Back in 2012, Will and I were sitting across from each other in a coffee shop discussing the big picture future of my business, Nancy Ray Photography. We were at a crossroads trying to decide if we wanted to stay on the quote unquote, "Husband and wife team" route, that most photographers take, or if we wanted to do something different: take a risk and hire associate photographers to form a team.

When Will and I began talking about what it would look like to actually hire someone, to actually grow our team, we started with a list of all of the risk involved and all of our fears. Basically we made a massive list of all the downsides to doing this. We knew it would take a lot of time and a lot of training. We knew that we would be inviting other people in to the business that we've built, that I would share all my secrets, that we didn't have a guarantee that it would work, that we would be changing something that's working just fine. 

We realized that we'd have to release control over some things, that I would have to trust other people to edit the photos that I always edited, the photos that I take, really letting go of my creative control. I'd have to let go of the methods and processes that I learned the hard way with sweat and tears and I would just hand it over to someone and teach them. It honestly felt like I was giving away too much, even if I hired them. 

But then we started making a list of what life would look like if we did build a team. We wouldn't have to be the ones to shoot every single wedding. We could serve more couples and more families. Will, my husband, would have the freedom to step away from Nancy Ray Photography if he ever wanted to do different work.

We were so nervous and we honestly didn't know which direction that we wanted to go. There were pros and cons to both options and Will and I, unlike a lot of spouses, really worked well together. So after all of that, we decided to take the risk and build an associate team.

It ended up being one of the best decisions I've ever made in my business, and today, I'm going to tell you why.

For the full transcript, head to this episode's blog post!

 

Resources from this episode:

Episode 004 - Seasons of Business

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