How to Design Your Photography Business Around The Lifestyle You Want With David And Whitney Scott

Asking the right questions will lead you to shape your business the way you want to serve yourself and your goals.

If you want to have a lifestyle you wish to have where you don't work endless hours and break your back, you've got to work smart.

Talk about pricing premium, clearly communicating your product's value to the right people, and protecting yourself from discount buyers.

That's part of designing your photography business to reach a high level of success.

David and Whitney Scott have been married for 20+ years, have worked together for over 13, and have renovated EIGHT homes and short-term rentals… and are still together and smiling! 

Whitney started the photography business part-time back in 2005 after leaving a career in counseling. Her first "official" photo shoot was when she used a wrinkled sheet as a backdrop to photograph her daughter, Emma, for her first birthday. Friends were kind and allowed her to practice on them, and the business grew into a full-time job. In 2007, she had their second child, Ben, who became another adorable practice subject.  

David left his long-time job in youth ministry to join her in the business full time in 2009.  

They learned (understatement of the century) that entrepreneurship is challenging. And that working together is flat out hard. And they also decided to start homeschooling their kids during this time. But they were ridiculously optimistic. They were incredibly poor, but they were together and were doing what they loved.

Now their kids are teenagers, and their photography skills have much improved. Entrepreneurship is always challenging but rewarding as well. Not only have they built a business they are proud of, but they also had the opportunity to educate other professional photographers at the international level. They are building the barn studio of their dreams right out their back door and dividing their time between serving their wonderful photography clients and serving their fellow professional photographers through their second business venture "Tribe of 5".

In this episode, David and Scott share how they started in their photography business, conquered charging low to pricing premium, making the most of their 20-hour workweek time catering to only two clients a week. They also talk about taking advantage of Whitney's Psychology background when it comes to setting prices, zeroing in on buyers' psychology, and curating a pricing list to show the best that clients find the most value in to avoid confusion and making them happy and confident buyers.

What you will learn from this episode:

• Learn how to structure your business around the lifestyle you want, so you get there faster
• Find out how to connect with the right people and charge premium
• Discover how to work with fewer clients and earn more

"We have to be very strategic in deciding what we want for our life, and for us, it was family life. It was our number one objective. And then we structure our business to facilitate that goal."

- David Scott

Topics Covered:

02:40 - Working less and building a dream life: Strategically structuring your business to fulfill your business goals and a successful family life 

06:15 - Taking the process slowly but steadily: Whitney taking us to their journey from pricing low to charging a premium

08:38 - The 20-hour workweek: Whitney sharing how they use their time and resources effectively and efficiently to reach the goal they set out at the start

11:02 - Leveraging Business Psychology: Talking about connecting with people and connecting to their imagery and communicating to your clients what gives them meaning and value in life  

13:40 - Simplifying Pricing: Positioning yourself as the expert, giving your clients and curating the price list of only the best out there and doing away with confusion

19:26 - Highlighting your product's perceived value: David points out on selling to your clients a completely different experience and the status feeling of owning your product

23:09 - Piece of advice to their younger selves: "If you position yourself as a technician, you will be relegated to the salary of a technician, if, however you position yourself as an artist, there is no limit to what you can command. And if we realized that early on and did not mind what other people were doing, we would have come sooner to the level we wanted to." - David Scott

Key Takeaways:

"We started out asking ourselves the right questions. That is so important. I think so many people get on the hamster wheel, and they just go and go, and they don't think about why I am doing this and where I want to end up? And I think answering those questions tell you; this is the amount of money I need to make per year to get to the lifestyle that I want." - Whitney Scott

"Studies have shown that people feel happier with their purchases if they have fewer choices and they feel more confident. That's our job as photographers, we are experts, and we need to curate our price list, giving them the very best of what's out there." - Whitney Scott

"I am a big proponent of making one change and seeing how that works for you and making another change and how that works for you. Every time we have a sale, we still do this. At the end of the sale, we say, okay, what worked well and what didn't, did we leave money on the table, did we serve them better, what was missing, or did we do right, and how can we expand that with other clients?" - Whitney Scott

"When I go to the cheesecake factory, I order the same thing. Why do I do that? I get overwhelmed, and I am also confident in what I had before. And if you're presenting too much to your clients, then they'll go to that same menu process of trying to figure out what's going to be the best deal here, what am I going to get the most value from, and if it's too confusing, they're to go to something that they're familiar with." 

It is counterintuitive, but when I talk with potential clients, I tell them to come to us for special occasions. We are not people typically come to every year, and I want people to equate what they are doing with us as something very unique and special." - Whitney Scott

Connect with David and Whitney Scott:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/whitneyscottphotography/
• Website: https://www.whitneyscottphotography.com/about

Connect with Tavis and Amy:

• Email: ​hello@guildcanvas.com
• Website: Guildcanvas.com ​
• Website: www.tavisandamy.com
• Facebook: ​The Guild Canvas Club
• Instagram: ​@guildcanvas
• Linktree: https://linktr.ee/guildcanvas