Happy New Year | Tuesdays with Tiff

Another  year passed.  Happy New Year Pals!!!

Each year I love to take time to reflect and plan.  Gosh, so many incredible things happened in 2014.  When I am in the middle of the sea swimming it’s hard to see the progress and honestly right around December 1st each year when the pressure mounts I often get deflated and feel like nothing has changed.  Then December 24th rolls around, I begin to rest and usually within a few days I can see accomplishments, start smiling as I reflect on the past year’s sessions and new ideas flood into my mind for the year ahead.  I am so passionate about my business, it’s like raising a child, full of challenges but more importantly full of fun.  I am just so grateful to create art that will be cherished for years to come.  I think the key to a successful business is just to not give up.  Its not easy – trust me – there are days when I want to throw my hands up and polish my resume but then I capture the big grin of a toddler and I am reminded why I started this thing!

This year instead of New Year, New Me I am all about the New Year, Better Me.  I like Me just fine I just need to get better.  Tighten up some processes, hire some peeps and just keep going.  I have way too many ideas (which is a great problem to have) I just need to focus and execute!  Can’t wait to show the world what I have in store for 2015!  New year, Better Me!

One of my first ideas for the New Year was “Tuesdays with Tiff”….WELCOME….if you’re reading this you get to be a part of the first!  Several clients this fall told me they look forward to my blog post, they love seeing what I’m doing and what I’m capturing.  Honestly I failed a little in the blogging department last year.  I love writing post but it does take some time and an easy thing to negotiate off my always extra long to-do list.  I am hoping by committing to just one post a week I can get back on track.  I have so much to say and so many sessions to share!  I love writing and really want to grow my skills in the next year.  The sessions I capture, parties I host, DIY projects I create need to be shared (on a regular bases) and after hearing all the feedback I know how much they are appreciated.

I thought I would kick the first Tuesday’s with Tiff off with a little review of 2014.  I am a stats NERD!! I love a good dose of data which is totally odd for a creative…I know.   But through data I grow.  Don’t you find it interesting that 6 people last year searched for asparagus and landed on my site? Totally random but interesting.

First let’s see how the work broke down.  This is definitely the reason winter break is so critical for me, 47% of my business happens in the last 4 months of the year.  I’ll be trying to apply some balance to this in 2015.  Oh but that fall rush…capturing families against Bucks County’s fall foliage is the best!! There is just something about kids outside that time of year.  As much as I love it, capturing half of my year’s work in just 4 months is crazysauce!

It was also fun to see how those jobs broke down.  My Fall Portrait season really boosted the numbers for family sessions, most of them captured in the fall.  I swear spring is really pretty too and this year we’re going to prove it!

I really like Facebook, no pun intended!  Seems like everyone and their Grandma (literally) has a Facebook account these days!  Its fun to watch technology grow and change the way we react to things.  This year I watched carefully to see what posts “pop” and the time of day I was sending them out, my hard work paid off.  My fans seem to “like” session images, behind the scenes and share my love of positive quotes.   I gained 422 new “Likers” this year and it was no surprise that 89% are women.  I had a decent amount of customers find me through Facebook in 2014 and I am grateful for all of the new connections.

Have you ever heard of something going “viral”?  It happened to me a little this year!  Honestly “viral” in today’s high tech environment is over a million views, this image that was posted on Hot Mom’s Club didn’t get a million but it sure felt like a million to me!  😉  This was my first viral moment, I was glued to the post watching as the numbers rose.  I think my favorite part was explaining to my Mom that “yes, over 14,000 people clicked this little like button when they saw this image”…her mind was blown and I loved seeing it!

Last year I had almost 100,000 unique visitors to my website {insert happy dance} and I believe with more blogging I could crush that number in 2015.  Of those 100,000 visitors 85% were new!  Welcome!  Getting your website traffic going is like rolling a snowball, you have to keep rolling to grow 😉

Top 5 proud moments

Collaborative Session – I wanted to capture wedding portraits with no rush so I could play a little and try some new things in front of the camera.  I collaborated with some other creatives and pulled together this incredible session where I got to just “create”.  What a way to get your creativity flowing.  My muses for the day were gorgeous and happy to let me play a little.  This beautiful couple eloped and we took this opportunity to capture stunning bridal portraits.

Autumn Fest – Last year I joined Makefield Women’s Associate and yearly we host a Arts & Craft Fundraiser at Shady Brook Farm called Autumn Fest.  Being a part of this group and helping put this event on has filled me with so much gratitude.  The groups works really hard to raise funds for our beneficiaries and it was such a blessing to join a group of dedicated women with the mission of service to our community.  As a Gold Sponsor for the event, Appletini was out in full force.  We met so many new clients that day and it was a blast capturing their sessions this fall.  Attending this event was a pivotal point in my business success, can’t wait for next year.
{{Autumn Fest also included a trip up in the Lower Makefield’s Fire Department’s bucket truck to capture this image, what a view!}}

Full holiday calendar by December 1st – WHAT!?!?!  For the first time ever – the booking calendar had to be turned off.  I released the details of my holiday sessions and was completely full within 2 days.  Blown away!!  Thank you!!

Being a Rainbow – I struggled in 2014 with letting go of the relationships that were not serving me as I went through some personal changes I was came across a quote by Maya Angelou “Try to be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud” and made it my mantra.  Once I really started to focus my life around “being a rainbow” they started showing up – everywhere.  I believe in signs from the universe and seeing little rainbows everywhere has made it clear I am on the right path.  Be A Rainbow!  This led me to join Makefield Women’s Association, seek new friendships, find small ways to help others, strengthened my relationship with my husband, seek more time with my family and all around has made me a better person. I strive to be a blessing in other people’s lives –  I am a blessing.  I don’t take it for granted and I work hard to keep it shining.  I awake each morning and think – be a blessing. I am proud of how far I have come with letting go and looking for opportunities to shine my rainbow for people who love the show!

Full time editor – you didn’t really think I could edit all of those fall session by myself?  Me either!  So I trained an editor.  My niece Ashley was originally a graphic design major which means she took classes in Photoshop.  I knew from working with photographers in my previous job (at the lab)  that editing is a bottleneck.  From the beginning I have tried to make editing as systematic as possible with the hopes of hiring someone.  My editing has 5 steps and I now outsource 3 of the 5!  Ashley is fantastic and a super quick learner!  I am so grateful for her and all of her hard work. She has 2 more years until she graduates college so she has 2 years until she finds and trains her replacement. 😉  Customer Service and Book Keeping are on this year’s list!

I have so much in store for 2015, thank you for being a part of my journey! Cheers to being the best version of you in the new year!  Here is a sneak of most (privacy preferences) of my sessions captured between September 1st and December 24th 2014.

Xoxo, Tiff