Service-based businesses need photos, too. While they may not have any physical products to sell, service providers like designers, marketers, and branders, still use images for their websites, social media, and blogs. Good stock photography can give you the opportunity to stretch your image material for longer amounts of time, spend less than you would on additional custom brand images, and still have eye-catching photos to display online. And I’ve got an easy, pennies-on-the-dollar way to get beautiful stock photography, including some shot by yours truly.

I know clothing flatlay photography can be challenging for a lot of people.

For those of you who are struggling with it, let me make it a little easier.

In my work as a commercial photographer, I have lots of clothing clients and I actually really love these kinds of shoots. So here are my top 5 tips for this specialized area of flatlay photography.

“Scaling your business.” What does that even mean?

A lot of people think of scaling as hiring actual employees, but really scaling is about finding whatever avenues will work to run your growing business faster and more efficiently, leaving you with the time to keep growing your business.

Before founding Crystal Clear Creative Studios, I actually worked in HR for over a decade. So based on my corporate and entrepreneurial experience, here are my top 3 tips to make hiring and outsourcing a good experience so you can successfully scale your business.

How was your 2019 business year?

Let me tell you about mine.

Today I’m sharing the top 3 turning points for my business in 2019, and maybe my takeaways will spark something for you and your business in 2020.

We all know you’ve got to spend money to make money. But when you’re a business owner looking to invest for growth, it’s easy to find yourself pulled in a lot of different directions. Let me share the investment spots in which I‘ve gotten the most value for money.

Certain products just look better when a person is interacting with, using, applying, or wearing them. So what do you do if model fees are a bit of a stretch financially?

Growing your own business can feel lonely like you’re on a hunt by yourself to try to find all the pieces you need. At least, this is how it felt to me when I quit my corporate job after 9 and a half years and jumped into creating my own business so I could have more time with my kids and pursue something I really loved.

Things come up. Whether it’s waiting on rebranded labels, shipping problems, or damaged products, there are lots of random issues that can cause problems with your photoshoot.

However, as a product photographer, I’ve noticed there are 2 specific things that seem to come up pretty regularly to keep small business owners from getting the results they were hoping for from their product photoshoot.

Is your product shoot budget a bit smaller than you would like? I

 know it can be very difficult to come up with the money for a full professional product shoot of everything you offer all at once. 

So let me give you the suggestions I’ve given a lot of business owners who are unsure about how to get their professional product shoots done on the budget they have.