Dear Wonderful Amazing Friends;
We have had some conflict lately when it comes to scheduling, especially newborn sessions. Please know my weekend appointments are extremely popular, and are usually the first to go and they do book up months in advanced. It has been this way honestly for the last 5 years or so.
My normal posted studio hours are 9am – 4pm Tuesday – Friday and I reserve all my mornings for newborns only because of the amount of time, prep, and great care they take. I like to start at 9:30 and usually ends around lunch. If I get a little bit of a feistier baby then I work through my lunch to give us extra time and if it’s a good morning then this gives me time for self care before my 2pm appointments. This is where pre-booking on a limited basis comes in handy because I know I can accommodate within those days and I have plenty of time to do my job. Because I save all my mornings for the tiniest squishes, my afternoons do book quickly, and they can go months in advanced as well. I’ll be honest, the only way I can combat this right now is to drastically increase my pricing (double / triple) and something just tells me that will freak a ton of people out and I have no desire to do that.
I’ll be straight that I do not work every weekend, or every evening. I do love my business, you guys, and what I do so very very much but it’s also important to for me to make sure I set boundaries to have a healthy work / home balance to be able to be there for my kids and family, especially since I’m the rock right now.
There was a time I did sacrifice every weekend and evening to make everyone was happy, but it was so awful never being able to attend birthday parties, my kids school events, weddings, go on vacations, or have any me time to re-boot and refresh. I understand partners have to work, and siblings have school and is always a nice feature that I include family and siblings at no extra cost. To help accommodate schedule conflict for newborn sessions, I do photograph extra people at the very beginning of the session and if they have somewhere to be they leave right after that portion so the rest of the time I can concentrate on the baby.
I want to help the best I can, so if we can’t come together with a schedule that benefits us both, please reach out to me asap so we can discuss how to move forward.
kimberly@kimcowanphoto.com
Thanks so much! XOXOXO
~Kimberly
