save so much of my own time that it is worth being able to push that savings to you as my wonderful clients!
• Return client discount : In the years past I have offered a 10-15% discount to return clients. This will no longer be an option. You see I sat down and calculated the time, and manual labor that each session takes and came up with a solid price. Any discount would be cutting into the value of my work, but the good news is the now lower price is less then the last year full session price. So in the end your are still saving as a return client!
• A little something extra : I hope to continue to include my little something extra with each session. It is being sent out as a complimentary gift and a big thank you, it just brings me so much joy to see my work and your beautiful faces in print!
I feel like my blog/website is always changing and being modified. I do hope in the year ahead to do more frequent posts about our personal life, posts about being a work at home momma, how I run my business and a bit more of my heart and the real stuff that goes on in our lives. So you may see a few of these changes slowly take place around here.
There are a couple of new pages that I have just finished up, feel free to take a look above under information for updated slideshows and info about the sessions that I offer. I also have created a FAQ page that I will be adding to as I think of more of the frequently asked questions people always ask. You can click archives (above) to see a list of all the blog posts ever made (this probably excited me more then anyone else), or use the menu to just find specific sessions/my work from a certain type of session or event.
Lastly, I wanted to share that I am extremely excited for mini sessions this coming year. I have plans to do a Spring Mini that will be in studio with a bunch of beautifully made tissue flowers (from Baby E's shower a few months ago) and can't wait to see it all come together, as well as a set of fall outdoor/leaf Mini's and winter/Christmas Mini's in November. If you would like to be notified as soon as these are ready to book please sign up for the newsletter : http://www.carissachristine.com/p/newsletter.html
So here is my big thank you and my farewell to 2013! I have been so blessed to work with so many wonderful people, capture so many smiles and unforgettable moments. When I look back at the sessions from this past year my heart sings with joy and a piece of me is in every single one of them.
I can't even begin to express how grateful I am to everyone who supports this little business and now our growing family. "Thank you" just doesn't seem to express how grateful and blessed we feel, so know I am thankful times a million to each of you.
Have a wonderful holiday friends and a very merry Christmas!
xo, Carissa