Inspiration Tuesdays: Sue Bryce
Sue Bryce from Sydney Australia is a professional portrait photographer that’s built an amazing glamour portrait business from scratch. Without formal training in business or marketing and with only $3000 in start-up capital, she’s built a luxury business pulling in serious revenues (think $20,000+ a week). Her work speaks for itself and she speaks well enough for herself on her blog.
Her specialty is contemporary fashion-inspired portraiture and her boutique gives clients the experience of looking like magazine models. Her sessions are designed to pamper and celebrate their inner and outer beauty.
Just last month she gave a free 3-day workshop through creativeLIVE which you can buy for $149 (it’s only free if you watch it live):
In this special workshop Sue will teach you how she photographs women, how to bring more feminine posing into your work, her secrets for hair and makeup, and the powerful marketing techniques she’s used to build her business. She wants to demonstrate how you can become not only a better photographer, but a better business person as well.
Her portfolio is available online but here’s a few snapshots to get your attention…
Before and After
More About Sue
Here’s some background form her own “About Sue” page:
My Career (so far)
I have been in the Professional Photographic industry for 22 years, the first 4 years as a photographic artist for professionals and the last 18 years in studio shooting portrait. I started off at the height of the 90’s Glamour trend. I have seen the many changes and trends in our industry from film to digital, followed closely by the change to photoshop from traditional retouching. I have seen many fads and styles come and go including my own entire genre Glamour when this happened I developed my own style and worked hard to forge a new path into contemporary portrait.
I have been in awe and excitement of technology and advancement and at the same time felt the intimidation and uncertainty of the unknown all whilst experiencing the impact on my portrait studio. I have been an owner of a boutique business that produces a ‘Luxury item’ through two Global financial crisis. With every shift and change in our industry and dip in our economy I have evolved and excelled, above all I have sustained an income from shooting portraiture for over half of my life. I am now in new and exciting territory with Moving Portrait the fusion of stills and high definition video.
I started speaking/presenting in Australia in 2009 when Canon asked me to present a full day. I created the Posing box to sell on the day so photographers could have a reference to what I was teaching them, all my secrets on Posing Women. The success of this manual and community I have built through my blog has lead to designing more training product and the educational Members only part of this website Behind the Scenes. I am honoured to have booked platform & keynote presentations in 7 countries this year and am maintaining a fully booked shooting diary.
Building My Business
For the first 10 years of my shooting career I was an employed photographer, turn up shoot-get paid -leave at 5pm NO marketing NO tax NO brand/website/sales, nothing! Just Shoot and Photoshop my images ahhhhh dream world. But with this life comes a medium wage and as I entered my 30’s it was time to strike out on my own. Nothing prepared me for the first year of business! I am not a rich wife . . . (yet) or a trust fund baby. I built a portrait business from zero to $20,000 per week as a single woman with my bare hands. I started my business in my garage with $3000 that I borrowed from my parents. I DO NOT have have any formal or tertiary education in marketing or business. That is why my story is both inspiring and remarkable. But above all, it’s achievable.
I will show you how I trained and put together a dynamic team that supported me and my vision and we took our little business to a level that was beyond what I thought capable. I learned the trials and tribulations a creative must endure from managing staff, to not just sustain an income but to thrive, evolve and flourish when a market is constantly changing an economy is diving and everyone around you is projecting a state of negativity and fear. But most of all to learn to become a ‘Business person’ and overcome my own trepidation, to be GOOD ENOUGH to value my own self and my own work and to learn how to regenerate my own passion and enthusiasm when it all just seems to hard.
I would like you to be educated and inspired but mostly I would like to help you improve your business, lift our industry higher as a collective and free your mind, because the only blocks around you are the ones you have created in your own thinking.
Sue Bryce
To contribute to Sue’s business and to learn more, checkout her posing and makeup guides in her online store.
