Sarah Petty: Allyson Furlong thought everyone wanted digital files, so that’s what she offered clients, but it wasn’t working for her. Even though she was working hard, she couldn’t get enough clients to make the money she needed to take a vacation or invest in herself, until she learned the boutique business model we teach at the Photography Business Institute. When we started coaching Allyson, she got two big orders, one for $14,000 and another for $5,430. Learn more about her big orders and the transition to following the boutique model in this episode.
Welcome, Allyson. Tell us your back story.
Allyson Furlong: I’ve been a professional photographer for 17 years now. I opened my first studio in 2007, when my kids were five and three. I left my corporate ship as an art director because I wanted to put the kids first. I was photographing on the side for family and friends, and I went all in and I jumped ship, I opened a brick and mortar, and I followed the plan of no digital files.
Sarah Petty: The market hadn’t yet been trained about digital files. It’s been like a 20-year decline of what we had always done. The market got retrained because they didn’t ask for digital files before digital. So you were still in that place where it wasn’t so scary.
Allyson Furlong: Time went by and in 2017 I decided for the first time to go to Imaging USA. I actually saw Sarah speak and got her book, Worth Every Penny, and I did not follow the plan to be honest. I changed things in my business structure and that’s when I started to offer digital files. I stopped my sales because I offered a package that you could get an album or you can get wall art and the digital files.
I was shooting myself in the foot because if they wanted more, I should have sold them that. And I didn’t. Fast-forward to now and last year sucked. My business went down so much. And I really didn’t know what to do.
Allyson Furlong: I was still getting your emails and I finally decided that I had to bite the bullet and do Boutique Breakthrough and find the money. Boutique Breakthrough changed my life. One of my biggest takeaways is the community. The community and the coaching, not only from Sarah, but from the other coaches that you have in Boutique Breakthrough was amazing. They were always there for you.
Sarah Petty: You had been in business for 17 years so you had a system for workflow, you knew how to create the images, rename them, do the things. So what did you find the hardest as you were going through everything? Was there anything, or did you just feel like you felt comfortable with all of it?
Allyson Furlong: It was hard because you’re making major changes to your business. Changing the pricing was hard, but it’s the mindset. You have to get rid of that. Before I felt like I was giving people what they wanted but I actually wasn’t. I’m not serving them with my past. Going through the process, it was overwhelming. It’s a lot, but it’s like growing pains. And when you get to the end, it is so rewarding.
Sarah Petty: When you feel yourself growing again in the right direction, instead of feeling like you’re going down the wrong road faster?
Allyson Furlong: Exactly. And that’s where I was. I felt like I needed a blood transfusion and this was it.
Sarah Petty: I love that. Okay, so let’s talk about your “Julie”, $1k or more client order. You had a client that you brought in that was a digital file client, right? Didn’t that end up being your Julie?
Allyson Furlong: She had a one-year package with me. We did newborn, six months and one year. At the end of the one year, I had an-person sales meeting with her and she came in and she loved the whole process. I went through everything with her and she was so happy to have me walk through everything with her and show her how things would look on her wall. She wanted so much, I was so nervous to tell her the total. The total for everything she wanted was $14,000. I did tell her the number and she paid for it in full.
Sarah Petty: That is amazing. So she gives you the card, she pays, she leaves. What were you like? What’d you do?
Allyson Furlong: I just sat there. It was pretty amazing. I waited until I got home to show my husband because I just wanted to show him the invoice in person. He was speechless.
And then my second one was someone I had to go through the whole process with. She was going to be the first person hands-on with everything. Their session went great and they came in the following week for the in-person sales appointment. The sale before tax was $5,400.
Sarah Petty: Wow. I love it. Allyson, thanks for being here. Thanks for sharing your story. I know it has and will inspire so many people because I think sometimes more advanced photographers think, oh, I’ve got it figured out. It’s not working, but I’ll just keep going. And it’s like sometimes you just get your fix and then you can go faster.
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