Janice’s Story

If you’re thinking it takes a long time to create success in business…

…or that you have to live in a big city to make ‘real’ money….

…or that to grow a business means giving up time with the kids….

….then I hope that Janice’s story just might change your mind about what’s possible.  

Living in a small rural town in New Zealand and applying for jobs – Janice was feeling demoralised at not even getting interviews.  

Her portrait business was making $6k or less each month and there was more cash going out than coming in – it was time to make some big changes.   

So, with a deep breath – she took a leap of faith and invested in my coaching program and committed 100% to making it work! 

We set about creating a plan to get her investment back quickly, and to grow her business while keeping it family-friendly around her small children. 

Her goal? $10k months.  

That was mid-March. 

Where Janice Was When We First Spoke

Janice is based in a small rural town in New Zealand. She photographs families, newborns, and kids, and she’d been running her business for about six years when we connected.

She was making around $6,000 to $7,000 a month. Some months less. Expenses had gone up. The mortgage had gone up. Everything had gone up, and the income wasn’t keeping pace.

She’d been running Facebook ads for three months trying to fix it. She was spending money she didn’t really have, getting around 20 leads per campaign, converting maybe 10 clients if she was lucky, and still not moving the needle.

“It’s very stressful because everything has gone up. I need more money.”

And then the part that gets me every time I hear it:

“My kids can really feel when I’m stressed. They know me as a very patient person. But when I’m stressed, they’d say, ‘Mama, you’re raising your voice.’ And I don’t like me when I’m stressed.”

If you’ve ever run a photography business during a tight month, you know that feeling. The constant low-level hum of: where is the next booking coming from? How do I pay this bill? Am I actually going to make this work?

Janice was right in the middle of it.

Taking the Leap (When the Budget Said No)

Janice found my program. She wanted in, but the money wasn’t there. The savings she had were earmarked for household expenses. Investing in coaching felt like a risk she couldn’t afford.

Her husband said: “Just do it. We’ll find a way.”

“I told Kim I can’t afford it, but at that moment I was like, I’m just going to trust this. I trusted someone before and it worked really well. I need to trust again.”

She joined. She didn’t attend every single session (school holidays, life, the usual), but she did the work that mattered. And when she got stuck, she messaged me directly.

That’s the thing about having the right support around you. You don’t have to do it perfectly. You just have to keep moving.

What Changed: The Ads, the Pricing, and the System

Before working together, Janice’s Facebook ads were costing her a lot and delivering very little. She knew ads were the right channel, she just didn’t know how to make them work.

We rebuilt the approach.

One campaign. Around $400 in ad spend. Over 100 leads.

She converted 55 of them into bookings.

“I booked the second week of May, the third week of May, the fourth week of May, and the whole of June. And then the whole of July.”

Alongside the marketing, we looked at her photography pricing strategy. Her average sale before had been sitting at around $1,000. After restructuring, it moved to $1,300. That might not sound dramatic, but across 55 sessions it adds up fast.

The Results

Here’s what happened once Janice had a real system behind her business:

55 new bookings from one campaign in April.

Her first $5k week in May.

Her first $20,000 month in June.

Her first $36,000 month in September.

She has not dipped below $17,000 since.

And she does all of this working mostly from 10am to 2:30pm, Monday to Friday, fitting sessions around school drop-offs, after-school activities, and school holidays.

“In two weeks of work in July, I made $17,000. And I had two weeks off during the school holidays.”

The Part That Actually Matters Most

The money is the proof point. But it’s not really the story.

The story is Janice’s kids noticing that their mum is back. Present. Patient. Not quietly bracing for the next bill.

“When you’re not stressed, your kids are happier. Your husband’s happier too.”

Janice and her husband are now planning things together. Little trips. Things the kids love. She told me she could see that she was the one with the capacity to make the biggest improvement to their combined household income, and she was doing exactly that.

She’s also thinking about hiring an editor, because editing is the part that takes the most time and she can see clearly now that freeing those hours would let her take on more of what she loves.

That’s what a photography business that works looks like. You start to see the next move. You make decisions from a place of possibility rather than panic.

What This Means If You’re Sitting at $5k or $6k Months Right Now

Janice didn’t live in a big city. She didn’t have a big budget. She didn’t have a team. She had school hours, a husband who believed in her, and a willingness to do something different when what she was doing wasn’t working.

The Facebook ads she’d been running for three months before we worked together weren’t broken because Facebook ads don’t work. They were broken because the strategy behind them wasn’t right. One campaign, done properly, with the right offer and the right targeting, changed everything.

“You spend a lot on ads if you don’t know what you’re doing. So you might as well do it properly and spend less.”

If you’re burning money on ads that aren’t converting, or posting on social media and wondering why the enquiries aren’t coming, the problem is almost certainly the system, not the platform.

Ready to Write Your Own Success Story?

Janice started exactly where you might be right now – unsure of the next best steps, short on cashflow and determined not to give up on her dream or time with her kids. 

She made the decision to invest in herself, learned how to balance family life with a photography business, implemented new (and proven ) systems – and is now reaping the rewards of a business that is rich in time and income.   

If you’re serious about having a successful photography business, and you’re ready to create  results in your  this year  – let’s get you moving!  

Here’s three ways to learn more about how I can help you: 

👉  1. Send me a message   and tell me a bit about your business, challenges and goals. 

👉  2. If you’re more of an Insta message kinda person – hit me up over on Instagram and lets chat more in real time.  

👉  3.  And if you’re looking for a photography business coach who is as passionate about your results as you are- then check out ways I can help you grow your business here and lets begin mapping out a plan for you.