Happy 6 months to the studio!
If you know me in real life, you know that I’m a planner. I’m the type of person that will ask you that question of “Where do you see yourself in five years?” and then I legit love to hear your plan. It’s just the Type A in me. So let me be honest here, in the back of my head I “planned” on getting a studio space when my youngest is in kindergarten (we’re talking Fall of 2021 here…). But when thinking about what type of studio space I’d eventually want, the ideal location for it and so forth, I envisioned some gorgeous natural light from a big ole’ storefront window in a downtown setting.
So now it was February of this year, and I randomly decided to drive through downtown Utica, Michigan because its just a cute little downtown and its close to my home after dropping my kiddo off at preschool. And then I see it. I see the storefront up for lease that’s the perfect size for me. And its close to my house. And its easy for clients to get to right off M59. And its in a cute downtown scene. All the things. I called the phone number and asked if I could check it out.
I went to see it and it was perfect.
And then the worrier in me came out. This isn’t when I’m supposed to do this. Number crunch, number crunch, but I can make it work. Should I make the leap?
Five days later I was signing the lease and getting ready to make some changes to the inside.
This makes it sound so easy, but it took some work, trust me. I thought I’d be moving in and set up within two weeks. It was more like a month before I was ready, but it was hustling to get to that point. Much thanks to my husband and dad for handling the fixer upper work to make my vision happen.
Now its been six months and I’m so glad I decided to jump all in! Business since then has been amazing with a fantastic increase in newborn sessions, which is one of my main goals of having a studio space. I’m also able to (muuuch more easily) do in-studio milk baths, lifestyle milestone sessions, and cake smashes. Its a glorious thing.
Before Photos:
I envisioned getting the space, taking out the window display, painting it all and BOOM! Well, come to find out underneath the window display was old carpet and the wall panel didn’t go all the way down. Its like peeling an onion back, you tend to find more and more things as you go. ;) The hunt for floor tile began (that they no longer make or anyone in the US has left), we had to take down the crown molding to put floor to ceiling panel up, and put it all together. That’s the short story - my husband and dad could fill in allllll the details since they did basically all of it. Thank you, thank you, thank you to them both!
After Photos:
Can we get an amen that the bathroom looks 1000% better with a little TLC?!
I say this all time and I geniunely mean it - I couldn’t do this without my amazing clients. Truly. So many of you come back to me year after year and refer my name out to your friends and families regularly. This is huge for any small business, mine included! So thank you for trusting me to capture these amazing times in you and your families’ lives.
You guys are the best.
Chelsie