Savvy Marketer Online and Onsite
Stacey Porter, Founder, Mysportsphoto.com
 
For Stacey Porter, founder of the youth sports photography business mysportsphoto.com (www.mysportsphoto.com), in Miami Beach, Florida, the best part of running her own business is the freedom. “I enjoy the freedom of controlling my own destiny,” she says. “I work when I want to work and everything I do contributes to my business. All the rewards are my own.”
“The hardest part was getting off the ground with my first league,” says Stacey. “I got lucky and ran into an old friend who was writing an article about a local batting cage. I offered to take complimentary promotional photos, just for the contact. It paid off. The owner of the batting cage gave me the name of the head of a local league and I showed up at the fields on a Saturday morning with my equipment and business cards. From there, the business took off.”
Most of Stacey’s business comes from word-of-mouth referrals. As she explains, “A lot of times, leagues call me after a disappointing season with another company. Most league representatives are volunteers, so I make sure to provide complimentary packages for those parents.
In return, they often refer me to other leagues.” Stacey uses commitment letters rather that contracts, with 10 to 12 youth sports leagues. She works 10 or more tournaments a season and shoots “thousands and thousands of kids every year.” During peak times—fall and spring—she hires six or seven freelancers to help cover some of the assignments.
“It took me a while to know what would make money and what wouldn’t,” Stacey says. “But, I enjoy the challenge of that process, and of trying new and creative things. The best part is making parents and kids happy.”
As a digital photographer, she has relied on ExpressDigital products to help build her business from the very beginning. In 2000, she used PhotoReflect.com as the online sales tool for mysportsphoto.com and shortly thereafter, ventured into onsite sales using ExpressDigital Darkroom for all of her onsite printing services.
Today, ExpressDigital is an integral part of her winning workflow. “Without ExpressDigital I would have to have learned how to make borders, apply text, and create online photo galleries, in addition to figuring out how to run a business. ExpressDigital allowed me to take great photos, display the work to parents, apply fun graphics, and print—all by touching a few buttons. It gave me time to concentrate on growing my business.”
Stacey has always been artistically driven, and entrepreneurial. “Photography was a great career choice for me because successful professional photographers have to be both,” says Stacey. Her first photojournalism assignment came with the Connecticut Post, covering everything from press conferences to local happenings to professional sporting events, such as the Final Four. With five years of experience under her belt, she headed back home to Florida to start a company of her own.
“To be successful takes hard work and dedication,” she says. “My parents always told me that if you don’t love your work, you’re not going to be good at it. When it’s your own business, how you do business and your work is a reflection of you.” These days, business includes operating a corporate and advertising photography company with her husband, Craig Ambrosio. In addition to using the same equipment and software she used for youth sporting events, Stacey is now providing onsite printing at bar mitzvahs, quinceañeras, holiday parties, and corporate events. As she says, “One advantage of being a well-rounded photographer is thinking beyond what you’re shooting every day and applying what you know to other aspects of photography. It’s all part of growing a business.” |
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SNAPSHOT: STACEY PORTER
What is your favorite place to shoot?
“Baseball tends to be our most lucrative sport, but I like shooting football games the most. They’re more challenging and a lot more fun from a photographer’s perspective. Shooting football requires a larger knowledge base of positioning, exposure, and being able to get coverage of a lot of kids at once, in one game.”
What’s in your gear bag all the time?
“My bag must weigh about 35 pounds! And, actually, I usually have two bags with me. I always have my Canon cameras and a bunch of lenses, extra batteries, and digital cards. Because I’m outside shooting sporting events, food, water, Advil, and lots of sun block are musts!”
What product increases your productivity or profitability the most?
“Sports photography requires a larger lens, so I’d have to say it’s my 300mm lens. Much better field coverage means much better results.”
What is the best advice you were ever given?
“My parents always told me that if you don’t love your job, you’re not going to be good at it. I’d say that it’s always important to remember that when it’s your own business, how you do business and your work is a reflection of you and reflects on you.”
What business advice can you pass along to others?
“It’s all about presentation and marketing. Use marketing language that is based on a customer’s perceived value of what you’re offering. For instance, use the word ‘free’ or ‘complimentary’ instead of ‘discount.’ You have to market your work before you even get out the door, develop your marketing plan before you get to the first game. And, as a sports photographer, you have to pray it doesn’t rain!”
What business advice can you pass along to others?
“If you want to own and run your own business, you need to be concerned about money, but I think being happy doing what you do is more important. Whatever your passion is keep it fun! I’ve found that once you focus on that, the money will follow.” |
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