My Goals for 2016

The Lord has abundantly blessed Alex and I this year and I'm amazed as I reflect back on the ways He's grown DiPrima Photography. It's so easy for me to just how my business is lacking or all the places I wish it would go and to forget to celebrate all the ways its changed and grown! So, before I share my goals for 2016 I want to reflect back on my 2015 goals:

1. Get to know wedding vendors and other photographers in North Carolina

  • I've DEFINITELY had the chance to get to know SO many amazing photographers and vendors this year! I'm so blessed as I reflect on the relationships the Lord has provided! One that stands out to me is the women I've met by doing "Tuesdays Together" with the Rising Tide society in Burlington. These ladies and entrepreneurs have been a great source of friendship, encouragement, and business advice to me! In fact, I even got to plan a styled shoot back in August with many of these creative and talented women.

2. Continue Re-branding from "Jenna Wayment Photography" to "DiPrima Photography"

  • I think this was certainly well accomplished! I love my logo and the current state of my website. I do still have room to grow and I will have some branding goals in my 2016 goals.

3.. Shoot 8+ weddings in 2015

  • Wow! I can't believe how the Lord has blessed this goal! I remember being scared to type the number "8" because I didn't think there was any way that was going to happen. I ended up shooting 14 weddings and second shooting 6 weddings! I get teary eyed as I reflect on all of the couples this year who trusted me with the very important of capturing their wedding. To all my clients and friends: thank you SO much for believing in me and my business!

4. Attend one photography workshop (Katelyn James' workshop would be my dream but it's pretty pricey!)

  • I didn't attend a full blown workshop this year, but I did get to attend the "Come Together" event which was extremely profitable! I also got to watch most of Jasmine Star's class on Creative Live as it was coming out and it was SUPER helpful (I highly recommend it to wedding photographers or aspiring wedding photographers!).

5. Purchase a Canon 5D Mark III and 50mm 1.2L lens. 

  • Again, the Lord abundantly blessed in this area! I was able to purchase the Mark III, Canon 50mm 1.2L, Sigma Art 35mm 1.4, Canon 70-200mm 2.8L, and the Canon 600 EX-RT flash. I was able to buy all of this by working 2 jobs in addition to my photography business. So there was several months where I was working like crazy but it was worth it to be able to put all of my profits towards equipment and to invest into my business without going into debt. I HIGHLY recommend working full time or doing whatever you need to do in order to take your profits and re-invest them rather than buying equipment on a credit card and having debt looming over you (Dave Ramsey all the way!).

5. Train my husband Alex in photography and take him shooting with me! 

  • This happened a little bit! Alex third shot one wedding with me and shot a few engagement sessions with me.  He has an eye for photography and if he decides he's interested, he could be a great second shooter!

6. Run a few give-aways throughout the year. 

  • I was able to do a few Instagram and Facebook giveaways that went well! I have plans for another giveaway soon!! :)

7. Blog regularly. I'd like to blog at least 2-3 times a week with pictures of my work, wedding/photography related posts, and personal posts about my life.

  • I did fairly well at blogging but there's definitely room for improvement! 

Some other notable things that happened in 2015:

My Goals for 2016

My Business Goals:
1. Shoot 15+ weddings in 2016.

2. Create a wedding welcome packet and continue to work on branding (new business cards, stationary, etc.).

3. Continue building relationships with other vendors and photographers.

4. Purchase more gear.
Specifically the Canon 100mm 2.8L lens, Canon 24-70mm 2.8L lens, and another 600 flash and a light stand (so I can start doing off camera flash).

5. Serve my clients well and find ways to bless each of them individually!

6. Attend a workshop and continue developing my photography skills.
Specifically I'd really like to focus on learning off camera flash this year as well as continuing to grow in lighting and posing and framing pictures well.

7. Do at least one styled shoot.

8. Make a sample album and begin selling albums.

9. Improve my culling, editing, and blogging process and make it more efficient.

10. Blog AT LEAST 3 times a week every week.
I really want to work on getting better at pre-blogging so that I don't get so overwhelmed that I neglect blogging.

11. Start offering business mentoring and coaching and design and teach a class for beginner photographers.
I have to admit, this goal REALLY scares me!! I still have a lot to learn and in a lot of ways, I don't feel ready to teach others. But I've had a few precious women seek me out for mentoring and I'm truly amazed and honored that they want to pay me in order to learn from me! I love mentoring and would LOVE to incorporate more of this into my business this year. I've also had a lot of beginning photographers and moms wanting to take pictures of their children reach out to me and so I want to create and teach a class for them to learn beginning photography skills.

My Personal Goals
1. Spend time in the Word and prayer daily.
I want to spend at least 30 minutes every morning in the Word and prayer.

2. Memorize a book of the Bible (probably James because I'm studying it with a group of women right now).

3. Work out at least 30 minutes 3-4 times a week (I REALLY failed at working out this year!).

4. Grow in loving my husband better, encouraging him more frequently, and exercising more self control by withholding mean or unhelpful words.

5. Continue finding ways to serve at Grace and continue working on building relationships.
I want to accomplish this by getting coffee with at least one woman per week and having at least 2 women/couples/families over for dinner each month.

6. Read 10 books.
A few on my list are: Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, 1776The Speechwriter, Spurgeon's Autobiography, The Measure of Success, and Iain Murray's biography on the Life of Martin Lloyd Jones. Please let me know if you have any suggestions!

7. Spend less time working and more time with Alex and with friends.
I've struggled more than I have in the past with work/life balance this year. I'm learning that when you're an entrepreneur and you're the ONLY employee at your business, it's easy to work constantly because the tasks never seem to be done! It's also easy for me to get very wrapped up in work because, thankfully, my business is something I enjoy and am passionate about. However, about six months ago I started to see that I was neglecting friendships and doing a bad job of pursuing people. I think I've improved a lot in the past few months and have begun meeting regularly with a few women, going through Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God with a friend, and attending a bi-monthly bible study on the book of James. I really want to continue learning to work more efficiently and to be more organized so that I can choose people over tasks more frequently!

8. Take WAY more personal pictures this year! 
This one kind of makes me sad. I used to be SO good about documenting everything. When I look back on the last year, I have almost zero pictures of friends and family. Yikes! Its so easy to get caught up in photographing everyone and everything else that you have no time or energy to photograph your own life! I'm going to make a really intentional effort to photography for myself more, even if I don't feel like it. I also want to spend more time growing creatively and photographing just for the joy of creating art.

9. Learn basic sowing skills. 
I don't want to learn anything complicated, but I just want to learn how to sew up holes, hem pants, etc.

10. Continue to grow in being frugal and saving money and BUY A HOUSE!
This is a big goal that I'm not sure will really happen but Alex and I are hoping for it! We would love to buy a house by this time next year. I think it's pretty doable if we do a really good job of saving and spending carefully. I definitely struggle in this area because I have to admit that I love shopping! Marriage and God's grace is helping me learn to be more frugal though!