If you’ve ever considered quitting your job to do what you love, following your passion, and starting and owning a business of your own then you hear me out first! I’ll let you know what it’s been like to start a luxury/boutique business; creating high-end photography based artwork for women in the Greater Toronto Area.
THE POPULARITY CONTEST
Starting my own business has been the most terrifying, rewarding, and biggest endeavour I have ever taken on in my life. I thought first year of university was hard, but this…this takes the cake. One of the reasons is because marketing is probably the single hardest thing to master. I even took marketing in university, but alas, it has been of no help.
I’ve come to realize that marketing is much like the stock market. There are intrinsic truths, but there is still a large margin for the psychology of people that I’m guessing 99% of us just don’t understand it. Attempting to wrap our heads around it would be ludicrous!
At the beginning it seems like it was a big popularity contest – you need to have all eyes on you to win, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Everyone thinks they need a ton of likes or followers on whatever social media platforms they’re on, but what they really need is to find people who appreciate your work.
MY APPROACH
I’ve taken on an even more different approach. Instead of vying for everyone’s attention or searching for people who would value the kind of work I do, I just work hard to be the best at what I do.
I focus on being the best because that will speak volumes about my value to potential clients. I do this by:
- providing the best experience and service I possibly can
- creating unique products and services
- being myself (because that’s the easiest way of being different)
- writing articles/blog posts that are helpful and add value
- building a business that I believe women deserve
- letting my creativity loose
Unfortunately, just because you have the best of anything doesn’t mean people will find you. So I make myself as “findable” as possible. I still don’t go out trying to win a popularity contest by asking people to like me or to follow my work. I simply present all that I have and if someone sees value in it’s meant to be!
THE KEYS
I believe that creating a business that people will respect and appreciate simply means fostering beautiful, healthy relationships. So I build it on a foundation of key principles that I think we all like to see in others:
- honesty
- trust
- respect
- gratitude/value
- care and listening
PATIENCE IS KING (OR QUEEN)
Patience, as well as my wife, have been my friends. Frankly, I wish I was a lot busier than I am, but providing a service and experience with a boutique level of quality means that a lot of energy goes into serving each client. I just can’t compromise on my standards and provide lackluster results so I have to take my time and wait for this all to grow the way it should.
In fact, patience is the most difficult part of maintaining a luxury art photography business in the GTA. Creating value and serving customers…that’s easy and life fulfilling.
I’m sure most people’s brains would spin if they even took just a second to consider how fast society has made our days fly by. We’re constantly running from one thing to the next; never actually able to focus on something long enough to appreciate it. I find that a little meditation helps though!
Jonathan How is the photographer behind Made by Ten and calls Milton his home. He specializes in creating beautiful, creative portraits of real women. He uses photography (and this blog) to help them build confidence and love for themselves and creates artistic images for their homes and offices. You can see him driving around the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in Ontario, Canada from portrait to fashion shoot and back again.