Morris County Newborn & Maternity photographer pivoting business

Millie Dee Photography, Morris County NJ

Am I kissing my camera goodbye? When I tell you business has been crazy for me the past 2 years. Between being a mom and a wife, my husband also owns a couple of successful businesses, so it gets to be “a lot on the plate” sometimes. I’m realizing that I’m part of that “sandwich generation” where once the kids are getting older, my parents are, too and realizing that my Mom needs some extra help, too. So where does that leave me and my business? Do I “roll with the punches”? Or stay laser focused and let things fall between the cracks in order to keep my business on track with my 5 year plan? I’m curious as to what other business owners have done in my situation.

I also feel since 2020, life is a bit skewed. The economy has had its ups and downs, there have been multiple photographers popping up in my area and now AI is creeping into our jobs as well. My mentor calls them excuses, however, she’s not in New Jersey and I don’t consider them excuses, they are the current challenges I and my business are facing. So, where do I go from here?

Well, I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that I’ve had ideas building up in my head over the years of working; both for photography and outside of photography and I think God has opened up time for me to move forward and create these ideas into something great. One idea was to create an app for newborn photography that Moms can do at home. I started looking for baby models last October and November and there was a rush to get these videos done because the contractors promised this would be done in 12 weeks. Well, I guess app contractors can be similar to other contractors where there are both good ones and bad ones, and even the good ones can do a bad job or not make a client happy sometimes.

After over 24 weeks, the app was not only still unfinished, and not just due to them, I was slacking on a few things as well, but they kept trying to upsell me, which I can understand, but it gets to a point where enough is enough. Then they tried to sell me something that was promised when I’d originally hired them. That’s when I contacted my attorney, who guided me into ending my contract with them, with no app. There were so many red flags, it was an expensive lesson learned, but I know it was the right thing to do.

Now, I’m researching methods to sell these videos. As a small business owner, wearing so many hats, and doing this over the summer when my kids are out of school is a wonderful and colorful challenge. Do I use my website? Do I use sometype of CRM system? there are so many options and right now with what I have, I’ve created a website for these videos and have just released three of 20 videos. Would you like the website? It’s www.diysmartphonephotos.com . I need to make changes on the site, but it’s starting to actually look like a website.

Next steps are to hook up with some marketing people, create new videos and figure out how to sell this content.

I’m excited about the videos as they’re for Moms who want to create the look of newborn photography at home with their cellphones. The videos are inexpensive, each $10 and full of tips and tricks. If you have a fancy camera, you can use it but I show you how to use your cellphone to take these photos. Do you know that one of Ansel Adam’s first cameras was a Kodak Brownie? And the modern smartphone camera has alot of similarities to the brownie? which means in your hand, you have a similar feature to what the famous Ansel Adams first used. These smartphones are pretty amazing and I offer a few tips in one of the videos to change the lens feature and demonstrate how to take selfies hands free.

I see on the facebook moms groups all the time, “i’m looking for a newborn photographer that won’t cost an arm and a leg” or “my budget is $150 for newborn photos”. You’ll always find someone within your budget, but will they get your vision? will you be able to arrange an appointment with them?

One of the great things about these videos is that you take the photos at home, so they’re taken on your own time, and you can create new photo sessions as often as you’d like within that newborn time frame for photos. Even if you do get professional photos, these videos offer great tips for moms to photograph their babies at home.

In the meantime, I’ve gone very part time this summer at my studio and will be part time between now and the end of 2025 as I not only work on getting this tutorial videos up and running BUT, I also have a patent pending on an idea that’s unrelated to photography and I’m looking forward to sharing that with you sometime in the fall.

So, please check out our website for future photo session dates. We’ll be back open on September 1st, as the kids go back to school. My oldest starts college and my youngest will be a junior this year, which means driving this year! Life is all kinds of exciting. I’ll keep you all posted in my next few blogs.

So, yes, I’m pivoting my business to stay afloat. Pivoting has become essential to keeping my business alive in 2025.

Thanks for reading! www.milliedeephotography.com