Today’s Topic Tuesday is from our guest blogger, Sarah Modene of Sarah Modene Photography.  Sarah is writing a series for Seniorologie called The Moving Diaries where she will be sharing some insight into what it is like to move and relocate your business.  Check out her first post below!  Thank you Sarah!!

The Moving Diaries
By Sarah Modene for Seniorologie
PART I: Preparing for the move

Ever since I was a little girl, I have always longed to travel and explore as much of the world as I could. I have never imagined myself living in the same place for the rest of my life, but
as a the owner of a successful senior photography studio I felt the need to stay in my hometown of 25 years to continue running it. Don’t get me wrong—I love my business and clients and I worked very hard to grow it. But I have always had the wanderlust bug, and it doesn’t just go away.

Well, life has a crazy way of turning itself around when you least expect it. In December of 2014, I was at a random holiday gala when I met the man who would change everything. He and I fell pretty hard for each other and ended up going on a last-minute road trip down to Florida from Ohio. The first city we stopped at on the Gulf Coast was the one we ended up falling in love with. We were tired of the long, 0-degree winters back in Toledo and decided to take a risk and move to Clearwater, Florida where the scenery was amazing and the weather was warm year-round. The idea of opening a second studio branch in another state had been something I had been thinking about, and this seemed like the right time and opportunity to do
so.

Now, you may be (reasonably) wondering right now… why just leave the business you had spent years building and start all over again? Well, I had a list of things I needed to accomplish before I moved:

• Bring on an associate photographer to run my Toledo branch and work with him/her for
several months before moving to open a second branch
• Spend time researching my new target market and come up with a marketing strategy
• Fly down at least twice before I moved to work with teens in the area and start promoting
myself
• Sit down with my accountant and figure out the financial logistics (i.e., taxes, forms, etc.) of opening a new studio in a new state
• Finish out the rest of the year (I had over 45 shoots left) and have at least 6 months of
expenses saved up

All of 2015 was spent shooting out of my Toledo branch, working with and training my two new associates (my partner photographer and my ordering session consultant), marketing
myself in my new state/city, and saving everything I earned to support myself with it in Florida. I knew that it could be several months after I even moved and became a Florida resident until I started consistently shooting. The key to moving forward with a big decision regarding your business like this is to plan, prepare, and save. You can never be too prepared! At the same time, you have to understand that you are taking a risk and putting yourself out there in a completely new way… and that it’s okay to fail before you succeed. It’s not going to always be butterflies and rainbows, no matter how exciting a new move may be!

One of the best things that happened to me after I made my decision to move and open a second studio was finding my partner photographer, Suzy. Suzy and I had been photog
buddies for a few years and were already good friends—plus she is insanely talented—so she was naturally my first choice when it came to finding someone I trusted to run my Toledo branch. I was very lucky that I found someone so quickly—I think we signed her contract maybe a month after I decided to move! We started working together on the studio right away, and she began booking and shooting Seniors under my brand. This transition took several months, and I don’t think it would have gone nearly as smoothly if we had less time to work together before I moved. Now she is successfully running the studio herself and already booking Seniors for next October!!

Balancing finishing up my shooting season at my Toledo branch while planning shoots
with teens in Florida was a little challenging, but thankfully I was able to do so with little added stress. It was essential for me to start marketing before I actually moved: even though I wasn’t there in person most of the year, I could at least start building a foundation in Florida. By shooting with three teens I connected with in schools that I wanted to market to, I was able to get the word going about my brand. By the time I moved, I had been contacted several times by girls who wanted to join my model program in Florida (more about that in the next post!).

So from January 2015 until late October 2015, I had several months to make sure things
were in place in transitioning Suzy to run my Toledo branch, and I was able to build a decent amount of reserves to live off of before I got busy in Florida. Even though it was hard to wait that long before I moved (so suspenseful—I just wanted to be there and start working on my new studio already!), I know it was for the best. Giving myself time to transition and build my “new” Florida brand was essential. Know your limits, and know that it’s okay to wait and be patient before making such a huge change.

Next, I’ll be writing on what happened the month after I arrived in Florida… and how I
dealt with all the changes and challenges that came along!

xoxo,
Sarah

Sarah Modene Photography

www.sarahmodenephotography.com

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