Written by Candace on October 28, 2014 | 1 Comment

Growing, Inside and Out

With wedding season in full swing, along with this pregnancy, it has been near impossible to find the extra time to write.

My days are filled taking care of our clients and the little one growing inside. On top of that, Vitaliy and I are working behind the scenes at streamlining our systems, refining our brand, and working to create an even better client experience come the 2015 wedding season. Running your own business is a never-ending learning process. The minute you feel you master one area, a new one awaits your creativity and attention. But my entrepreneur heart welcomes the challenge!

I used to get overwhelmed by all the areas of our business I needed to learn, but after doing this now for 6 years, I’m finally starting to understand its all part of owning your own business. It’s been fun to look back and see how much we’ve grown. And equally as exciting to brainstorm where we want to go. During a recent #fridayintroductions on Instagram, @jessaconnolly and @thetinytwig asked the question, what are you most excited about this fall? I’m really excited about our upcoming coaching sessions with brand specialist Kathryn Duckett from Creme Brands. I met her last year at the Making Things Happen conference and we’ve stayed in touch ever since. I’m confident she’s going to challenge us and help us take Pictilio to new heights.

We recently did a little assignment on our own to figure out where we were getting the majority of our referrals. We went back to our very first wedding and tracked the source of each one. We discovered that Word of Mouth referrals were by far the dominating source of how our clients were finding us. We have our clients, friends and family to thank for helping us get to where we are today. As we begin booking out our 2015 calendar of weddings, we want to thank each one of you for your continued support over the years. You make this dream of ours possible every day.

Hope this will be the start of getting back into the swing of things here. I miss filling this space! And connecting with each of you.

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Written by Candace on September 30, 2014 | 2 Comments

Fall, My Favorite Time of Year

It’s that time of year again! Fall is definitely my favorite.

I love the anticipation of the holidays, the change of the weather, and most importantly the comfort and coziness of getting to pull out my sweaters again. The past few months, Vitaliy and I have had to readjust our date nights. With the nausea and fatigue I experienced my first trimester, I was definitely more inclined to spend relaxing time together in the comfort of my own home. But now that I’m starting to feel normal again (minus my growing belly) and have more energy, I’m starting to daydream and brainstorm some more exciting outings with my husband. I’m pretty sure he’ll be grateful!

I’ve got pumpkin picking on my mind, but before that, I’m hoping to make a trip to an apple orchard in the near future. We went last year on a trip to St. Louis and it was the perfect double date. Whether we go on a upcoming trip to the Midwest or here in the bay area, I hope to squeeze something in before it’s too late. It’ll be the perfect excuse to finally try baking a pie together too.

What are your traditions this time of year? I’d love to hear some of your ideas!

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Written by Candace on September 23, 2014 | 3 Comments

Clients Always Come First

Vitaliy and I are absolutely overwhelmed by all of your love and support after our recent announcement. Thank you all so much!

Prior to finding out our big news, Vitaliy and I had actually already started making some changes to our business. One of which was postponing blogging images until after we had delivered them to clients first and then to the appropriate vendors. It has been one of the best decisions we’ve made to date.

When we first started our business, we had no clue what to do. So, we did what most photographers do and look around at those who have gone before and try to incorporate things that have worked for them. We still learn a great deal from others, both in the industry and outside the industry, but after doing this now for 6 years you start to learn that things that work for one person don’t necessarily work for others.

Blogging is a great marketing tool and it has worked wonders for our business, but our number one goal in our business is to give our clients the best possible experience. And we have found that if we hold off on blogging, we can deliver our clients’ images even faster. And we know that’s precisely what they want.

The other reason we have found this works best for us is that blogging can take up so much of our time. This has also helped keep the blog in it’s rightful place, as a blessing to our business and not a burden. I can blog when I choose to rather then feeling like I “have” to. And boy am I thankful for that! Because shortly after making this change, I found out I was pregnant and there were definitely days, even weeks, I was not able to function like normal.

I’m so thankful that we’ve reached a point in our business that we’re confident in making moves that work for us and our clients, even if it’s not industry norm. We’re now delivering our images to clients faster than we ever have in the past! And that’s what matters most.

And now that I’ve got my energy back, I look forward to sharing more of what we’ve been up to this wedding season. Here’s a little sneak peek from a beauty back in April.

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